How live games differ

How live cash differs from online: bigger sizes, deep and uneven stacks, rake, fewer hands an hour, keeping track of the pot, and showing bluffs.

In this lesson

Adjust to bigger live opens and to deep, uneven stacks.
Account for the rake and the slower pace when you choose your spots.
Keep track of the pot in chips on every street.
Decide when, if ever, to show a bluff.

Read first: How much to open, online and live · Advice, not a lock: every lesson opens.

Concepts used: Raise first in (RFI), SPR and commitment

Bigger opens

Live games open bigger than online ones. An open of 5 bb into blinds of 1.5 bb risks 5 to win 1.5: on its own it needs everybody to fold 5 / 6.5 = 76.9% of the time, where an online open of 2.5 bb needs 2.5 / 4 = 62.5%. A bigger open has to win more often uncontested, or win more after the flop.

Blinds and antes in the middle1.5 bb

Your open (chips risked)5 bb

How often they fold77%

Alpha: folds needed: 76.9%
EV if it never wins when called: +0.01 bbProfitable

A 5 bb open into 1.5 bb of blinds. Set it to 2.5 bb and compare.

Deep, uneven stacks

Live stacks are often deep and uneven. A 5 bb open called by the big blind with 200 bb stacks makes a pot of 5 + 5 + 0.5 = 10.5 with 195 behind: an SPR of 18.57. Online, a 2.5 bb open called at 100 bb makes 5.5 with 97.5 behind, 17.73. The bigger open keeps the SPR about where the deeper stacks would push it; always count it against the shorter of the two stacks in the hand.

Pot10.5 bb

Effective stack195 bb

Streets to bet3 streets

SPR: 18.6
Geometric bet each street: 118.3% of the pot · 12.42 bb
Called pot-sized bets the stacks hold: 3.3

The live pot: a 5 bb open called, 200 bb deep.

Pace, rake, the pot and showing a bluff

Live play deals far fewer hands an hour, so every stat takes longer to mean anything: a stat near 30% needs about 323 chances for ± 5 points (lesson X1-L2), and live that is many sessions. Rake is set by the room; Rail's charts assume their own rake profile, so a very different rake shifts the thinnest opens and defends. Keep count of the pot in chips street by street: every price in this course starts from it.

Showing a bluff is an exploit with a short life: it tells observant players something true about you, and they adjust. Against players who do not watch, it changes nothing.

Rules of thumb

Price a live open by risk over risk plus blinds.
Count the SPR against the shorter stack in the hand.
Live samples take sessions: trust the baseline longer.
Track the pot in chips on every street.

When they break

A table that calls every open makes fold equity irrelevant: open for value.
Players who never watch showdowns ignore what you show.

Practice

The lesson is mastered when every exercise below that Rail can grade is passed. Missed items come back later as review cards.

Exercise 1

Pass: 4 of 5 right

Five SPRs to work out from a pot and the stacks behind.

Exercise 2

Pass: 4 of 5 right

Five opens to price: how often must everyone fold?

Exercise 3

Pass: 3 of 4 right

Four live hands at a full table, action by action: count the pot to the turn without a pot display.