How much faster does the button go around an online game compared to live?

For those of you who play at casinos as well as online, how much faster would you say the button goes around the ring in the online game compared to the live game? Thanks for any responses, and if you could also list the top three or four factors that you feel contribute to the difference, that would be great.

Thanks!

2-5 times faster average.

Assuming a full table.

Live = 30 hand per hour.

Online = 60-80 hands per hour.

As the table becomes short handed the live hands go down a bit more than online.

There are only 2 real factors which cause this.

Online dealing is instantaneous.
Online a payer has a strict 15 seconds to act (with the option of using a small time bank)

Live the dealing is not instantaneous and therefore takes some longer amount of time than online.
Live the players have longer to act as there is no strict 15 second rule.

These kinds of questions just make me laugh...

Stu_Ungar said:

Assuming a full table.

Live = 30 hand per hour.

Online = 60-80 hands per hour.

As the table becomes short handed the live hands go down a bit more than online.

There are only 2 real factors which cause this.

Online dealing is instantaneous.
Online a payer has a strict 15 seconds to act (with the option of using a small time bank)

Live the dealing is not instantaneous and therefore takes some longer amount of time than online.
Live the players have longer to act as there is no strict 15 second rule.

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this

I've gone with "more than twice as fast" but there are so many factors that affect the speed of a live game that you really can't say.

Some dealers are faster at shuffling and making the pot right than others. But far and away the biggest factor is the players.

Some will take forever to do anything, and you can't call the clock on them until they've been given a "reasonable" amount of time to make a decision. Anything less than a couple of minutes isn't considered reasonable, usually.

Getting counts on a player's stack can chew up time too.

Suffice to say it's slower.

I get the dealer button around 2-3 times in my half hour session when dealing. So that is 18-30 hands in a half hour, depending on the game (limit/no limit) and how well the players know the game.

jordanbillie said:

I get the dealer button around 2-3 times in my half hour session when dealing. So that is 18-30 hands in a half hour, depending on the game (limit/no limit) and how well the players know the game.

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That's really fast - around a minute per hand. Getting in 30 hands per hour (not half hour) is what most professional dealers aim for as a quick game.

That's also been my experience with live play...about 23-25 hands per half hour. Since dealers make most of their money on tips, they want to deal as many hands as possible. And, with mechanical shufflers, they can reach the 25 hands per half hour pretty easily, if the players are not unusually slow.

A follow up inquiry...

Thanks for the thoughtful replies so far! In general I'm very interested in the comparison between live and online poker, and have posted a question along that line here, about how to integrate the best of both worlds.

I posted this speed question because my hypothesis is that of all things a live casino would want to have from the online world, the first thing would be the greater number of hands per unit of time.

Thanks again.

OzExorcist said:

That's really fast - around a minute per hand. Getting in 30 hands per hour (not half hour) is what most professional dealers aim for as a quick game.

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People have told me I am a fast dealer

Ranger390 said:

That's also been my experience with live play...about 23-25 hands per half hour. Since dealers make most of their money on tips, they want to deal as many hands as possible. And, with mechanical shufflers, they can reach the 25 hands per half hour pretty easily, if the players are not unusually slow.

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I think the mechanical shufflers slow the game down.

Stu_Ungar said:

Live = 30 hand per hour.

Online = 60-80 hands per hour.

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Bingo

PTrain said:

Thanks for the thoughtful replies so far! In general I'm very interested in the comparison between live and online poker, and have posted a question along that line here, about how to integrate the best of both worlds.

I posted this speed question because my hypothesis is that of all things a live casino would want to have from the online world, the first thing would be the greater number of hands per unit of time.

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

Your hypothesis is correct.

Pretty obvious.

Less shuffling time.

Quicker action.

Precounted betting.

In live play I would estimate an average of around 15 to 20 hands per hour. Online play get close to 60 hands per hour. So around 3 times faster.

PTrain said:

I posted this speed question because my hypothesis is that of all things a live casino would want to have from the online world, the first thing would be the greater number of hands per unit of time.

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Well more and more AC casinos have been adding automatic shufflers into the poker tables.

smd173 said:

Well more and more AC casinos have been adding automatic shufflers into the poker tables.

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While automatic shufflers are great things, they'll only be saving you about 5-10 seconds per hand (assuming the dealer is even vaguely competent at shuffling by hand).

That's maybe one or two extra hands per hour, but the players will still have the biggest effect on how fast the game goes.