So I was playing with someone that I'm cordial with and the topic of 'do you play online? what site? limit?" came up. My response was I play the same online as I do here and his response was "oh really?". I said yeah, why? He was stating that online 1/2 is more like 2/5+ and I didn't really seem to see why that would be the case.

I didn't actually put any thought into but thinking about it now, I'm still not seeing what the difference is. outside of seeing more hands I didn't find the play to be any better but I guess this could be the fact that I was simply not thinking that it should be.

so is there a difference? what am I missing here?

I'm sure this exact topic has been brought up before but this forum is so damn big.

If you don't notice the difference between 1/2 live and online you are not paying enough attention live. Do you see how many people open limp? Do you see how rare 3-betting preflop is? Do you notice more betting patterns/tells?

actually thinking about it now, I guess there is more limping pre in a live game.. and in a live game I'm typically one of the few in the ring doing the 3 betting.. that being said I didn't notice it as something that stuck out at me.

I did notice that my 3bets online don't typically work as well for steal attempts.

So I guess the answer, is yes there 1/2 online is closer to 2/5 live? what's the reason behind this? is there a specific reason why this is the case?

just trying to understand why the environment changes the apples to apples comparison in this case.

I'd say 1/2 online is closer to like 5/10 as far as how the regs play. Reason being? I don't know to be 100% honest with you. I'll guess that since 1/2 is the lowest buyin at a casino that's where a majority of the weaker players will play. Online is an entirely different beast. A lot of players are multi-tabling, playing with HUD stats and doing a lot more studying than the average live player (that's an assumption for sure).

this makes sense... and I think I'd lean as being the reason.

Based on my experiences online versus live, Whatever stakes you are beating online you can safely move up 2 - 3 levels in a live setting. I think in a live setting you have more people just playing for fun or playing more causally and aren't as concerned about the money or making the right play every time. Online, even at the micro stakes you will see loads of good quality players cutting their chops, perfecting their game, and forming the necessary habits to eventually move up the ladder.

I'd be willing to wager a significant amount of $$ that the percentage of players studying Hand Histories, reading books, etc. is much higher in online poker than it is in live poker.

I was beating 1/2 online for a few years less than ten years ago then got sidetracked. Not sure how much tougher the games online are now, but I think live you see a much wider range of skill than online. Live you will see clueless people sitting next to very strong players. Online the player pool skill tends to be more centralized. Definitely more aggressive preflop online.

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Someone limped, called a $16 shove, then called my 50 dollar squeeze with 36s in my last session. He then flopped middle pair and donk bet. That is live poker.

$1/$2 live plays about the same as .01/.02 online.

Which, incidentally, is why Blackrain79's book, "Crushing the Microstakes" is probably one of the best books for beating the live $1/$2 game.

JMHO.

It depends slightly on what the highest game available where you play is but I wouldn't say any 1/2 game is more difficult than 10NL online. People can fall into playing live poker without ever hearing of 2p2 or a training site and a lot of them didn't drive to the casino not to play hands.

Edit: I'm not sure how successful you are online but if you're a winning player at reasonable stakes I'd caution you to not mention it and just lie, say you play either micros or not at all. Being seen as a winning online reg isn't great for your image imo.

The sheer amount of information available to online players and a more sophisticated eco system so to speak. Donks are going to lose their money online faster just based on h/hr. Even the biggest donk at my normal casino can still get 2-3 hours of play in for his $400-$600 playing 1/2. Live players as you've shown even being a player that obviously is looking to play well just by being on these boards are less aware of their game then even the most basic low stakes online grinder with PT (not sure that's the program people use anymore) and a HUD.

OP can't be serious. He's probably one-tabling 1/2 online for fun as a losing rec. Now, there's nothing wrong with that, but someone who's playing 200nl and actually knows what they're doing would obviously never show such unawareness about the differences between online and live play. So I'm guessing that the fact that OP says he's playing 1/2 online is meaningless. We can all say we play 3/6 or 10/20 online. Everybody can open a table and start donating.

The absolute best 200 NL players on ACR are making 1-2 BB/100 and making the majority of profits from rakeback and the beast. On Ignition, the 200NL games are softer and similar to live (more short stackers and loose passives).

I would agree that the 1/2-2NL comparison is the most applicable.