Comparing live poker to online.

So I've been playing poker in general for 2 and a half years. I want to know if people are all experiencing the same kind of bad beats, ridiculous cards, etc online. I play live quite a bit, and there's a bad beat tossed out and once in a while, but online I'll be sitting at a table of 9 on FT and noticing half the people there have got chipstacks by suckin out. I don't play many live multi-table tournaments so I was wondering.. is it always that way?

What levels are you playing at both online and off? Online play at low levels can be a joke, and so many hands get dealt per hour compared to live, it seems like a lot more suckouts happen. I like playing $60 buyin MTT where I live. Serious competition.Online mostly freerolls to avoid getting pissed at losing real money to donks.

See enough hands of each and there's really no difference. You're experiencing selective recall.

I suppose you're right. Just seems a little bit strange when people hit their 3-outers when we're all-in. It's like 19:1 odds or somethin but I'm generally on the 19 side and probably winning half of them. Is just frustrating but I'm learning to get over it and then I seem to get rewarded.

And I generally play lower-limits online and at the casino it is a $100 minimum buy-in, 1/2 blinds. I play a cash game every once in a while, $50 buy-in, 1/2 blinds. I guess people play smarter live and don't fluke out as much because they don't put themselves in those situations.

I don't think that's really true. What SC (the OP) says about 'situations' is more accurate, imo.

Sure, more hands per hour, OK. But what you do not see as much of live is the huge volume of players calling and raising with cards they shouldn't even be in the hand with. Why? They're adrenalin junkies living for the rush of the win, not long term profit.

Playing live I can't say I ever see as many 5,8o type hands chasing to showdown for the straight sukouts or 4runner flushes as I see online. It's just the nature of online players who can click buttons anonymously and aren't as obvious when reloading at the same table over and over.

Oh yes you do. At least, what I've seen at my casino. Most of the bad beats I've taken live are from guys who made the most awful play/calls and just got lucky after getting it in good.

i think its all the same, Ive almost seen crazier hands live.
live usually has less donks (tighter players) but all depends on buy in and players. most people think online has more big (rigged) hands, but if you really read anything by people who track hands- it all works out with the odds.
freerolls and small cash buyins have more donks or people who dont care cuz it doesnt cost em- so stupider plays and chases are more common

more hands equals more bad beats

I guess I've escaped a lot of that. When I started playing stud and draw in '69, the tables had poker players, not lukbox wannabes. NLHE tables were sitting empty, no players. Even limit holdem tables weren't really busy.

Right before online poker became popular, I played at a cardroom in Rosamond, CA. The players were average to good. 'Online' players didn't exist yet.

Since then I've lived in 2 smaller Nevada towns, both with cardrooms in the casinos. Even there, obvious online players were, and are, few and far between. Ah, the good 'ol days - gone forever. Poker's loss.

I have played much more online then live but when I play live it is in Oklahoma or Shreveport, La.. The biggest suckouts I have seen is live and by wild drunks on a crazy rush. Everyone at the table is practically throwing their stacks at the guy and he is calling and raising everything in sight while trash talking everyone at the same time. I drop a hundred of a $300 max buyin playing very few hands and leave early (more action then I can handle) but not before the drunk literly felts 3 other players and has about $2k in chips in front of him.

Again, I can only suggest that you're experiencing selective recall. We all do it.

To check, keep track of your actual hands and results over a meaningful sample - you'll almost certainly find they're in the normal statistical range and when you're in as a 19:1 favourite you're likely winning about 19 times out of 20.

Other thing is you're rarely a 19:1 favourite in hold 'em. Unless my math is wrong 19:1 is a one or two outer, depending on the street. In most of the common hold 'em situations (top pair vs a straight or flush draw, overcards vs a pair, etc) the odds are a lot closer than that. The important part is just getting your money in good. Keep doing that and the math will even out eventually.

I'm a dealer and I must've pitched gawd knows how many thousands of live hands in the past few years. The three-outers and suckouts and weird stuff happen there too, but the good hands hold up about as often as they're supposed to and I've never thought online felt any different to that.

In casino poker tables, I tend to bank much more than I do in online..plus you don't have that chance of popping out pocket A's, going all in, and being called by a K2 and losing.

online poker does not even compare to the real deal. better poker and a lot more fun sitting with 200 other people throwin chips.

