The Psychology Of An Online Poker Player!
Tuesday, September 8th, 2009
Online poker is a lot different from poker played offline, as you have no idea who you are playing with. In fact, this proves to be a good thing for people playing online.
There are several people who are masters at the game offline, but they lose everything when they try to play online. The reason is that these people make money through tells at offline casinos. They understand when to bluff and when to go big by reading others. Many people think poker tells are the body language of players but it is actually any activity that reveals critical information about the game to an opponent.
Online poker is not just clicking a button and either winning or losing, like most people believe. The major part of playing online poker lies in analyzing the betting patterns, such as the speed of the bet, raise or call, size of the bet etc. Since most online players play regularly, there is standard behavior to be expected.
Also remember that most of the players online are not experts and they enjoy calling. Usually the psychology of online players is that they play loose than when they are playing a live poker game. The reason behind this is that these players only play with non-tangible assets. This is precisely the reason why off-line casinos use chips on the table. It hurts to see the chips go because they are tangible. Online players are less careful even when their chips are taken away because they are just numbers online. They are not likely to bother about the consequences of losing a hundred or even a thousand bucks, until they lose it all. For people who truly play a thinking game, this can prove to be the greatest advantage of online games that far outweighs the fact that there are not too many tells that can be taken advantage of.
Trying to use bluffs is an exercise in futility. A fool cannot be bluffed and there is no point in trying to bluff when playing online. Most people playing online have no idea what the other person is going to do and a foolish player cannot be expected to fold.
All the opponent has to do is click a button and the money disappears and they load quicker than they have lost. This carefree attitude towards money is what makes online poker game great and potentially very profitable to the “smart player”. You must ensure that you do not behave like the others and in fact you should be in a position to take advantage of their behavior.
By: Matthew Smith
There are several people who are masters at the game offline, but they lose everything when they try to play online. The reason is that these people make money through tells at offline casinos. They understand when to bluff and when to go big by reading others. Many people think poker tells are the body language of players but it is actually any activity that reveals critical information about the game to an opponent.
Online poker is not just clicking a button and either winning or losing, like most people believe. The major part of playing online poker lies in analyzing the betting patterns, such as the speed of the bet, raise or call, size of the bet etc. Since most online players play regularly, there is standard behavior to be expected.
Also remember that most of the players online are not experts and they enjoy calling. Usually the psychology of online players is that they play loose than when they are playing a live poker game. The reason behind this is that these players only play with non-tangible assets. This is precisely the reason why off-line casinos use chips on the table. It hurts to see the chips go because they are tangible. Online players are less careful even when their chips are taken away because they are just numbers online. They are not likely to bother about the consequences of losing a hundred or even a thousand bucks, until they lose it all. For people who truly play a thinking game, this can prove to be the greatest advantage of online games that far outweighs the fact that there are not too many tells that can be taken advantage of.
Trying to use bluffs is an exercise in futility. A fool cannot be bluffed and there is no point in trying to bluff when playing online. Most people playing online have no idea what the other person is going to do and a foolish player cannot be expected to fold.
All the opponent has to do is click a button and the money disappears and they load quicker than they have lost. This carefree attitude towards money is what makes online poker game great and potentially very profitable to the “smart player”. You must ensure that you do not behave like the others and in fact you should be in a position to take advantage of their behavior.
By: Matthew Smith
