They are. All the online regs who are proven winners at 100nl+ online are ridiculously successful whenever they play live. The reason they play mostly online is that it's more convenient and it's also easier to play a higher volume of hands online, and that means variance is less of a factor and skill prevails faster.
I was being semi-sarcastic. I was making the point that an online reg
can be successful live, but it is not automatic. You would go as far as to say "all" of them are? The group you are referencing is a very small group of individuals in the entire world. There is a larger "world" of online players if you will so there will be more "successful" players as well. This would also cause the "ultra-successful" online players to be incredible because of the sheer volume of people they prevail over. The feat is not harder per say than being the incredible elite in live poker, it is different.
In any poker article or site that talks about online play vs. live play will tell you online play is way tougher vs live play.
A few reasons:
-The lowest stake is $1/$2 NL live, where as to online the lowest stake you can play is 1c/2c NL.
-Casinos are filled with drunks and gamblers wanting to have a good time, not caring if they bank a profit or not.
-Lots of people use all kinds of resources/programs online to pretty much know how to play you.
-In live play people get more tempted to play bad hands due to the simple reason that you can't multi-table and the hand rate per hour is about 50% less.
Those are just a few reasons, there are many others such as people simply do not know how to play correctly. The most popular CASINO in FL in my location is Hard Rock, when I play poker there, you always get 5+ people playing in a hand preflop which is ridiculous. A 3bet to them is like $20-$30..
Maybe the people you play live with are just awesome players, but generally its known that $1/$2 live is just like 1c/2c online (sometimes a little better).
I'll do my best to explain my opinion on each of these points.
Stakes-The difference in stakes is reflective of the community of live poker players as compared to the community of OL players. This simply shows that it is not economically possible to run 1c/2c games live. However it doesn't add to any argument.
Online tables are filled with plenty of drunks and morons throwing their chips in without reason or rhyme and like the
casinos this is more evident on the weekend?
As far as the "resources" people use online. This is evidence against your argument. A player doesn't have to "think" as much to be an above average online player. They just follow patterns of strategy according to what kind of player they are going against in their HUD.
In live play people more tempted to play bad hands. That just changes the game, it doesn't make it easier per say or harder. If anything it is harder to put players on a hand which makes the game more difficult.
I'm not saying the
average live player is better than the average online player. I'm saying to be truly successful as a live player is harder. I do understand some contrary points and I apologize for not being able to respond quickly (I have to wait 24 hours to post 7 posts....
)
Stix