Online Vs Live MTT's (tells)

[Chuckster]

I am sure that this has been discussed many times before, but I am on a pretty bad slump for the last month and really looking for ways to extract more chips since I am having a bad run of cards and not winning coin flips.

I have a friend who consitently is making final tables on PP (dprodigy). He seems to have simply a great feel for the online MTT's. He makes great reads, seems to know when people are weak/bluffing and is simply making moves or calling opponent's all-ins with hands (say mid-pair) that I would fold quick, and he is winning.

On the contrary, my old college roomate, who is new to the professional tournament circuit (Alex Prendes), simply hates online poker. I was talking to him for hours last night, mostly just venting, and he made some great points. He says (which we all know) that online MTT's lack the people factor that is so critical in MTT's and with the chips one gets too start and the fast moving blind structure, it makes it many times a crapshoot.

An example. He was telling me that common play in these big tourney;s is simply calling a raise with any 2 cards with position. Simply calling the flop bet from the raiser, and hoping to find weakness on 4th or 5th street and then take down the pot. This solid form of play seems to be basically impossible considering the chips one has to start in an online MTT, where as in large live tourney one has 10,000 chips and can afford to play many flops and make these "moves".

I disagree with his assessment that the online MTT's are mainly a crap shoot because you consistently see the same players in the mix (dprodigy, MLG, donbuttons, etc..), so there has to be certain online tells so to say, that the best online players can sense and capatilize (obviously the tells would be betting patterns based on the flop, etc...) on.

Prendes tells me to just try and use my bankroll to play in live MTT's. However, the dilemma I face is that in South Florida there really not too many options, besides the Hard Rock, which is quite a drive from where I live. Therefore online MTT's is where I will continue to play most of the time.

Anyways, I just wanted a little feedback on the above and maybe some of the consistent online winners can share some of their tells that they find profitable online.

Thanks in advance and sorry for the length of this.