Beginner help!!!

I've been playing blackjack lately but I wanted to give poker a try.

I registered on pokerstars and deposited $16. I went in for a micro tournament of $0.50 to start off low and to get used to what was what. The prize pool was $10.

As we were playing, the pot was hitting $500. On my turn, I was getting asked to call high amounts such as $200. I hit call anyway not really knowing what was going on. Needless to say I came second to last.

Does this mean pokerstars are going to go into my bank account and take all that money because I certainly cannot afford that. I thought it was low key game, of only winning $10 maximum!!!

Also, under my username stated $1500, what does that mean? I feel really scared that crazy money is going to get taken out of my bank account! I didn't want to spend more than the $16 I deposited!

itskimmy said:

I've been playing blackjack lately but I wanted to give poker a try.

I registered on Pokerstars and deposited $16. I went in for a micro tournament of $0.50 to start off low and to get used to what was what. The prize pool was $10.

As we were playing, the pot was hitting $500. On my turn, I was getting asked to call high amounts such as $200. I hit call anyway not really knowing what was going on. Needless to say I came second to last.

Does this mean pokerstars are going to go into my bank account and take all that money because I certainly cannot afford that. I thought it was low key game, of only winning $10 maximum!!!

Also, under my username stated $1500, what does that mean? I feel really scared that crazy money is going to get taken out of my bank account! I didn't want to spend more than the $16 I deposited!

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No you only can play up the amount you deposited($16), the 1500 you see under your user name is the amount of chips you get to play with, it's only chip not real money, the only real money here is the amount you used to buy in the tourney with .50. If you go into your cashier you should see .50 deducted from your original $16. Good luck and welcome to the world of poker.

Thank you, what a relief. How come the pot got as big as $500 with only 45 players buying in at 0.50? So it doesn't matter if I called $200 on a low game and lost because I wont get charged?

Sorry for the newbie Questions, I think the high numbers for calling took me by surprise as I wasn't expecting it.

I guess that's what I get for not reading the rules eh lol. I just though I'd try and learn as I go along.

itskimmy said:

Thank you, what a relief. How come the pot got as big as $500 with only 45 players buying in at 0.50? So it doesn't matter if I called $200 on a low game and lost because I wont get charged?

Sorry for the newbie Questions, I think the high numbers for calling took me by suprise as I wasn't expecting it.

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What kind of game are you playing, 45 player sit and go, or just a .50 tournament ? You can look at the game lobby for this info.

From my understanding when you say call $200 I'm guessing someone raised and you have to call. The pot is 500 because I'm guessing someone raise + blinds. You are never playing with your real money at the tables when playing sit and go or tourneys, you only play with real money at the tables in cash/ring games. Let's say I'm playing $1 buy in 45 player sit and go, I would pay $1 to buy in , then will receive 1500 chips to play with, so therefore if I loose that 1500 chips I would only really be loosing $1.

In my opinion, due to your inexperience you should start off by playing with play money, start there and learn the basics of the game before you risk and lose all your real money.


Just go to the play money section of poker stars you get $1000.00 in play money to use, there you can make mistakes and learn from them without risking your real money.

Yes, stick with play money until you get used to the basics

Also, play in freerolls if they are available

Don't play for any real money until you have a good understanding of the game. Stick to play money for now as you sound like a complete beginner.

itskimmy said:

How come the pot got as big as $500

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In this case, the 500 "dollars" are in fact just 500 points (chips) you play with.
So if you started out with 1500 points in chips, you just put in 1/3 of your points.

Personally I think they should remove the dollar sign for these tournaments in order to get rid of this confusion.

I hope this clears things up for you.

I lolled a bit - sorry

Reminds me of when my sister wanted to try out PKR and I told her to try the $1 sit and go games but instead she sat down at a $1 blinds (100nl) cash table and lost her $20 deposit in about 3 minutes

Almost sounds like someone is trolling here. If you thought there was a chance you were throwing $1500 away why would you have not just folded and left the table?

Dont worry if you yust deposit 16$ then you have just 16$ and no more

The 1500 and those 200 are just your chips you are playing. Starting chips is 1500.
The .5 are the buy in or registration for that tourney, meaning you are just charged .5 from your 16.
Actually poker and blackjack are just the 2 games, where you can level or even has a slight advantage over a casino. Any other games, casino dominates.
I hope that helps.

Blackjack isn't beatable unless you're Rainman

Or Morgan Freeman

Agree to posts above stick to play money and dont worry about the millions there

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Why should he move to play money, he just doesnt know the basics. The experience is not nearly the same. If you know the game rules, you can keep playing real money games.

Firstly, you cant just play a game for 10 dollars and pay for that later, as you thought. Its not possible.
When you play cash games and you sit at the table, you will be asked how much money of your bankroll to bring with you. This has limits both minimum and maximum. In some poker rooms for 0.1c/0.2c blinds you have a minimum buyin of 20 cents and you can bring as much as 2 dollars.
Second - when you play a tournament, you use a pre-fixed money amount to pay for the buy-in for the tournament. Once you pay for that you are presented a pre-fixed amount of chips, which can be as little as 500 ( I think there are games with 300 chips, but not sure if PS has them ) to 10k. These chips does not represent your money, they represent your tournament life. Once you lose them - you are gone.
Some tournaments have an option to re-buy. Re-buy is buying again your place in the tournament, which costs about the same as the initial buy-in. You can double re-buy, which means if you are initially starting with 1500 chips, it doubles them, to 3k. Note that double re-buy is only available if you get kicked out of the tournament. At the beginning of the tournament you can re-buy if you have the initial chips , in this case 1500 or less, you cannot rebuy if you have 1501 chips for example. If you rebuy itll cost another buy-in for the tournament and it will add 1500 chips to your 1500, which makes 3000. Double rebuys costs double as the initial re-buy cost ( hence double ). At the first break you can also opt-in addon. You buy some chips and pay a pre-fixed cost, again.

Note, that PS will NOT let you rebuy if you dont currently have enough money on your bankroll. So for every cent you spend on Pokerstars, you will be asked, and you will need to confirm. Nobody can take your money, neither you can loan money from them. You can only spent as much as you have deposited. Nobody will go through your credit card.

He should stick to play money until he know to tell the diference between playchips and money, also until he learns the rules and hand raking, you dont want to spend money on poker if you think that KQA23 is a str8 or TAJQK (believe me i saw that with my own eyes on hone cash game). Also if you dont know that your pocket twos doesnt count on a AAKKx board, your place is at playmoney tables...

I wouldnt advise anyone to play with money until he atleast know all the rules, game types, poker terms etc...

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