Every day I get asked my opinion on a poker hand, and every day my first response is “Which site is this on?”. A major leak in many players’ games is that they fail to adapt their play to their opponents. Just because a play is correct on one site, doesn’t mean that it is on another.

The difference in play on each site is huge, and is obvious in every stage of a tournament. During early deep stack play on some sites I would have no problem advising anyone to get it in with JJ on a 9 high flop against 2 opponents, whereas on a few I would suggest it is a snap fold. Other differences come shorter stacked; ranging players is key in assigning your own all in re-raise ranges, or your calling of all in ranges. Bubble play also differs dramatically, and optimal plays to exploit the bubble change as a result.

The reason for the difference in playing styles is varied:

Does the site allow Americans?
Does the site have antes?
Where are the majority of players who play there from?

In general the play is worse on sites that have pulled out of the American market. The main reason for this is that due to the UIGEA there are less new American players getting into online poker, therefore the fish to shark ratio lessens. This means that on sites without American players we can value our hands more in the early stages than those that allow Americans.

Sites that have antes tend to be a lot looser preflop, and in order to succeed you need to loosen up your opening ranges and your calling ranges. There is often a lot of money in the middle preflop and therefore more players are looking to steal.

A few networks have a disproportionate number of players from a certain country or region. These players often have a similar style. British players for example tend to be very limpy and like to see flops in and out of position. They let themselves get blinded down, and then get it in with Ax after a raise. Whereas Scandinavian players tend to be a lot more reckless trying to mimic the style of players like Gus Hansen.

Ongame:

In the early stages of an Ongame tournament, I find the best way to play is tight aggressive. Unless I can get in for cheap I only play premiums and when I hit I hammer hard. I also have no problem getting it in for 50-80 bbs in most cases with JJ+ when it is an overpair to the board. Very rarely will I fold QQ preflop, I will have to know the opponent and be able to range him very accurately.

As the tournament progresses and the blinds go up, I tend to stay fairly tight (contrary to popular belief). There are no antes, so there is no real need to go after every pot and start raising suited connectors and the like. I loosen my opening requirements slightly, and when I’m in a pot I will pounce on any weakness to maintain my stack.

Bubble play is very important, and due to the hand for hand mechanism the network uses, it is a very good spot to pick up chips. Three places before every pay jump there’s an announcement “Play is now hand for hand”. This sows the seed in weak players’ minds that they want to make the money and they make sure they don’t do anything stupid. If this announcement wasn’t made, or if hand for hand started with only one player to go before the pay jump, less players would react to it – some might not even notice. Take advantage of this by opening lighter and re-raising lighter. (See The Visionary’s article on bubble play)

As the final couple of tables approaches, it is not unusual for the average stack to be under 10bbs. Therefore there is very little room to manoeuvre. As a result I open very tight if there are stacks of under 10bbs to act after me, as if one of them shoves I will be compelled to call. To maintain my stack, I look for players who I believe to be opening too much and too light and move in on them with fold equity. Often your hand is irrelevant, if I see a player opening every other hand I will not be afraid to stick my 12bbs in with 23o.

The standard raise deep in an Ongame tournament is about 2.5x, the reason for this is the software. When you click on the bet-sizing bar once the blinds get to a certain level it jumps to 2.5x or thereabouts. If you see someone raising 3x it can often mean that they have a hand that they are willing to go all the way with, but don’t want you flatting their raise. AQ/AK, 99-JJ fits this bill. Unless this is obviously their standard raise be careful of 3 betting light against such an opponent.

Ipoker:

Despite being very similar to Ongame in terms of traffic, game selection and structure, the play on Ipoker differs quite a lot. There are a few reasons for this: mainly that a lot of Ipoker players come from Britain, and also the software has a role to play.

In the early stages of an Ipoker tournament, play is a lot more passive. There are often five to a flop as players call raises with speculative holdings looking to hit hard. To adapt to this, don’t be afraid to bump up the pot larger than you usually would with your premiums. The limpers will often call with inferior hands, not realising that they lack the implied odds necessary to do so.

Another prevalent play that occurs on Ipoker is the “see where I am bet”. This is again thanks to the British. Many players have not learned yet that in general when betting you should be doing so for value or to bluff, and not to gain information. Players will lead out with top pair, mediocre kicker, or they will check raise – they will then fold to a raise. An easy line to follow when you think you are faced with such a bet is to raise when you have air and to call when you have the goods. Both methods communicate the opposite of what the villain wants to hear and renders his play somewhat useless.

