When I play live I am always able to win, but sometimes when I play online it seems like I can't get anywhere. What are some of the things that should be done differently during online play vs. live play? Any suggestions would really help me out.

In an extreme nutshell, Online is all about the math. Live is math and the people.

Online, you play your %'s. Be it the % chenc of hitting your draw, or the % chance that the bettor is bluffing, as you have determined by previous hands and betting patterns, its purely math at the heart of it. Stick to the numbers.

Live is math, and the people, you get to know peoples reactions and motions, these give away their intentions. Against your average player (and remember half of the players out there are worse than your average player) They don't hide tells very well. Use these to your advantage.

Especially online, make sure your are playing within your Bankroll, this will allow you to play the correct style without playing scared. Check recent threads for discussions on this.

Originally Posted by Marm

In an extreme nutshell, Online is all about the math. Live is math and the people.

I wouldn't agree with this statement as poker has very little to do with seeing someone, especially big bet poker. Pattern mapping is a natural human quality. Observing people's betting patterns and retaining them in your memory is all you need for successful live play. This is really the biggest problem that online players face in the card room, especially those whose always use PT and GT multitabling. In those cases, it's a different game.

Tells are nothing more than associating patterns in your opponents actions and reactions with their money, as that's what's on the line. Not so much about Oreo cookies and such as everyone's so different physically, but many players handle their money in less amounts of different manners.

The biggest differences are:
- Live, you can't control your environment, the comfort of your chair, and the size of your personal space.

- Live, you see a lot less hands per hour on each table, not to mention that you can't play multiple tables, of course, further reducing your profit.

- Live games at stake/blind levels are softer than the same game online. i.e. 10/20 live is a lot easier than 2/4 or 3/6 online.

- Live games are heavily dependent on the area where you live, time of day, day of week, weather, TV events, sporting events, whereas you can always find 10 good games online- 3 or 4 of whatever you want to play on each site that are indeed good games, not tough. In other words, supporting yourself playing online is easier because you can earn at any time you're by a computer with time to spare.

Otherwise the game's still the game and every deck has 52 cards and the rules are the same, for the most part. It's sexy to talk about live play, but a primarily live player doesn't deserve more respect than an online player, simply for playing a lot of hours/wk. live.

It's not really surprising when you think about it. A guy walks into a card room with $400 in his pocket because he just got paid or whatever and sits at a 10/20 table because he hates the "bad players" at "low limit."

thanks for the quick replies

Oh yeah, I play mainly 3/6 and 5/10 live, and they are usually softer thatn the .25/.50 games online. Gotta remember, the same fish play at the lowest limits offered, be it .01/.02 online, the same players will then go play 3/6 live since its the smalelst game around. And as alex said, the "know it alls" will move up to 5/10 10/20 so they avoid the fish, these are the guys platying .5/1 and 1/2 online.