What makes online poker more challenging?

[danoscar]

Hello All.


After many years of playing online Holdem, I strongly believe that online poker is more challenging. I have seen too many times that situations arise that do not occur in the live poker world.

There have been many times where I see three players getting AA-KK-QQ, for example, and the larger bank taking out the other two. Another for example is what I call dodging the bullet. The instances occur when I have the lesser bank, a great hand and the flop comes say, K-4-3 rainbow. The turn shows an ace. The larger bank bets out and I am all-in. I am holding a pair of aces. The larger bank calls me and flips a 52 offsuit over. Who would ever bet such a hand, unless they have a huge bank or it's the last of their bank and they bet out? I* have seen too many times where a situation like that occurs.

I am not calling it cheating. It's not. It, like many other thjings online, is a challenging game. Along with it comes software "tricks" to watch out for. You may think my thoughts are crazy. You may be right. I can say, though, that I am winning more by practicing to watch out for those simple things.

What do youy think? Is it more challenging to you? Do you look for such things also?

I hope your holidays have and will be Awesome!

Good luck with your game.

Dan'O

 

[alien666dj]

All this is an illusion of deception. I used to think so too, but when I looked more closely I saw that I could avoid many mistakes that I made because of impatience.

 

[dongato2]

that some players are based on the statistics, when I think that it should not be taken as a reference because you do not have many hands for the data

 

[takinitSLEAZEE]

For me it's keeping an internet connection. Quite the challenge in the fkng woods near the river.

 

[puzzlefish]

Hello All.


After many years of playing online Holdem, I strongly believe that online poker is more challenging. I have seen too many times that situations arise that do not occur in the live poker world.

There have been many times where I see three players getting AA-KK-QQ, for example, and the larger bank taking out the other two. Another for example is what I call dodging the bullet. The instances occur when I have the lesser bank, a great hand and the flop comes say, K-4-3 rainbow. The turn shows an ace. The larger bank bets out and I am all-in. I am holding a pair of aces. The larger bank calls me and flips a 52 offsuit over. Who would ever bet such a hand, unless they have a huge bank or it's the last of their bank and they bet out? I* have seen too many times where a situation like that occurs.

I am not calling it cheating. It's not. It, like many other thjings online, is a challenging game. Along with it comes software "tricks" to watch out for. You may think my thoughts are crazy. You may be right. I can say, though, that I am winning more by practicing to watch out for those simple things.

What do youy think? Is it more challenging to you? Do you look for such things also?

I hope your holidays have and will be Awesome!

Good luck with your game.

Dan'O

I play mostly on 888 and I see plenty of these types of things. For example, on the Snap mode you'll encounter a new player seated in the small blind position with about 12-30 big blinds for a stack and they will just go ahead and insta-jam all-in. Doesn't matter what you have, they will beat you. Usually I'll have aces or kings and they'll be dominated with jacks, tens, etc. and they get their set and double up through me. It's not even surprising anymore. Sometimes I will call just to see it happen again because I know it is going to happen - and it does.

I guess it just makes it difficult to decide whether to take online poker seriously or not. Are we playing against AI? Are we playing against several players who are in a group or one player using several accounts? Are we playing a big fancy slot machine that is made to look like a poker game?

 

[Poker Orifice]

thinly veiled rigtard thread

I nominate this one be moved to the MEGA thread


I will respond to OP's initial question though...
I find online poker more difficult because:
you'll find much more competitive/skilled players at much lower buyin levels than you will vs. Live poker. You have MANY players in micro & low limits who are playing from areas where winning $100-to-$200 per week means something.... and it is very obvious that they are putting in the time to study the game.

You can't see your opponents which obviously changes a few things.

 

[TeUnit]

I think that a lot of the people online play more hands than live players. Its easier online to multi-table, the hands dont take as long, there arent misdeals, etc. So the online players get more hands of experience. Another thing to consider is a great deal of players online use a HUD and live players dont have that option.

 

[Poker Orifice]

OP, when you posted this thread with this question
https://www.cardschat.com/forum/general-poker-13/if-you-make-500-a-month-490267/

I'd like to post another response to it here.
Quit wasting time thinking that something strange is happening... or to waste time looking for some sort of strange pattern. I can guarantee you that the players who are making +$500 per month are not doing this.

 

[CriesuaID]

I believe people bet higher values live than online. That's why you end up finding better players online based on your stake.

 

[LetterRip]

Is it more challenging to you? Do you look for such things also?

You play far more hands per hour so 'weird' hands come up far more often. If you just single table you can often play 3x as many hands per hour vs live, if you 2 table you can play 6x as many hands per hour as live, 3 table 9x, 4 table 12x.

Your brain only 'notices' weird stuff, so even though 4 tabling you are playing 12x the number of hands and thus should expect 12x as many weird occurences, your brain will compare it to an hour of live play and expect the same number of wierd occurrences in 1 hour of live vs 1 hour of online play.

As to online being tougher. It is generally most profitable to play more tables at a slightly lower skill level than fewer tables at the hardest skill level you can handle. For instance a pro might be able to 4 table at their best skill level; or 12 table at the next skill level down for a much higher win rate. So you end up with pros and skilled players playing large numbers of tables, which will drastically drop the average number of poorly skilled players per table.

