Excuse me if this isn't in the right forum feel free to move it if need be.
I'm looking for advice on the different mindsets of playing live tournies v online tourneys. I do really well in live tourneys and cash games but seem to get crushed in online tourneys. I use sharkscope and my graph is going way in the wrong direction but I'm balancing that up with my good fortune in live play. I've played live from Glasgow to Las Vegas and have done really well (especially in Vegas where I've cashed in many tourneys and won my fair share also) so where am I going wrong online? I just can't seem to win a coin flip online and even when I get it in with a dominating hand I seem to get sucked out on. I'm beginning to think online is just not for me anymore and ill stick to live games but it's the convenience of online that keeps me coming back.

Players online are just miles better and there is also likely a factor of forgetting the times you've lost live and/or won online

Yeah I suppose there is that factor but are players online really that much better than playing in the tourneys live in Las Vegas? I would dispute that but you could be right. My average buy in online though is around the £5 mark where as live it's around the £50-£60 mark is this a factor?

yes, online players are THAT much better, players in 5$ buyin range online are going to be waaaaay better than people in 50-60$ buyin range live.

Oh right I see well I USED to be a winning online player but not anymore guess I'll need to try alter my strategy online as I'm getting it in good but getting sucked out on way too much for my liking, cheers

Pardon me, but the first step in being able to improve is recognizing where you're going wrong, and based on what you said in your first post, you don't seem to be losing because you're "getting it in good and [you're] being sucked out on". Your problems are probably much more fundamental- fundamentals which you might have always lacked but it didn't matter against such pitiful live competition.

Well hopefully my online luck is changing because as I type this I'm running really deep in a $22 buy in tourney 13 players left so fingers crossed I cash well

Players online also improve at a lot higher rate than live. Live they often make the same mistakes for 10 years.

Also sample size to reach the long term for big field donkaments is a lot higher. For reference, I am a lifetime loser in pokerstars MTTs but a solid winner in (MT) SNG on the same site.

I am a better live player than online player. Here is what I have observed

1. I don't use HUDS while I am sure that most of my competetion does
2. Online, I cannot read body language
3. Online, I cannot try to influence action with reverse tells
4. Online, the players, due to the number of tables and hands they grind, seem to be better at playing balanced ranges and calling light
5. Live has more recreational players-seems counter intuitive due to the cost involved, but, especially in the lower stake MTT's or 1-2 games, there seems to be a higher percentage of soft, recreational player (or maybe they are just easier to pick out with live tells). One or two rec players at a table can change the whole dynamic and make the whole table a bit easier to play, as everyone tries to exploit the weaker players.
6. And probably the biggest factor-I am more focused live (one table, less distractions) than I am online(multiple tables, multiple browser windows and a video stream).

Yep I think your summer that up pretty well actually, I'd agree with all of those points.

Why would you want to alter your strategy if you are getting it in good?

How many games are we talking here? It could be that you are running bad online and running hot live

Because I always seem to get outdrawn. I think I should maybe try see some more flops rather than getting it all in pre flop.

If you can get it in preflop with good hands that are clearly better than the junk others show up with, you'd be torching money by not getting it in preflop.

Yeah I know it's a winning play long term but past month or so I've just been getting some horrendous beats getting it in with AK very AQ AA v JJ etc etc but I know frustrating as it is that my beats should start to reverse. I cashed well in a $22 buy in today so hopefully that's my luck changing online!

Online is about figuring out a strategy ahead of time, whereas live is mostly waiting for drunk people.

Haha this much is true!

Online is also rigged.















(Live players are also worse and crucially lack patience - my biggest live score was in a 2-day mini-main event at GUKPT in Leeds and only my patience and the great structure kept me alive. Went on to do a 4-way chop)

Live tourneys are reported to be way weaker than the online tourneys, and cash games may be as weak, the difference is up to 10x. One also plays higher in live games.

The advantage of online games are in speed, the number of tables and in the number of tourneys running compared to most live places on the planet. No bots in live games. Travel, accommodation.

The tougher the games, the higher the limit, the better one is, the better it gets to play online. The main issue is in getting up the limits in a reasonable time.

Horrendous beats?

One big difference is that many live players don't plan before they play. They just show up to see what the game is that day. If you're playing online you already know most of the details--the buy-in, roughly how many players will be in the tournament, some idea of how long it will run, etc.

If you go to play a live tournament in my local poker room you might not know what the buy-in is until you get there. You don't have much information on the other players because you don't have a HUD, and you probably don't take notes on the regulars (assuming you play enough to know who the regulars are.) You need plenty of cash so that you can eat and drink and tip the dealers.

Temperatures can vary from room to room. I once had a seat near a door to the outside--in December, in Michigan. Many live players don't plan for that--I always have a jacket or a coat, even if it's 90F outside--you never know how high someone might crank up the air conditioning. Online players don't have that issue.

Many times I have played a live tournament starting at 1800 or 1900, and by 2300 players are complaining that they are tired and/or they have to get up in the morning. Also, many live players love to socialize and drink beer, neither of which are a good strategy for winning poker. Daniel Negreanu can talk nonstop without getting distracted. You probably can't.

I would like to be able to do this.

I haven't even looked into tells live and still im having results due to small fields (20 players) and the players thinking i never have anything and paying me off when i actually have something. some of the players also fold too much and some start calling with QQ and KK UTG pre with 30BB stack since they think i will come over the top with a raise with maybe any two cards. But I don't those times.

Online have bigger fields and harder to finish 1st unless you play 18man sngs on stars which i don't play.

I'll give you the basis of what I believe tells are all about. They usually involve a change in behavior or doing something different, once you have a baseline.

If I seem uncomfortable and I'm moving around in my seat, you might think that's a tell--but if you know that squirming in my seat IS my baseline (I have ADD and I don't sit still easily) the picture is quite different.

If someone who usually talks all the time stops in mid-sentence after the flop, that might be a tell that he hit something big, because his behavior has changed--but until you see him do with a big hand more that once I wouldn't depend too much on that being a tell until you have more information.