So my return was less than triumphant.  Played 4 tournaments, made a small run in 1, but played absolutely terrible in the other 3.  That's to be expected as far as results go, but I was surprised at how poorly I played relative to the field.  I know this may seem obvious, but I wasn't prepared for the differences between live and online play.  I think it somewhat invalidates the comments I've made on other threads because my comments came from a perspective of the live tournaments I had been playing.  Anyway, I knew that live and online would be different, but I wasn't prepared for how different.  Completely different.  I was taken off guard by how much light 3 and 4 betting took place.  I was also taken back by players shipping 75bb with weak Aces such as A7o at the early levels.  Folded AKo to a 4bet shove early in one tournament with about 75bb because I thought that the opponent had to have QQ+ or AK to shove so deep, so early as a 4 bet.  Turns out he showed a weak Ace and he did that several more times until someone finally snapped him off.  At other points I was mixing it up in spots I know players would fold in live poker but players are much more sticky post-flop online as well.  I also didn't have the implied odds that I thought I had in certain spots, where my opponents didn't pay me off when I hit.  In a nutshell, at least from what I saw, players are better online for $20 buyins than they are live for $1650 buy-ins, which is really interesting to me.  Fortunately, I had MJ23Stylez with me during my first session to show me how to not be a complete fish 🙂 

Anyway, I don't have any specific goals for online play.  I don't expect nor desire to be an online grinder.  However, I noticed I had been slumping recently in live play, mostly because my plays had become stagnant as I had done what I thought was “standard” without really thinking deeply about why.  I was hoping mixing in a little online would shake things up and it has.  I will keep everyone posted….  

It may not be better per se, but just different.  Ultimately, a good poker player will make adjustments based on the style of players they are playing, and they will find a way to exploit the mistakes of their opponents.  For example, I thought I had a good LAG style of play, which had been successful for me in live play.  I didn't fully appreciate that the reason for this is mostly because I had been playing a lot of nitty retirees lol.  LAG just isn't going to be successful when people are 3 and 4 betting you constantly with marginal holdings.  Now you're not being the LAG, you're being LAGGed lol.  Personally, I think 4 betting someone allin with 75bb with a weak ace is a recipe for eventual suicide, but I guess its fairly common online for people to just be insanely aggressive preflop.  I think I can become successful online, but it will take a significant adjustment to say the least.  But yes my initial reaction from America’s Cardroom is that the players there are on average more difficult than the HPT crowd specifically.  If anyone has a chance, play the HPT circuit, the field is fairly soft relative to the buy-in.   

I understand what you’re saying about setting up obvious squeeze spots for the Villians then snapping the Villians off.  Or conversely, jamming with premiums in a spot where squeeze spots are obvious, and the opponent has reason to believe that you would be squeezing.    MJ23Stylez also showed me some non-standard moves that he has been using to great success though I wont discuss those bc they’re his trade secrets :).  Overall, I think he is incredibly well-tuned to how Villians will react in certain spots, and it is very helpful to have his advice.  I feel there are adjustments that can be made based on the typical online field, but not knowing the field well really hampered me.  So again, I think it’s more of an issue of not being well adjusted to the field, rather than poor play in the abstract.  The thing about being LAG is that you have to choose your spots and your targets, and make +EV moves without going into full maniac mode.  But my perception is that 90% of live players are ABC tight and susceptible to being manipulated by a LAG and 90% of online players are LAG, which means raw aggression against them is like punching a brick wall.  So while there may be certain players online that LAG would work against, they are the exception, and not the norm.  If I had to describe the players I ran into in one single word it would be: Unbluffable.  Too small of a sample size to make a conclusive determination though for sure.  Playing online really showed me some leaks in my game for sure with more glaring clarity because I was seeing more hands.  And that's all I really wanted it to do, so mission accomplished.  I'd rather sharpen my teeth on $20 online tournaments than have the same leaks when I go to $1650 live tournaments this year.

I understand your point about adjustments and counter adjustments.  I totally agree 100% about people knowing about cbetting and floating flops, which is one reason why I like to mix it up and cbet sometimes, don't cbet sometimes, and sometime delay cbetting.  One thing though is that over the course of those 4 tournaments (again terribly small sample size) I tried a lot of things like double and triple barrelling  and I never got anyone to lay down a hand.  EVER.  So the adjustment there is to value bet thinner.  Ok cool, but that's an adjustment from live I have to make.  I'm not saying it's unbeatable.  By no means I am saying that.  It's just very different.

As far as live goes, you have to take into consideration that yes there are really good live players.  However, there are also a lot of well off people that will just donk off $1650 with no thought to it.  There are also a lot of retirees.  Honest to goodness, at least 25% of the field I play against are retirees who sort of understand ABC poker, but never even considered going deeper than that.  Then unfortunately, as you said, there is an entire sector of live players who are just shady.  They are gamblers whose game of choice happens to be poker and aren't real poker players imo.  They treat poker tournaments like black jack and not a chess match.  They just so happen to stumble into the poker room from the dogtrack from time to time.  Whereas, online the majority of players are probably smart kids.  Some may be good, some may not be.  Live is a very diverse crowd, with the majority being skewed toward terrible to average players.  That's just my opinion.   

That's really good advice.  Honestly, that's why I wanted to play online because to a certain extent I saw myself being a little too involved in the social element of live and slowly playing worse because my moves had all become too standard.  Basically, I was in a rut without even knowing it.  Then I had a bad run at the WSOP Circuit in Palm Beach and in a moment of honest introspection realized I had played like shit.  Point blank.  I will have to make adjustments when transitioning from live to online and vice-versa but I also don't see how it could possibly hurt.  I was already playing poorly the last couple of weeks anyway.  It's kinda like when you're working out, you work out for 6 months and slowly get into better shape, but then you keep the same routine.  Some day you wake up and you realize you've hit a plateau because you haven't changed your exercise routine since G.W. Bush was in office.  That's what I did except with poker. 

So I think I'm finally getting the hang of the online field.  I played a bunch of tournaments this week on ACR and cashed 6 out of the last 10.  I think most of the field plays super aggressive in the early levels but plays pretty passively once the antes are introduced and they are short stacked, which is pretty interesting because I think that's the precise opposite of optimal.  I think it also has helped me get back on track with my live play 🙂