Why Do I Suck at Online Poker?

So you usually clean up at your little home games, but since you’ve started playing online your account balance has gradually dropped. I hear this a lot from people who start out playing online, and usually their reasoning is that the poker room they play in is cheating them.

My response to them is, “the room is not the problem, you are.” The poker rooms have a lot more to lose ($1000’s in fines and major lawuits) than to gain from scrimping $20 out of your account. Here are five of the most common reasons that a lot of players start out poorly when they play online.

1. Better record keeping: You think you rule the home game, but how sure are you about that? When you play online you can see every cent you lose and, if you want to, even every hand you lose. When you play in your little home games you might remember a couple of your bad beats, but even those aren’t written down somewhere for you to read back later, and they may be gone for good if you get too drunk. And of course, it’s only human to remember the wins more than the losses.

2. No people to read: If the strength of your live game is reading other players and their tells, then you’re already at a disadvantage playing online before you log on. Since you can’t pick up these tells and player reads online, you’re probably playing hands online that you would have folded if you were looking your opponent square in the face.

3. More hands played per hour: Think about how many hands you play in your home game between talking, drinking, eating and any other distractions. Now think about how much faster each hand is when you’re playing online. If you’re losing more than you’re winning, and you’re playing more hands, then that means by default you’re playing more losing hands.

4. More “loose” players online: Anyone who’s played any amount of time online knows there are a lot more loose players online than anywhere else. This means there will be more people seeing the flop, turn and river, and consequently more people pulling off lucky winners. This is why you keep losing to Q 5 with your A K. The more of these bad beats you endure, the more you think the poker room is screwing with you.

5. Playing more than one table: If your computer can handle the load, you can play as many tables as you want. You probably hear some of the poker pros talking about how they play multiple tables to win more money. Well guess what? If you play more tables and you’re losing more than you’re winning, then you’re not winning more, you’re losing more.

Take it from me, the poker room isn’t the reason you’re not raking in hordes of chips. You are the reason. Nobody goes from a $100 deposit to $1 million overnight so don’t get frustrated by some initial bad play. The more you play, the better your game will get. In poker, like in business, you gotta spend money at first in order to make money.