Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 2,403
It's a very different world, if you're used to multitabling online. Live tables are often 9 or 10 max, which means more multiway pots and a higher chance of someone actually having a great hand. People generally play looser live (even tight players - folding for an hour can be boring and people lose focus and do stupid things, even if they've folded for an hour. Or they get drunk.). I know I do and I'm not the greatest of live poker players because of that. Multitabling online you almost always have a hand you can play, live not so much. You do have more time to observe your opponents of course, which should be your main focus. That said, live opponents often just chit chat something random, even when it's their turn to act. That really drives me crazy, which of course could be an intentional way to tilt me. Or they're idiots. Or a bit of both.
Rake is often higher (and might have other factors, like this local casino where at the NL100 tables rake is 10%, rake cap 6€, which of course hurts you most when the pot is middle sized, meaning you have to carefully think about not playing some type of hands that might be profitable to play at other rakes) and there's also another rake in play in the form of extra expenses. If you're playing online poker at home, drinking tap water and eating a cheap microwave meal or cooking something yourself you won't spend much money. But if you're out all day you're probably eating out, maybe having a few beers (or sodas) in the casino. I've heard drinks are free in Vegas but over here the casinos are very expensive in that regard. If you pop 10€ on a meal eating out, plus 10-20€ on drinks you have to consider that as part of the rake. Playing, say, NL100 or NL200 live might become unprotitable or breakeven because of this.
Live games are of course typically, but not always, looser and easier than online games, so your winrate should be a bit higher. That said, playing 30 hands an hour, with higher rake and the aforementioned living expenses "rake" very likely means that your hourly wage will be higher online, playing 500+ hands an hour, even when you play lower stakes.
And of course, since live games are so slow, playing an amount of hands that has any kind of statistical meaning will take ages. So whether you actually beat the opponents and the rake can be difficult to judge.
