Phoenix Wright
Legend
Loyaler
It depends on how you play with play-chips versus "real money." I started playing poker with play-chip games and freerolls (I really am fairly new to poker as I only really started playing earlier this year), but I've found that I play them about the same. Why? I treated play-chips as if it was real money, but not everyone has this discipline when they know it isn't real. Playing with real money (including freerolls - although sometimes freerolls and micro-stake levels suffer from this problem too) sometimes has players play a little "different" by bluffing more and not calling as much. Why is this the case?
Hypothetically, let us imagine a very common scenario in poker. You are heads up against one other player (Heads-up game or isolated in a larger game is irrelevant to this point) and you are now faced with a tough decision on the River. You think the opponent may be bluffing, but you aren't super sure and you still have a decent amount of chips left to call (you facing their River bet). What would you do here? More importantly: is it the same regardless of the stakes?
Poker is poker. However, if this was a play-chip game: lots of players will call just to see what the other player has. Even if it is a freeroll (free buy-in but possibly real money to be won) or micro-stakes, lots of players will make a looser call "just to see" and not worry if they lose because it "isn't much" (or any) money to them. Now what if in this same situation, you are playing the wsop Main Event with a $10,000 buy-in of real money and the pot in front of you is a million dollars in chips? Many people would be more inclined to fold. Why should the amount of money change anything? The math is the same, the game is the same and the situations are identical; you should make the same decision, in theory. This is what you want to avoid. When learning poker, you want to develop a good poker-ability and that may mean treating even play-chips as real money. If you can do this, then I don't think it matters much what stakes you play. However, many regular players only play for decent stakes because they get annoyed by opponents who just shove all-in and call a lot. The hope is that playing at larger stakes effectively gets opponents to play "real poker" against them.
By the way, the key with poker is bankroll management and table selection (perhaps even more than any skill-based poker concept). I'd recommend starting at the smallest stakes and slowly working your way up to higher money stakes when you are ready for it. The smallest stakes are play-chips (no money) and freerolls. I'd start there. Truth be told, I am still at this stage in my learning. Perhaps I could move up in stakes within the near future (as I have learned and improved a lot), but I'd take things slowly. There is no rush to move up in buy-ins and many players don't like to do so even if they have the ability to move up.
Good luck with your practice and learning
Hypothetically, let us imagine a very common scenario in poker. You are heads up against one other player (Heads-up game or isolated in a larger game is irrelevant to this point) and you are now faced with a tough decision on the River. You think the opponent may be bluffing, but you aren't super sure and you still have a decent amount of chips left to call (you facing their River bet). What would you do here? More importantly: is it the same regardless of the stakes?
Poker is poker. However, if this was a play-chip game: lots of players will call just to see what the other player has. Even if it is a freeroll (free buy-in but possibly real money to be won) or micro-stakes, lots of players will make a looser call "just to see" and not worry if they lose because it "isn't much" (or any) money to them. Now what if in this same situation, you are playing the wsop Main Event with a $10,000 buy-in of real money and the pot in front of you is a million dollars in chips? Many people would be more inclined to fold. Why should the amount of money change anything? The math is the same, the game is the same and the situations are identical; you should make the same decision, in theory. This is what you want to avoid. When learning poker, you want to develop a good poker-ability and that may mean treating even play-chips as real money. If you can do this, then I don't think it matters much what stakes you play. However, many regular players only play for decent stakes because they get annoyed by opponents who just shove all-in and call a lot. The hope is that playing at larger stakes effectively gets opponents to play "real poker" against them.
By the way, the key with poker is bankroll management and table selection (perhaps even more than any skill-based poker concept). I'd recommend starting at the smallest stakes and slowly working your way up to higher money stakes when you are ready for it. The smallest stakes are play-chips (no money) and freerolls. I'd start there. Truth be told, I am still at this stage in my learning. Perhaps I could move up in stakes within the near future (as I have learned and improved a lot), but I'd take things slowly. There is no rush to move up in buy-ins and many players don't like to do so even if they have the ability to move up.
Good luck with your practice and learning
