Last time I was on the forums, there was some discussion around the difference in skill levels between live and online poker

However, I am more interested in any idea that might suggest that a bad player - ie: worse than me - plays a similar game both in play chips, online and live?

Now, Im not an amateur - Ive been playing poker regularly for years now but I dont play every day or week...although I used to in my first year but other priorities took over... and I'm humble enough to say that my skill level is probably the low side of average against other decent players but I also play in a regular home game and (no arrogance intended here) everyone is a fish -

Mainly because I'm the only one who even bothers to actually 'learn' to get better - eg: I've read books, Ive watched and analysed the popular shows as well as teaching material from various sites - trying to incorporate principles into my game blah blah blah, ...ya know......#stilllearning

So I play fish online - then I usually ask my questions here with a hand history to get understanding of my play because most of my questions are asked in the micros and the 0.1/0.2 - 0.5/0.10 levels likely relate to my live 0.10/0.20 fish games -

But can I take such advice (for my online game)and apply it to my regular fishtank game?

TLDR: Online game = Im a relative fish. Live game = Im not a fish so is there any difference between my live fish friends vs my online micro (obvious) fish villains?

Play chips is nothing like real money even at the lowest levels.

Live fish are much more likely, imo, to have never or barely played poker before. They literally often don't know anything about it all and play practically at random. Online, even bad players have brushed up against some basic concepts. I feel like you will find way more extreme calling stations live than online.

Saying that though...what would such basic concepts entail?

Therefore - what could I likely eliminate from the thinking of the fish in my live game?

I think that multi-tablers can actually create a pretty large distortion in the live vs online fish question. If you think of the average winning to break even player playing 10 tables just as an example. Perhaps the worst players playing only an average of 2 tables. Once you look at the fact that all players are 1 tabling live games you start to get a pretty good approximation of both being somewhat equal.

Throw in the fact that live play includes a much less static situation where most are capping 100 bbs, but in live play stacks can deviate quite a bit as players are less likely to pick up after accumulating some amount over the cap.

Also there are players who can make up for much of their technical mistakes with some experience in live reads can cause some underestimates of live fish.

After all considerations, I once worked out some estimates to show the proportions to be pretty close between live and online. It's mostly the Multi-tablers distorting the ratio that makes online tougher.

Then for my live game personally and those players I can confidently assume are live fish who - if they do play online likely do not multi more than two tables (very highly likely) - the help and advice I receive at my current skill level and game level (re online play) here on 2+2 can be applied with confidence to my current live game.

Sweet Happy with that and thanks

Online fish as stated before are going to have more conceptual knowledge even if only at a very basic foundation level, live players are going to be very casual gamers who may play as a means to pass time or have a try at it, not only this but we can factor in that online fish, though be it less observant and capable of deductive reasoning are going to be playing a MUCH higher volume of hands than live fish. Though the online fish will not be able to use this volume of hands to apply any constant improvement to their own game it is going to result in them having a higher situational awareness in certain spots, and a better understanding of very basic concepts in contrast to said live fish. Think of a baby that takes ten steps a day but falls down after every step as opposed to one that takes fifty steps a day and only falls down half as many times, obviously neither can walk properly but one can do so better than the other even if not being able to walk properly.

^ that's a good way to look at it - however it would appear that it's more likely the live players in my game would be more prone to repeat the same mistakes due to lower volume of hands and the time lag of the game they're in

As such - it does make my live players easier to exploit regarding hand patterns especially when regarding river decisions

Another interesting point Rags, though I do agree, to a certain extent I think that due to the higher volume of hands played online that actually the online fish are more prone to mistakes, simply due to seeing a higher volume of hands per hour, thus are more prone to making mistakes, however when live fish make mistakes, due to seeing a lower volume of hands, the mistakes they make are more damage incurring