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Many players consider that there are many differences between playing poker live in a casino and playing online in the comfort of your home.
Of course they may be right taking into account such contrasts as t he faster structure of tournaments, the more hands played online, the blitz of newcomers….
It seems that such perception of difference is behind some of the questionable plays which are often seen online. Don’t let yourself get distracted by the meta-differences: at the micro level of hand-by-hand play, the principles of live poker strategy apply equally well online.
Among the major errors I would mention online players overestimating their small pairs. For example, you’re under the gun early in a tournament and you have pocket sixes. You put in a standard raise from that position (an aggressive move, to be sure), only to have one player re-raise you in middle position and the cut-off move his stack all-in. What do you do, if the action comes back to you…?
Most of the time, the pocket sixes will make the call and normally the re-raiser will come along as well, making for a three-way all-in pot. Such a situation is very seldom seen in a live tournament setting but it occurs commonly in the plays online, and, be sure, it is not a good strategy.
It is important in such circumstances that the original raiser with the sixes has to be able to deduce how strong the hands behind him are. A good poker player will figure that if the MP has a re-raising hand, then it could be big slick, big chick (A-Q) or a larger pair in the ranges of eights to jacks. The third raise all-in is the key in this situation.
After seeing two players raise in front of him, the cut-off player who moves all-in will likely have one of three pocket pairs: queens, kings or aces. Probably the cut-off has been salivating at the action in front of him and is more than willing to take his chances in this situation. But here is the question: can you do that with your pocket sixes?
It is best to get out of the way and let the two players with much more investments in the pot play it out because any way you are in for only a standard raise. There will be those occasions where you see those opponents turn up A-K versus A-Q (or worse) but, as you only have an 18% chance to win the pot against a larger pair and an ace-x and a slim favourite (41%-34%-23%, roughly) against such two players, there are better opportunities to get your chips in the centre.
The over-aggressive playing of suited aces is another error players make in online tournaments. Whether it is ace-rag up to ace-jack or what have you, players seem to play these hands as if they are sitting on pocket rockets. The problem rears its head when the board is somewhat agreeable but still dangerous.
If your low card is flopped with your ace, you could still be at a significant disadvantage to a player with a larger pocket pair than you have made. If you flop a flush draw, you are only going to make that draw about a third of the time. Even if you pair your ace, you can be facing a trouble if someone has a better ace than you do.
In this situation the best way out is to see the flop for cheap and, if nothing materializes for you on the flop, to be able to release the hand quickly. Even if you have hit a pair or have a flush draw, you still have to have the ability to count the odds on any action after the flop to define if you have reason to chase it. If there is a raise in front of you pre-flop, then lay those suited aces down and save the chips for a better situation.
Still other online players make mistakes when they try to hold paint cards (K-Q, K-J, Q-J) and face a raise. Of course it depends on the context, but it is sometimes better to not even try to out-flop your opponent, as you could be behind from the beginning. How often have you played your K-J and hit a king on the flop, only to see your raising opponent turn over big slick or K-Q to out-kick you at the river? The key here is knowledge of your opponents and, as mentioned before, sometimes discretion is the better part of valour.
I’m not trying to say that you fold every hand other than pocket aces; I’m just suggesting that there has to be some thought before you get involved. In the online game people sometimes can use crazy strategy but that’s no reason to treat it differently than live play.
The same odds, rules and likelihoods still apply and the goal of the game is to make the optimal decision on every hand. Knowing how to manage problem hands like these will surely help you to last longer into tournaments, both live and online, and cash more often.