Online vs Live Poker: Where Is The Bigger Edge?

Poker is dying - said 2005 WSOP Main Event Winner Joe Hachem in early 2014. Daniel ‘jungleman’ Cates picked up where Hachem left off and said in an interview last year - after he received his money back on Full Tilt: "Online poker is dying." Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu criticized numerous times the online grinders and the way they conduct their business at the tables while recently, one-time EPT champ and former Internet crusher Patrik Antonius admitted the big games dried out in places like London and Monaco.

So what’s happening with the game of poker? Is there any value left? Of course there is still value it's just that the landscape is different - Antonius also said: "...things just change in our industry" - and many games moved back to the live green felt (privately some might say) after switching from live to online in the Chris Moneymaker era. That means live is the new green right? Well, it depends on the perspective you take and where you are at on the skill ladder. To draw a worthy conclusion, we need to break the game down to its individual pieces and compare online vs live poker play based on those pieces.

Playing Field

What does playing field mean? Basically we want to know whether the games are soft or not. So what games are softer? Live or online? The answer is clearer than the cloudless sky on a summer day… and it’s not even close. The live games are way softer than online. First of all, at the live tables, you won’t find your regular online nit - he will be bored to death if he decides to play live and he won’t win that much money anyway What you will find is this: some of the times - depends where are you living of course - the loose professional who pays attention to his image at the table and many recreational players who just want to have a good time, see a flop, catch a flush on the river, you know 2006 style.

The tables are much fishier, you just need to pay attention and not get bored. In the online environment however, playing 2NL on some sites is like playing 25NL in 2008 or 2009. You have to be a fairly decent player to crush the micros and get ready for some growing pains from the low stakes up. The weaker players are hard to come by online, especially these days and especially at the higher stakes.

+1 Live Poker

Volume

Where can you grind more? The answer is as easy as the previous one but not the same. Online, you can play tens of thousands of hands each month while live, well not so much. You get dealt around 20 to 30 hands per hour in a cash game and remember, you’re playing only one table. Online, you can play up to 24 tables if you feel like it or just play 3 or 4 Zoom/Speed Poker tables. And we’re not even discussing the time to get to the live poker room and so on (not to mention the money spent to get there).

If you feel playing poker right now, everything is easy with the internet. You just sit comfortably on your couch, in front of your PC/laptop/tablet/smartphone, open the poker software and voila. You can start playing in no time whereas at a casino, you might have to wait for a seat to become available - maybe the facility doesn’t have many tables or maybe it’s just crowded.

+1 Online Poker

Bankroll Management

Ok, you might want to play live with a dealer shuffling the cards but do you have the proper bankroll management? Can you sustain your potential losses? If not, then you might have to settle with the online play. The live stakes are pretty much high-heavy with no possibility to play something like $0.05/$0.10, $0.10/$0.25 NLHE or $10 tournaments and satellites. The poker facilities must pay their dealers and staff and also pay the utilities for the place they’re using.

Online, things are much easier: no dealer, just an RNG script and a facility to house the servers. The process is more automatic and those servers can sustain hundreds of games from 2NL to 5000NL and from $0.10 nano SNGs to $51,000 Super High Rollers. All in all, to play live you need a big bankroll, it’s a take-it-or-leave-it situation whereas online, you can start with as little as your lunch money.

+1 Online Poker

Availability

Availability refers to the amount of games you can choose from whether you are sitting in front of a display with a poker app opened or you are at a real poker room. Again the answer is not even close. Online, you have a variety of games and limits from No Limit Texas Hold’Em to Pot Limit Omaha and mixed games, from $1 tournaments to the $215 Sunday Million and more.

Of course, it depends on your chosen poker skin and network but overall you will find more games online than live. When you arrive at a live poker room, there will be times when you will have to wait your turn, you can’t just bust in and demand a table - unless you are a high roller like Phil Ivey. Online, the waiting time is negligible, whether you like to play at noon or at midnight, there will always be games to choose from.

+1 Online Poker

Difficulty

The difficulty criteria is more of a subjective matter and related on some extent to the playing field. Nevertheless, this is not about the softness of the games; it’s more about the availability of tools that can get you ahead of the curve. Tools like HUDs, poker trackers or Game Theory Optimal software. Since you can play with HUDs on most online poker networks and use your shove/fold chart while at the tables, the online environment can make your life a lot easier. In live play, you can’t use any of that, you just have your poker experience and your reading skills. Most importantly, you must be very careful live and train your poker face because the live tells - gestures, mimics, and what you say can virtually turn your cards face up given a experienced live opponent. Online, you are only worried about your timing tells and betting patterns.

Of course, because of all the training and game software out there the games online are harder. For live poker such tools don’t exist - the field is much softer which could cancel the online edge. But for a beginner, there is no better place to start than the virtual felt.

+1 Online Poker

Online vs Live Poker? It Depends!

If we look at the score, the answer should be a no brainer: +4 for Online and only +1 for Live Poker. But is it really? Not exactly!

The long and more complex answer is in fact: It depends! Like in all of poker, you can’t make a decision based on only one (or five for that matter) factors. You have to take into consideration other aspects and look at the big picture. Yet, since you’re seeking advice, you probably need something to start on. So, if you are a beginner, concentrate on the online games. You don’t need to invest that much in the first place and you have a variety of tools, training sites, and poker forums to learn from. You also have many games to choose from.

However, if you are an experienced player who makes a living by grinding the medium and high stakes, you should consider the live play. There is a lot of value in these games and with the online high stakes drying out, you should start looking for some live action. And if you aren’t that fond of our advice, then just look at the likes of Tom Dwan, Daniel Cates, Doug Polk, and even Phil Galfond. They don’t play as much online anymore. Is it because they quit? Nah, probably because they found more profitable live places to play in.

How about you? Where is your bigger edge? Let us know in the comments below!