The play in the mid stages of an Ipoker tournament is also a little different to Ongame. More players continue to limp, and more players will call raises in and out of position. As a result you are often forced to “play more poker”. Players will try to bluff you when they call raises preflop, and it is important to pick your spots to re-bluff when you have fold equity. Players will also commonly broadcast their hands to you with their bet-sizing. A 4x or 5x utg raise from an Ipoker player often indicates JJ/QQ/AK, so don’t be afraid to make a big laydown. In addition to this, don’t be surprised when this raise also turns out to be AA.

In the mid to end stages when dealt a premium, there is nothing wrong with standard raising, or even occasionally limping (this goes for Ongame too). I see professionals brought up on the American sites shoving 12 bbs with AA, and the only reason I see it is when they are called by JJ+. You do not need to balance your air shoving ranges with you premium shoving ranges. On the whole, the players you are playing against will not appreciate that just because you have 8 bbs and are raising 2.3x that you must have a monster. They will call with lesser hands looking to flop something or outplay you. The reason that shoving 8bbs with JTs is profitable is the same reason that shoving 8bbs with AA isn’t optimal, in general you will only get looked up by a strong hand.

The end stages of an Ipoker tournament is where the play differs dramatically. As a stereotype, the Ipoker player is the nittiest player on the net. Bubbles are great, players will continue to fold despite having half their stack in blind. You target these players by their actions, but also by their chat. It always makes me chuckle when I read things like “2 more to die” or “OMG, a face card would be nice” from players with under 5 bbs. In addition to taking advantage of these players, it is also important to take advantage of the players who have larger stacks, but are obviously afraid to bubble.

The Ipoker client has a handy feature where you can press a button and it 3x’s preflop for you. I use this button in the early stages of tournaments in unopened pots. Many players on there continue to use it as the tournament progresses. They see an ace on the button, think they have to raise and press the 3x button, not stopping to calculate that a 3x button raise equates to a quarter of their stack. These same players will then surrender their Ax faced with a 3 bet all in – they can’t call off their stack with ace rag now can they? I use this tactic a lot; players don’t appreciate that if they are not calling a 3bet all in with Ax or 77 that their hand is essentially 72o. Don’t be put off if you get caught, I’ve been caught many a time shoving 69o into AA. The incredulity displayed in the chat box in these instances shows why it is such a profitable tactic.

In addition to 3 betting super light, I also open a lot more than I would on Ongame. The stack sizes are just as shallow, but players are less likely to play back at you. You still need to be aware of the stack sizes at the table, as you will need to call certain players’ shoves, but in general you can get away with murder.

I’ve read on many forums that you shouldn’t raise fold with under x amount of bbs. I’ve heard x quoted as as high as 25. On Ipoker this can be largely ignored. The wisdom behind such assertions comes from laggy play with antes. On Pokerstars and Full Tilt, it is not uncommon to see people 3 and 4 betting with air, therefore it can be very exploitable to raise fold into certain stack sizes. However, this isn’t Pokerstars or Full Tilt, and it is important to adapt. I will open with as few as 12-13 bbs and fold to shoves against most opponents. Despite the lack of antes, this is still profitable as the players will continue to fold waiting for premiums. Size your raises small, The Visionary advocates a mini raise deep in Ipoker I prefer to make it a little more, due to the stigma attached to a mini raise, but when I say slightly more I mean raising from 10k to 21k.

When it comes to calling all ins you need to be careful in ranging opponents. Just because they should be shoving any two cards does not mean they are. In fact I have lost count of the number of times I’ve made a call in the bb after the UTG player has shoved 4 bbs to see him turn up with JJ+/AK. There are of course players who will shove light, observation is key here, but as a general rule I need a much stronger hand to call an 8bb shove on Ipoker than on Ongame.

Ipoker is in the process of implementing antes in some of their tournaments. This should change the play dramatically, but it won’t. I expect it to play similarly to the dying Crypto network. Players won’t loosen up as much as they should. I’ll revisit Ipoker in a few weeks after I have some experience on there with antes.

Next up Party Poker/Boss Media/Tilt and Stars.