Play chips vs real money cash games - big difference?

Verdue167

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Is there anyone here who has played a lot of play money cash games and a lot of real money cash games? How do they compare? Is play money comparable to the lowest micro stakes real money tables or is it worse? Are there any good players?
 
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neptun1914

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I have played play money SNGs and there is big difference - when you play with play money you don't care if you win or loose. Even if you try to play seriously almost every other person will go all-in with almost everything most of the time trying to either get the first place or start another game quickly.

On the other side when you play even at the lowest stakes people are much more responsible (compared with play money of course). You can easily test this by playing with your friends. Try to play without any money invested and then try the same but with 1$ invested by each of you. When you put the money in you start playing more seriously.
 
infonazar

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Definitely, the difference is huge.
Players behave completely differently.
Conditional chips are suitable for getting acquainted with the functionality of the program, and for learning the basic rules of the game. I recommend starting with the cheapest tournaments, such as 0,10 SNG. In such tournaments you will not lose a lot of money, but you will get a pretty good experience.
 
quick

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Play money poker isn't anything like real money poker. It's good if you've never played poker and want to learn things like hand rankings, position, and betting actions. Or you want to get familiar with a site UI. Other than that it's pretty pointless.

There was a user here, got banned I think, who used to boast about his great poker skills at play money poker then yell at anyone who pointed out that in fact play money isn't poker.
 
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SeriousBizzness

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huge diffrence. with play money i never take it as serious as i should. and even when im trying , i come to a situation where i just dont care and just toss chips. but i can also say that if its just a small table with a small buy in, real money i take it way more seriously
 
polote21

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Although it seems that you are playing poker with fictitious money you really are not, the main reason is the feeling of loss and competitiveness do not exist, there is no polarized strategy and there is no real loss, then there is a huge difference between the two types of games
 
MrGrace

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The players play a lot different when real money is on the line, the play money tournaments can be fun but i believe when every person gets to a certain point then they won't play for anything but real money free rolls only exception. Its just my opinion so i could be wrong but i would play a play money tournament again.
 
Gohaku94

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In the past i played alot of play money cash games. Used to buy-in for 40k and stay there for hours until i get close to 1m lol.
Now at real money cash games.. the difference at play money is that people don't care even a bit, you can just top them up for free which makes them totally useless. Imagine if you could top your real money every 4 hours, you would just go crazu everytime hoping to win more.
 
Poker Orifice

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How do they compare? Is play money comparable to the lowest micro stakes real money tables or is it worse? Are there any good players?



Like night compares with day.

It is FAR worse than micro stakes. These days there are actually some half decent Euros playing microstakes cashgame (I would've said 'decent' but then would've probably gotten flamed on here for sayin' that. But I'm referring to mostly the .ZOOM, Rush, FastForward, SPEED tables).

dj113 from Cardschat I hear is one of the better playchip players online. In fact he's so good at the pretend game that he'll tell you that the high limit games of that make-believe world are better than micro stakes cash. But then again he's so good that perhaps he doesn't even know the difference? idk.. you'd have to ask him. (my experience is lacking)
 
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Smokewood

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Is there anyone here who has played a lot of play money cash games and a lot of real money cash games? How do they compare? Is play money comparable to the lowest micro stakes real money tables or is it worse? Are there any good players?


Yes, one is real, the other isn't.

I would strongly suggest that you NEVER play with play money. You will learn bad habits.
 
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Roger1960

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I have gone back to using play money chips before. The reason? To be able to play like you should. In the higher stakes play money, before poker stars was giving them away, you could get some real great players.

Any buy in is chump change to someone.

I watched a friend of mine play real money cash games and he was so bad but had so much money. It was just crazy, I wanted to use a different name and take his money. lol I was selling him chips, and he was losing them just as fast.

His ego was huge, he kept saying while he was betting, he won't call this raise. lol He will if he has the stone cold nuts. After several hundred dollars my friend got bored.

I did play a $15.00 buy in Double or Nothing SNG yesterday and it was nice to see players folding bad hands. I won easily, it is better for me to play against some better players.
 
HK_47

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Same thing as in freerolls, people really don't care so much. Some people just play to have something to do until they have to go. I've had many times where someone deep in a freeroll just shoves all in 4-5x in a row just because they have to leave. Money changes everything no matter how little. When you have something real invested it's no longer "easy come easy go" and you fight for what you've invested in.
 
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rmcneice

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Play money is pretty much all in and see what happens every hand regardless of how many at the table would rather do something else.

Best way I've found to build up a lot of hands played with reasonable opposition is the free roll tournaments, follow by micro SNG's. The rest of the micro stakes are almost as bad as the play money games.
 
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braveslice

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Given relative high play money vs 2NL regular there is not that much difference. Most of the difference comes from better bank roll management in play money, money side same fish are a bit more tight because they have 2BI and play money side 15 BI.
 
