SOME NEW TRUTHS ABOUT ONLINE POKER

SOME NEW TRUTHS ABOUT ONLINE POKER
By John Vorhaus

As many of you know, I wrote one of the first books on internet poker, KILLER POKER ONLINE, which came out what seems like a lifetime ago, all the way back in 2003. So much about internet poker has changed since then that it hardly seems like the same game. As it happens, I'm writing a new book that will reflect on these changes and outline winning strategies for the game as we know it now. Look for KILLER POKER ONLINE II sometime in 2006.

If your time machine is up and running, you can bip ahead and pick up a copy. (Please let me know how it reads because I haven't yet, you know, written it.) If not, let's touch upon some important new truths of online poker, things worth knowing and contemplating as we set out to beat the game as we now find it.

IT'S EASIER TO LOSE MONEY FAST THAN TO WIN MONEY FAST. Many of us have discovered that weeks and weeks of patient bankroll building can be destroyed in just a few hours (or even a few catastrophic minutes) of online play. We've learned, in other words, that while winning is slow labor, losing can happen lamentably fast. It's easy to see why. Winning fast requires that we play the right game at the right time against the right opponents; that we play correctly against very bad players, get lucky, and then get out. That's quite the harmonic convergence of circumstance, and it comes along quite rarely. Losing fast, on the other hand, requires only that we temporarily lose our focus, discipline, or mind. That can happen any time. Playing tilty, angry, or tired is a rapacious bankroll stripper. Internet poker can be a winning proposition, but only if you're self-aware enough and disciplined enough to get out of your own way! If you stay in a game you can't beat, or bring a losing mindset to the table, you can lose months of profit overnight.

GIVING ACTION IS A MAJOR MISTAKE. Hands of internet poker often turns into frenzies of raises, reraises, and promiscuous loose calls. In these circumstances, there's usually someone betting the best hand, someone betting the best draw, and someone (or several someones) on a total loser. These latter players are giving action on hands where they have much the worst of it, and it's a leak of ship-sinking proportion in their play. It's vital that you not be the one doing this. If you find yourself chasing, chasing, chasing, just because the pot is large, you're merely contributing to the profit of others. On the other hand, if you only get involved in these betfests with strong hands, you'll consistently reap the benefit of the largesse (and by largesse we mean stupidity) of others. Can you stand to stay out of the way when the action is coming fast and furious? Of course you can! The hand will be over in moments. Just be patient, and you'll soon have your chance to bet with the best of it. Bottom line: In online poker, never give more action than you get. If you do just this one thing right, you can probably show a long-term profit.

DON'T THEY KNOW THEY'RE PLAYING FOR REAL MONEY? Again and again we see people playing for real money (even big real money) as if they were at the play money tables. They just can't seem to connect the digits they see on the screen with the green stuff they put in their wallets, and it causes them to make horrendous playing decisions. This is great for us, of course; it's where our own (very real, very spendable) money comes from. But remember two things. First, when people are making senseless decisions, you'll sometimes suffer mind-bogglingly bad beats, and you must be able to take these beats in stride. Second, don't you lose your discipline, just because no one around you seems to have any. When we see bad players playing bad hands and raking big pots, the temptation is great to jump into the murky waters with them. Resist that urge! Simply not playing bad cards will guarantee that you don't give more action than you get.

PEOPLE HAVE ASTOUNDINGLY BAD MANNERS. I'll never forget the time someone wrote these words to me in a chat box: "I hate you, I hope you die!" I thought that my foe must be some sort of psychopath, but since then I've discovered that he's a very common breed of cat. Safe behind their online screen names and mystery avatars, people will "chat" the most amazingly rude and confrontational things, things they'd never dream (we hope) of saying face to face. When you encounter rude or angry or profane chat (how could u play that f**king garbage? U r so bad!) you need to make sure you don't let it rattle you. (Not discounting the possibility that it's being written just to rattle you in the first place.) Remember that the guy who chats ugly is revealing something profound about himself: He's a hothead; he's out of control; he'll likely call too much, push too hard, and pay off every strong hand you have. Stay calm. Stick with your game plan. Make this victim of testosterone poisoning pay and pay and pay.

MAKING BOOK IS LESS USEFUL THAN WE THOUGHT. Online poker is such a wide-open and dynamic playing community that we rarely see the same players often enough to make taking notes on them a directly worthwhile use of our time. Nevertheless, it continues to be indirectly useful, if for no other reason than that making book on our foes tends to keep our own heads in the game. Plus, there are certain corners of the internet where you do tend to see the same opponents over and over again. Heads-up sitngos are one example of this, for fans of heads-up play tend to find a happy home and linger there. I, for example, play almost exclusively $50 to $100 buy-in turbo no-limit hold'em heads-up sitngos at ultimatebet, and so I do tend to see the same foes over and over again. Is my book useful then? You bet it is. It's probably the single most profitable aspect of my game. Besides, of course, avoiding tilt, not giving more action than I get, remembering that I'm playing for real money, and ignoring hot chat.

Online poker is not what it was. It's not what it will become. As we find it right now, it's a place that rewards patience, discipline, selective-aggressive play, and a cool head.

Hey, maybe it hasn't changed so much after all.