I think playing Live is easier for the simple reason that a higher % of peole playing Live poker are playing to have fun and to enjoy themselves and even doing things such as drinking and socializing.
Where online you have fewer people playing to just have fun and more playing to get better at poker and instead of drinking they are using HUDs and instead of socializing they are correctly putting you on a range of hands lol
.....
People are looking for a thrill Live and chasing a straight is a thrill people are looking to improve/play for a living online
im sorry, but this thread is so ****ing pointless
I have not played live a lot yet so I took the last option.
From a nuts and bolts perspective, online is easier because it gives you all the chip counts and whatnot. First time I played live I was confused, the game seemed to go SO fast I was missing my turn had to ask questions of things I should have known, etc. And I was concentrating!! I was also nervous though, and that didn't help.
I really think that it is difficult to compare the two though, they are just different. I tend to play a good game more consistently at live games because I focus 100%. I don't have any other potential distractions (phone/daughter/door ... dog and cats!). I also feel a lot more competitive when I'm actually sitting at a table. At the same time, if I play somewhere I haven't played before ... because I haven't played a lot of live ... I still get nervous.
Tells are the other thing ... if you give them away and you can't pick them up - you're going to do better online! If you don't give them away and you can pick them up that's a big advantage and live is going to be easier for you.
This is the best rationale I have heard so far. The other was duggs point about online the regs multi table and live they can't. Those are 2 pretty compelling reasons.
I will concede the point that at the exact same stakes, live is easier than online. But that wasn't my question. Since we ALL equate $5 online with roughly $200 live I'm trying to compare the 2 games that are likely to have the same caliber of player as far as experience. To state that the only thing that makes a game easy or hard is the field us just one aspect of the game. Perhaps a big one, but not the whole picture.
The problem I have with comparing $100 online tourney to a $100 live tourney is that if you do that...then what are you ever going to compare a $1 online tourney to? It even a $5 or $10 or $20 online tourney... There is no comparison that exists so you can't make a consistent, logical case.
I have noticed that most of the respondents except about 3 didn't state what % of live they play...so I wonder if that means they primarily play online.
I really think they are two different animals. I don't necessarily feel either one is easier.
Playing about 70% of my time live
The online players (the ones who are multi-tabling) are usually playing with the stats,
either with a HUD or using their own particular style. No pair, Ace-rag, unsuited rags...fold'em
AK-AQ-AJ, mid to upper pairs, raise'em.
All good responses, all reasonable actions.
Most of the time they don't look at position as a major factor in their decisions and
they might not even be aware of what the rest of the table is capable of doing.
(Now this a general viewpoint, not every online player does this)
So in some ways online is easier.
In live play you must concentrate on one table, a limited number of other players and
pay attention to the action around you. I find that a lot easier than playing 6 or 8 tables
on my computer even with a HUD.
Both games can easily be won (sometimes) and more often than not, lose big time
Just my 2 cents
I think i could pick up live poker quick, since i don't use a HUD or tracker.1) No poker tracker/ HUD/ Stats at the ready. you have to collect that data all by yourself, store it, and then recall it and apply it when you need to.
2) Tells. You might be giving them off. You need to try and pick up tells on other players because they are trying to do it to you.
It is entirely possible that #1 and #2 cancel each other out....but I find my HUD stats to be so much more useful than my ability to pick up live tells...so for me online is easier in this respect.
Haha...I didn't really mean it to be passive aggressive...but reading back on it, it sounds like it.LOL. Idk whether to interpret that as passive-aggressive or something else entirely, but how do you expect me to compare what % of live vs. online I play? Hours played? # of hands played? Present, past, or lifetime?
Currently I play about 70% live, 30% online in terms of focus and hours, with obviously more hands being played online.
Edit: Well said, DK. Didn't have the patience to make as long a post as you, but I agree with everything you stated.
. In your opinion. But in my opinion your generalizations about live poker are quite absurd.your generalisations of online play are pretty absurd.
. Haha yes! I'm with you on this. There is also a much bigger emotional and psychological game that happens live compared to online. I'm not saying it doesn't happen online, but live is a much more visceral experience. Every hand is more intense, more smells, looks, sighs, pauses, stares, dirty looks etc. every hand you become involved in is potentially a big social interaction, which adds another layer of pressure.So, I gather nobody else finds the aspect of patience to be a factor in the difficulty of live play? I'm sort of a jitterbug, but I thought for sure others found it difficult to sit next to these disgusting, stinky, fat turds with their dirty, scum-covered chips (trying to scrape the nasty off without getting it under their nails), just to have some douchefish snap-call J-7off all-in to hit a gutshot on the river. THEN, have to sit there next to that same disgusting mound waiting to get your absurdly raked money back.
I'm clearly less patient than every poker player who ever lived. Lol
Live should be harder to play, but I would say online is harder to play due to the massive amount of suck outs you see online.
I really think they are two different animals. I don't necessarily feel either one is easier.
Playing about 70% of my time live
The online players (the ones who are multi-tabling) are usually playing with the stats,
either with a HUD or using their own particular style. No pair, Ace-rag, unsuited rags...fold'em
AK-AQ-AJ, mid to upper pairs, raise'em.
All good responses, all reasonable actions.
Most of the time they don't look at position as a major factor in their decisions and
they might not even be aware of what the rest of the table is capable of doing.
(Now this a general viewpoint, not every online player does this)
So in some ways online is easier.
In live play you must concentrate on one table, a limited number of other players and
pay attention to the action around you. I find that a lot easier than playing 6 or 8 tables
on my computer even with a HUD.
Both games can easily be won (sometimes) and more often than not, lose big time
Just my 2 cents