So live poker are drastically softer just because there will be so many fewer pros per amateur player at the table.

 

[fundiver199]

As to online being tougher. It is generally most profitable to play more tables at a slightly lower skill level than fewer tables at the hardest skill level you can handle. For instance a pro might be able to 4 table at their best skill level; or 12 table at the next skill level down for a much higher win rate. So you end up with pros and skilled players playing large numbers of tables, which will drastically drop the average number of poorly skilled players per table.

The ability of good players to multitable online is only part of the equation. There is also a much higher entry barrier to live poker financially as well as geographically. In a psycical casino the player pool is naturally limited to people living in the area or visiting. Online poker however can be played from all over the world except for sites, that are geographically fenced for legal reasons.

In top of that the worst players will tend to be found in the cheapest games, and for live games that will often mean something like 1/2 dollar blinds for cash games or 75$ buyin for a tournament. Online however you can play for much less money, so people playing 1/2 dollar cash games or 75$ tournaments online will tend to be way better than those playing the same stakes live.

This is surely why, a lot of live players get completely cut up, when they try to play online and dont realise, how much they need to move down in stakes to find a similar level of competition. There are even guys like Gus Hansen, who made millions of dollars playing in soft live games, but then lost it all again playing in online games, where he was completely outclassed by most of the competition.

Finally the learning curve is much faster online, because as you say people can play far more hands per hour, and they can also play any time, they want, without having to drive to a casino. So while live players might continue to make the same mistakes for years, online players will tend to either learn and improve or stop playing, when they get tired of losing.

 

[Sivraj]

I wouldn't say its more challenging just more convenient that you can be at home and play without going to the casino.

 

[Master_nolios]

Take

Get a tracker. Everybody has a opinion. But it's your money at risk. 50 bucks and down load your hands. Then a whole new world will appear. Stats don't lie. Good luck

 

[lcid86]

Speed of the game and no opponent visual tells.

 

[Alex70793]

Yes, indeed, in online poker, especially in recent years, there are too many amazing hands that you will not see in live poker.
Those players who have been playing online poker for a long time have definitely noticed this, I have been playing for a long time, I won't even say exactly how many years, probably 8 years ago, such amazing hands were very rare, and now there can be several such hands in one game session.

 

[Poker Orifice]

Yes, indeed, in online poker, especially in recent years, there are too many amazing hands that you will not see in live poker.
Those players who have been playing online poker for a long time have definitely noticed this, I have been playing for a long time, I won't even say exactly how many years, probably 8 years ago, such amazing hands were very rare, and now there can be several such hands in one game session.

This is a complete load of bullsh1t.
I've played over 5 million hands online (not including tournaments/sng's) and it is the same today as it was yesterday... and 10yrs. before that.

 

[fundiver199]

This is a complete load of bullsh1t.
I've played over 5 million hands online (not including tournaments/sng's) and it is the same today as it was yesterday... and 10yrs. before that.

December was a pretty rough month for me on both 888 Poker and pokerstars. Are you saying, that this is not some coordinated conspiracy against me but just purely coincidental?

 

[Alex70793]

This is a complete load of bullsh1t.
I've played over 5 million hands online (not including tournaments/sng's) and it is the same today as it was yesterday... and 10yrs. before that.

Maybe it depends on the poker room you play on, I play on pokerstars, and it's not just me alone that I think so, on different poker forums, many players say that there are too many amazing hands on pokerstars, this did not happen before.

 

[funnyhook3]

a huge number of players in a tournament is horror, it's hard to reach the final when everyone but you can have luck

 

[funnyhook3]

Speed of the game and no opponent visual tells.

that's exactly why I don't like turbo and hyper turbo tournaments at all

 

[successlaw]

The most challenging aspect for me is that I can play a lot of tables at the same time with people on all around the world

 

[aissam18]

Is to play a lot of tables at the same time

 

[ChrisCreys]

The real challenge for me in online poker is having an casino (poker table) inside my house 24/7. That makes me wanna play all the time!

 

[mrc1988]

What do youy think? Is it more challenging to you? Do you look for such things also?

I hope your holidays have and will be Awesome!

Good luck with your game.

Dan'O

I hope your holidays were good as well sir. Online poker simply is seeing more hands. So you will see more bad beats. In an average hour I can do around 650-700 hands over 2 tables playing zoom poker. An average session may be 3 hours. So I'm seeing almost 2000 hands of poker. That would take 2 marathon session DAYS of live poker to see the same variations.

Yes it is more challenging. Your average $0.01 / $0.02 game online plays tougher than your local casino. $1/$2. I promise.

Most people that play online are gaining experience 10 times faster to live play as well. Drunk tourists love going to casinos to donk off some money. Online I have my coffee in hand in a quiet setting to GRIND. I'm not there to have fun. I'm there to win.

Enjoy the ups and downs. Currently I'm trying to take a step back for a week or so to just learn a little more. The grind has gotten to me lately. Best of luck in 2022

 

[Artbart805]

https://www.cardschat.com/replayer/624ZTuv08​

Jokerstars : set ups ?​