After spending hundreds of hours in both online casinos and live casinos, there are plenty of differences between the two despite playing the exact same game. Here are several of the nuances I’ve 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 minimal games can be as small as $0.01/$0.02 ($2NL) where there is just not much money to be made. That means 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

Cannot tell you how often times I’ve been talking to live players speak about how online players don’t know what they are doing. They will say things like “you cannot 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 far more informative than “his lip twitched when he reached for his chips” or what ever

Raising 3x the bb preflop does not do anything

Many live players do not consider big blinds, they only consider chips. What I mean by that is if one example is at a $1/$2 game, somebody raises $6, many players will think “oh that’s just 1 red chip” instead of thinking of 3 big blinds. For anybody who is 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 is certainly not for balance. Normally, if you are 3bet in a live game, the player will probably have QQ+ (weak players)

Live players think pocket pairs are the nuts.

In a live game, Click on Mpm players have a really hard time folding pocket pairs preflop for some reason. I have 3bet with hands like AQ+ and cannot tell you how many times I have been called by 22-77. Lots of dead money in this particular spot.