After spending hundreds of hours in both online casinos and live casinos, there are various differences between the two despite playing the same game. Here are a few of the nuances I have noticed.
Online players are much stronger stake for stake
Normally the normal live game you will find in a casino is $1/$2 ($200NL). This is where all the beginners start. Online, the normal games may be as small as $0.01/$0.02 ($2NL) where there isn’t much cash to be made. That implies beginners in live casinos are playing for way bigger stakes than online. Online Players playing $200NL are typically very strong.
Live low-stakes players generally don’t have a clue
Can’t tell you how often times I’ve been talking to live players talk about how online players do not know what they’re doing. They will say things like it “you can’t read his face” or “online players don’t know-how to bluff and keep a straight face” – stupidness, really. Many live players don’t understand the concept of frequencies and betting patterns, which in fact are much more informative than “his lip twitched when he reached for his chips” or what ever
Raising 3x the bb preflop doesn’t do anything
Many live players do not consider big blinds, they only consider chips. What I mean by which is if by way of example, at a $1/$2 game, somebody raises $6, many players will think “oh that’s just 1 red chip” as opposed to thinking of 3 big blinds. When you are going to come in for a raise in a live game, you’ll probably want to raise between 6-8bb, at least in the $200NL live game.
Very little 3betting in live games
Most players in a live setting are way more content to just call a raise as oppose to 3bet, even with big hands like AQ and AK – and it’s certainly not for balance. Very often, if you are 3bet in a live game, the player is going to have QQ+ (weak players)
Live players think pocket pairs will be the nuts.
In a live game, players have a really hard time folding pocket pairs preflop for some reason. I’ve 3bet with hands like AQ+ and cannot tell you how many times I’ve been called by 22-77. Plenty of dead money within this spot.