Re: Stranger than Brick and Mortar

In addition to the "limited market"/small pond factor, there's another
factor that I would expect to make the online games harder - the rate of
play.

Suppose a player has a win rate of X big bets/hour at a B&M game. He has
the alternative of playing online. Apparently the online play is 3 or 4
times as fast as a live game (hands/hour), and apparently a good player can
handle 3 or 4 tables simultaneously. If so, he can make the same per-hour
profit playing at about 1/10 the limits of the live game, if he maintains
the same win rate. So I'd expect the $3/$6 live game to be comparable to
the $.25/$.50 online game just on that factor alone.

Note: I've never played online or live for real money (yet), and I'm just
relying on what I've heard or read about the relative rates of play.

Bett

"Omaha Chris" <cpsaros@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:f1md7m01h77@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
PipWhisperer@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
This begs the question: Why is there such a stark contrast? Is it
because the internet players are more savvy (ie they know how to use a
computer and navigate the web), where as the B&M players are country
bumpkins who are blue collar workers and do not study the game?



Welcome to the real world.

There is no such thing as an online poker game with a small bet of a
quarter or more that is (consistently) a fish pond. No matter what any
poker book or bullshit artist says about how "easy" it is to beat
low-limit online games. Online poker at all levels is FAR more
competitive than any live poker game $3/$6 or lower.

It doesn't matter how low you go online (except for true microstakes).
Since about 2004, and moreso than ever today, wherever you go online
there is a group of nits at every table playing by the book trying to
grind out money. Always. Sometimes it's four players, sometimes it's
eight. Even if it takes them four hours to make ten bucks, these people
will ALWAYS be there. Why wouldn't they? With online poker, you don't
have to go anywhere or do anything except turn on your computer. And
since these games have literally the whole world to draw on, it's basic
ecology. There is a niche to be filled and millions of people to fill
it. With live poker, the makeup of the table is limited by geography.
That is the key. There you can be the big fish in a small pond. Online,
the pond is enormous. No matter what size a fish you are, there will be
many others of your size.

The logic of this is simple and inarguable when you think about it.
Online poker is more difficult than live poker because it MUST be. It's
just a law of nature. The more individuals available to compete for a
resource, the tougher the competition will be.

And it's not just a pond-size thing either. The factors in play in live
games are completely different. The set of motivations that drives a
person to play poker in a casino are often not at all the same set of
motivations that drive a person to play poker online. They're not
mutually exclusive groups, but of the many hours I've spent in live
games, it never ceases to amaze me how few of my opponents (regulars or
drop-ins) actually play online (they reveal whether they do or not in
various ways).

Basically what it comes down to is that if you play patiently and
intelligently in low limit live games, you will win. If you play
patiently and intelligently in online games, you are wasting your time.
That is what everyone else is trying to do.

Once again I have written an overly long post.


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