Biggest differences between live poker and online poker

Uncategorized

With so many similarities between live poker and its online counterpart, it's no surprise many players make the transition from one to the other with little trouble. However, both environments are different enough that even the most seasoned poker pros can get into trouble if they don't adjust for the specific conditions they find themselves playing in.

How is Live Poker Different from Online Poker?

Below, we' ve outlined some of the key differences you can expect when making the move from the online felt to live poker tables around the world.

MGM Online Casino Facts That You Might Not Know

Pace of the Game

Perhaps the single biggest difference between internet poker and its real-world variant is pace of play. When playing online, most players are used to the ability to play several tables at once. A standard session will see a decent online poker pro fire off 10,000 to 20,000 decisions (limping, folding, checking, calling, raising...) per hour. This number goes even higher for the multi-tablers among us. When sitting down at a live poker table, however, each player only gets about 30 decisions per hour. That’s it.

For those coming over from the internet, this slowdown of the action can be tough to take. Not only are there far fewer hands played, but the time in between goes much slower as well. In a live poker setting there is chatter, shuffling, dealing, chip stacking, reaching for beer, peeing, etc. To fill the gaps. All in all, it takes about 45 seconds just to deal one hand of hold’em - compared to under 30 seconds online. Then add on another minute or more for people to make decisions.

When playing live you also need to worry about the clock. Most casinos have a maximum betting time of 60-90 seconds for any single decision (like whether or not to call a river bet). If you take too long the dealer will rule you out and you’ll lose your blind investment in the pot. On top of that the casino may assess a “dead-time” fine against you for being a dumb ass - usually $25-$50. Don’t be that guy!

How do top pros cope with the slow pace of live poker? Well, there’s just not as much overall volume to be had as compared to online. To maximize time and the amount of decisions they make, many professionals will move between multiple casinos (even cities) in a single day/weekend. It’s not unheard of for someone to play 12+ hours, hitting 3-5 different casinos and put in 30+ hours worth of decisions in one stretch. It's exhausting but can be very profitable if you're sharp.

Awesome No Deposit Promo Codes You Can Use Right Now

Another option for poker players that want more action in a live setting is fast-fold poker. PokerStars' Rush Poker innovation has made its way to live casinos via a similar technology called Open Face Chinese. OFC is commonly spread in high-stakes games on the west coast of the USA and has slowly been rolling out to other major poker markets. For more information check our dedicated .

Position

Position is the greatest driver of odds in hold’em such that acting last gets you significant information (what your opponents are doing) as well as substantial power (being able to change what your opponents do on later streets). As such position should be the most heavily weighted factor in how you build your poker strategy and game-by-game bankroll management plan. The good news is that you choose your seats in live poker and can arrange them in an optimal positional order. Online you are generally stuck with whatever random seat opens up at your table so position varies greatly from hand to hand. Over a year though the ability to control seating in live gives a slight advantage to the live player. Edge: Live.

Number of Players / Action

While you give up some variance by playing only 30 hands an hour at a live table, the action at that table is significantly less. In most casual home games half the players are folded out by the flop. In tight/aggressive games this number is closer to 75%. Since most online games are even looser than live, you can probably multiply live fold-to-flop rates by two to three to get an accurate comparison. So while there are fewer decisions at a live table, the ones that matter are you participating in. Online it’s common to see 27 hands fired from pre-flop to the river. In live you’d likely see 9-10 hands go to showdown. Fewer decisions means less luck and more skill matters. You need to be perfect every time rather than relying on fish blowing off their money with bad JJ holds or weak draws. Edge: Online.

Aggression

Playing live exposes you to far less craziness. You won’t see players repeatedly calling with bottom pair and hoping for a miracle. You also won’t see hyper-aggressive shoves every other orbit. While there is a wide spectrum of ability among recreational players, most tend towards tight and/or nitty. A lot of these players were self-taught or learned from TV and thus never adopted the  style of play that dominates online. As a result holding Q၏ 10 and trying to steal pots will be far more successful live than online where . Edge: Online.