Live action is superior.Plus you can have a few tells on your opponents. Online, I think that higher stakes levels cash or/and sit n go offer a nice a smooth game. I don't really believe that in 25/50 or higher someone will go all in with k2! At least I wand to believe that!

when online the cheapest the game the more people who dont really care and when free, anyone goes in and just pulls an allin without even looking, theres nothing like playing live. i mean thats the game you know live.

i play mostly online poker, and i know exactly what you mean. it does seem pretty ridiculous at times, but i read something online once (i can't remember where now) that said that if you track the statistics, it pretty much equals out. generally online play goes much faster than live play, so you might see 4 or 5 times more suckouts online during your time there, but that's just because you see 4 or 5 times more hands. multiply this by how many tables you play and it gets pretty crazy.

yeah, that can be true, but many people just dont care since theyre not investing real money from their pockets or just a bit, i have made stupid moves myself when bored after few hours of play

Of course in online freerolls or super-micro games there are going to be more suckouts b/c the players have little or nothing to lose by chasing (kinda like playing the "family game" with pennies-who folds?), but I think the fact that in live games and you have real money or chips in your hands that may make some players more careful to throw it away as opposed to symbols on their computer that don't seem as "real," if that makes any sense. There might be some disconnect from the wagers since there's not money physically there at the table?

another thing similar are "coolers" people think they happen more online, but then I use the $60 live tourney I was in a little over a month ago. In the 3 hours of play I got KK three times only to have my opponent flip over AA

Side Note: sucked out the first time when the flop was TJQ with a 9 on the turn

i agree with puppyfeet about how when playing live the chips make things seem more real. i've noticed that online i'm sometimes willing to gamble more simply because i'm not as focused and it doesn't seem as real to me. then when i go play live, and have real cards and chips there, it brings me right into the game. so i can definitely see how people can play terribly online, and make it seem way worse than live poker.

Good, Thanks for the input. I'm glad I'm not the only one that thinks this way then. I also had to learn to deal with my beats better, play my type of game and don't stray from it cause then I get uncomfortable and get myself into bad positions, etc, etc.

I haven't experienced too many bad beats live but the most notable was in a cash game.. I had KK, and my best buddy was heads-up against me. I raised to $10 pre-flop, on a 1/2 blind table, he calls and the flop come J-7-3.. really good for me, I bet out the pot, $25 bucks or so and he goes all-in, I call and he flips J-6 offsuit. (We were drinking, he thought I was bluffing) I show my KK and think I'm golden, the turn is a dud, and the river is a 6. I lost $160 on that hand alone.

I would rather play Live poker any day,this way you are subject to true lady luck.Online poker you are subject to computer trap hands,like AA,beat by KK or QQ,or worse.If you play somewhere like Cake long enough,you can see a trap coming alot of times.

i'm not so sure that these "trap" hands are real. most likely that's just paranoia again. seriously, AA and hands like it are not unbeatable. preflop they're a big favorite, but after that who knows. the best way to avoid huge suckouts and tilt is to only play premium hands, or better yet, just play the nuts. if you only play when you have the high end of a full house, you'll almost never lose!

ya know what, a bad beat on line usually loses me a freeroll or the 1-5 bucks I won in a freeroll, live it usually costs me about a hundred dollars. I play 1 live hand to every 100 I play online, I don't even notice the online ones anymore, the live ones I could tell you in great detail everything from the flop to the river and how it ruined my week.
I was watching a high limit game on FT the other day, one guy had 100K, the other guy had about 70, both playing really good poker and for serious money, then a monster AA2, Check- raise - reraise - all in goes the 70K w A2, 100k who insta called had AK, the turn? King! $70,000 dollars in 2 minutes! I remembered having almost the exact thing hap[pen to me last month at the casino, but I only lost about $150. You have to wonder if live for 70k, he woulda thought more about moving all in, or if the 100k woulda thought more about calling, but I still think they would have done it the same way live, online and in theory.

wow, that hand is insane. i can't even imagine having that much money for poker... i think they probably would have played the hand the same way live, or at least i would hope so, because they are playing such high levels and for so much money. if someone has 70k to throw away i guess they might play worse online, but i really think if they have that much of a bankroll they should be good enough to play basically the same way live and online.

It's all the same, you just see way more hands online, so the "trap" hands seem to happen more often.

im with you ..you see far more bb online...but if you ask the site about it ...they tell you ..."we deal millions of hands an hour ..of course your going to see more bb"...lol

Yeah I understand at the low levels, the majority of people are calling stations. I try to play a bit tighter and raise substantially more than I would live.. 6x and up.. I'm learning to play alot of flops with alot of different cards and just trying to outplay them there. No sense in bluffing too much though, they seem to low pair you or whatever.

I prefer to play live over online 100%.
If I had the bankroll to play live full time instead of online I would.
I enjoy live mtt's as well as cash games alot more than online.