How would you compare live poker and online poker?
On the only hand, whether you play poker in a casino or play poker on a computer, it's still the similar game. A flush beats a straight in both. Players in both games bet and bluff and deliver and receive bad beats. A number of the skills developed in a single format translate readily to the opposite.
Then again, many players have persuasively argued the games couldn't be more different. It's like comparing chess and checkers, some have suggested. Online poker, a video game, live poker more likened to a sport. One's "virtual," the other "real."
There was a time within the not too distant past that the contrast between "live poker players" and "online poker players" was quite stark. Many pros belonged to 1 group and essentially ignored the opposite. You'd hear stories of "live pros" venturing online and never faring well (with some complaining the sport wasn't "real" poker). Then there could be "online pros" showing up at live events and being affected by handling cards and chips or game etiquette.
Today there's a lot more overlap, with most top players and plenty of in any respect levels playing both online and live. Individuals who do engage in both must be conscious about the diversities between how the respective games are likely to play.
What are one of the vital differences between live and online poker? And among these differences, which can be an important ones for players making the jump from one to the opposite? As you think that of an answer, listed here are several differences to consider.
Bet Sizing
In live cash games you'll often encounter different bet sizing than happens online, primarily in relation to opening preflop raises. While a web based cash game might feature players opening for 2x, 2.5x, or 3x the massive blind, in live games it is not unusual to come across players opening for 5x or 6x and even more, particularly within the lower-stakes live games (e.g., $1/$2 NL).
Tournaments are a distinct story, although there, too, you'll occasionally find live players overbetting, particularly inexperienced ones who struggle with keeping an eye on pot sizes.
Multi-Way vs. Heads-Up Pots
That said, within the live games you'll often encounter looser play, generally speaking, within the type of players doing much more calling. One consequence of this trend is more multi-way pots occurring live than online where the preflop betting more typically creates heads-up situations.
It isn't that unusual in a live cash game session to witness plenty of limpers preflop and/or several callers of a preflop raise, thereby making a multi-way situation.
Calling vs. Folding
Meanwhile, if live players are sometimes looser than online players with their preflop calls, postflop things are likely to go differently. You'll discover that online players are in reality more apt to make big postflop calls with weak- or medium-strength hands than tends to happen live. That implies big river bluffs are likely to get through more often live than happens online (although of course, everything is dependent upon the player and situation).
One reason behind this tendency is the truth that it's easier for plenty of players just to click a choice"" button than to make a difficult call live. Not having to endure in person the embarrassment of guessing wrong with such calls cause them to easier online.
Frequency of Bad Beats
In part for this reason tendency to run into more callers online, many players report experiencing "bad beats" more often online than happens live. That is especially so on the "micros" and lower limits online, where the small stakes further encourage calls with subpar hands that occasionally do outdraw better ones.
The sense that the bad beats are coming more often online is enhanced, of course, by another difference between live and online poker, namely...
The Pace of the Game
One of the more obvious surface-level differences between live and online poker is the pace of play. Online poker plays considerably faster than live poker, and a few preferring playing online find the live game too tedious to tolerate. Whereas you are dealt around 30 hands per hour in a no-limit hold'em cash game, online you will see 60 hands per hour (or more) at a given table or even more in short-handed games. The facility to multi-table online also means playing much more hands per hour than is feasible live.
For this reason, the impression of having more bad beats online may also be exaggerated. The truth is, you'll be able to appear to experience more of everything online because you're playing many more hands, which in turn affects...
Variance in Online Poker vs. Live Poker
"Variance" is a term often used generically to explain the "swings" one endures in poker, with the upper "variance" translating into bigger gains and losses within the short term compared in your results over longer periods. The speedier pace of play online again artificially affects what the fast" term" actually is. You may play per week online and log 10 times the choice of hands you'd play should you played live poker for a week, thus giving the impression that your variance was accelerated greatly.
Even whether it is an artificially-created difference, this "higher" variance when playing online can mean faster, more marked bankroll swings over shorter periods than generally happens live. That implies bankroll management should be approached differently when playing online, where you generally need to maintain a larger bankroll (with regards to cash game buy-ins or tournament entry fees) than you want when playing live.
Online Tells vs. Live Poker Tells
An obvious difference when playing online isn't having the ability to see your opponents — or for them as a way to see you — which means, of course, the role of "physical tells" gets omitted from the web game. This also obviously affects table talk, which might be important in live games but becomes a non-factor when playing online (with the exception of chatbox "talk"). Experienced live players maintain it's much easier to "profile" opponents when playing live, especially less experienced ones who are inclined to give away a whole lot of information in no time on the table.
That doesn't suggest there are not any "tells" in online poker. Take a look at "7 How you can Recover Reads When Playing Online Poker" by Nathan Williams for discussion of several examples.
Relative Stakes
One last difference we will add to the list concerns how stakes compare between live and online poker. For diverse reasons, a web-based game played on the same limit as a live game will usually feature higher-skilled players, relatively speaking. For example, a live $1/$2 NL cash game generally do not have as many tough opponents across the table as you'll discover in a regular $1/$2 NL online game, partially because while there usually are not any lower-stakes games available live, there are many them online (right down to just pennies).
Some have suggested most of the time of thumb a "10-to-1" guideline when comparing live and online stakes — e.g., a $0.50/$1 NL game online would play as "tough" as a $5/$10 NL game live. Of course, you'll still encounter both good and bad players in any respect levels, both live and online, so don't take this more often than not without exceptions.
Those are one of the most important differences between live and online poker. Which might you concentrate on to be the largest difference out of all of those? Share your thoughts in a comment below.
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