Starting 2 Play 4 Money

After quite some time playing Texas Hold'em for play money I feel like I'm ready to begin playing for real money.

But I really don't know what is best to begin with.
Sit & Go 9, 18, 27 or maybe 45 or more players.
Maybe cash games will be better to begin with.

Also I am wondering what stalekes to begin with and what poker-site is best to begin at.

I know, a lot of questions but everybody had to learn I suppose.
Can anyone give me some advice here?


Regards,
The Breeders.

Either 9 player sit and go's or full ring cash tables are a decent place to start, just pick one format and stick to it.

Oh, play the lowest stakes you can find, at least to start out.

I'd suggest SNGs purely because the strategy is easier. Ask in the tournament section and you'll certainly find people more aware of the strategy than I am, but to develop a winning strategy, provided you've got your head screwed on right and can figure out which sources to believe, it wont take you long.

Cash is great too, and you only need a really basic strategy to beat the micros which can be further simplified to a basic pre-flop strategy and just not spewing chips horribly post-flop. Still, that's much more time consuming to learn than SNGs.

The stakes you begin at don't matter much, it's more a matter of what you can afford. I recommend using very cautious bankroll management.

The best sites to play are probably full tilt and pokerstars, big sites are both reliable and give good bonuses (if you pick full tilt, make sure to sign up with a rakeback affiliate, see rakebackpros.com, which is the one most people use).

IMO, the first thing to do is decide how much your starting bankroll will be, and how much if anything you are willing to add to it (e.g. $10 per week) out of your pocket.

As for playing MTT, SNG or ring, what do you prefer? A mix is fine too.

And as for what level to play at, start small and work your way up as you get comfortable and win. Some people will probably tell you to follow a sound bankroll strategy from the start, There's certainly some merit to that, but for small rolls (small relative to your finances), I don't think it's very important. For instance, if you start with $10 and won't be shattered if you lose it (maybe because you decided to add $10 to your roll each week), then play it all at once if you feel like it; just be aware of the risk.

Being a guy who started in play money and then figured I am ready for real money, take this small piece of advice:
DO NOT play as you did on play money tables. Its a mini-bike compared to a Harley.
As a new money player, I would dis-agree with mixed play (for now). Find what you like - cash, Sng, MTT, IMO STT SnG a good place to start - and stay there a while. Having said that, maybe (as I did) mixed at the VERY beginning to see where you want to stay, but choose 1 game at first, and when you are feeling good there, try testing other formats.

Good luck!!

edit: What tenbob said, low limit is a must when u r new to money play, check out the Bankroll Management threads as well.

I started with play money SNG's on ladbrokes then started with freerolls to build a bankroll then $2 tournies