Online versus Live

[Cactus Jack]

[Xaston]

[Tiburon]

[Cactus Jack]

[Rhound50]

[phatlad]

Just started playing live more. A new year's resolution of mine.

Jesus Christ it's so boring. I want to multi-table.

But every time I've gone I've had the table figured out in two orbits.

Also played in a 60-person, $20 tournament; finished fifth. Four hours for 70 bucks. BLECH.

[Cactus Jack]

Originally, I started out this thread intending to praise the amount of experience you get playing online. That was my point, anyway. There is simply no way a student of poker can get the same experience playing live as online. You can get 10 times the amount of experience quite easily, if not more, because you have to make a much greater effort to get to a casino or card room. How many professionals have played hundreds of thousands of hands?

But, now, I have to ask some questions. Making the transition from online to live takes some time and requires different things, but is it not much more profitable to play live than online?

Online, the best player doesn't always win. Does the best player not have a greater edge live, as he can more easily control factors to his advantage? One for instance--and I hope to hear others, too--the short buyins which are trying to double up, then leave the table at a gallop when they do. Not going to happen live, right?

Having played thousands and thousands of hands online, you really have few tells. But you can pick up on betting patterns and range of hands. This is experience that would take years of playing live. Now, combine that with the tells one can learn to pick up when at a live table, aren't we now talking a much larger edge, both over the online player and the live player?

I'm trying to establish in my own mind the validity of moving someplace that I can play at stakes which might someday pay my bills. I've got one to four months to make this decision, the biggest decision I have to make probably for the rest of my increasingly shorter life. I'm stuck in a rut down here, and if a rut will become your grave if you don't get out of it. I have no choice, in that I can no longer stay in sunny Florida. So, I am wondering if I go to Vegas--where I can make at least the same living I'm making now, which isn't much, I give ya--at least I might be able to make a few more sheckles from live play than I am now from online.

At least, it's worth hearing opinions I value, which is every one of yours. PM me if you feel that's better than airing it in public.

CJ

[piersmajestyk]

I have lived or spent a considerable amount of time playing poker in all of the biggies (AC, LV, MS and southern Cali). Las vegas of all of these is the pound for pound champion of places to live and play poker in in my opinion. The cost of living is cheaper than Cali and on par with AC and a little higher than MS but you don't have to deal with the shitty weather during fall and winter in AC and Mississippi. Also the variety of games/limits is overall much better in Vegas than any place other than Cali.

As far as the pros and cons of playing live versus online for me are as follows. I played primarily limits from 10-20 to 20-40 and a smattering of 40-80 during my live playing days and made right at 1.5 BB/hr across the board which is pretty damn good. In comparison on the internet I play from 0.50-1.00 to 5-10 with some time spent in the bigger games as well up to 30-60. The bottom line earnings wise is that I can make more per hour multitabling 5-10 limit and collecting bonuses and rake back than I could make playing 20-40 live or right at the same with alot less volatility. That said i made more when playing live for the simple reason that I would put in 6-8 hours everyday playing and many times much more than this and I could do so without batting an eye because live poker for me is much more stimulating. I was always focusing on my opponents even while they thought I was just drinking and having a good time and flirting with cocktail waitresses. I simply cannot make myself consistantly put in even 4 hours a day on the internet. Alot of the thrill to pick people apart in live play is just not there for me on the internet and it is hard for me to remain focused on the job at hand after a couple of hours. I consider the opposition online to be a tad bit tougher overall, perhaps quite a bit tougher at low limit games of the same level. You need to be very selective when choosing your tables and seat position in live play (this holds true in internet play as well but it is much easier to leave and get another table on the internet without having to wait for a long list of people ahead of you for a table change) because if you are like me you will be there for a few hours and it is hard to be hunting for better games while you are busy with the business at hand on your table.

I think that living in Vegas would be the best of both worlds for you as you could still take advantage of all of the free money online as well as get out to a good game at the casino whenever you wanted. It always makes me antsy just contemplating this.

[NWCougar]

If you sleep with 1,000 fat chicks and charge them $100 each, you'll have $100,000 and can sit in the "BIG GAME". if you bust out of the big game, there will always be fat chicks, cause fat chicks need lovin too, but they gotta pay for it.

[Cactus Jack]

[AlexMR]

[Cactus Jack]

Thanks. I know I can play, just not how well. That's what I HAVE to find out. I am one of those strange people whose greatest fear is waking up as a very old man and saying, "you know, I wish I'd done that." Heck, what am I going to do now? Sit on the front porch somewhere and tell stories about the past?

Should be interesting, if nothing else. As for Vegas in summer, have you ever lived in Florida in the summer?

CJ

[piersmajestyk]

[Dumb Snowman]

I'm planning on taking a shot at vegas in a few years, just over the summer. Lemme know how beatable the games are there

My worry isn't so much about being able to beat the games. From what I hear, the home games around here are more difficult than they middle to semi-high limits there. My worry is: Will I make enough money to not only get by, but to put some money away and be able to move up in limits. I mean at 1BB per hour, a very nice winrate considering you get in 20-30 hands per hour, how long would I have to play at what limit to make a decent living

I'm just not sure if it's worth it unless I get to the point where I can't find internet games that go high enough for me... I mean even if I get to 30/60 or something, it'd be hard to find a game I could beat better than that when I can have 3-4 tables of that running...

Maybe I'll just go there for the WSOP in a few years, stay a month or so, bring like 10-15k and play all the cheaper tourneys and try to hit one big


Ok I don't remember what I was trying to say, but GOOD LUCK CJ