While there aren’t a lot of great options for a player who lives in the United States to play online poker these days, there are some very good reasons to continue to do so at least occasionally. I’ve written articles in the past about how tracking software like Holdem Manager changed the poker world and made many players much stronger, and this hasn’t changed. Those strong players are now at live tables (at least the ones who haven’t already moved to Costa Rica) and you need the benefit of tracking software to help you become a strong player yourself and plug your leaks.
There are some things that you might never learn at a live table, and many of the things you would eventually learn playing live will happen much faster if you are playing online. Do you play Ace-Ten offsuit under the gun? Unless you are playing the softest $1/2 table in the country and you are a very, very strong player who has been crushing the games for years, it probably isn’t profitable. You may not believe me, and without concrete proof you won’t stop playing the hand. Without playing online and using tracking software you’ll never get that proof.
If you spend some time playing much smaller games online you will find that Ace-Ten off suit is not profitable for you even at games as small as $.05/.10, and it’s certainly not a money maker under the gun at a full ring $1/2 no-limit game online, though this game is much tougher than a live game of the same size. With tracking software we have learned what hands strong players are able to make a profit with, and ace-ten is not on the list with eight or nine players left to act.
This is just one example of a common leak, but there are many others and everyone has different problems. I’ve realized how valuable this is with many of my students since Black Friday. Students who have become live players with no online play at all are much harder to work with. If they don’t show up with questions and hands to talk about, my job can be very hard and their $125 an hour may not be a good investment.
Students who are still playing online, even at very small games, and using tracking software are much easier to work with. I pull up some remote control software, go through their database and find mistakes one after another through the whole lesson, plugging leaks and explaining why certain hands were misplayed. It also helps me catch them doing things they know they shouldn’t be doing.
I have a student who plays single table tournaments and has trouble folding small pairs under the gun, and every week he tells me that he was better this week. He is slowly improving, but again this week I looked at his under the gun hands in the first two levels and found a pair of threes that he limped with during the second level. Without the tracking software I would have no choice but to believe him, and he would keep making a big mistake without knowing how much he was doing it and how much it was costing him.
Because online games are much tougher than live games, I recommend that my students who play $1/2 no-limit live start playing $.10/.25 online to find players of a similar skill level. This gives me a chance to see their stats, find mistakes, and watch the changes happen in their game from week to week or month to month. It also allows them to play five to ten times as many hands per hour and accelerates the learning process.
Because online poker is so uncertain in the US, and multiple sites are having payout problems, I don’t recommend playing high stakes online or keeping a large quantity of money on an online site. For US players, online poker is less of a profession right now and more of a learning tool that pays you a little money. However, it is very important to your education and tools like Holdem Manager and LeakBuster are a big part of that education.
I’ve suggested that LeakBuster create a live version that involves a human standing behind you and taking notes on your game and sending the data to a coach, but the development cost is awfully high. Maybe it’s better to spend some time playing online and then take that knowledge to the weak live games and crush them!
Fox makes his living playing, teaching, speaking, and writing about poker. He’s been published in a multitude of venues, including PokerPro Magazine where he has a monthly column called The Online Fox. Find out more at FoxPoker.com
