Most quality players have nothing against loose players, since they make a good living on them in cash games by sitting back, letting them control the betting, fold a lot and then annihilate them with a monster hand. James Garner, while portraying Bret Maverick in the 1950's television series Maverick had the right idea.

Sweepstakes sites initially draw quality players, so the best advice is to get into these sites when they first start, make some money before the maniacally loose players take over and then get out with a profit.

One point statistics confirm is that play is much faster online, allowing players to see considerably more hands in a shorter period than their brick and mortar counterparts do. Because of the faster play, players see more hands in a shorter amount of time. Add playing on multiple tables (more than three dozen in some cases) and you can see how some people claim that Tom 'Durrrr' Dwan has seen more hands in his five years as a professional than Doyle Brunson has in the last half-century.

Unfortunately, most people misinterpret this statistic, since simply playing so many hands does not make someone a better player. The speed of play means there is often a faster learning curve. Seeing the hands and being able to process the information are two different things. Additionally, while playing on so many tables, players cannot play optimally on each one. Multi-table players take numerous short cuts when in a hand. The increased speed of online play, with each hand timed, forces quicker, less reliable actions. Players cannot take into consideration important aspects of playing poker. These include player tells, use of position and how each card hitting the board influences their hand.

There is often a much looser style of play. There is also less reliance on position in online poker. When poker legend Doyle Brunson remarked, "If I had position on a player, I wouldn't even need to look at my cards," he did not have today's modern online players in mind. Additionally, there is more limping pre-flop, instead of the standard bet of 3½ times the big blind pre-flop. Early in the game, the "Double up or out" mentality reigns supreme. Since high likelihood that you will see an All-in, you do not want to risk all of your chips on less than a top ten hand.

The experienced players are more likely to play weaker starting hands and stick with hands longer than they should. These players like to see the flop with low suited connectors and one-gap starting hands. After the flop, the loose players continue to play with three-card draws, trying to hit the runner-runner hands hoping to reap great rewards if they hit on the flop. These actions mean that they stay in to see more flops, turns and rivers, so suck-outs and bad beats are more common.

On the other hand, weaker players are less likely to lay down huge premium hole cards when they become threatened, continuing past the time they should have sent the cards to the muck pile.

Not all of the advantages are with the online players. One major advantage of live play is the ability to face the other players. When you see players face-to-face you can pick up tells from their facial expressions, voice inflections and actions.

Another well-known Pokerism is "Lucky players get chips early in a tournament; skilled players have them at the end." There are many inexperienced players competing on sweepstakes sites and just as many players do not care if they lose all of their chips early in a tournament. Most of these players feel they will not continue to play the same way for real money. Unfortunately (or fortunately if you are playing against them), the habits that are ingrained as you learn the game do stay with you. Remember, that for every maniac that makes a deep run in a tournament, there are 100 knocked out in the first round.

Read Part I of Online vs Live Poker