Some differences between online and live NL Cash Games

[whitelime]

1) Preflop Strategy: A lot of the better live players who post on hear seem to advocate a never fold KK preflop without a read strategy (100 BB stacks). I also see a lot of people talking about reraising hands like AK, and 99-QQ preflop (or players who made plays like this in their game). Online, the reraise all-in preflop is going to be aces over 90% of the time. I think most strong players online would advocate the opposite KK strategy, that is, only call the all-in with a read. Against a 5x the BB raise preflop, I find most players online will simply call with QQ or AK.

2) Postflop: I haven't played much live other than small buy-in tourneys and cash games at college but one of the things I see a ton of online and not much of live is min-betting postflop. It's usually from the weaker players. Overall, I think there is looser play in a live game postflop. There is much more aggressive calling the flop, and raising the turn with nothing.

Final Thoughts: A lot of this makes perfect sense. Seeing 10 times as many hands at once online would naturally lead one to play tighter. Also, the time charge is an important consideration. I know some online players who will open up 10-12 tables and only play AK, AQ, and pocket pairs. They would go broke from the time charge if they tried to do this in a live game, not to mention potentially going insane from the monotony.

Reasons for my post: I think it's important to consider the differences between online and live play when responding to particular posts.

For example: $400 stacks, $2/4 NL. UTG player raises to $20. Hero reraises to $65 with KK. UTG goes all in. What is the correct play?

I think the answer to this question could easily differ depending on if the game is live or online. I know most people specify whether their hand was online or live, but I also think a lot of exclusively live or online players don't consider that live and online play could lead to a different correct play.

Background on myself: I'm almost exclusively an online player. I play over 1,000 hands 5-7 days a week mostly at 1/2 and 2/4 NL. I have been playing seriously for about 1 year so probably around 250,000 hands or so.

Interested to hear what others have to say, especially those who play a lot both online and live.

[lapoker17]

I don't think you see many of the better live players/posters advocating the stuff you cite in your first point - When this stuff gets posted - Like, so I reraised this rock preflop with JJ, or AK then the poster is often set straight pretty quickly.

I don't really understand your second point.

I think your overall theme that different rules apply to online and B&M is, of course, correct, but it's not because live players pay time, it's because of the intimacy of the live game. You are afforded a far greater opportunity for creativity when you can smell your opponents. There's nothing like hearing a guy with a big stack fielding cell phone calls from his wife and knowing he's late for dinner.