It has taken most of the poker community a long time to come to the realization online poker is not the same game as live poker. In the same vein that you play Limit Texas Hold’em completely differently from No-limit Texas Hold’em, you should play Online No-limit Texas Hold’em differently from Live (Brick and Mortar) No-limit Texas Hold’em. This is especially true when playing on Freeroll/Sweepstakes sites (Poker Insider Magazine's Poker Parlor, Club WPT, SpadeClub, Pure Play, NLOP, etc.). This is a simple fact that many live players moving from live poker to the online game fail to recognize and it is why they find online poker so frustrating.

You often hear complaints at tables or bandied about on poker forums that online sites purposely create situations that provide multiple big hands to build up the rake, therefore making the online poker room more money. Contrary to the feelings of many players, it has nothing to do with the computerized Random Number Generators (RNG) used by online poker sites versus shuffling of live dealers.

It is true that the technology behind online poker sites is similar to that of video poker machines found in both live and online casinos. Though the casino video games, as well as slot machines, can be fine-tuned to provide different payouts, it makes no sense for poker sites to tinker with results, making them less than random. The same controversy was heard when casinos first introduced auto-shufflers to the tables. Caught in a real never-never land of advancing technology is the computerized poker tables first introduced by PokerPro, but that discussion will have to wait for another day.

If you think about it, it makes no sense for any poker room, especially the tournament sweepstakes sites, to meddle with the hands. Since these sites (or any tournament, for that matter) does not collect a rake. One prevailing 'conspiracy' theory is that these sites skew the cards to benefit new players. In truth, it is just the opposite, since the sites would lose too many good players that became frustrated with the constant suck outs and bad beats. When it comes down to it, if a site were caught manipulating the board, they would be sued out of business and the scandal would leave the rest of the online community in ruins.

The online sites are not the real problem; it is the mentality of the players playing the online game. Many online players, especially those new to the game, stay in hands that if they knew and understood the odds, would quickly muck.

To make a graphic example of this philosophy, take a deck of cards and deal out ten sets of two cards (the players) and then five in the middle (the board). Look at all of the great hands you see there at the end. Make a note of all of the winning hands. Now relook at the two starting cards and make a noted of how many of the winning hands have hole cards you would play. Now, make a note of how many of those winning hands hit on the turn or river. Do this a few dozen times and you will see a pattern begin to emerge.

This is the real problem with Freeroll/Sweepstakes sites. When there is another tournament in a few minutes (especially if you are on several different sites at once), it does not matter if you play poor hands, the risk-reward ratio is in favor of the maniac. Because they see the suck out happen so often, these players try to repeat it. In the best of times, Pocket Aces are only a 4:1 favorite heads up, which drops exponentially to 1:3 if all 10 players are in the hand. This means that there is a 20% to 67% chance that you will lose the hand. Take people that do not actually understand things such as odds or position, those that feel ‘lucky’ or the ones with a strong draw and they are going to stay in far longer than they should. This decreases your chance of winning the hand, since there are usually more than a couple of loose players at every table.

What caused this problem, in part was the popularity of WPT and WSOP on television. You might want to read the article on how the small Ocean View Card Room in Santa Cruz changed the face of poker. These plays make for exciting television viewing. Novices see the grand bluffs, suck outs and amazing plays at a televised final table, not realizing that they are seeing only one or two hours of a 10-12 hour process. In fact, much of the play is check – check – check – raise – fold – fold – fold – fold – fold, with nary a flop seen, let alone a turn or river. As an example, during the 2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table, it took more than three trips around the table before the players saw the first turn card. Neophytes also fail to realize that how you play to get to a final table is not how you play once you make the final table.

Read Part II of Online vs Live Poker