How to get into live poker?

Angmar2626

Dear Mr Channing,

I've only ever really played tournaments online. People always rave about how great live tournaments are to play and I can certainly see that from the fun/social/atmosphere point of view and trying to riddle out live reads etc. However, in terms of trying to make it a profitable venture, variance is bad enough online when you're playing lots of games and you can put in the volume to ride through it. Live poker tournaments sound pretty brutal in terms of how long/infinite a losing streak could be. A standard downswing online could be years of live play! How does one deal with it?

I hear SPT is a good place to start for live poker experience

Thanks

NChanning

 Hi Angmar,

 Really good question. I would say having the right mental approach is massively important in all kinds of poker, but I totally agree that long losing runs live can be worse as it's harder to play so many events so quickly. A run of 25 tournaments without cashing should be quite normal, (and annoying), for any MTT player, but if you only play 25 tournaments a year, and those events involve travel, taking time off work, getting permission from the other half etc, then it can be way harder to cope with than having a big two days online where you play 25 events in 48 hours.

 I think you just have to play every hand correctly and if someone puts a bad beat on you then just be pleased that people play badly, safe in the knowledge that this is the reason that poker is a game which can be profitable to the smarter players. I guess it's the run of losing flips or being card dead that are more frustrating. I find it way harder to deal with if I've had weeks of losing without doing anything wrong AND without my opponents making any mistakes too.

 I would definitely recommend the SPT though. I think the downswings live are much easier to shrug off if the event is fun and you get something from the experience and I know that Brighton will be a really good weekend.

 Hopefully see you there.