Online Players at Big live events

It seems like lately when you watch the WSOP or a WPT event you see many young online players at these events. Ive heard several of them say (with a bit of arrogance i think) that they've played more hands and have more experience than players such as the legendary Doyle Brunson. I dont see how you can compare multi-tableling 12 plus tables versus actually being in a live game, learning reads, trying not to give tells and gaining the valueable experience in a live casino.

Dont get me wrong. I play online and love it but if i play as little as 3 tables at once then im really just playing situations and not getting reads or feelings on other players.

The online poker has given us an avenue to get better much faster than our predecessors but I think you have to guard against over confidence just cause you can play "X" amount of hands in a month.

Thanks

One of the standard rebuttals presented to the "I've seen millions of hands in just one year" argument is indeed that when you see that many hands that fast, you're not being given a lot of time to reflect on them or think deeply about them as you're playing them. It's a quantity vs quality argument.

FWIW I think both arguments are perfectly valid. You might not get a chance to think all that deeply when you're playing six tables at once and maybe a HUD is doing a lot of the work for you in terms of reads. That's a very different environment to the one you'll find at a live table. The results speak for themselves though - some of the people that have come from that background have achieved some outstanding results in record time.

You're right, of course, NC. However, even if these notable online players have played more hands in their short careers than Doyle Brunson, none of them have contributed as much to the game of poker or earned as much respect as Doyle. Their (and my) entire success comes from their ability to emulate what it took famous live players years to discover and achieve.

(Well, maybe not their entire success, but most of it at least.)

Also not addressed is that the online guys are probably playing tougher opponents. I've heard many online pros talk about wanting to get into HSP as it'd be the softest game they've played in for quite a while. Very few of the top live pros would be able to compete with the top live pros, even if they were playing live. Brunson is one of the few live pros who I think would be able to play (and probably beat) the top online players in a live setting. Johnny Chan though looked like an idiot on PAD against the online guys as did Huck Seed.

I don't know if the pro online guys are necessarily playing tougher opponents. It's certainly possible but from what I've heard and read (especially an article in November's Poker Pro, the magazine) there is some absolutely crazy, insane shit that goes on in Bobby's Room at the Bellagio in terms of plays and hands.

(Again, we have to grant that most live poker pros don't play those limits. But then again neither do most online pros.)