too young to play

hey guys. im 17 and too young to play for the sporting aspect. just looking for advice. love the game but often get bored of playing for fake money it often puts me off the game. i wanna gamble for stakes. ive been playin texas for 3 years on and off and want too continue but cant. at my age i feel like i way outclassed my friends on a £10 pot. what should i do? should i sit tight or is there anyway i could raise the stakes? id like to hear off people from manchester uk esp.

First off, Welcome to CC.
Everybody wants to do things they can't or shouldn't. There will be plenty of time to cash in on potential skills when the time comes. From your post, it seems you were quite the knowledgeable individual, up to the comment above, of course. Nevertheless, hone in your skills with the time you have, then when you're old enough, you can surely be on your way on the roller coaster ride to poker glory, if you wish. Or you can just play online like every other underage person and see how it goes.

Although you are too young to play for real money, you can continue to amass play chips. When you turn 18, you can sell them and have a starting stake for real money. If you look at it in that light, that you are really playing for something that can later be real money, perhaps your attitude will be different. At high tournament buy-ins the game is close to real. I suppose high stakes ring games would be, too.

Honestly, it's not the poker part that will likely cause you problems. More likely it will be bankroll management. Most, not all, but most younger people don't have the money management skills needed. You'll need to be hyper vigilant and strict on watching your money. Avoid chasing and watch your mental state when playing (avoid tilting).

okay, i did a little searching and see you can sell play chips, that's interesting. but you mention tournaments... there are play chip tournaments too? that should be fun. which site(s) do that?

ftp and PokerStars have play money tournaments and SnGs. At Stars they are listed as FreePlay in the Freeroll tournament listing. PokerRoom had play money SnGs when I played there.

If you dont want to sell them, FullTilt also has a play money freeroll ( i think 500,000 chips). You can make a buck or two there. I sold my play chips to start off on PS

Bodog has play money SNGs, not sure they have any MTT's, but definitely STTs. Also, you build up points just for playing on BD (1 hour = 1 point), you can use these points later on to enter true $$ games.

30 points --> $500 prize pool (real cash)
100 points --> $29 tourn$
400 points --> $100 tourn$
1000 points --> $270 tourn$

The tourn$ can be used to enter any tourney and then you would get paid the true cash prize.

If you build up points over the next year/4 years (depending on your laws), you could enter the real $$ tournies and start your BR that way as well.

I don't know how BD works for payouts, but if they only require you be 18/21 to cashout, then you may be able to play these points games now to build a BR to cash out when you're 18/21... but you will want to contact BODOG to find out their policy on that. Otherwise, build your points and enter when you turn 18/21.