I AM SICK OF LOSING! IM STARTING OVER!

[mrmonkey]

Thanks for the advice this has been very helpful i will be able to apply this to my game and see were it takes me. So far i have about 9 step 2 tickets and will see how far i can get with them. I can also play in some 10,000 SNG's with the tickets and try to build from there. I have opptions hehe.

Playing and cashing in a few of the tickets at the normal 10,000 SNG tables is one way to go, though I think the real goal is to get your bankroll up over a million as quickly as possible so you can get to the limits where people play a little stronger game.

Personally, I prefer to just go through the SNG steps and cash at the end of 7. Cashing top 3 in the step 7 game is much more lucrative than grinding out at the 10,000 SNG level. This does take some patience, but the games are sometimes very soft because you have all-in donks that have shoved their way to the higher steps sometimes, and they make no change to their gameplan in the higher steps. If you play very conservatively until the ticket bubble, it also makes it so that you usually won't ever lose a ticket. However, losing a ticket also usually doesn't matter other than losing a bit of time investment, since you bought in originally for 300 chips.

Quite honestly, I do find the monotony of multitabling steps to get boring after a while. However, this is by far the safest/easiest way to really grind out a playmoney roll so you can get into the higher limit cash games and experience better play while practicing sound bankroll management principles.

 

[darkassassin89]

Hey guys I have 5 step 4 tickets as of right now. 1 step 3 and 1 step 2. Went on a bad donk fest run (running into donks not donking ) and only 1 solid hand My AK v JJ and thats how i lost a ticket there. Well So far the grind is moving up slowly. I will let u all know when i hit a lvl 7 ticket so u can all watch me and wish me the best of lucks and rail and analiyze with me and what not Cant wait actually. See ya and wish me lucks!

 

[Poker Orifice]

I would think that play money is a HUGE waste of time. imo, spend 'some' of the time you'd waste on play money tables, railing someone who can play on the real money tables. (also, read stuff, watch a few training vids.).
Then.. start out playing the cheapest SNG's you can find (on Fulltilt there are guys building small bankrolls playing those 70cent SNG sattys, and I think there's 30cent ones on there too at times?).
The play is actually halfway decent in them & I believe that if you put some time in on them, that you 'should' be able to become a winning player in the micros ($2-$5 buyins). I would guess (by seeing them on the tables) that ALOT of the players in the $5's & $10's started lower & then put in a bit of volume (ie. on some $5 tables you'll find regs. who've played 1.000 to 5,000 sngs, w an avg. buyin of ~$2.. but they are now beating the $5's. I've also seen players in the 70cent SNG sattys who've played 500games at that buyin level & are building bankrolls from them).
Personally I could just never 'make' myself play on play money tables (the few secs. I've spent on them was to familiarize myself with software at a poker site i was going to start playing on... or when I wanted to re-set my options, bet-slider, etc.).. The play was horrendous (nobody was folding to a 3bet.. there could be 5 limpers.. a big raise.. & then a HUGE reraise.. & they'd ALL pretty much call. It was a Joke!

I would rather play 'Crazy 8's ' or 'Go Fish'.. or "War" than i would the poker play money tables. ugh!

 

[darkassassin89]

I dont think playing Play money is THAT bad. Sometimes i get a good game going on. Also i need to play higher stakes in play money to really get a better poker players

 

[mrmonkey]

Honestly, most of the people who bag on play money have not really spent much time there, and are basically only exposed to the lowest levels which are obviously going to be pretty horrible.

Of the benefits I did not already mention above, another thing I really like about starting out with play money is that it helps train you to become less results oriented.

Let me pose a question.

Situation: You are heads up at the final table of the wsop ME.

Would you rather win the WSOP ME by making a stupid mistake and sucking out, or would you rather take second and be sucked out on?

If you answered you would rather make the right play and take second, you are not being honest with yourself, or you are a billionaire and 4+ million dollars means nothing to you. It is almost impossible to not be results oriented when the stakes are so high.

Now, let's change the situation and you are playing at your usual limits. Again, would you rather suckout and win or lose and have made the right decision? If playing correctly within your bankroll, the correct answer is to have lost but made the right decision. However, this case gets iffy for some people, as they would still say they would rather have sucked out and won. Money is money after all, right? And who doesn't want money. To be a better player though, your answer should be you prefer to have made the correct decision because that means you are likely to profit more in the future at your current skill level.

