At some point in their careers, nearly every online poker player will seek to make the transition into live poker. It’s our nature; it’s the way we do business. When you’re walking around a casino, chances are you’ll run across a poker room. Though it can be more expensive than the stakes you’re used to playing online, live poker is an opportunity to take the skills that you mastered on sites like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker and put them to the test in the real world. However, if you choose to play live poker, there are several important aspects of it you should know before you sit down at a table. Without further adieu, here are some paramount tips to remember.

First, know that the pace of play in the live poker arena is considerably slower than play online. In a casino’s poker room, you’re relegated to playing one table and one table only. Unlike online poker, you’re not able to flip between multiple ring games and tournaments. If you sit down at a $4/$8 game, then $4/$8 Hold’em is what you’ll be playing for a span of a few hours. Instead of seeing between 50 and 70 hands per hour online at a table, you’re likely to see around 20-40 in live play. That’s a stark difference and typically drives any skilled poker player completely insane. Can you handle only seeing one hand every few minutes? You should ask yourself that question before you plop down to play.

Second, remember that in live play, physical tells are what players are looking for the most. These don’t exist online. Instead, you’re left to examine betting patterns, speed, and comments in the chat. When you play live, if your eye twitches after you make a big bet, chances are you’ll get called. If you say something that’s completely out of the ordinary or even just raise your voice an octave, your opponents will pick up on it. Playing live poker means mastering an entirely new set of skills at the poker table. You’ll often see poker players on television sitting as still as a statue with their eyes fixated on the pot after a big bet. They give off no tells whatsoever when they do this. It’s something you should try to emulate when you play and takes practice to be effective.

Third, live poker is typically more expensive than online poker, especially if you’re used to playing lower stakes games on your computer. There isn’t $0.50/$1 Hold’em at a casino. The cheapest Limit Hold’em you’ll usually find is $2/$4. No Limit Hold’em games start at $1/$2 and typically require a bankroll of $200 to play. Limit Hold’em is very difficult to beat live given the slow pace of the game and amount of rake taken by the casino. However, it’s a fun, sociable game that will allow you to get your feet wet as you make the move into live poker. Tournaments vary in both structure and buy-in, so check with your local Poker Room Manager for more details. Casino tournaments tend to be structured more like turbo tournaments online, although deep-stack events are sometimes available.

Finally, you have to be much more patient when you play live than you would be if you were playing online at a site like Party Poker with a ton of action. Given the smaller number of hands you’ll be seeing, it’s tempting to open up your game out of sheer boredom. However, this is far from a profitable strategy (believe me, I’ve tried and it doesn’t work). While opening the pot with 2-6 suited in Limit Hold’em can be enticing, chances are you’re going to get called down by a much stronger hand. Unless the flop comes 2-2-6, you’ll be folding to any bet. In No Limit Hold’em, you can open up your game to a certain degree, but don’t make any play that you wouldn’t make online. Again, poker at a casino is about being social. It’s a source of entertainment for most and not a career. You wouldn’t want to be bullied by someone when you’re out at the movies, so don’t be overly aggressive when you’re playing poker at a brick and mortar casino.

I wish you the best of luck when you do play live. Thanks for reading PokerBonuses.com.