• English
• Español
• Deutsch
• Français
• Svenska
• Suomi
• Norsk
• Nederlands
• Italiano
• Português
• Dansk
• Polski
• Čeština
• 日本語
• 汉语语言

Live Poker vs. Online

We've all heard the same thing before. "Live poker is so much different than online."  You always hear the argument that you can see facial expressions, breathing patterns, etc, to make reads live, that you couldn't make online.  Therefore it's easier to get more information live than it is online.  Although I don't disagree with tells you can pick up live vs. online, I still believe online poker has just as much potential information, if not more than live play do.  Let me explain.

As far as how you make reads online vs live, is obvious.  Online you can't physically see the person so all you have are betting patterns, stack sizes, and your own intuition to make a read.  What you do have that live players lack, is a tournament lobby that is constantly updating in real time.  You also have the ability to watch any table in your tournament at any time.  These two things are a tremendous advantage.  When you are near any sort of Bubble, like a money bubble or a big pay jump bubble, it is great to know exactly where you stand in relation to the other players.  This is especially helpful in satellites, near the money.  Also because of the fact you can observe tables while playing yours, is a huge advantage also.  You can sit there and get reads on players you're not even playing with, and when you finally meet, you already have an advantage.

Not to mention one of the greatest things about online poker.  When you get knocked out of a tournament, there isn't a long walk to your car coupled with a longer wait until the next tournament.  You can just sign up for a new tournament right away.  If you want you can even play as many tournaments at the same time as you can feel comfortable with.  This is a big reason why I feel so many young players accellerate at such a fast rate.  They see so many more hands in a day than a live player will.  Simply because the cards are automatically dealt after each hand, and the ability to multiply the amount of hands you see by up to 10x.  Some SNG players have been known to 30 table at one time.

These are just a few of the differences on the surface.  What you do with the above information when you are near pay jumps or money bubbles, is up to you, and how you want to interpret it.  I just thought it would be interesting to point out some tools that live players lack, that online players use religiously. There are advantages and disadvantages on both sides.

P0ker H0