Is it true that in general the players online are better than 1/2 live players, and that online games usually play equivalent to 3-4x the stakes live? I.e. .25/.50 online plays like a 1/2 live game plays?

I'm just wondering because I've been playing ~25 hours a week live for the past few weeks being on break from university and now that I'm going back, I only have convenient openings to be playing live twice a week for about 12 hours. I'm going to mainly have to be playing 1-2 hour sessions periodically throughout the week online in compromise. Would you suggest someone that regularly plays 1/2 live play .25/.50 on ignition?

I apologize if this is the wrong forum...I was generally unsure of where to post this.

I don't play on Ignition, but in general 0.25/0.50 online is WAAAAAYYYYYY tougher than 1/2 live. Not even in the same ballpark. Live 1/2 is closer to penny tables online.

Rake is too high at 1/2 most places. Here in Vegas most casinos are $5 and $2 promo now

There are several threads on going the other way, but few on live players transitioning to online. Check the threads in "best of" and reverse them, to get an idea.

But as of Black Friday when I pretty much quite playing OL poker, I was winning over 10BBs/hr at live 1/2 and breaking even at .05/.10 (AKA NL10) online. It is miles tougher. There is no real money online game that I am aware of that is as loose and passive as live 1/2.

If an extra dollar a hand is affecting your winrate significantly at 1/2 live, you have way bigger leaks to address first.

My point is 1/2 live rake is just too big a percentage of the pot. Play 2/5 (which is not that much tougher) and have a $5 rake at 5 percent instead of 10 percent with zero promo drop.

3aces, did you even read OP? He's talking about moving from 1/2 live to OL. Your thoughts on live 1/2 rake are not relevant to the thread.

in live pokers everybody sucks until proven otherwise, online poker its kinda opposite

Depends where you are playing 1/2 NL live. I've read several people on here saying 1/2 NL in Vegas is the toughest place in America to play 1/2.

I play 1/2 live and am beginning to play more 1/3 live. Online, I've mainly played $.10/$.20 but have played $.25/$.50 and felt comfortable at the table. If you're questioning about what level you should start at, I'd start with $.10/$.20 and go from there.

Also, on weekdays obviously start playing when people get home from work ie after 6pm and dont play during the day to make the games easier.

Differences: one is easily beatable and the other is not.


1c/2c (2NL) is much tougher than any love table I’ve ever played at and that includes rock party OMC games at 9AM on a Tuesday.


I was playing 25NL as recently as 2016 and I find 5NL plays tougher than that now.

Haven't played online since Black Friday. Why is it so hard now? How long has it been like that? Is it all the software / HUDs? Do people just have solvers playing for them? If I'm playing against 5 PokerSnowie AI bots and 3 pros I guess what's the point of playing?

Live poker is a bunch of degenerates trying to get their dopamine fix, online poker is a bunch of nerds trying to get good at a video game.

The fact that its banned in the wealthiest country in the world doesn't help.

Basically, only the hardest corps Merican players are going to jump through the hoops it takes to get money online these days. The casual rec who saw the commercials on ESPN an decided to try it out are long gone.

I've played lots of 1/2 NL in Vegas. I stand by my comparison to penny tables online.

There are several reasons the online player pool is a lot tougher. First, as mentioned, it's a pain for American casual rec players to deposit & play, so a lot fewer of them do. Second, lots of the good/decent regs are multitablers; if someone's playing 12 tables, the player pool effectively has 12 copies of that person. Third, boredom is a lot less of a factor (especially for multitablers), so there are way more people playing disciplined TAG games than you'll find live; people aren't there to GAMBOOOOOL.