Play money

How many of you freeroll pros play with play money and buy stacks of them with real money and almost never play in real money games and why? Just wondering a while now.
Thank you either way!

I only do it to let off steam and will go all in every hand. Why would anyone pay for play chips? I see it every time I log in zynga offering me millions of chips for 5 bucks. Why throw money away? Also you will gain nothing playing for play money due to the all ins.

I played a lot of play money poker in the last two months. And, during that time, it occurred to me that the highest games are absolutely unsustainable if some of the people aren't buying chips, and lots of them. I have no idea why people are buying play chips, but they have to be. On just the tables I played at, there were over 4 billion chips raked off. This was on pokerstars and there is no way that many chips can be replaced by the people getting 15,000 chips once every four hours, if they remember to click.

They charge about $1 per million chips. It is more expensive if you're spending a couple bucks and less if you're spending $50, but it's probably around $1.20 per million, assuming most people spend a couple bucks at a time. But, round down to $1 to compensate for the free chips given out. That's $4,000 in chips being pulled off while I was playing. That's a lot of money people are spending to play with fake chips.

I remember when I couldn’t play poker anywhere online for a while I think I got like 50 million in play chips. They don’t charge that much for play chips it was like a few bucks for 100 million...they are probably elderly ppl just messing around on the internet.

I think it depends on where you play. But, PokerStars charges $10 for 3 million, $20 for 18 million, and $50 for $90 million. They currently have/had a deal of $1 for 1 million. A few bucks for 100 million? Not on Stars, at least not now.

I never play games with buy in. Just some freerolls... sometimes i get the money and buy some soccer t-shirts. I m not good enough to play this tournaments

When I started to play poker I had played with play money, but after I discovered real money poker I’ve never played with play money anymore
For me if I can win real money there is no reason why to play with play money.

Personally, I don't think play money poker is useful once you've learned the rules and basic mechanics of the game - the mentality is totally different when people attach at least Some value to their chips. There's still plenty of all-in mashing in freerolls, but especially towards the later stages of tournaments there can be some tough players (especially if you're still at the level where you're playing freerolls/micros).

Play money is a good chance for beginners to get acquainted with poker. I invited friends who didn't know the rules at all and we played at the same table many years ago. It was funny and instructive at the same time.

Vallet said:

Play money is a good chance for beginners to get acquainted with poker. I invited friends who didn't know the rules at all and we played at the same table many years ago. It was funny and instructive at the same time.

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Yeah sure - play money and real money tables are 2 completely different things :bebored:

In most cases, play money is played by players from countries where gambling is prohibited or this poker site is prohibited.

I used to play money a lot during my beginners time. That helped me a lot to introduce myself to the poker environment. Once I immigrated to real money, I play money very seldom and only for all in gambling.

cash is best

Good morning everyone, in my opinion playing for money is much easier than playing Mtts.
I play Mtts, I play the hands I have to play, the problem is that at low limits, the players are a lot of losers and beat my premium hands many times, I remember a time when I raised 2.5x from UTG with QQ, with 25BB and villain applied SB 3 with 66, with 80BB and hit the 6 flop, you play right and take bad bet all the time, already in cash game, you just have to wait for a strong hand to bet high, I'm profiting day after day in the NL2 and NL5 zoom with some ease, sometimes I have the nuts and villains go from All in on the river, cash game is a fairer game where the luck factor has a much lower procentegem than in Mtts, in my opinion.
I am not very profitable in Mtts, pokerstars and 888poker, but I have better results in cash game.

thwenth1983 said:

Good morning everyone, in my opinion playing for money is much easier than playing Mtts.
I play Mtts, I play the hands I have to play, the problem is that at low limits, the players are a lot of losers and beat my premium hands many times, I remember a time when I raised 2.5x from UTG with QQ, with 25BB and villain applied SB 3 with 66, with 80BB and hit the 6 flop, you play right and take bad bet all the time, already in cash game, you just have to wait for a strong hand to bet high, I'm profiting day after day in the NL2 and NL5 zoom with some ease, sometimes I have the nuts and villains go from All in on the river, cash game is a fairer game where the luck factor has a much lower procentegem than in Mtts, in my opinion.
I am not very profitable in Mtts, pokerstars and 888poker, but I have better results in cash game.

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I think you misunderstood this thread. This isn't about playing a cash game or tournaments. This is about playing with "play money" chips. That is, playing with chips that have no value and can't be cashed out. If we were debating which game was better, ring games or tournaments, I would be totally on board with you. I much prefer ring games.

Still, you're playing real money. That's a different world from play money.

Are there professional virtual money players? Somehow I can’t believe it. Explain to me what is the point of being a professional in this game.

valetgll said:

Are there professional virtual money players? Somehow I can’t believe it. Explain to me what is the point of being a professional in this game.

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How can someone be a professional in a game that doesn't pay money. People don't play those games because they are trying to make a living.

