Originally Posted by FlatTireSuited
Welcome to the Wild World of LOL LIVE POKER!
For online guys with no live experience - I do well - nothing earth-shattering, but well, at 2/5 NL at Horseshoe Hammond, one of the biggest pokerrooms in the Midwest. Online, I struggle at 25NL and am about break even at 10NL online. So if you're beating 10NL or 25NL, 1/2 live should be a joke and 2/5 won't be much tougher. I’m fully willing to admit that the vast majority of people beating 10NL or higher are better overall players than me - and since I do quite well live, if you struggle, it’s either because you’re overrating how good you are online, or are stubbornly thinking that what works online, works live. If you’re a good online player who can adjust, there is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t kill live. This post may be TL;DR for some, and it’s also going to make a few exaggerations for comedic effect, but for the most part, it’s basically all true, and if you take your good online chops (proper bet-sizing, assessing villain’s range, avoiding trap hands, etc.), and combine that with simple understanding of LOLLivepoker players, you’ll kill the games. The players are that bad.
Here are the most important pointers. I'm going to use 2/5 as the standard, so adjust for 1/2 or 5/10 or whatever level:
The underlying principle is this:
A good number of people at B&M are there to "play cards!" - and by that I mean play as many hands as possible. They didn't drive an hour after they got off work the one day a week they can get away from their wife and kids, to fold pre-flop for 4 hours to some young twerp in a hoodie. They're there to "get in, mix it up, make some moves, and show everyone else how it's done!". Therefore:
1) A 5x pre-flop bet (which is, at least at 2/5, the most standard pre-flop bet) often times will be called by 6 guys. It is absolutely standard for a guy to raise to $25 or $30 UTG and get called by the entire table. I always laugh when an online guy comes to a B&M table, raises to $30 UTG with KQo and then proceeds to get 7 callers, and makes this face of "WTF just happened...7 callers to a 5x bet but no 3bet?"
2) Limped pots are frequent. If you're on the button and 5 people limp, don't interpret that to mean that they're all weak and will fold if you bet $40 - they're all going to call - what it means is they have hands they don't WANT to play for $40, but they'll still call since they're soooted and goddamit, they wanna see a flop (see rule 1).
3) There are a significant number of players who will call cbets with just about any sort of draw. Continuing with the KQo example, if the flop is T53 rainbow, fully expect a c-bet of $120 into the $210 to be called by T8 (hey, ZOMGTOPPAIR - do you know how hard it is to have top pair) and also by A4 (gotta at least see a turn, I could spike a deuce, and then, ZOMGIHAVEASTRAIGHT!)
4) And fully expect well-sized turn and river bets to be called by the same T8 hand. You can't get him off his hand. He's not playing you, he's not soul reading you, he simply has a pair and he's not getting away from it. Remember Phil Ruffin just a little while ago on HSP? Yeah, that's a good number of live players at any level. Look - they drove all this way, so they're here to play, not fold. In other words – no representing, no fancy play – it won’t matter to him, because he’s got a pair so he’s calling.
5) So - don't be the stubborn moron who doesn't adjust and can't fathom how these guys are that bad - yes, yes they are. Just wait until you have TT and valuetown the ever loving crap out of him. Bet pot on flop of T53, because 65 will call you. Bet 2/3rds pot on turn - he's call. Shove river - he'll call, and then curse his bad luck.
6) For some reason, these guys also seemingly think that the only way to play a strong hand is to check/flat. I call it "Hellmuthian trap-mode". They flop a set? The only way to play that is to check/call until river, then, and ONLY then, raise big (unless the board flushed out, in which case call the guy who hit the flush and curse the suckout and curse the dealer for dealing the suckout)...and since no one hit their draw, no one calls, so the villain complains that no one called on the river when they finally made a hand. Flop the non-nut flush? No hellmuthian-trapper bets there - don't wanna scare anyone away!!! Nevermind getting value from the A-high flush draw or two-pair/sets, and nevermind that the only way these hands call you on the river is if they've passed you on strength.
7) So, the inverse of that - don't be afraid to bet the ever-loving crap out of your hands that way. The amount of times I'll pot non-nut flopped flushes, top-2, sets, etc., they'll call with TPTK all the way down and be flabbergasted when they see my hand, and they'll say something like "I didn't put you on that, why would you bet that so strong, all that does is drive people away - you'd want to keep me around with your flush!" - except, of course, I did keep you around and built a much bigger pot so you felt committed to calling a river-shove.
8) Now - when they’re the ones doing the pre-flop betting or post-flop betting - first, don't be afraid to call. Online, you want to see a small gap between VPIP and PFR. Live? No shame in calling a lot of the time. 75s in late position, someone's led out for $25, and 3 callers? Easy call. This will happen a lot of the time. Look, don't limp/call with anything, but trust me, there is a lot of value to calling someone's pre-flop raise, particularly if you're the 4th or 5th one in, and in position, and yes, that will happen - FREQUENTLY. Heck, don't be afraid to be the first caller if you know that the people behind will call, and yes, chances are they will. Get into a multi-way pot with suited one-gappers or small pairs - you'll thank me when you hit and they can't fold TPTK.
9) One reason - if you’re the one on a standard draw – they’re most likely going to bet size HORRIBLY. It doesn’t mean weakness, it’s because they have no clue. Example – you have 98s, guy leads out for $25, 4 callers to you on button, again, standard call, flop is Axx, two of your flush. The PFR donk will either check (JJ, scared of the ace), or bet $35 (AK, thinking that’s the right bet, after all, it was more than $25). He’s not betting $35 into $100 because he’s weak, he’s betting $35 because he bet $25 pre, so $35 post makes sense – he doesn’t track pot size. Turn bricks you, he’s going to bet $50. You’ll call, hit on river, he’ll bet $70, you’ll raise, he may call, he may fold, either way prepare for him to lecture you about calling his huge bets with just a draw. Let him do that, smile, say you’re just a lucky donk who likes to gamble, laugh, and scoop pot.
10) Finally – your “image” most likely does not matter. Balancing ranges? Yeah – these guys don’t even know what a range is, much less that one “balances” it. With rare exceptions (soul readers), how often you’ve raised or not raised pre means NOTHING. With the exception of the nittiest and most aggressive pre-flop players, whether or not you get called depends on whether they have the cards. You can raise for the first time in 4 hours – if the opponents have playable (in their opinion) hands, they’re calling. I’m not saying don’t raise with 76s on the button, the play isn’t horrible if it’s done at the right time, but don’t do it for image reasons. That said, if somehow you’re at a table where image does matter – well, first, table change since there are probably softer tables with suckier players, but if you can’t, then if you need to loosen up your image – some quick ways to do it – straddle always works, or show one bluff(make sure it’s against soul realer or nit donk), or be the 5th or 6th limper in position with complete rags if you know the blinds aren’t the type to raise – it costs one big blind, if you hit hard you can valuetown, and there’s also a good chance it’ll check all the way through – and in either scenario, SHOW THE HAND, let someone say something about how only donks play that hand, and voila, image ruined.