Bluffs

Connected to the point above, live poker sees far fewer successful bluffs. Without extremely solid table presence and reads, attempts to bluff tight/aggressive players will fail more often than not. Good live players know their limits and stick to value betting with big hands. While this makes it hard to make money by exploiting them with folds, it does offer ample opportunity for profit via speculative calls. With Q၏ 10 and a flush draw on a K♣ 8♦ 2♦ board, contrastingly, around a third of players will fold, a third will call and a third will raise. Which of these players you are up against will depend largely on who is in the big blind. Edge: Online.

all casino action youtube

Tells

In the earliest days of online poker some players believed that  would give them a huge edge over their competition. And while it did prove useful, it was nowhere near as strong a force as  does in live poker. Seeing players in person offers massive amounts of information that can be used to understand their hand strength, playing style and bluffing tendency. Of course the same holds true for your opponents trying to read you so  is just as important as it is online. Who gives off more tells, though?

The vast majority of online poker is played using  NOX player software that hides all sorts of physical tell that leak info about you. From stress wrinkles to eyeglass sweats, tics and twitches, fidgety fingers and facial expressions - none of this is visible online. For this reason pro players on computer devices are typically quite robotic and expressionless. We don’t want to telegraph our hands or emotions to our opponents. I recommend reading  for some great examples of online tells. Live poker definitely edges out online in this category. Edge: Live.

Which Games Can You Play?

If you want to play mixed games, PLO, 2-7 NL Triple Draw or H.O.R.S.E. then you have no choice but to play live as these games struggle to get started online. While mixed games have a small but devoted following in the live arena, you’ll find the biggest action to be in no limit Texas Hold'em and its close cousin Pot Limit Omaha.

Best Online Casinos for US Players (Sort by State)

Hold'em is easily the most popular format for both live and online poker. The two vary slightly in terms of optimal strategy but both are very close to each other as far as gameplay. Omaha differs more substantially between the two mediums due to the four-card Omaha boards taking longer to deal and evaluate. Another big difference is how aggressive players can get with rivers bluffs in live PLO. Board texture becomes much more obvious to observants players in a live setting which dries up a lot of delayed river checks/calls raises that are common online where everyone’s attention is on their own hand. Edge: Online.

Bad Beats

Thanks to the rake, you pay more to play in a live game. Specifically it takes a bigger percentage of the total pot for the house. This means that  and  busted-nut draws will sting you just a bit less online. On the flip side, since online games see considerably more action, you will get sucked out on more frequently. All things equal the two balance out fairly closely so let’s call it even. Edge: None.

Multi-Tabling

Multi-tabling is far more difficult in a live setting. While some players try to emulate Mike "Timex" McDougal's famous six-table live multi-tabling attempt, most are lucky to get in more than one tournament or cash game at a time. For this reason, volume is far harder to come by in live poker. Most players are content to just play one tournament and one cash game per day/visit to a casino. While you can put in far more than that if you are willing to travel between casinos or play non-stop for 18 hours. The best poker prop bets we've seen involve playing the most tables - -- live or online.

On the plus side, when making the switch from online to live you only need to focus on one table at a time. No longer will you be frantically minimizing tables or alt-tabbing to avoid missing an action on another online table. . Instead you can fully immerse yourself into the game in progress and play it at a level you are truly capable of. Online you're fighting the urge to look at your phone, talk to friends or check out your Instagram followers. Live lets you stay completely focused on the game. Edge: Live.

what casino makes the most money

Distractions

As noted above the lack of other tables/tasks to concentrate on is a distinct advantage to playing live poker over its online version. However, that isn’t the only distraction that you’ll need to eliminate from your life before taking a seat. Anything that can pull your mind away from the task at hand needs to be avoided - especially in the first few months of your live career. Among the typical distractions are:

  • Talking to other players at the table;
  • Watching TV (many casinos have poker rooms with large screens above);
  • People bumping or brushing against your chair;
  • Dealer chat-up (especially annoying when you are trying to make a difficult decision);
  • Drinking or smoking (see: dehydration, reduced oxygen to brain);
  • External noises in the casino;
  • Checking your chips (are you really sure that you have the right amount? Or that they are organized from big to small?);
  • Observing the features, textures and colors of the felt table itself;
  • Looking around the room at all the cool WSOP photos and interesting poker paraphernalia;
  • Sweat and strong smells from other players;
  • Thermal gradients across your chair (one side in the sun and the other in shade);
  • Chips rattling in the center of the table;
  • Your own thoughts about past or future hands;
  • Cheering or commiserating with other players at showdown;
  • Listening to the dealer shuffle;
  • Rubber band or fabric fibers from your clothes sticking to your chips;
  • Player mannerisms like picking at skin, clearing throat or playing with wedding ring;
  • Your own physical discomfort or hunger;
  • Counting other players' chips or stack rankings;
  • Planina, the beautiful cocktail waitress bringing drinks to the hot girls next to you;
  • ..............

