What do you prefer live or online poker and why and how many hours do you play?

i think which one you choose really depends on what you're looking for.
playing online is a lot easier these days. so i'd say if ur lookin for a lil bit of money while u get better then play online.

but i would much rather play live games because the characterisitics of each individual player at the table changes the whole thing. It makes it alot more interesting.

I prefer online poker as its far more profitable, the live games around here are all tournaments and low buyins - I do play in a few regional leagues, but I make a decent living online, which is far more than you could hope to at live games round here. Online I play 2/4 to 5/10 (€ not $) and the action is far better than I get live..

I play an average of 8hrs a day, and normally play through the night on weekends so Im probably on 70+hrs a week ...

just as well i dont have a "real" job anymore!!!

looking forward to my first 'major' tournament in vegas, Im doing the $1,500NLHE opening WSOP event, if I do well I will consider playing others, if I cash Id love to do the main event, but with other commitments I couldnt drop $10,000 on the main event unless I cash at least once beforehand...

Good Luck

I too prefer live games. I play at least two live tourny's each week. One on Wednesday and another on Saturday. Then i try and hit a few online tournies a week as well.

this is alittle of topic but what is the best way to get funds into a onlinepoker site now that neteller is gone. US of course

Mostly I like playing online better. It's true you can't make any body language reads but you can play in your pyjamas - or even without your pyjamas, lol.

What I dislike most about the live games I have been at is that half the people still smoke.

Thanks for the input everyone!!

i like live games, i just like the atmosphere. it is also a good way to chat with other players. i try and pick their brains. its funny, i play out here at green valley ranch in vegas and i always get seated next to players who have every poker story to tell...lol

I like online due to speed and convenience...

Living in Colorado, USA, we only have casinos in some of the mountain towns and it is only limit holdem. This kind of limit holdem ($5) is very frustrating to play. Since no raise can be over $5 you can't get anyone out of the game and it encourages lots of endless calling, and lots of them. There are so many callers that the luck factor is equal to or surpasses skill level. The last time I played at one of these casinos I did a preflop raise with KK. I lost cause I was called to the river, and the winner had Q4o

I have played at pokerstars for a long time. I think I will move on to another site and give it a try. On stars, I frequently see bizarre suckouts. The last time I lost my whole stack at once, here is what happened. I had pocket JJ and a J came on the flop. I pushed all in and was called. The 7 came on the turn and this gave me a boat since a 7 was also in the flop. The river came as a Q. I got sucked out. The other opponent had QQ in the pocket. Another time on pokerstars my boat got crushed by quads. These kind of scenarios seem to be the norm there and I can't quite figure out why. I mean this is a constant thing.

I prefer live hands down because most of the time I play with friends who aren't that good (but are capable to let go of a hand), so making moves and switching playing styles actually works. At the micro-limits I'm rolled for, TAG and multitabling are a necessity if I hope to win.

Also, live is much more social: you get to talk, laugh, ramble and sometimes play on others' nerves with wiseass comments and see the reaction . Plus, I don't get the feeling I'm playing with people that might be gambling grocery money: no casinos carry poker around here so the people I play with are well-off students or people in their 30's with steady jobs at home games (for small to medium stakes) around town. I used to go to the horses but stopped because it was so damn depressing because of this very reason.

Online poker is such a joke, I'm sticking to only live games from now on. I cashed out and then watched my remaining bankroll diminish due to suckout after suckout. My pokertracker database shows me losing an average of 3/4 of a minimum buyin each time I was dealt pocket jacks over the last 2500 hands.

Everytime but once I ran into one of the 3 bigger pairs or lost a race headsup. INSANE. 30 times I had AQ and made a pair on the flop ONE ****ING TIME. NE1 who says there isn't something funny going on with online poker is kidding themself.

online will hone your poker math faster and harder then live play will. so i consider each to be a complement to the other. we can usually tell a newbie hardcore onliner joining live play the first few times. they know all the moves but never expect what we give them back. you can see the tilt progress on their faces during the showdown.

However live is the best! nothing like watching your victim squirm on the turn when you bet 5x with possible straight flush or being on the receiving end while he poker faces.

my state passed a law that eliminated the fee part of gambling. so now i can play for free every day of the week twice a day with the possibility of winning $200. (usually divided 100/75/25 usually in bar bucks) if your part of the league they point you. this gets you an invite to a real casino for play on a satellite for one of the wsop or wpt seats. the satellite (field 200-600, blinded to last ~9hrs) is also free. bar field is 40-100 (normal avg ~40-50) depending on where it's held at. several bars hold events the same night so one can pick where friends go or closes to me. it's a blast to get a few newbies or donkeys and teach them poker is a skill game. we're able to drink and eat at the table since this is how the bars get there money back. it's funny how i know so many nice people yet i don't know them. some regulars don't even know my real name still. yet we conspire on where to gather so we can pin a donkeys tail and ego test each other every evening. skills of league players really does cover the entire range one reads about in the pro books so i'm able to do what Negreanu calls "nut bar" and test ideas of strategy on live subjects. i usually read a book like caro before hand and try to use something from it right away.

my skill progressed from going out 1st, first time i played to 60 days later i'm making final table almost every night where i hit the really good players and it's a whole new strategy of playing.
/ego rant off

btw it's impossible for a computer to be truly random. go ahead and google "computer generated random numbers". the sites probably use the best random method the academic's say to use but in the end it's not random it just looks that way. this is also a reason to avoid the new digital poker tables. and yes i believe they do not give cards based on previous play or $ or people. so don't be spreading rumors saying they give numbers based on something it's not true.

Definitely prefer live games that's more excisting. I like to see people faces. That's one aspect I don't like about online game.

I prefer live, and when I do play its usually about a 6 hour session.

thanks for the input!!

Since this has been bumped... they both have their good points. Given the choice, I probably prefer live play. Unfortunately I don't get many chances to play live though, so online fills the gap nicely.

I play maybe 10-12 hours a week, and spend another 3-6 dealing live games.