Hand Reading With the Stars

We’re starting a new series on Poker Savvy Plus called Ask the Pros where members submit hands they’ve played for review by myself or one of the other PSP instructors. If you’re a member and have any hands that you found interesting or tricky, please send the hand history to chris@pokersavvy.com. Be sure to mention that you’d like your hand to appear in one of Foucault’s videos (unless you don’t want me to be the one to review it, in which case fine be that way but don’t tell me about it because it will hurt my feelings). And if you aren’t a member of  yet, this is a great reason to join Poker Savvy Plus now and get a 7-day free trial.

6 thoughts on “Hand Reading With the Stars”

  1. Hi Andrew,

    I hope you are well. Slightly off topic but I thought I’d mail you anyway! I actually just joined PokerSavvy last week to see how it would help my game. I play live cash up to 5/10 full ring and online around the 2/4 mark, also some tournament poker althoug its hard to get the time for this being a Dad! I am very much a winning live player, but a breakeven tournament player and breakeven online cash player other than around the $55 sng mark where i’m a big winner. Tell me, its awfully hard to get the time to watch all the Poker Savvy videos. If you were to recommend a series or two for both NL cash and tournaments where would you start?

    How can I win so consistently live (at a much higher limit too) yet not transfer those results to online play? I am only 34, so not quite a poker dinosoar yet!! Live I undersstand exactly where I am in a hand pretty much all the time, online I can feel lost and often obligated to call down in bad spots, I can get trapped into playing too aggresively, I tend to just play 2 tables at a time, but I never feel like the best player at the table. Live I always feel like i’m one of the best at the table. Having this kind of confidence is a big thing I believe.

    Anyway, still very much enjoying your blog and I look forward to some of your videos. Any help greatly appreciated!

    Kind Regards.

    Nick

  2. Obv I’m not Andrew, but I’d recommend you to watch the series on flop, turn and river play. Those were the ones that I think helped me the most.

  3. Hi Nick,

    Chris here from PokerSavvy.

    I just want to point out that 2/4 online is a much tougher game than 5/10 live. In general, online games are normally about 10x harder than their live counterparts.

    You are playing against people who, in general, (At 2/4+) are members of poker training sites, have played hundreds of thousands (yes, 100,000+) hands, have stat tracking programs, and are [in general] very solid players.

    Players playing 5/10 live are often casual players who play poker maybe once a month, don’t have solid fundamentals, and have issues with tilt, giving off tells, etc.

    So – just because the online stakes are smaller, doesn’t mean the games are easier. Quite the contrary.

    Many players would rather play 8 tables of $2/$4 than 1 table of $5/$10. Your hourly rate is much higher 🙂

    • 10x harder for their stakes, I should say.

      If you can beat $$.25/.50 No limit online for example, $2/$5 live should be no different for you.

    • Nick,

      I wanted to take my time giving you a thorough answer, but then Chris went and did a very good job explaining things. I’ll add just two comments:

      1. Online poker isn’t just harder, it’s different. People play more aggressively, stacks are shallower, there are no live reads, etc. It’s not necessarily true that a guy beating $.5/$1 online could sit down and win in a 5/10 live game, though with a little practice I think he’d be a favorite.

      2. The 10x rule breaks down after 5/10 live, mostly because the games are hard to find. A 10/25 live table will have more fish than a 1/2 online table, but it will usually have at least one if not more players who are better than just about anyone at 2/4 online. You might still beat the game, but you’ll have some far tougher decisions than you would in your online game.

      • Thank you all for taking the time to reply.

        Obviously I accept that the games I play in live, although a lot larger are also easier for the reasons stated. I guess my best course of action is to drop down to maybe 0.50/1 and beat that well before moving on. It’s a question of motivation I suppose, playing so far below what I play for live and for amounts that is not really that meaningful to me. The ends will justify the means I hope! I’ll of course watch your videos to compliment this ;-D

        Thanks once again,

        Nick

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