This article outlines some of the obvious differences between brick and mortar (B&M) casino or card room play, versus online play. We’ll leave home games aside for another time.

The biggest difference between online and live games has to be that in a live game, you have a greater interaction with your fellow players than online. This includes the fact that they can see you, and you can see them, which leads to an extra source of information in the live game versus the online game – tells. Reading the body language, mannerisms and emotions of your opponent, to try to decipher if they have the goods or not, is often touted as the principle skill of live game players. This, simply put, is not true. Tells are an important source of information in live games, but they do not replace a decent strategy for the vast majority of your decisions.

Nonetheless, if you make the transition to playing live, don’t forget to watch how your opponents react, especially when you are not involved in the pot – in between hands you can accumulate a lot of information. For instance, a player may reveal their strength to you not just by how they bet, but how they place the chips in the pot. This is something you don’t have to rely on when playing online. For a lot of experience live players, its hard to give up this sort of information. For online players making the transition, you need to be aware that the most experienced players in a live game will see everything you do, so you want to minimize what you do.

For online players looking to play live, may I make the following suggestions. First, talk as little as possible during the play of a hand, especially one in which you are involved. A good player can extract lots of information from you by chatting with you. Next, try not to look interested or disinterested, try instead to look blank. This can be achieved by staring off into the distance, or staring directly downward and not reacting when the board cards come. Unfortunately, this reduces your ability to detect the mannerisms of other players because you’re busy protecting your own tells from being discovered. For most online players, however, the best idea is to concentrate on hiding your own reactions before you try to focus on other players. The reason is that tactical play can win even with minimal attention to the mannerisms of your opponents, but wearing your tells like a giant billboard can cost you lots of action from players whose edge comes primarily from watching for tells.

There are tons of resources on tells available in both print media and online sources. I won’t go into commonly discussed tells because I honestly feel that tells are far too specific to the player, and any set of ‘rules’ about tells is doomed to contradiction.

Live poker also involves an intimidation factor which doesn’t affect the online game. Walking into a card room for the first time can be quite intimidating for some people. Although staff tend to be friendly and the dealers fairly patient, your opponents may not be so nice. You will run into many players who will be very unfriendly to any violation of etiquette. This means you have to make sure it is your turn to act before you make any action or declaration, including folding. Folding out of turn disrupts the games for serious players. In addition, you should be careful not to say anything that might reveal what you held (after you have folded) because this will be met with reproach from both the dealer and other players.

When you enter the poker room at a casino, you’ll notice that players have to enter waiting lists, regardless of whether there are open seats at the tables you wish to join. It is not uncommon to have to wait an hour or more to get a seat, especially during peak hours. This may end up being a bad thing for many players who will waste their money on house games (blackjack, craps, roulette, slots etc.) instead of waiting for their poker game, but if one practices restraint and keeps poker money separate from money to use on house games while waiting for a seat, this isn’t much of a problem.

Speaking of things that cost, I should let you know that without exception, the rake charged at B&M casinos is greater than at online sites. Although if you are fortunate to find a casino which charges a session fee (a time charge, such as $5 for a half hour), you’ll not pay as much as in games that are rake per pot at the casino (which can be as high as a big bet per pot!). Also, you have to remember that dealers in North American casinos will expect tips, and you should be forthcoming with them usually. Even if it is only $1 a pot, it adds up to a much higher cost of playing than online.

Thankfully, most live games have far more action, and far looser players than online. I know that the last time I played at a live casino the games at the mid stakes range (10/20 and 20/40 were being spread at the time) looked like low stakes online games, with tons and tons of calling, but very little raising and check/raising. These games are a goldmine as long as you are willing to play tight/aggressive, smart poker. You can easily overcome the extra rake if you find a game with lots of action like the ones I expect you’ll find at most casinos.

Nonetheless, there are yet more downsides to the live game. First, availability is an issue. Fans of games like Omaha, 7 card stud and other non-hold’em games that can be found easily online are harder to find live. Of course, larger venues (such as you’d find in Las Vegas) will still spread these games, but they may not spread them at nearly as low a limit as you’ll find online. The more esoteric the game, the more likely you are to find it only at mid or higher stakes, and you’ll find the games shark infested compared to hold’em. By contrast, online Omaha and 7 card stud are full of players who don’t quite get the differences between these games and hold’em. By comparison, limit hold’em is far more popular than no-limit for cash games at live casinos, which is different than online. Online a no-limit player has no difficulty finding games, but live this can be a problem sometimes. Of course, with no-limit being the game of the internet and the game featured on television, this is changing slowly but surely.

The second issue is the speed of games. A lot of online players like fast games, and like to play multiple tables. Live, however, one can only play a single table at a time, and live games tend to get far fewer hands per hour than online. This can lead to boredom, distraction, even loose play and tilt because one wants action. Alcohol is another live game distraction which can hurt one’s game. Once again, these are all things which can be overcome with discipline, but a good online player needs to know how to adapt to these things when playing live. It really is a different game in many ways.

Good luck at the tables!
– Coach

Ladbrokes Poker is backed by the financial clout of The Ladbrokes Group and play on the popular Playtech iPoker Network. We like the Private Table feature so you can host your own poker games – choose who you play with, the type of game and the stakes you want to play for.