Hey guys,

I am thinking about how to approach MTTs Online vs Live. The question for this thread is [B]What is the difference in how you approach the same situation Online vs Live/B]. Lets assume that we get into a spot, where we are making decision that may potentially cost us our tourney life. We have a choice of making low variance decision or high variance one. For the sake of the argument lets assume that we have similar edge in both cases and every factor in the equation is as identical as it can possibly be, so we can focus on the Online vs Live side of argument.

Does the fact, that we are playing live and playing just one MTT effect how we approach the situation? Do we play more on cautious side or do we play more risky to build stack?

Do we play more risky and high variance online because we have X more tourneys to play instantly?

Thanks

You've offered a valid reason for playing more cautiosly in a live tournament. Let me offer another that can cut both ways.

In an online tourney, social factors are basically irrelevant. Unless you've got a very volatile personality, your mood is barely swayed by the setting or your tablemates. In a live tournament, it's different.

Some tables have fine food, good banter and a friendly dealer. If everything else is equal, you'd like to stick around. Other tournaments are infested with lost souls, bad hygiene and worse. Being in a situation where you either double through a jerk or bust out and get to leave the table feels like a win either way. in those cases, you will play more recklessly.

OP I get your thought process. The thing is, "all other dynamics being equal" is just not likely to be the case the vast majority of live tables you're sitting at.

There are almost certainly more exploitable situations in live MTTs than online (not necessarily talking about 10K+ events of course), not to mention other advantages of live play (being able to talk to your opponents, being able to physically watch how they play, how they handle their chips, etc).

Additionally, if indeed "all other dynamics are equal", this begs the question of why you would be playing live in the first place. If live play toughness is either > or = online play toughness, then online has the edge for the reason you state.. you can immediately jump into X more MTTs.

IMO, volume is the name of the game online while a largely weak field is the name of the game live.

So, to directly answer your high variance vs low variance live question, I'd generally opt for the lower variance route as you're far more likely to find situations more easily exploitable live than online.

I have posted in more forums and this is the best response I have got so far. I arrived in the same result for both live and online. I play low stakes both live and online and in both scenarios, its usually quite weak but larger field. In both cases it better to find a good spot rather then take marginal one.

Thank you for your time mate <3