Online Poker vs. Live Poker....

[Mikey]

from everyone that participates in online poker.....and then also plays in a live casino....what vast differences do you see......that is gained in one vs the other....and what is lost in one vs. the other??

[SittingBull]

Mike Caro discusses several differences in this newsletter.
This newsletter e-mail's me information about Online poker.
It's free to subscribe to it.
I, myself,have played very little Online poker.
There is a live casino 20 minutes from where I live.
Hence,I'm not motivated to play Online.

Happy pokering,
Sitting Bull

[Pirc Defense]

I've not played live too much, but spent a full 10 days playing about 6-8 hours a day as a vacation about a year ago. I play a whole bunch online, albeit at the PP micro-limits.

To me the single biggest difference between the two is this: when you're playing live, and especially at a tourist destination (Vegas), and especially at the lower limits, you can just tell when a really, really bad player enters the game. Being armed with book knowledge as lightly as me, even, puts you in good stead with a tipsy, there-to-gamble tourist trying to impress the chick planted at his side.

Although cards don't lie, it's just harder to make that immediate identification of a bad player. Live there is just SO much information available that is not there online.

May be an obvious point, but to me it's mostly what separates the two.

[eMarkM]

Here's that article the first responder was talking about:

http://www.cardplayer.com/op3.php?sec=caro

I personally have little motivation to play in a casino. But that's my own situation, the closest one is an hour drive where I can expect to wait a couple of hours to get a seat for 20 hands/hour. Zzzzzzzzz.

One thing that article doesn't mention that's the most important difference is the rake is much lower online than most casinos. The casino I have to drive an hour to is $5 max where PP is $3 max. That's a HUGE advantage to online.

A disadvantage to online that the article doesn't mention is the fact that online games are somewhat tougher. People who are motivated to open a PayPal and PP account to play are on average better players than the "let's give poker a try" clueless tourists that take a shot at a casino. A 5/10 game on PP is in general a tougher, tighter game than the same limit at a typical casino. At least that's been my experience.

[bad beetz]

upside:
no driving
more hands per hour
no A-h's asking for deck changes, new setups
no one yells at people for sucking out on them (assuming you turn your player chat off)
player's/flop % for easy table selection
an at home environment.
NO TOKES!
LOWER RAKE!

Downsides:
no tells.
no food.
no feeling of a night out playing poker.
no comeradery (sp?)