real money vs.play money

first,dont hesitate to correct me,I need help.I may know the answer but I have to ask.Im still learning how to use this machine that IM trying to learn how to play poker on.both about 9 months.In a couple weeks I have banked around 90,ooo play dollars on fulltilt,2000 sng,Its been very difficult.My best strategy has been to let first 20 or so hands go by.this eats me up on blinds and if I dont get some what i think are really good hands Im done.When you get on real money tables do most of these people holding 82 and beating my KK with trip 2s go away.I feel this is a good way to learn playing this type of player,but i hate to think how I would react if they were taking real money.this pc doesnt look like it would float if I throw it in the pond.Guess Im looking for reassurance,I really enjoy holdem but some of these people are wearing me out.help.thanks in advance.

Get used to it. The play does get better, but there are still horrible players sucking out on you. And as you play poker longer, you realize you want horrible players trying to suck out on you. That's where your money comes from. Otherwise, you're the horrible player trying to suckout

Oh, and you might be playing KK wrongly, in such a way that your opponent is correct to try and suckout. But that's hard to say without looking at specific hands.

There are donks at all levels playing any two cards that they are dealt. At No Limit cash games a good player might get a read on a weaker player and bluff them out of a pot holding a weak hand. Or, in an unraised pot, someone might play just about anything and win. Yet, look at how Sammy Farah plays on High Stakes Poker...any two cards and occasionally wins...big! At Limit cash games, some people play any two cards and suck out on big pocket pairs.

If you are looking to get away from people who suckout on you, then you need to take up a different game than poker. At all levels, in both cash games and tournaments, you are NEVER immune from a bad beat.

Try some freerolls and maybe you can build a small bankroll to play in some real money games.

You will continue to see bad plays but can learn to profit from them. Spend some time reading some threads in the tournament hand analysis forum - and the strategy forum.

what I thought,but it doesnt seem to matter how i play it.I slow play to try to get chips or Im allin to scare them off but they hang in like they know whats next.

i love practicing my poker with play chips..i usually play 2k sng til i am over 10k then i go into a 10k tourney..at one point i had 250 k ...then i went donk wild one weekend..well..you know..
good thing they renew 1k after 5 min...lol..
i try to only play real money if i feel good & lucky ..
As far as the whole KK issue..im still struggling to improve when to push them & when i should fold ..as it seems anybody playing ace rag can crack em with a full tilt river..

Best of luck @ the tables

In a freeroll, if you know there are people that are going to call you, you go all in with KK every time. The mentality of "I shouldn't play KK because someone with Ax is going to get lucky on me" isn't the way to play kings. Obviously if the board comes Axx then you may have to consider laying them down.

One thing about playing poker online is that you always have to play the numbers. If you think you are cursed or a site has "too many bad beats" then it will only negatively affect your play.

Play money games are a decent tool for learning the dynamics of the game. In fairness though, poker is a game of risk/reward, without any risk there is no reward, so play money games fail in many regards.

Beating a playmoney game regardless "how high" is of no indication that you can beat even the lowest of stakes. Because even at the lowest stakes online there is a risk/reward.

like these guys said, the suckouts and bad play are at all levels, but in my limited experience, it's mostly at the lower levels. when the fish can buy in for really cheap, they don't worry about losing a little bit of money so they play absolutely horrible. at the higher levels, some people just don't think for some hands, or they play very loose. we just have to figure out how to not lose our minds along with our bankroll to these guys.

play money everybody just calls,
real money high stakes is very well played
low stakes are ok but but a lot of people just call

thanks for all the good advice,like I said only been playing 9 months,Im in a good place to learn.Ive made the midnight ferguson a couple of times but then i changed my style and bounced out quick.I think next time Ill wait till the next night and go in fresh.Thanks again all

billwild940 said:

When you get on real money tables do most of these people holding 82 and beating my KK with trip 2s go away

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When you get to real money tables, K/K will lose to 8/2 just as often as it does at play money tables. The difference is someone would have to be really tilting to play 8/2.


But if a tight player raises under the gun, there are still a ton of people who will call with their K/J hands. You also see a lot of people who limp UTG, then call a big raise. So there are plenty of fish in the sea.
I while back I was tilting so I played a $1 S&G on PokerStars. I got A/A the first hand, shoved, and was called by K/Q. I won, but regardless of results, that was just a dumb call.


For the most part people are better in real money games. If I was to estimate, I'd say that playing real money micro limits is like playing with the top 10% of play money players. Still plenty of fish, but you get people who are playing a bit more solid, rather than people who are winning to shove with 8/2 for the glory of a suckout.

