The differences between live and online poker

There are many differences between live and online poker but in terms of technical playing differences then I will discuss one of the major unseen differences in this post. What I want to discuss here is the importance of balancing your range. It is common knowledge now that live games are softer than online games and there are many reasons for this. So in order to compensate for playing only one table and probably only 30 hands per hour then you need to play considerably higher stakes.

A very good player may run at 20bb/100 playing $10-$20 NLHE live which equates to $400/100 hands. But if he is only seeing 30 hands per hour then the hourly rate drops to $120/hour. This is still very good but the hand numbers are low and so the variance is going to be very high. Also with live poker then the games are going to be less frequent and so what this means is that the amount of downtime that you will experience will be higher than online in casinos where perhaps only one game is active.

There will be downtime when games take a while to start up, downtime when games break up and so forth. So out of a 40 hour working week then you may only get 25 hours of actual playing time. This is still an excellent $3000/week of course and would elevate you into the realm of a good solid winning pro. But you often need to unbalance your range to maximise your hourly rate in live poker to exploit weaker opponents. If you make no effort in online poker to balance your ranges as you move up through the levels then you will find it increasingly difficult to make money at the game.

There is still very good money to be made playing online poker but I think a pro needs to operate in a far different way than before to get that money. For example I think there is a potentially greater edge to be achieved simply playing one table but at a higher level. This means higher variance of course and a much larger bankroll but nobody said that money came easy in poker. But you absolutely need to balance your range online if you play NL100 and higher in my opinion. Once your opponents start to visualise what your ranges are then they can assess what their equity is against that range and slowly but surely pick you apart.

Because you are seeing so few hands playing live and the average opponent is weaker then your ranges will go unnoticed and so the primary strategy revolves around maximising your earn rate and that often involves playing in what can only be described as a sub optimal style. These are the key playing differences though between live poker and online poker…….balancing ranges is pivotal in one and not in the other.