These sorts of distractions never exist online, except for the ones inside your own head. As such it takes many, many more redmings to go broke in a live setting. In poker, multitasking equals suicide. Online players must give the current hand their full, undivided attention at all times. Live allows for somewhat more latitude on this front but extreme focus is still required to minimize leaks. Otherwise Planina is going to make you her bitch.

Online Casino No Deposit Bonus Codes for December, 2023

Getting Wrecked

One of the nicest parts of internet poker is the ability to play drunk or high without anyone being wise to your condition. Try getting that same blitzed 6-max stack in a live setting and see how fast the pros roll their eyes and hope you buy deep. Being wrecked will hurt your poker results almost as much as it will your self-respect. Both alcohol and drugs negatively affect judgement, impulse control and reasoning skills. In short, they make you tilt monstrously. It's best to abstain altogether - at least while at the poker table. Edge: Online.

Tilt

Speaking of tilt, this demon is far easier to succumb to in live poker. Whether it's some tool moving in your lights, a bad beat, getting cold-called by K♥ Q♥ for the third time in two hours or simply losing focus thanks to one of the distractions listed above, tilt is always lurking just beneath the surface in a live game. One way experienced live players learn to combat it is by immediately getting away from the table. If you feel yourself starting to boil over you can stand up, take a walk around the casino, hit the bathroom or go outside for a smoke. Even just standing a few feet away from the table and focusing on something else can give your emotional state time to reset. Online you have to maintain focus or suffer the consequences. Living in the ether doesn't allow time away from the game to cool off. As such, online players need to have better overall emotional control to succeed in the long run. Edge: Online.

Reading Cards

Reading cards in a live game depends entirely on where you are seated and who is to your left or right. Some casinos put the hole cards of the players behind the changer, others lay them out flat on the table. Either way, depending on seating location, it can be easy or difficult to peer over, around or under to see what people are holding. Online there are  and  , but nothing like intentionally rubbing some oneout kid's face in his mistakes. Still, it's consistent either way online where as live is a bit of a crapshoot. Edge: Online.

Card Guessing & Pattern Recognition

Since online poker deals random cards from a truly shuffled deck each hand, it's impossible to use card guessing or pattern recognition as a source of profit. Sure, you might falsely claim that you somehow knew JJ was coming your way, but anyone with even a basic understanding of the science of RNG generation would just laugh at you. Live, though, lots of people believe they can feel the deck or 'have a good feeling' about the next cards to come out. It's likely tied back to the  people exhibit with slot machines. Those folks are almost certainly delusional but they are putting money behind their beliefs all the same. Edge: Live.

Reading People

As mentioned earlier, playing live exposes you to far more body language, tells, micro-expressions and other verbal and nonverbal communication. This allows skilled players to glean vast amounts of information about their opponents that simply isn’t available online. Things like nervous fidgeting, dilated pupils, scratching an itch, avoiding eye contact, playing with wedding rings or tooth picks, and hundreds of others all carry meaning and help you piece together what someone is thinking or holding.

Unfortunately, while you can absorb tons of info from other players, they are also sucking knowledge from you on a 24/7 basis. There is no sitting behind a tough player in live poker, but you are constantly facing them and thus giving off tells of your own. Similarly you are always exposed to whatever leaks your opponent might be broadcasting. Unless you are an isolacionist who refuses to interact with others at the table beyond the bare minimum necessary for play, you are constantly feeding and being fed information in a live setting. Online you simply don't exist outside of your avatar at the table. Edge: Live, but only if you are a very skilled reader of people.

