After spending hundreds of hours in both professional online betting casinos and live casinos, there are various differences between the 2 despite playing the same game. Below are some of the nuances I have noticed.

Online players are much stronger stake for stake

Normally the smallest live game you’ll find in a casino is $1/$2 ($200NL). This is where all the beginners start. Online, the smallest games can be as small as $0.01/$0.02 ($2NL) where there is not much money 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 do not have a clue

Can not tell you how many times I’ve been talking to live players speak about how online players don’t determine what they are doing. They will say things like “you can’t read his face” or “online players don’t understand 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 whatever

Raising 3x the bb preflop doesn’t do anything

Many live players don’t consider big blinds, they only consider chips. What I mean by that’s if by way of example, at a $1/$2 game, somebody raises $6, many players will think “oh that’s just 1 red chip” in place of thinking about 3 big blinds. If you are going to come in for a raise in a live game, you will 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. Quite often, when you are 3bet in a live game, the player will probably have QQ+ (weak players)

Live players think pocket pairs will be the nuts.

In a live game, players have a very hard time folding pocket pairs preflop for some reason. I have 3bet with hands like AQ+ and can not tell you how many times I’ve been called by 22-77. Plenty of dead money inside this spot.