Questions about learning skills in play money tables

Well I play sngs at pokerstars and play very very tight, usally on final table with not loads of chips, I start playing really when BB hit 100. This method has been bringing me profit in the 18 seaters I play. When I cash I alomost never get 1st or 4th place usally 2nd or 3rd.

Will practicing playing position in play money be benificial?

Will practicing my pre-flop raising in play money do the same?

Many tight players like you (myself included) find it hard to make it past the 2nd/3rd place barrier due to the fact that we're just not used to being aggressive with horrible hands heads up. One thing that will increase your percentage of wins as compared to 2nd/3rd place finishes is learning to be more aggressive (notice i didn't say use blind aggression) when it gets down to 2 or 3 people left.

Actually I am ok with my agression heads-up, it just the fact the other guy usally has x4 the stack I do.

Its the agression before that I need to work on.

Have you tried playing on your tight image - i mean by stealing the blinds a few times or raising on the button/cut-off.

If you are seen as playing tight more often than not the blinds (if not holding anything great) should fold as they believe you must be strong.

It does take a while to get used to the idea of playing with lesser cards but of course the good cards are not always guaranteed, so it is worth looking at how and when to try these lesser hands.

Ian makes some great sugestions, you should work on them and you'll see a change for the better.

You've isolated 1 hole (agression) in your game that can be fixed with practice. Read the hands analysis threads and/or post some of your own for a bit of extra help on how to play any hand better.

As to how practice at play money compares to real money you must consider the stakes you're at plus the simple fact no one at the table is risking cold hard cash. Low stakes play money have nothing in comon with decent poker, work your way up to high stakes play money and you'll find the game to be a lot better. btw, low stakes cash can be completely insane too... (sometimes worse than early in freerolls)

Best of luck to ya!

Play money games are a good place to practice implementing your strategy but players tend to be looser than in rel money games. The lowest buyins are the worse with the quality of play going up as you increase the stakes.

I am finding that in the little money games people play 9 2 off, 3 8 off and will go all in even when I have bet 5x the blinds indicating I have a good hand. Most of the time I lose even with AA and another A on the flop. I am at a loss of how to play the cash games. I have even taken to sitting and watching the play to figure out what I am doing wrong. How can anyone possibly win when you are playing with people who go all in with any two cards? This isn't a one time thing, I find it all the time. Maybe I should just stick to the SnG games?

I won a 90man sng on fulltilt - play money - and was feeling good about it until I realized it was just 2000 play chips. Not many people cared about the outcome especially at the beginning where the bluffers were going wild. However, the final table was pretty legit where they started to care and raises were respected.

You can try moves at the play tables, but are you willing to use those moves for real cash when it counts? You may build your confidence and be in for a rude awakening when you play vs. players who care about the outcome.

As far as people caring about playchips I find Full Tilt to be the best. The higher stakes playmoney sit and goes and tourneys are great forms of practice.

You know, I found that the level of seriousness increased dramatically when I "moved up" (lol) from the 2K play money buy-in SnGs on poker stars to the 10K play money ones. For some reason it seemed that people took it way more seriously beginning at that level. Then even more so at the 25K and on level. I mean, you'd still see morons shoving over and over preflop at the higher play chip levels, but they were pretty rare. Then of course they'd type in the chat box stuff like "I DON'T CARE ABOUT 50K IN PLAY CHIPS I'VE GOT OVER 100 MILLION BRO" (untrue of course since Pokerstars caps you at 20 million I think).

Anyhow, to answer the OP's question, yes, I think there is some value to playing position and practicing raising in play money games, especially at the higher levels.

Good luck.

Thanks guys, some great advice here, Im working on a few things to get set up hopefully ready for the next weekend charts etc to record and hopefully inprove my game.

Decided against free money as it just seems a step back as long as my BR hovers where it is or goes up YAY ill play the 18 man sngs im on now.

Ill be posting a thread later this weekend asking for some more help ty fellas.

There is a great book called The Psychology Of Poker written by Alan Schoomaker and it give example of each playing style and how to both play against them and how to improve your own play at each style. It has a great section that will alllow you to evaluate your own play and how to improve from there.

is there a section or post here that would better explain how to loose up more or to play to that.

As in i play really tight also on the play money tables but i have been getting a feel of being able to bluff better since i normally dont. is there something here to check out just to get a better understanding of how to bluff somoene with better chance of success?

maybe watching them for a bit see how they play, being able to spot that and so forth.