Newbie questions...transitioning from play money to cash

Hi all,

I'm new to the site and came here to seek advice about switching from play money poker to cash poker. I have spent a bit of time reading PokerStars cash site but didn't find much info there. I have not yet signed up or deposited any money.

As a bit of background, I've been playing off and on casually for about a year at PokerStars.net for play money and I have gotten to the point where I am winning pretty consistently. However, I have not studied or obsessed about poker and after reading a few threads and info here and elsewhere, I can see that I am way behind the curve when it comes to online poker lingo, terms, etc. (HUD, TAG, villian, etc. are terms I have never even heard before, and I was pretty surprised to learn that people are playing many tables at once...I only play one and only very rarely have played 2 at once.)

I don't have any frame of reference for how my results stack up in the real world, but I have about 4 million play chips accumulated during that time, with about 1 million coming in the last week I've been playing, if that says anything at all about where my game is.

Here are some questions I have about playing for cash online:

-How much different is the play and skill level of player? Does the fact that I'm winning consistently with play money say anything about my game if I were to play for real money? (I always have thought that people play in ways that they wouldn't if they were playing with real money)

-Is PokerStars at decent place to play cash games? Since that is where I play now, it seems to make sense to stay there for familiarity's sake unless there is a compelling reason not to.

-Do the games play the same was as play money games? ie, can you just jump onto a table with whatever amount of money you want and play for as long as you want and then leave as soon as you want, or is it more tournament oriented or do you have to buy in with certain amounts? Any other differences? (I have been in Vegas a couple of times but didn't play poker because I either didn't want to play an entire tournament and/or didn't understand the betting structures of the games.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, advice, etc. and I'm sure I'll think of more questions as i go!

The highest level play money games on pokerstars are probably about as hard as the 1c/2c real money games. By the sounds of it, you'll probably have success at the lowest level of cash games.

There's some restrictions on buyins (typically the minimum is 20BB, max 100BB, sometimes more), but in cash games you can join and leave whenever you please. Tournaments are the only games where you have to play until you bust out (or win it!).

Changing from play money to real money is like playing war with nerf guns and chaging to real guns

I play cash games on full tilt now and love it but pokerstars is just about the same. When you start playing these lower micro stake tables you will see some play a lot like the play money games where people have utter disregard for their money and some not so much. The biggest difference you will see, in my opinion, is that people actually care more about there real money then they do play money, quite obviously. A little bit harder to win with weaker hand then it is play money because people will only put money out unless they are sure they can win.

Umm, never played play money ring tables, but on full tilt I made 100k play chips in a day or two barely trying, so I wouldn't really take anything from play chips to real money accept knowing how the games work.

Also, I am pretty sure you are wrong with your not signed up stuff. You obviously have a Pokerstars.net account because you are playing play chips there. This is the exact same account you would use at Pokerstars.com to play with real money, the only difference is the software. The .Net software doesn't show any real money games so they can advertise it on US TV (and probably other places). Multiple accounts are against pretty much every poker sites rules, so don't open another account to play with on .Com.

If you are going to play with real money, make sure that you get the right tools to set yourself up to win. I can recommend some if you are interested.

My advice would be to deposit the min, and play small stakes, very tight and just get use to playing for real money. Study the game and when ur ready move up levels, with good bandroll mangt. you will suffer bad beats and put some beats on other players, try to stay calm and just play ur game.

There is lots of good info here on CC as well as other places but just take it one step at a time. Add new things to your game little by little so you know how you use and apply them. The HA(hand analysis) section here is a good tool to use and just reading other posts there will give you a lot of good pointers. Use the search feature to find threads about specific articles.

One big piece of advice I would give is to learn about what rakeback is and other promotions and how you go about getting it/them. Dont just download a poker site and deposit and start playing cause you could be missing out on some good promotions.

For example, before you download Fulltilt make sure you clear out the cookies on your computer so you wont be linked to an affiliate and thus giving away your rakeback to some unknown website you have previously visited. Download it straight from the website(Fulltilt) or a well known rakeback affiliate. You cant have multiple accounts so once you are refused rackback you can never get it.

Good luck.

The play is better, but at the lowest limits, its not much better. You should be able to handle it.

Its okay. But other places will give you rakeback, which is pretty nice.

I wrote a thread on this topic once... you should check it out.

5 Rules for Beginners who want to Make Money Playing Poker