I suck offline

I play offline with my friends a few times a week. there are 3 players that play most games and a few others that sometimes join. the regulars in the game usually win.

none of my friends have been successful at online poker.

we play a cash game with a 20p SB and 40p BB. the game is between 4 and 6 handed usually. the buyin is £10 for the 1st buyin. after that you can buyin for what you want.

i used to be successful at offline poker but nowadays i lose more than i win playing with my friends. in the last 50 hours of live play with my friends i'm a loser. and i don't think it's because my cards have been running bad. i'm constantly making wrong decisions. folding when i'm ahead. calling when i'm behind.
and friends seem to read me like a book. when i bet they call me when i'm bluffing and they fold when i have a hand. or at least it seems that way.

i don't know how to win in the live game. i'm quite sure that if i were to play with my friends online i would destroy them all and they really wouldn't stand a chance against me. but offline i just can't play. i don't why.

it might be that i'm way too easy to read. it might be because i don't have the patience for slow offline play.

online i've played over 50k hands and maybe even 100k. i've ground my br to about $4k and currently play 5 handed $200NL at pokerroom.

how do i win offline? help me!

Offline (aka LIVE ) poker is a lot different than online. Don't be as tight and try to make hero folds. There are many times where TP = nutz. Players are generally 100x times worse than villains you run into online. It's also pretty easy to notice tells players will give off. I've noticed that with some of the crew I play with one of the guys ALWAYS takes longer to make his decision with a weaker hand, and acts fast with a strong one. Another one gets quiet with a monster and tries to talk you off when hes bluffing EVERYTIME. Another shakes his leg with a big hand, well almost everytime... just little things like that can help.

Also, it sounds like this is a home game rather than a casino. I play home games more for fun sakes, but of course the ultimate goal is to win monies. I'm going to guess you're being a huge nit not being use to seeing 10x less hands per hour. You have to open up a bit more, me thinks.

Originally Posted by givememyleg

Offline (aka LIVE ) poker is a lot different than online. Don't be as tight and try to make hero folds. There are many times where TP = nutz. Players are generally 100x times worse than villains you run into online. It's also pretty easy to notice tells players will give off. I've noticed that with some of the crew I play with one of the guys ALWAYS takes longer to make his decision with a weaker hand, and acts fast with a strong one. Another one gets quiet with a monster and tries to talk you off when hes bluffing EVERYTIME. Another shakes his leg with a big hand, well almost everytime... just little things like that can help.

Also, it sounds like this is a home game rather than a casino. I play home games more for fun sakes, but of course the ultimate goal is to win monies. I'm going to guess you're being a huge nit not being use to seeing 10x less hands per hour. You have to open up a bit more, me thinks.

ok. sounds like good advice. i do want to make hero laydowns offline and i think i probably give position to much respect offline. folding like AJ in the BB just because i'm scared to play someone out of position like i am online. but noone will really make use of position or understands what it is (but obviously it still gives them an edge whether they know about it or not)

You need to adjust your style of play to whatever works best against your opponenets. You say they are not as good as the people you face online, if they are looser it allows you to loosen up a bit and dabble in some pots to hit the big hands. These adjustments will help you game immensely. If you feel you are giving off tells identify what they are and give off that tell falsely at times and they will not be able to rely on it.

You don't play the same people every time you sit down online. Your "offline" game is the same people every time. The reason you get pwned is probably because they CAN read you like a book. You gotta mix up your play and be more unpredictable. If you can't make good reads on somebody after playing for 50 hours with them then maybe you are not as good as you think.

Play good poker. Don't make tight folds, just stick your money in when you think it's good. See a couple more flops that you would in a raked game. Mixing it up in that sort of game is over-rated.

I think the problem may be that you're used to playing lots of tables and making fairly shallow decisions. Live, you don't have some stupid 15 second clock ticking at you, so you can get into much deeper levels of thinking.

thanks guys.
lots of good advice

Originally Posted by djzcko

You don't play the same people every time you sit down online. Your "offline" game is the same people every time. The reason you get pwned is probably because they CAN read you like a book. You gotta mix up your play and be more unpredictable. If you can't make good reads on somebody after playing for 50 hours with them then maybe you are not as good as you think.

a lot of truth in what you say. and my poker ego is definitely way too big. but i'm sure i would tear my friends apart online.


PS - online i play cash games mostly and i'm doing ok/good in them. i gave up on tournaments a few months ago but i do have quite a lot of sng experience.

offline i play really good in tournaments (way better than i can play online). but in cash games i don't play good at all.
i seem to be able to read players well in tournies but in cash games i don't really pick up on any reads and i just play the betting patterns like i do online.
has anyone had a similar experience to this?