Local live game tonight...

[Talking Poker]

Sure, if you feel like killing time or drinking with a bunch of obnoxious morons or whatever...

If you want to make some money, on the other hand, online play is FAR superior in (almost) every way. Yes, you lose the ability to look your opponent in the eye and to talk to him, but that is BY FAR made up for by all the other advantages of playing online...

[2Tone]

I love live poker. One two punch of the felony law here and the demise of Party means I’m playing almost exclusively live games, and enjoying them more than I ever did playing online.

It’s not as profitable. As that recent great thread on limit poker pointed out, limit is a game of making fractions of bets, and tipping the dealer definitely eats into profit. And an occasional $25 splash pot hardly makes up for those reloads I miss so much.

But at the end of the day, I like the social aspect of it, the feel of chips in my fingers, the rituals of tapping the felt to check. I’m in front of a computer all day in an office – that’s work. Being in a casino, sipping on a free drink, bullshitting with the guy next to me – that’s play.

It also helps that WA card room are smoke-free.

[Aequitas58]

Agree, but I just hate low-limit live tournament structures, especially the freezeouts.

[Dodoubled]

I, too, much prefer live games. And TP, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you've made significantly more money live than online ... but that's a results-oriented conclusion ...

More to the point, though. I suppose if you consider poker to be your primary source of income, and your mortgage and grocery money depends on how much you win at the table, then yeah, online's the way to go -- just for sheer volume. But unless I'm playing for something significant (i.e. a major payout or seat to a major tournament), I'm going to trade the four-tabling for a chance to feel cards and chips in my hand any day of the week.

[Talking Poker]

I tend to play better live, and especially in tourneys. But for cash games, it's the sheer volume thing that gets me. If I can EASILY play 5+ tables online of 6 max NL, that's 500 hands per hour. Live, you're lucky to get 40 hands per hours in, and last night, I bet it was more like 30. Factor in the drive time, waiting for the game to get going, etc, and I was gone from my house for almost 6 hours and saw maybe 150 hands. I could have gotten in more hands than that here in a half an hour! Had I played 5 hours online, I could have gotten in 2500 hands! Even if you round that way, way, way down to 1500 (maybe I was only 3 tabling or didn't feel like playing that long), that's still 10 times as many hands as I got in last night. So even if my win rate is TWICE as high live as it is online (it's not), it's still 5 times more profitable for me to play online that live.

And don't even get me started on the rake.

[Zybomb]

whats your rake system there? Like I said all the rooms around here rake $5 every half hour, and dont rke individual pots with the exception of $1 for every pot over $10 which goes to a bad beat jackpot (If Aces full of Kings or better loses)

[Talking Poker]

It's a joke. Feep in mind that some of the players last night were saying how much OTHER GAMES rake compared to these guys. And these guys take 10% on average, usually up to $10 per pot. In the old days, I used to watch them pretty much steal and take $15+, but they seem to be a little better about it now. The best part is, they deal their own game, and everyone is tipping them on TOP of the rake!!! *sigh*

The keep it in one column of the tray, so you can look over and see it at any time. I kept an eye on it last night, and it actually wasn't THAT bad, but it's still ridiculous. I remember calculating in the old days that they could take in $1500-2000 in one night, if the game went really long (like until noon the next day), which happened frequently. $200 per hour was no problem... I'd say they were closer to $100 per hour (maybe $125) last night... I forgot to take a look right before I left.