[W. Deranged]

Artie and Sheffield are probably intentionally cold-decking you. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

A few salient points:

1. Live games are slow. The sample size is small. You feel the variance more.

2. Live games are more emotional. You may have problems where you tilt in live games where you're more immersed in the action but are better at distancing yourself from the situation when playing against computer people.

3. Live games are more social. This can cause a "have fun" attitude that leads to playing too many hands, trying to make creative plays to impress people, and so on. Live games have so odd social incentives built in that often run counter to solid play.


BUT, I love playing live, and feel I consistently have a winrate that is probably 50% higher in live games than online, for a couple of reasons:

1. The players are worse at comparable levels. (I played a 10/20 last night that was easier than most 2/4 tables)

2. You have MUCH more information. Physical tells allow you to make better instinctual reads. Listening to other players talk about the game can let you get into other players heads much better. And so on.

So keep at it!