I don't know where you played live but I find the online crowd to be much tougher at the same buy-in. I play much lower on the internet and with little success.
I only have a couple of hundred hours of live cash-game play, and I was just grinding through it and got most of my winnings from the occasional ueber-donk. I've seen people sit down loose 2-5 buy ins within an orbit and go home. You don't really get much of that online. Which doesn't mean it doesn't happen.
I don't think there is that much difference in the gameplay really, I really think the players are just tougher online.