Can you really beat online poker part three

Following on from part two then and just because you have been playing Holdem poker for three months and are ahead by $100,000 then do not think that you have the game cracked…far from it.

If that money came from a couple of big poker tournament wins then you are still very much in the short term. On the flip side, don’t try to impress me by saying that you have played poker for twenty years or that you have beaten up on your home game because that will not qualify you for success online either.

If you play full ring game Limit Hold’em and play for 40 hours a week then it is perfectly possible to go as long as 1400 hours and only break even. If you take into account the accelerated pace of Internet play then a player who wins at a rate of one big bet per hour in live play could still go around 700 hours online and still only break even.

This leads us onto another interesting point, namely the difference between live play and online play. Surely poker is poker wherever it is played right…..wrong! It is a big mistake to blindly assume that just because you are successful in B&M full ring Limit Hold’em for instance that you will automatically transfer that success to the online environment despite playing the same game.

Perhaps you can be successful in both and many top players are but the fact remains that many live players have come unstuck trying to replicate their earn rates online and the opposite is also true of course. There are many skills that a live player could possess that would be redundant in online poker. If a player is great at reading other players and is a master of gamesmanship and other shady practices then it is perfectly possible for them to be a successful pro despite having numerous technical flaws in their game.

So before you consider taking the plunge into playing online poker or poker full stop, it is well worth asking yourself some very serious questions before you start. Stopping and taking a serious reality check regarding your abilities and winning potential may just be the best thing that you have ever done. So I think then that the lessons here should be perfectly clear in so much as being successful in live play will not count for much in online play.

Also the ability to be able to multi-table in online poker means that the older guidelines for win rates and possible losing stretches are now out of date. Online poker and poker in general is not for everyone and that much is clear. There are far too many personality traits that can hold a player back. If you are reckless and have impulsive streaks then no-limit hold’em will simply not suit you unless you employ a minimum stack strategy. But in so doing then you are seriously curtailing your ability to make serious money.

Carl “The Dean” Sampson

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