I started playing online poker a few days ago and have been doing a bit well in play money. (on pokerstars)

at first deposited 20 dollars but wasted that away playing spin and go's. It was very addictive. Now I've thought not to deposit more until I become better & patient.

Now I'm doing quite well with play money. Won a couple of sit n go tournaments (20k-50k buy ins about 48 players) and made the final table a several times as well.
Played a few heads up games & cash games as well.
Now at around 1.4M play money chips.

But I'm not sure about the competition of play money tournaments is up to the level of real money tournament standards cause it's fake money.

Have been playing freerolls as well (haven't gone to the money but have made it close), as well as studying at pokerschool on pokerstars.

I'm thinking of what to do next.
Should I just keep on playing on play money chips and keep on improving my skills?
Or should I try a bit of real money micro stakes as well?
Thanks for reading!

Play money is just a waste of time. You should just keep learning and changing your game till you can start cashing in some free rolls. Once you can do that, play for a week or two as your schedule allows to get a few dollars and move to low buy in games.

Keep working on your game till you can start cashing in the low limit games and slowly move up little by little.

There is no easy or free way to learn poker. You can spend your time studying and playing free rolls, you can spend your money and get a coach, software, and use small buyins, but it is going to cost you something.

Play money is generally a waste of time. Sure you can learn very basic stuff like hand rankings and familiarity with the software but its definitely not "real" poker.

Freerolls are valid to learn on since there's potential actual money at stake. And of course there's also 2-5NL and cheap tournaments. But don't waste your time with play money.

Pokerschool is a good idea,lot of freebies and tickets should help you.Joining this forum was a good idea Keep playing alot of freerolls and micro games to get your feet wet and learn,,also remember it`s a marathon,not a sprint

A game for real money, is different from virtual money. It is not necessary to play for virtual money, then it's difficult to switch to a normal game!

Originally Posted by quick

Play money is generally a waste of time. Sure you can learn very basic stuff like hand rankings and familiarity with the software but its definitely not "real" poker.

Freerolls are valid to learn on since there's potential actual money at stake. And of course there's also 2-5NL and cheap tournaments. But don't waste your time with play money.

I'm with this train of thought completely... if your going to move on up... freerolls is a good moving step before going into money and you'll get pleeenty of experience along the way... trust me... lol... i hope things work out...

play freerolls all day everyday in everyway you can i mean anyway agressive bluffs, bets with anything all in with 72 all u can do learn learn learn and play more and think of everything why u doing this till u start thinking in any and every way in poker to be better and WIN some freerolls whats you have done this for months YOU will KNOW whats next to do... trust me thats the best i can give u here or MSG...... GOOD Luck

The worst free rolls are a better indicator than any play money games, but if you can afford to deposit, do it & commit to proper bankroll management, if you find you don't have the patience & discipline, maybe poker isn't for you. Same basic rules apply no matter your bankroll.

Originally Posted by Alucard

I started playing online poker a few days ago and have been doing a bit well in play money. (on pokerstars)

at first deposited 20 dollars but wasted that away playing spin and go's. It was very addictive. Now I've thought not to deposit more until I become better & patient.

Now I'm doing quite well with play money. Won a couple of sit n go tournaments (20k-50k buy ins about 48 players) and made the final table a several times as well.
Played a few heads up games & cash games as well.
Now at around 1.4M play money chips.

But I'm not sure about the competition of play money tournaments is up to the level of real money tournament standards cause it's fake money.

Have been playing freerolls as well (haven't gone to the money but have made it close), as well as studying at pokerschool on pokerstars.

I'm thinking of what to do next.
Should I just keep on playing on play money chips and keep on improving my skills?
Or should I try a bit of real money micro stakes as well?
Thanks for reading!

That's what happened to me as well. play money is misleading, you can learn from there only rule of the game. PS school was very useful to me and I finished there. You should play on PS freeroll then consider about deposit again.

Originally Posted by karl coakley

Play money is just a waste of time. You should just keep learning and changing your game till you can start cashing in some free rolls. Once you can do that, play for a week or two as your schedule allows to get a few dollars and move to low buy in games.

Keep working on your game till you can start cashing in the low limit games and slowly move up little by little.

There is no easy or free way to learn poker. You can spend your time studying and playing free rolls, you can spend your money and get a coach, software, and use small buyins, but it is going to cost you something.

Thanks for your replies guys. Really appreciate it.

