I have been playing online for about a year now. I don't have the chance to play often in a casino as the closest one to me is 1.5 hours away. I think that online play is equivelant to no foldem holdem for the most part, so I don't think it is a true test of a poker player's skill. I do admit that I have lost more then I have won in online play, but that is more due to my lack of patience then anything else. I have started to work on that. My question is: Do most players find a difference between online play and casino play? Does having actual chips in front of you make you play tighter?

Thanks

Brad

I've only experienced one place, but playing 1/2 online and 1/3 at the Turning Stone is like night and day. TS was SUPERloose! Casino play at the low limits is "any two will do" from what I gather.

edit: I may have misinterpretted your question. As far as MY play, I played the same way I would online.

casino has by far the looser play but you have to fight the rake the travel time and blah blah blah.

It varies from casino to casino, but generally a low-limit casino game is at least as loose as a microlimit online game. "Actual chips" is an odd turn of phrase - one of the benefits to playing in a casino, IMHO, is it's much easier to detach yourself from the money and just play good long-term poker. OTOH, if you're used to the pace online - particularly multitabling - it'll be a lot slower live. Which makes this:



... a big old warning sign. Ever gone 200 hands without winning one? Not too unusual, variance nails you every now and then. But that can be a full five or six hour session at a casino, and getting cold-decked while you watch people take down massive pots with hands like 72 can be hard on the discipline, and the bankroll.

online is far more aggressive than anything you will see live.

live is loose/passive and if its not that, its tight/passive. EASY games.

All of this is subjective to where you are playing. Most of my experience is live but I have been playing online sparingly for 8 months.

My dad owns a cardroom in California and the 3-6 game there is one of the loosest games I have ever seen both agressive and passive. Much more than anything I have ever found online. I have found online to be fairly tight/passive. I think my opiinion might be a bit skewed though since I have never been able to find another 3-6 game like at my dad's cardroom. I have found that from my experience (limited) playing in Vegas your descriptions of the live games are fairly accurate.

If you're in LA its Loose/Aggresive'ish but it's donkey poker

Vegas... Loose/Passive

Believe WRTO when he says Online is harder than live... just please.

I couldn't agree more. The games at my cardroom are pathetically weak. I would give examples but it is your typical donkey poker. We've heard them all before. Just inexplicable plays where it would be impossible not to make money off these people in the long run. Man that place is great.

Saying "online is harder than live" is kind of like saying "subtraction is harder than addition". It may be true but they are both pretty easy.

Worst. Comparison. Ever.

If online 2/4 was as easy to beat as live 2/4 lots more people would be considering turn pro. People coldcall absolutely everything, dead money everywhere. People wait two hours to see AK and won't fold no matter what the board is when they get it.

I'm actually looser live because I'm seeing less hands and I can concentrate on the players since I'm not doing 4 tables. However, online is the only place I've seen where people blatantly come to give money away. Mike Matesow is right, online you see people calling huge bets when they can literally only beat 7 high. I've still yet to see that live.

Well...Live at the Bike.

I second that notion. Even playing NL online is more of a science than a skill. Online NL is generally comparitive to likes of donkey limit play in casinos. Any two cards and call all the way down.

Best way to find out is go there yourself. I find I enjoy live play much better (am just way too hooked to the OL play. sick). I feel I get a much better sense of the players and how they play and they'll stick around for a while, whereas online people can come and go so quick. I also agree with UglyJim that a cold session live requires much tollorance. Finally, every place is so different. Your card and my cardroom and their cardrooms are gonna all have different play. Go check it out, you know what's best for your game better than anyone.

All three of those are very broad generalizations. I don't want to spend too much time on it, but I will say that they all depend on what limit you're playing.

Now, for the OP's question. Some people do better online, and some people do better live. When you have a sense of immediate cash, it does change things a bit. Which will be the case in a casino. One of the reasons Vegas started using chips was so that people wouldn't think of it as money. People would often joke and say, they're just chips.

I reccomend playing in a casino and seeing if it changes your game. Or your approach to the game and your lack of patience. Hopefully you can and will find a happy medium where you are winning online and at the casino. Good Luck.

Generally the play is a lot worst live at a casino than online if your playing the same limits. Online, it might be a bit tougher to find extremely soft 15/30 games, whereas Live, you'd expect them all to be soft.

I've yet to play in a tough middle-limit live game ever personally.

Of course we're talking low-middle limits here, as you move up in limits, it's obviously going to get tougher whether your playing live or online.

Play at the casino is worse because 99% of the people playing aren't as patient as they should be.

Casino play is so slow so alot of people are playing unproftiable hands, unprofitably.