The Great Poker Debate! Online Poker or Live Poker, What's Best?

Friday, February 26, 2010

The Great Poker Debate! Online Poker or Live Poker, What's Best?

When we look at the words poker and rooms combined we are psychologically going to think one way or another and at times both ways. What do I mean by this? Really my meaning is simple.
Did you think of online poker rooms?

Did you think of poker rooms in your local area or of a casino abroad?

Did you think of both?

When I thought of writing this blog article and typed the words “poker rooms” I personally thought about online poker rooms. I paused and thought about poker as a whole and thought “I have forgotten about the brick and mortar rooms today; my bad!”. This made me add the word “debate” to my title and well; here I am now throwing a debate at you!

One would believe that the immediate thought of online poker rooms makes me an online poker player. This is the case, I rarely play in a live poker room; time and lifestyle till now hasn’t permitted me to play live too often. You may have stumbled across this article as a casual internet user and may play in live poker rooms; maybe you play in both. The questions are what is the best for us to make profit; live or online? And is there a difference? Let me look at a few of the differences and the way you generate profit from each of the poker playing types.

Structure and Convenience:
Obviously there is a huge difference when it comes to structural surrounds. With an online poker room you can play in any building or location that you like. I have even had discussion with people who have continued to play in an online poker room while they were on the toilet!!!! A Poker room made of brick and mortar is at a distant location and you must go there, stay there and then go home. Result of the debate on which type poker room is more convenient would indeed be online poker rooms and I guess that’s why I play online more – the poker room structure and convenience!

Cost Saving Poker Play:
Online convenience can be cost saving too! No need to transit is a saving; especially if the transiting is going to be 300 miles! There is no need for accommodation, flights, fuel for your car and you can eat and drink from your own refrigerator. There may be some small fees if you need to deposit or withdraw and the currency conversion also comes into place. This is nothing compared to the prior mentioned transit tho. The result on cost saving poker play: online wins again!

Poker Game Security:
There is no hiding the fact that there has been a ton of collusions, scandals and hustling on online poker rooms. These have been documented, investigated and dealt with. Online gaming software developers have embedded high tech security systems into their software to detect a lot of this nonsense. It still happens though with hundreds of thousands of players online it is always going to be hard to stop all cheats. Live poker games are seen to be the ants when it comes to avoiding security issues; in my opinion though a lot of things are overlooked by people. Hustling still exists, so does colluding and chip dumping. There is team tagging and all sorts of cheating. People in large tourneys chip dump live; they also work together to pot build in cash games. It is apparent though that scandals and card stacking in a players favour are all but impossible. One thing that is always overlooked though when playing live is personal risk. I would rather have 10k online and log off my PC then carry it out of a casino. I would also rather piss an online player off by sending them broke then one in a live scenario to be beaten in a car park and robbed or have my car vandalised. I know this doesn’t happen often: but it does! My friend Doogs had his car destroyed! Another friend strangled someone one day at the table. This is a real toss up BUT based on the pros and cons of each that I have quickly added up – online wins again! Go add them up for yourself and feel free to add more via comment.

Socialisation and Fun:
Online poker play can be a ton of fun, especially if it is risk free poker play with a bunch of friends from all over the globe. I played years ago with a bunch of friends on Party Poker – every night! We became close, enjoyed the time together and have mostly all met in person now. Online poker can be very social and fun. There is nothing like meeting people face to face though, no doubt about that. Live poker play is the winner here by a mile! One could think of annoying drunkards in either of the play choices and there is no avoiding them – again, live poker play wins this little part of the debate.

Profit Making:
Barry Shulman has won more than 2.6 million dollars playing live poker in two tournaments. 1.3mil in October and then another 1.3mil in January (give or take some $$). There is no doubt when it comes to big cashing that live poker plays wins. The weekly majors online just don’t cut it. You can’t win that much money in a few months without having 10 high stakes cash tables open at once and having a brilliant run in tournaments. Obviously I am not a big gun in the poker world, I don’t play stakes that high, but analysis tells me that this is indeed the case. On a weekly basis you can win more playing online though, you can play on multiple rooms and multiple tables if you want. Also the play never stops when tournaments are involved (also cash – but you can play cash games nonstop live also). In the long run I believe an online player at an elite level is going to win more money as they can play more. But a live player can win just as much with a good run over years with less time and effort spent doing it– I hope this makes sense. I would prefer to spend less time and effort to win big bucks so I choose live poker play here; but it is very close and some would oppose me and choose online.

Reading and Tells:
An online player can be marked, noted and branded. At the touch of a button you can see what type of player they are and how they have previously played. All of their stats are available on tournament and also at times cash play. You can instantly see their strength and weaknesses and also pick up on betting patterns and hand ranges at the table as you play with them. Live poker play you have the ability to read a person’s face, body movements and well; tells. If they are a gun player you are going to know how good they are and have a good indication of how they play; specifically if you have racked up against them before. Regardless of these physical indicators there is more data available at your disposal on an online poker player if you want to get technical and use it. Some people are not interested in this though and are happier to read a person face to face; then and there! They are better at reading a person’s live tells too! Better at reading live tells then using statistical databases on a PC. Mathematically online poker wins this debate; but to some players the maths doesn’t count. Realistically though one is better off having notations and statistics and pattern tells.

And the winner after debate ....

Well there really isn’t one. This blog post is informative and hopefully has pointed out some things you may have not thought of. The debate will forever continue. Back to the first lot of paragraphs! You are either an online poker player, live poker player or both and nothing anyone writes is going to change that fact. The debate of which form of poker playing is better will continue for centuries without a doubt. There really is no answer. For now I will continue playing cost effective, profit making online poker as time permits