Now let's take this example to playchips, where virtually nothing is at stake other than time, pride, and your virtual bankroll. You can probably already see it is much easier to say you would rather have made the correct play than made a bonehead mistake and sucked out. When practicing to think in these terms, it starts to become second nature -- which can only be good for when moving to real cash games.

 

[Pothole]

weather

The sun will shine again. Is this the 'weather' your lookin for? There are no 'usual limits' in play chips, and u can't 'reload' indefinately with real cash, so 'play chips are what they are. PLAY chips.

 

[darkassassin89]

Hey Guys who have been following. A blessing has happened I came across 15$ some how and have been slowly but surely grindint it up. I hope that i may keep this roll this time, andnot play outa my BR Wish me luck gentalmen. I still have all my play money step tickets so i may continue to grow this just so that i can say i did it or if i start having bad day, then ill donk the play chips instead of my cash

 

[Clutch346]

Every once in a while I find money in an old winter coat or suit pants pocket after not wearing it for forever. It's a great feeling.

I have never, however, found money in my poker account. Did you find a benefactor who couldn't stand to see you languishing in play chip territory? or did you just look a little deeper into the back pocket of your poker account?

 

[darkassassin89]

Hahaha no bro, I was staked in a game from a friend and got 27$ cash so we split 50/50 well kinda she gave me 15 and kept the rest for herself. Thank Mommy! (my nick name 4 her)

 

[Pizzon]

Sorry if someone already beat me to it but props to you. Just bear in mind that alot of people on play money act like they are playing for play money, and nothing else. Don't care about actually learning, just go all in on everything kind of people. I combat that with I treat my play money like real money. Even when noone else is haha. Especially when I play with buddies. Playing serious usually forces me on top of my buds and they get pissed but hey, whenever i do play for real money now Im already used to not blowing my money on bad hands when ive seen it while playing for play money and lost badly. Thats really the main thing that play money can hone on ya, knowing when to fold em and when to hold em.


Changing my tactics in that department usually helps me out ten-fold.

 

[AtiFCOD]

Well if I can put my opponent on a range of hands I can know everything I need to know about whether I should value bet, bluff, or check. If I know my opponent is thinking about my range (unlikely at lower stakes) I can use my perceived range to value bet or bluff more effectively.

Let say we raise from EP and get called by a tight player on the BTN.

The flop is AdJd6s and we bet 2/3 pot. Our tight opponent raises an amount that commits him. What do we do?

Oh you think our card are important? Ok we have AQ with the Qd.

So what do we do? Well our range is mostly good Aces/big pairs and our yet our tight opponent wants to get all in so what's his range? Probably JJ/AJ/KdQd/66. So what do we do? FOLD instantly. Why? Because his range crushes us (we have less than 20% equity against that range).

Now change that opponent to a maniac and we might want to get all in because he'll have tons of draws and lots of worse Aces in his range AND he's not even thinking about our range. He has pretty cards and wants to bet.

Now imagine at your play money tables where the "best players" are like the maniac. What have you learned playing only that player type or worse?

You summarised it well.

I can add that he still can play in freerolls. There are better (not much) players there, than at play mones games. Moreover he can win there money what he can invest in real money game and he can't lose anything maximum what he won at frees.

 

[cardriverx]

good luck man. Hope you can do it

 

[gobthemagician]

WVH and mrmonkey, thank you for the extensive advice much appreciated. Learned a lot from your posts.

To darkassassin, I don't know if you're still continuing your strategy of starting from play money, but good luck either way.

 

[darkassassin89]

Well ive been off and on with this. I have 1 step6 ticket 2 step 5 and 2 step 4. My other 5 step tickets were KIA (killing in action) But they did not die in vain they will be remembered.

 

[okeedokalee]

"Let say we raise from EP and get called by a tight player on the BTN.

The flop is AdJd6s and we bet 2/3 pot. Our tight opponent raises an amount that commits him. What do we do?

Oh you think our card are important? Ok we have AQ with the Qd.

So what do we do? Well our range is mostly good Aces/big pairs and our yet our tight opponent wants to get all in so what's his range? Probably JJ/AJ/KdQd/66. So what do we do? FOLD instantly. Why? Because his range crushes us (we have less than 20% equity against that range)."

Absolutely correct hillbilly, lost 70 BBs in 3 hands mis-judging tight players ranges, it is by far the biggest leak in my game.

It is important to be able to lay down big pockets when tight players re-raise your flop bet, usually they are playing level one poker and what they hold is a huge hand.

Play their range and not just what you see in front of you!