This is Part 2 of our discussion on transitioning from online poker to live poker, a situation many pros have faced in the post-Black Friday era. If you haven’t already checked it out, be sure to read Part 1, which focuses on physical tells and learning to read appearances. Your bankroll will thank you.

Chris Wallace is the founder of TourneyTracks.com, which lists every major upcoming tournament in North America.

Attack

If you are serious about maximizing your win rate at live tables, you need to get used to taking every advantage that your opponents give you. I would never advocate cheating. I’m talking about using every advantage you can within the rules of the game. If you make friends with the players near you, they may play softer against you. I’ve made thousands over my career from players who have checked behind on the river with strong hands because they didn’t want to take my money, told me to go ahead and bet because they had nothing, or surrendered their blinds to me because they respected my game.

To online players, poker doesn’t seem to be a social game at all. But live players will tell you that most of your opponents are at the tables for a social experience and many of them lack the heart to take your money if they like you. Some players use fear instead of friendship, but being abusive and intimidating for a living sounds awful to me.

Deal with the Environment

Live tournament play requires you to sit in a chair at a specific starting time. For online players who are used to waking up whenever they feel like it, sitting in a comfortable computer chair, and behaving any way they like, it can be tough to play well consistently in a new environment. The chair won’t be comfortable, the food won’t usually be any good, and you’ll have to do things on a schedule that you didn’t choose. There aren’t enough live tournaments to skip a series because you don’t like the start time, the chairs, or the food.

You’ll get used to some of these things, tough it out through others, and nullify the rest with good preparation. I bring a few protein bars to every tournament in case I get hungry. Usually, I’ll bring a healthy supply of Ibuprofen on the road with me and try to eat as well as I can before a tournament. Comfortable clothes, an iPod, and whatever else you need to be comfortable so that you can play well are just as important as making strategy adjustments. You won’t play well if you aren’t prepared and comfortable. And get some sleep – it helps.

Avoid Good Players and Learn to Identify Them

Winning players in live tournaments come from a multitude of backgrounds and use a wide variety of strategies, so you’ll need an open mind and some experience to identify them. That old-timer who plays tight and solid may be a bigger winner than you think. The kid who seems like a maniac may be an online beast. The guy with the huge gold rings spouting cliches about gambling may be a lot smarter than you think.

They may not be playing perfectly, but a few mistakes won’t stop a player from beating live tournaments if they are playing well otherwise, so you have to pay close attention and keep an open mind. Look for players who usually get their money in behind, don’t show a lot of tells, show no mercy, and have a lot of experience. Then, watch for mistakes. When you see a player go a few hours without a significant mistake, it’s very likely that he is a winning tournament player, even if he isn’t brilliant or doesn’t have a style you respect.

Once you identify strong players, stay away from them. With so many weak players in live tournament fields, you can avoid strong players who may be better than you think they are and may be able to read your tells or know more about your game than you know about theirs. Playing a weak hand against a strong player is pushing a very tiny edge, if you have any edge at all, and we have already talked about how that’s a bad idea.

Watch Your Expenses

Being on the road can be expensive and a lack of planning, inability to resist temptation, and free spending can eat up the profits you get from those wonderfully soft tournament fields. Plan ahead, find a cheap hotel, and don’t party your bankroll away.

Plan Ahead

One of the best ways to practice game selection and plan ahead is to use our new site, TourneyTracks.com. As its target customer – a traveling tournament player on a budget – I can tell you that the site gives me all of the information I need. The site has full tournament schedules, structure sheets, and everything sorted by state, province, tournament series, and month. TourneyTracks.com has complete tournament information and can help you find the right tournaments for your game, allowing you to plan ahead as far as possible.

TourneyTracks.com lists every major upcoming tournament and series in North America, with a fully interactive map page, and is always up-to-date on TDA rules. Speaking of that…

Know the Rules

Any experienced live tournament player can tell you how common it is for new players to make costly mistakes because they don’t know the rules or aren’t familiar with typical procedures. The “one chip rule,” betting and calling mistakes, and a host of other issues that don’t exist in online games can really hurt you if you aren’t careful. I highly recommend reading the up-to-date TDA rules and using caution when you indicate your action.

Until you are very comfortable in live tournaments, simply state the size of your raise, say “call,” or throw your hand into the muck face down. Don’t talk about your hand and never comment on a hand in progress if you aren’t involved. Table your hand at showdown and call the floor if you think the dealer has made a mistake. Keeping it simple, acting in turn, and using proper care at all times will save you money by preventing mistakes that new players make.

Final Words

Live tournament play doesn’t need to be intimidating. With preparation, a winning online player should be a winning live player because of a significant advantage in understanding strategy compared to most live players. Most dealers and tournament personnel will be friendly and helpful. They want you to come back and their job is to make sure things are run fairly and smoothly.

If you are well prepared and play small tournaments at first, you may find, as I did, that live tournament play is both fun and profitable. Online play stopped being fun for me years ago, but live tournament play has helped me enjoy poker again and has been quite profitable for me even without a single big score. To me, and many others, live tournament play is the most exciting and challenging form of poker. With so many things to think about and the blinds always increasing, live tournament play never gets boring.

Don’t be intimidated, just be prepared, and I’ll see you at the final table.