Yeah real money is harder, but their are still beatable me thinks.

tenbob said:

Play money games are a decent tool for learning the dynamics of the game. In fairness though, poker is a game of risk/reward, without any risk there is no reward, so play money games fail in many regards.

Beating a playmoney game regardless "how high" is of no indication that you can beat even the lowest of stakes. Because even at the lowest stakes online there is a risk/reward.

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Keep this in mind while you get more and more comfortable playing online poker, and then by extension, perhaps live poker. The common cliche' is that "if you aint in it, you can't win it". But that cliche' sort of exudes loose play, and that isn't really risk/reward, or it strains a sane concept of risk/reward. Playing 82o is beyond most folks sane concept of risk/reward.

But everyone of us has run into those players, perhaps even a few times we have found ourselves in the position where we either had to, or were persuaded (pot odds, ICM, etc) to play such geeky holdings.

I am almost embarrassed to confess I don't take the risk reward road enough, and when I finally have to, I do it wrong. But then until I read this I wasn't very conscious of how I deal with the risk/reward aspect of a luck based gambling like game.

I still play play money occasionally.

Set a goal of 1 million play chips before you really consider moving along. BTW, play gets better at the 10K play money games. By better I mean it gets even closer to real money play. At the 10K level, you have a pride level coming into play from a lot of folks who believe they are getting close to crushing the game, and do have the understanding that at it's core it is about chips, and not cash. This is the beginnings of the results oriented thinking, and the realization that good decision making will eventually produce good results, rather than the quick, fun, improper play that sometimes results in big prizes.

Money is Real Money
Greed is Real Greed

Just remember it can affect you even more when there is Cash on the table and you might end up being the one chasing trying to Bank the $

You will find the bigger the pot the more likely some will chase
The Beats can be just as bad, or worse, as in Play Money tournaments as now you will be losing Real Cash

Start out at low limits and don't be in a hurry to move up. The higher the stakes the more you can win and the more you can lose. Having Real $ on the table can affect everyone at the tables mentality towards what they will play.

Good Luck and Good Games!

fkscreennames said:

There is absolutely no comparison with play and real . Poker is only poker if u have something to loose. You have to have a consequence for your actions. The bigger the consequence the less variance u will note.

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The above quote is correct. I would actually recommend that you stop playing with play chips altogether. If I were you, I'd spend all of my time playing the freerolls for cash. Place in one of those, then try cash games, or SnG's.

Hi Bill,
I was a play money player for a year or so. If I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn't change a thing.

Ummmmmmm. as far as some of the advice posted here.
Ummmmm, let me just say, be very, very selective. enuf said.

yuh i think that is what pushed me away . i would play great until i would be called with something bogus , and they would sukout or something along those lines . i would say just being patient with everything going on at the table . i try to focus on the people i wanna knock out rather than trying to stay away from certain players . always something new to learn about the people your playing against and what you can do to make yourself a better player

what ive learned to do in ring games is before you buy in take a couple of hands and watch how everyone plays, if its a maniac table, i ussually leae and find another one, or if the play is stable, and there are good calls out there, i go for it. This of course doesnt exempt you from suckouts/bad beats, but you can certainly minimize them. trust me, ive learned the hard way.

LizzyJ said:

Hi Bill,
I was a play money player for a year or so. If I had to do it over again, I probably wouldn't change a thing.

Ummmmmmm. as far as some of the advice posted here.
Ummmmm, let me just say, be very, very selective. enuf said.

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i agree. i've been playing play money for a few years now, and i still do, even when i play real money too. also i would agree that you should be very selective to which advice you listen to here. it's better to be safe and double check some of it on other parts of the forum.

play money is actually worth more than the US dollar now. rough times for the economy!

the play gets better in real money.
Not to say you wont get that person that calls your raise with 8/2 o.
I have seen that at all leveles of play from play money to freerolls to lo limits and on up.

play money never will be really good game, on the contrary with it it is possible to worsen quality of the game only. Poker is game only on real money

Much said that is very true here.

I'd like to add that I played play money to improve my stud game

- well enough at least to not suck big-time in horse-tourneys....

I still play a razz 50/100 play-money game too, just to chat with buddies on FT :stupid:

You should take more shots on freerolls imo, read the strategy threads and go through some hand analysis, too.
In the long run real money freerolls have more expected value
(but verrrrry little sometimes) than play-money which should be obvious.
You can learn and train there, too - rest assured you won't be the worst donk.
If you do cash, keep it - read the BRM section of this site, too.
If you are finally stacked enough it's time for a new star to be born.... :trytofly::flybye:

Btw: 9 months of PM -training should be enough.

GL

This happens to a lot of us. In MY experience, the real money players seem to be less "donkish" and more experienced than play money players. Most of them also seem to be more tight. I take advantage of this by being very aggressive.