Paypal Standard does not redirect buyers to Paypal page

Hello,
I am using Paypal Standard plugin. I believe it is setup correctly, however on checkout, the plugin does not redirect the buyer to the Paypal secure environment to process the payment. Instead, it proceeds to place order. The order shows as not paid.
Can you help me?
Thanks

The order is created first ( via PlaceOrder) then it should redirect to PayPal after that to make Payment

The order is placed successfully, but it does not redirect my to paypal. I get to a page where it says "Cart is empty".

Any errors in the log ?

It does not log any errors, or warnings.

I have also tried with paypal direct (which was my first preference), but i get PAYMENT_UNAUTHORIZED error.

Have you setup your account here - Website payment preferences
https://www.paypal.com/businessmanage/preferences/website

Entered you website  PDT Handler
https://yourwebsite.com/Plugins/PaymentPayPalStandard/PDTHandler

Got you Identity token and entered in the website ?

Yes, I also enabled IPN, but it does not seem to work!

Do you have "Use sandbox" selected?

Hello, no I have a live API on paypal and sandbox deselected on the plugin.