Just My Two Chips

   Online poker is....Online poker could be....Online poker....

 Online poker is like learning poker all over again. The pros may call it a good way to learn, but to me the only thing that I have learned, is self control. Online poker has cost me two computer monitors, one girlfriend, and probably about 15 mouse's. So the pros may be right in some ways, it has taught me how to get off my ass and head to walmart for new computer parts. And how to take bad beats. I guess I really could sit here all night, and talk about all the war stories, or players calling huge all-in bets with 7-2 off suit and catching runner, runner, runner flushes to the deuce. But why waste your vision on reading about that.

 So why not talk about certain aspects of the Online poker world that has actually helped my game, playing tourney's outside of the matrix.

 Aggression:
   I never really realized how passive of a player I was until I started playing real money on Online poker. I wasn't really passive, I just was always trying to trap people. But setting traps in the online world is a hole different ball game, then it is on the felt. Because its their either or hands that are monsters on the flop, but everyone checks, and you know if you bet there is no earnings so you check. And by the turn your hand went from a monster, to a snarling cat that is trapped underneath your porch after the neighborhood shitzu chased the poor fluffy thing half way down your block, and now its your job to get the damn thing out from under your house before animal control comes, and arrests you for terrorizing old lady gal's cat. So yes the cards still can scratch the shit out of a caller if the caller isn't to careful. But it has lost its masculinity. So the hand that use to be monster has turn into a hand that you timid bet.
  On the other side though, you could be dealt an amazing hand with amazing draws, and every single poker book in the world tells you to bet with them, and or call a raise. So you call..Nothing on the turn......Nothing on the river. Your hand went from 45% to win on the flop, to 0% at the river and your sitting staring at the screen counting in your head, just exactly how many cards you have just missed.
  So the best thing I have learned from the Online poker world, is be aggressive. If everyone folds, they fold. But most of the time your going to have some computer geek, calling you all the way down, with a low ball gut shot. If he hits it, he hits, just remember that players that chase that shit go broke sooner or later. Just try to be that person that breaks him.

The Art of Shit Talking:
 I really never thought that acting like Mike Matusow, was really a good thing. And most players that talk like him at a poker table, I always have that urge to fallow them outside and give them a few whacks just to let them know that, it may have been part of their strategy at the table, but I got a long unforgiving memory. Then I snap back out of the dream, lean back and act as if everything that person says is just another shovel full of dirt for his grave. And slowly watch as their shit talking turns them into tilt, until it gets to the point that they are standing up at the table, crying, because you called him with nuts and he has "no idea how you made that call" and "He had you the hole way."lol..
 But in the Online poker world, its actually comical to read what these people say. And every once in awhile I may give them an "lol", or (when holding a monster hand) I'll ask them "Are you sure that was a good call?"
But I don't stand by shit talking ever. I personally think it throws you off your game, because you may be the one trying to tilt everyone else. The only problem is, is that your to consumed in what your going to say next, that you end up playing your cards wrong. Then it ends up throwing you on tilt.

Patience:
 I am a very patient person when I'm playing live tourney's or cash games, but what I noticed actually very quickly. Is that when your on your computer jumping from website, to website, we want the computer to haul ass and load. Same with video games, we sit there we play say a poker game on your xbox360, and hands move as fast as you can hit the Y button. But in Online poker for some reason I was looking at it the same way as I would look at anything on my computer, as fast as possible. I would play hands that I normally would have tossed, and I would call flops when I normally would have folded, and got up and took a break, trying to understand what made me want to play that hand.
 So when I realized on how fast I was trying to make these sessions Online move. That was a big fault, that was suffering big loses. So watch hulu.com as you play, or a music website or some shit. Just don't try to speed through.

Online poker has bred many of poker pros these days, like Durrrrrr. But honestly, I treat online poker as a quick fix before I head down to the strip and play, the way the game was meant to be played. Fully dressed, smelling good, and both eyes on my opponents.