9-Handed Online Poker Tournaments vs 10 Handed Live Poker Tournaments
I recently played pokern in a very, very large field tournament in a live-game setting in a casino. On day 1a there were 500 players, with alternates, and day 1b was looking to have a similar turnout. This was my first multi-day event, and the biggest live-field tournament I’d ever played. A few things caught me off guard.
Firstly, when I play in large field tournaments online, the tables are all 9-handed. Live, they are always 10-handed. This means that you’re small aces are likely to be dominated more often, and an early limp will just about never make it around the table.
I tried to play pretty small-ball, not opening for raises much, but willing to call in lucrative spots. My table was also very aggressive, so a standard raise was likely to be 4 or 5 times the BB and sometimes met with a reraise. I wasn’t very comfortable playing 10-handed poker.
I also drew the 1-seat, which blocked my view of the 9 and 10 seat players completely. Online, there is nothing in obstruction. All of the player’s chip stacks are clear, as are their bets.
The casino that I played this tournament in had just built its poker room, so the dealers were all pretty new. Unfortunately, this meant that the game went really slow. 10-handed games will go slower than 9-handed, simply because of the extra player. But, along with antes being collected and change being made, the new dealers really came into play. The blind levels were 45 minutes long, but I saw about as many hands, if not less than a 12 minute blind level online. Everything is automatic online, there is no confusion, and when one hand is over, another begins.
There are a lot of perks playing live though. You can observe your opponents directly, and also intimidate them. Online, you can call someone a donkey and they will tell you how bad you are, or how terrible your ROI is. Live, if someone sucks out on you, and you tell them they are terrible, they are likely to change the way they play because they feel ashamed. People are more likely to second guess themselves in a live-poker environment because they feel everyone else at the table is judging them. So, this is something that can be exploited.
Unless the blind structure is really good, and I know the casino/floor/dealers are reputable, live tournaments can have many pitfalls that simply to not exist on the internet.