I've been playing a lot of freerolls tbh.
A lot on pokerstars & a few on americas cardroom and betsafe poker.

And freerools gets me really frustrated for a few things honestly.

1. People shove in with absolutely nothing and win against AA,KKs. Even though I know it was the right call to shove with AA,KKs it's really frustrating when you loose like that. And the more people on the pot, the more likely your best pre flop hand would be beat.

2. When you play tight aggressive your hand selections are pretty limited and you'd do well in he beginning of the tournament, but when you go to the middle phase, you'll likely be with a low stack with huge blinds. So again the pressure is on you. Has happened to me almost all the time. When you put more than one hour or more into these games and when these kind of things happen, it gets you questioning whether it's worthwhile or not.

But I'll keep on to your advice and keep on trying freerolls.

Ah and I've tried those starscoin buy in tournaments as well. I feel they are worse than the freerolls. Becuase again people shove with nothing and just simply rebuy if they are beat cause of unlimited rebuys. So it all comes to who can get lucky and who has more starscoins.

Opinions will be many.If this is how you play plus play money,try the real money option.

I agree with a lot of the posts here, playmoney is only good for learning the basics (hand rankings is the biggest part.) freerolls probably play similar to play chips. If you are ok with depositing again maybe try some $0.25 and $0.50 sit and goes to start. 45 or 90 player sit and goes. Spin and go is a fun variant but there are big losing streaks bound to happen making it hard to play with a small amount

Play money is ok if you are playing for fun and are afraid of losing. But if you think you are good enough player you should play for real money.

playmoney and realmoney poker are two different plants.
just try real see what happens.

good luck.

Originally Posted by XXPXXP

playmoney and realmoney poker are two different plants.
just try real see what happens.

good luck.

Yeah will do. Thanks for the advice.
I'm actually doing pretty good on freerolls now. So might try to build a bankroll on that.

Good idea is to play pokerschool elementary tournament and then try get into the top 15% of the tournament, work your way up through high school, university and then masters.

Play money SNG can teach you basic rules of poker and hand strength. Playing freerolls will show you how hard it is to get lucky and make pennies...good discipline.

Originally Posted by blanktheman

Good idea is to play pokerschool elementary tournament and then try get into the top 15% of the tournament, work your way up through high school, university and then masters.

Actually I'm in the top 15% of Elementary. In fact was in the top 900 but fell down a few today.

Currently doing fairly good on freerolls. Won one & came second on another. Made the money quite a few times.

Thanks for the advice

Playing on the conditional chips will help you get acquainted with the process of playing poker and learn the basic rules. I recommend that you do not stay at this stage and do not waste your time, but instead try to play in freerolls. Also as an option, you can make a minimum deposit and get bonuses.

As i make my way up the poker ladder,,,you`ll always find a player who has the attitude they have nothing to lose(just like freerolls) to some a $1 is nothing,so you have a very loose player and to some a $100 is nothing and so on,,,,,,,the point is,,Get used to it! You have to figure out who your dealing with when you sit down at a table(online or live) When you`ve sat down and it`s everyone`s else`s job to figure out your game,,,then you`ve `made`it,and you will `know` you`ve arrived as a poker player. Good luck on your journey,hav fun,run good

Originally Posted by terryk

As i make my way up the poker ladder,,,you`ll always find a player who has the attitude they have nothing to lose(just like freerolls) to some a $1 is nothing,so you have a very loose player and to some a $100 is nothing and so on,,,,,,,the point is,,Get used to it! You have to figure out who your dealing with when you sit down at a table(online or live) When you`ve sat down and it`s everyone`s else`s job to figure out your game,,,then you`ve `made`it,and you will `know` you`ve arrived as a poker player. Good luck on your journey,hav fun,run good

Thanks. Much appreciated!

And thanks to everyone who commented

Think you would be much better off playing freerolls and working on your game. Spin and gos are probably not the best thing to play unless you make a dedicated commitment to working on icm, and have the bankroll to support a very high variance game.

I would advise you to stay active at this forum because you will learn a lot from other players. You have to look out for bad advice though, because bad advice could be even worse than no advice at all.
When you have been active on Cardschat for a month, and made more than 75 posts, you should apply for Cardschat's freeroll club. Each week on Pokerstars there are 5 freerolls that only FRC members can join, and since the fields are small, there's a much bigger chance of winning.

Yup grind the freerolls as much as you can to build up the bankroll and then move on to real money buy in's