How the math changes from live to online poker

If you were to take a trip in the “Wayback Machine” to the days before the poker boom you would find two types of players at the poker tables, players who were strictly math-based and players who used their experience and instincts. Since the boom the entire poker world has come to realize that every decision in poker is steeped in math, and all of those players relying on experience and instincts were in fact using math! However, despite what Game Theory proponents want you to believe, poker is not simply math, because it’s not a solvable problem in the classic sense, since the math is variable.

Anytime you come to a decision mathematically in poker it is because you have made several guesses (some more accurate or with more information than others). You have to guess at your opponent’s hand or likely hands. You have to guess at the amount you should bet or raise based on the outcome you are hoping for. You have to guess at whether the tell you have picked-up on is real or fake, means strength or weakness, and whether it is reliable.

So yes poker is math, but to produce accurate answers from your math equations you must use your experience and instincts to make the best guesses you possibly can. This is why online poker players are more math dependent than live poker players; online there are fewer variable to consider, so players only need t excel in putting players on ranges and finding the tendencies in their play. On the other hand, live players have less to go on when it comes to hand ranges (there is no tracking software in the casino or hand histories to look back on) and have to make up for this by watching for tells and trying to gauge their opponents play by their table talk, attitude, and so on.

Obviously live poker is more of an inexact science than online poker; where online poker calls on players to master a few skills to become winners, live poker success comes when players become proficient in a wide range of poker skills.

This isn’t to say that live poker is more difficult than online poker, since some players have a hard time mastering a specific skill, and other players may have a hard time learning to take into account all of information they are presented with. What this does explain is why online poker players often have a hard time adjusting to the live game and vice versa.

For online players the reliance on making mathematically correct plays in bubble situations and so on, and being able to analyze databases to find the tendencies and chinks in their opponents’ armor will serve them well in a live environment. The problem is, the mathematically correct play when you cannot see your opponent is going to have a different answer than the mathematically correct answer when you can see your opponent and understand more than just their tendencies.

For live players the switch is even harder, because their proficiency in certain areas is useless online, and until they gain mastery in the online-specific skills they will not be able to beat the game.

So it’s not that online poker relies on math more than live poker. Online poker simply calls on a person to do a few things really, really, well, where live poker asks a person to excel in wide-range of skills. Basically the comparison would be the difference between a Sprinter and a Decathlete; a sprinter needs to be incredibly strong and have powerful legs, as well as technically excellent to run as fast as they can in a straight line. A decathlete needs to good upper and lower body strength, be far more agile, have the ability to sprint and run distance races, and so on. In any single event a decathlete would be blown away by the people who specialize in the event, but it’s their well-rounded skill set that makes them flourish in the decathlon.