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verybadatpoker

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I've had a few good games with play money where people actually played pretty much like they usually would, but most have been very different. It takes a certain skillset to play the same either way.
 
Kenzie 96

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It's like comparing playing football (either variation) to eating bananas.
 
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danielcai

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I have played some play money and real money online, people in play money do not play seriously and wish to gamble a lot. The environment in play money is really weird and sometimes frustrating.
 
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dejan85

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you cant compare play money and real chip,is not same game and playing its a different,in playing chip you can lose nothing in real game you can lose house ,life if you now what I mean,you can lose a lot,also you can winn....
 
odnicholas25

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I'm an almost entirely new player to the game - I've come as far as knowing which hands beat others, but know little to nothing about genuine strategy.

Surely playing with real money at this point serves no purpose? Even if the experience is substantially more valuable with real money in contrast to play money, would it not be better for a player like myself to continue playing play money until I have a much greater understanding?

Just wondering if anyone could provide insight into this matter, I feel as if I should hold off until I have more experience with play money first.
 
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Sorin Iliescu

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you can play at play money tables, as you can learn basic stuff which you learn by losing real money at the other tables, but once you get the ideas or just win the play money environment, just move to sng or cash
 
57noona

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It is rare to find a good player in play money cash games. Like others have said they go all in almost all the time. In real cash games you don't see as many all ins preflop.
 
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braveslice

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Surely playing with real money at this point serves no purpose?


Yes, It took for me 2k hands to be break even player in 2NL regular tables after playing about a year in play money tables. You need to be able to climb in ladder in play money tables first before you can have any meaningful learning experience, also if you stay too long you learn way too bad habits, so jump as fast as you can to real money. Importantly also to learn fast FOR real money cash games you need to practice all essential stuff like opening ranges already in play money and bet size is living thing in play money -> You ask what they are willing. One thing you learn though, and fast at any level, is not to care about bad beats, you get them more than one can imagine as you can read behind the burst from the comments here :p But you go for super exploitative play in play money, that is good base to build. Don't go for zoom route, but regular and remember to take notes. So one table it is at first.

The thing that is very difficult is play money is limpers, and unrealistic calling ranges vs 3bets (opening calls are about the same but every third is fish range), you raise and they all call, implied odds are ridiculous, so your ranges are all messed up for cash games, but still plenty enough to be winner in 2NL regular (not in 6max, maybe 6max play money would prep you there dunno). And there are no good players in play money period and there are no good players in under 25NL period. And after you clear 50NL there are no good players in 25NL and so on.
 
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odnicholas25

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Yes, It took for me 2k hands to be break even player in 2NL regular tables after playing about a year in play money tables.


Thanks for your reply.

I understand and agree with everything you've said, even though I'm fairly new I see that people play ridiculously with play money, no-one cares about losing and would rather take big risks that make no strategical sense - very bad practising grounds.

My plan is to spend a bit of time understanding basic strategy, as you've said, playing play tables, and moving up the stakes so I can find players who at least somewhat care about the play money they're betting, as there's a lot more of it they are betting. Eventually, I'd like to move onto low stakes online for practise, with just a small sum of money to play around with.

From your experience, would you say that 2nl players have that much more brain activity than play money players? I feel like at a $0.02 big blind players would still show behaviours like that of players in play money, just because they might be bored or feel like the game is getting too slow for such a small sum of money. Again, I have no real idea and this is just my guess.

Once I'm confident on medium or so stakes online I'd like to go into live play at my local casino, as that's what really interests me in poker - but I'm getting ahead of myself here.
 
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braveslice

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Thanks for your reply.
From your experience, would you say that 2nl players have that much more brain activity than play money players? I feel like at a $0.02 big blind players would still show behaviours like that of players in play money, just because they might be bored or feel like the game is getting too slow for such a small sum of money.

I’m sure you have it already figured out, but when players start in 2NL their thinking process is quite same, if not the same than play money. I had precisely the same, that said, in play money I was already a winner and knew some basic stuff about bad players and so I had relative easy path to follow. The difference comes that already in 2NL some are way better and to have decent games you either learn fast or be breakeven/drop. So, the outside pressure to study and learn the game is hugely demanding at 2NL already compared to play money, and thus you adapt and learn much faster.

Mind you this is from a guy who never knew even poker rules before and had zero experience of poker. Most I would expect have some experience and for them play money path might be the wrong one. If you don’t lose too much at 2NL because you know something already about poker, 2NL is preferred way imo.

And players not caring about winning in 2NL or play money is a myth. Some don’t, almost all do. Maybe the only exception is the first couple of steps in play money ladder.
 
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Play money poker isn't anything like real money poker. It's good if you've never played poker and want to learn things like hand rankings, position, and betting actions. Or you want to get familiar with a site UI. Other than that it's pretty pointless.

There was a user here, got banned I think, who used to boast about his great poker skills at play money poker then yell at anyone who pointed out that in fact play money isn't poker.

lol it was Rational Madman, who I actually liked talking to before he was banned...
 
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