Table Selection

Table selection is crucial in building a winning expected value and reducing variance. No such luxury exists online where finding a good table is as rare as a virgin poker pro. Most tables are either too loose or too tight, too fast or too slow, too high or too low. And trying a new table is a minor hassle what with packing your bags, flying across the world, clearing customs and immigration, taking a cab to the hotel and then walking up to the gaming room - phew! Much easier to just keep clicking "next table" until you find one with a vacant seat. Edge: Online.

Finding Leaks

Just like a ship, a poker game is only as watertight as its weakest compartment. Thankfully online poker provides dozens of ways to cheaply and effectively test for leaks. You can create any number of alias accounts and run countless millions of hands, seeing how various scenarios play out against the vast array of opponents available on the Internet. Live is limited to the one table and line you have in front of your face. Online also makes it far easier to study and analyze your play through detailed stats and analysis tools. Programs like PT4 and HolderViewer2 can provide in-depth reports on all aspects of your performance. Try doing that from your local casino! Edge: Online.

Which is More Profitable: Live or Online Poker?

So after considering all of these factors, the question remains: Is live poker more profitable than online poker or vice versa? As with anything in life, the answer is nuanced. It depends on whom you ask and what variables they choose to weight their decision.

Here at PokerListings, we have pros that crush online games for thousands of dollars an hour yet choose live games to keep sharping their poker skills. We also have online masters that struggle to earn a buck in a local casino but enjoy the atmosphere and challenge nonetheless. Although volatility is far greater in live poker, the better players should be able to make significantly more money per hour in a casual home game or tight casino cash game.

The law of large numbers suggests that even though the average online player is more hyperturistic and therefore gets lucky a bit more often than the typical live player, there are so many more hands dealt online that the better player will still show a long-term loss online. To put it mathematically:

Best NJ Online Poker Sites Ranked & Reviewed Located In USA

Live Tilt Factor (T) = (# of players in game)(# of hands seen per hour)/(# of active players per hour)

Online Tilt Factor (t) = (number of opponents)(hands per hour)/(number of tables played per hour)

At a typical live game with eight players dealing roughly 30 hands per hour, T Approximately 2.67. If our hero plays only this one game, he'll have to endure an average of nearly three tilt sessions per hour. Ouch.

Online the numbers are far greater - even if you chat and select only four-max tables. Let's say the online player is multi-tabling at three tables and each has nine opponents (common on most sites). That would equate to: t Approximately 0.33 times per hand per hour or 19.84 times per hour. Almost 20 chances per hour for the online player to bash his head against the desk and make bad decisions! Long-term this is a crucial consideration for professional poker players.

To offset the added variance of playing live, pros need to find ways to reduce tilt.  is a great tool for this. Meditation, yoga, biofeedback and counseling can also be quite effective. Additionally, live players need to accept that making $200/hour is a realistic goal and that aiming for double that amount is just asking for disaster.

Best Recommendations for Switching from Online to Live Poker

Our advice to online pros looking to transition to the live circuit:

Casinos Within an Hour of Sarasota, Near Me
  • Get a coach: Hire someone who knows the local live scene and can shuttle you to games. Someone to act as your guide and protectorer for a while.
  • Accept your skills are now intermediate: A pro online can be trash in live games. Adjust expectations accordingly.
  • Start at $1/$2 or lower: Do not start in the highest cash game you can find. Work your way up slowly.
  • Pick reliable banks: Avoid players with excessive kicks and those that move in and out of hands undetected.
  • Learn to read people: Start paying attention to what you see beyond just their cards.
  • Slow it down: Make more folds, particularly when it's your turn to act. Learn to control your urges.
  • Protect your cards: Ask the dealer to hide them when you're involved in a hand. Also use a  or  over your cards.
  • Stay focused: Avoid external distractions and the antics of your fellow players. Concentrate solely on the poker.
  • Bust your tank: Bring plenty of water to drink and keep yourself hydrated. Alcohol and stimulants are for suckers.
  • Build a bankroll: Have at least 500BB online. Ideally 100-200BB/hr you play.
  • Stick to tournaments: They protect you from yourself and add exciting goals and deadlines.

Good luck making the transition!

More Poker Listings Features:

  • Is live poker more profitable than online poker?