Although they are essentially the same game, playing online poker or live poker has many subtle differences from each other that you could argue the two games are indeed worlds apart.

The first major difference is the speed at which the game gets played in both formats. In a live arena a skilled dealer may be able to deal around 40 hands per hour at the very most but the average is going to hang around the 25 hands per hour mark, especially if players are stalling with their decisions. Compare this to online play where players can expect to see at least 70 hands per hour and have the ability to play dozens of tables simultaneously, and it is easy to see, just from that perspective, why many poker professionals prefer online poker.

Live poker is widely regarded as being much softer and looser than its online counterpart. This is because the average age of the live player is older and as a general rule the older generation are less aggressive in their approach to poker and are less likely to play based on odds and probabilities, instead relying on reads and tells. Also, due to the sheer number of hands some online players get through by multi-tabling, some online players will have played more hands in a month than some live players have in their lives meaning they will rarely face a decision they do not know how to answer or deal with.

When playing a cash game online you are generally limited to buying in for 100 big blinds but in a live card room you can often buy in for up to 250 big blinds. This means the games often run higher in live games, although as a down side the rake is generally higher by a significant amount too, often 10% instead of the online industry standard of 5%.

Both formats have their own pros and cons and although I am predominately an online poker player some of the best times I have had have been playing poker in a casino. For me the ability to play more than one table, the lower rake, the faster deal rate, the fact I do not have to leave my house and I can play 24 hours a day mean that online poker beats live poker the vast majority of the time.