What Are the Differences Between Live and Online Poker – Is Online Poker Rigged?
First of all, both online and live poker each have their own individual advantages and disadvantages. Let’s discuss the advantages. In regard to online poker, you obviously see many, many more hands per hour, especially if you are playing multiple tables and tournaments at once. This can be one of the most effective ways to learn the game quickly and efficiently, as well as be an avenue of much higher profits for more experienced players. It allows a player to stay in the appropriate level for his/her bankroll without sacrificing the potential to make some substantial profits. Online also offers very low limit games such as .25/.50 and .50/1 as well as .50/2 which are excellent learning games and are basically unheard of when playing in Vodka138 card room.
Also, the fact that you cannot be seen when playing online can be a benefit, especially if you are a very readable player. However, it can obviously be a disadvantage as well because you cannot read physical tells of other players, which leads me to my next point. Reading players online is a completely different animal from reading players playing live. As I mentioned before, it is much more “timing-based and click-based”.
By this I mean you are looking at factors such as the length of time it takes someone to call or raise, and making adjustments based on it. This is actually an advantage of online poker because many players will not even realize how fast or slow they are clicking and giving away the power of their hand. In addition to that, the WORST thing that a player can do online is use the hot-buttons (check/fold, raise any, check, etc.). Players who are lazy and habitually use these buttons will get CRUSHED because others always catch on. DON’T USE THEM.
Live poker also has its advantages. The most obvious is that you can SEE the other players at the table, and use your voice to your advantage. I will discuss some standard tells later, but once you learn how to effectively read other players consistently, you will see that it really is almost like their cards are face up. The best players and professionals play the opponent about 80% of the time, and only depend on powerful cards about 20%.
For almost all beginners, it is the complete opposite or worse. You also can get your cash immediately from the cashier, while it may take weeks to get an electronic transfer or check from an online account. This can also be extremely helpful in restricting yourself from playing too much when you are on tilt, and can definitely help you stay within bankroll during a particularly trying stretch.
Moving on, let’s discuss the major disadvantages without being repetitive. Many of them are the opposite perspective from the previously listed advantages, so you will want to examine them and work to counteract them. limitation is exactly the problem often encountered by both new and seasoned players. limitation, in poker is usually more easily found in games such as HORSE or Omaha than NL Hold’em, since it is more of a challenge to find a way to win at both. Because it is easier to compete against players of a lower skill level, you also have a higher probability of losing a lot of hands. Due to impulsivity, you also have a higher probability of chasing cards in order to make up for your losses, which can prove to be costly.
Additionally, since much of poker is based on reading your opponent, being able to tell if they are bluffing or to simply knowing what hand they have can be very important. Our secondary reason for playing limit poker is to try and work on our read skills, to improve at what we already know. That is, we want to learn to be more selective in the hands we play and in the situations we decide to play. We will be more selective against weaker opponents, and be more aggressive with better players.
All of these reasons point out the fact that limit poker is for more selective players, and also for more aggressive players. The combination of all of these skills and options is what makes limit poker the game it is today. We would like to offer as much reassurance as possible to players who are choosing a game to play. Because, while we will always try to play as diverse a game as we can, we will also always remember where our comfort level lies and hope to win players with more experience.