I'm kinda in the same boat as OP. I play live underground games often and $200nl online and stated dabbling in 400nl. I do well online and live. I actually much prefer live because of the extra info I can gain and the players are so bad I can't even fathom what they are thinking sometimes. Anyway, been wondering, BR aside, If live 10/20-10/25 would be a reasonable jump from 200nl once the roll was in place. The only live games underground here are 2/2-2/5 and the players are just so so so terrible.

Resurrecting this pre-BF thread is almost certainly a bad idea because games - both online and live - have changed dramatically since then.

There's really nothing equivalent IMO.

Live poker and online poker are not the same game. Just like Spanish and Portuguese look and sound alike to outsiders. Hard to make a good comparison. OP will likely do OK after learning the differences and adapting.

Yes, you could compare the Arena League and the NFL from the 70's. Live would be the Arena League with huge pots and AK doubling through a donkey who called an obvious ace and face or monster raise with ace rag off. While online is the Miami Dolphins Larry Csonka 3 yards and a cloud of dust raise and take it down small ball boring football.

I am a winning 50nl online player and a break even 100nl player at poker stars.

I have been able to crush 5/10 so far in my casino.

I suggest u start from 1/2 and move up fairly quickly. The key is to know how much you should be adjusting for live game as it demands a different set of "know how"

I started playing live poker with exactly the same way I played online. To my horror, ppl can't fold TP type of hand at all, which leads me to lose a lot of money initially through bluffing alone. From there, I started to be more mindful of the differences in live vs online and bet for fat value than to get myself into marginal situations.

The key is, you need to know how to adjust. Online players have the mathematical "know how", but severely lacking in other aspect such as looking for tells through physical tells and bet sizing tells.

Another aspect is variance. Are u prepared to spend hours or days or even week without hitting any hand ? Given the smaller volume of hands played, variance is a real bitch...

Not trying to derail but what casino has these limits around Northern NJ?


My opinion is to play 2/5 and buyin for 100bb and start from there.

Why are people saying live and online are "different games"? Do you get more cards or something?

They are the same game, the only reason it might be "different" is because live players are horrible and so some general equilibrium-situations have to be completely ignored and balanced strategies are far from optimal. It's still poker, you need to make decisions based on information that is presented to you and whoever does the best job wins the money.

Now you can argue that a 5c/10c online grinder will struggle at live games because the severe differences in player tendencies even though his basic strategy will crush them, a 100NL player should never ever have any problems adjusting to fish.

Also why is half the posts about bankroll management? It's totally irrelevant as we're discussing skill level, not whether someone has the money to play a certain stake. It's a hypothetical case anyways so no need to throw in variables that don't have any meaning.

2/5 = 10nl
5/10 = 25nl

Only thing that's different is getting over shoving 2k in on the river at 5/10 vs $50 at 25nl.