This is going to sound crazy, but poker is a game. People enjoy playing games, even if they won't get paid for their time. It can also be fun to play against really horrible players.

When you play with fake money, you don't cash it out but you still win and you keep score based on your balance.

I´ve never bought play money in PS. Because they give us 15000 chips per 4 hours.

poker bingo 40% luck 60% strategy

ntf1125 said:

I´ve never bought play money in PS. Because they give us 15000 chips per 4 hours.

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Yeah, but I am talking about people playing in the higher stakes games. There are definitely people who play the 5 million and 20 million buy-in games who have done it with only the chips they have been given (I am one of them). But, it has to be exceptionally rare. The rake is so pervasive (amounting to 25-35 bb/100) that earning 100 million chips (a 20 buy-in bankroll for the 5 million games) probably cost you 250 million in rake. Rake you don't notice because it comes out of other stacks. But that is almost 25,000 people clicking that button for free chips and losing them all to you. Just to get you to the 5 million games.

And, most of the people playing those games are losers. So they didn't win their way up. Some people at that level are spending real money, for fake chips, to play them. I am almost willing to predict that most players at the 5 million and up tables paid for chips.

Sure, playing the 50/100 tables or the 250/500 tables is fine enough with the free chips you got from clicking. Those are also the most insane for people just shoving any two cards and trying to double up to get to the bigger tables.

thwenth1983 said:

Good morning everyone, in my opinion playing for money is much easier than playing Mtts.
I play Mtts, I play the hands I have to play, the problem is that at low limits, the players are a lot of losers and beat my premium hands many times, I remember a time when I raised 2.5x from UTG with QQ, with 25BB and villain applied SB 3 with 66, with 80BB and hit the 6 flop, you play right and take bad bet all the time, already in cash game, you just have to wait for a strong hand to bet high, I'm profiting day after day in the NL2 and NL5 zoom with some ease, sometimes I have the nuts and villains go from All in on the river, cash game is a fairer game where the luck factor has a much lower procentegem than in Mtts, in my opinion.
I am not very profitable in Mtts, pokerstars and 888poker, but I have better results in cash game.

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You should write an essay about staying in subject and implied odds!

valetgll said:

Are there professional virtual money players? Somehow I can’t believe it. Explain to me what is the point of being a professional in this game.

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Professional = Living by it
So there is nothing to say. Except... They find the biggest whales ever who buy their play money chips.

Also...
If you are going to spend your time to play a game which is supposed to be played with real money, why don't you just try just that and who knows you may make a living one day.

(Please!)

From my experience people who take play money seriously (as in they play seriously with play chips) fall into two categories right out of the box.

You have those who embark on a journey to build a serious bankroll from scratch without ever purchasing chips and pride themselves on it. Then the other stream is those who argue that is a waste of time. To play the upper levels you can skip the investment of time, pay for chips then head for the highest levels of play.

I played on one site where this was constantly debated - a play money site only with RNG certification, a million plus members and vigorous forums. There are leagues, tournaments galore and the play money chips are more expensive than the ones you quote from PokerStars. You also only get a 2,500 chips if you check in every day - that drops to 500 if you miss a day.

For me I still went the build a bankroll from nothing route and not only that, vowed (as some others did) I would only do this via free rolls (not entering buy-in tournaments along the way as my bankroll grew). I got into the top 1% and still have 150 or so tournament tickets I won along the way (which I had barred myself form using).

I would say I do not understand why people buy chips, but that is not true. In this case many opt to buy chips to support the site which is free and independent (the other option is you can donate). In the case of PokerStars I am sure many who buy play chips think it a small price to pay for all they poker infrastructure they receive in return.

Finally, I'll underline (yet again) for a subgroup poker players can have limited views. Millions love playing poker without stress. Some people I regularly played with were doctors, scientists, lawyers and a healthy smattering of retirees. For numerous reasons, they love the game but do not want to wager real money. They have enough stress in their regular loves already (or for retires concerns with frivolous spending) and enjoy the game without financial downsides.

This really is not a hard concept to grasp but many poker players appear to think their credibility is threatened because another subculture exists within the game.

Though my own use of play money is now very limited, I appreciate the culture and the fact it gave me a poker grounding.

You mean that all these people think that the game they are playing is poker and that they don't have $10/month to spend on real money?
If they are winning at these play money high level games why not bring their game in real money tables and own everyone with their hard acquired skills? Nothing to be afraid of.

Yeah, I don't get the hate for play money. I play real money, and I will also play with play money. It's a different game, but it's still fun.

I don't quite understand spending real amounts of money (more than a couple dollars) on play money chips. I know one player on the 5 million level who easily spends $100 a day, multiple days a week, on chips. The way he loses, and how he ends up sitting out after losing about 100 million, it is impossible he is winning enough chips to play. If you're spending $100 a day (or more), why not just play for real money?