Play Money

[2Tone]

I’ve posted about this before, but I actually believe that play money can harm your real game. As loose/weak as the low-limit Party tables are, they make any given play money table look like a rock garden/TAG fest. Beating play tables can lead to false sense of confidence, reinforce bad habits, and the like. Becoming a good poker player is in part about making the right decisions in the right circumstances, and it is hard to learn that if there is nothing on the line.

That said, they can be good for getting used to a new site’s interface, understanding a new game (I flirt w/ Omaha sometimes, but am not yet ready to put any cash on the line), or as an alternative to donkeying off your role when you are drunk/on tilt/ etc.

[jaeh00d]

said very well, i second

[kmb13592]

I disagree with this. Although the play is often unrealistic, it is still very helpful. You will need more than just play money experience to become a good player but it would say it is great experience. Until the summer most, almost all of my poker experience came from play money games on pokerstars. In august I sold some play chips for a couple dollars and started playing for real money for the first time. I got up to $1400 within a month and was playing very well. So all the play money playing had really prepared me for real money games, and I found the play money experience very beneficial.

[Talking Poker]

$2 --> $1400 in one month? Someone was playing WAY above their bankroll.

How's that $1400 looking now, if you don't mind me asking?

[Zybomb]

check the backer section during the past month or so

[kmb13592]

I cashed out $800 and then lost the over a period of time lost the rest of it and busted. Now I'm just hovering around $20-$50. I'm not great, but the cashout was pretty good for a high school junior and considering I never actually put any money in.

So I was saying to the original poster that I don't think it's a bad idea, and ite feels to me that only good can come from it, since you're not even risking any money.

[holdemstewart]

I played in the play money tables for about a year and a half. It taught me the basics and the odds of what you can catch are. But, after that, I figured out that the way people bet in real money(whatever the stakes) and how people bet in play money are way different. In play money, I would never let anything like JJ go. But in real money, I squirm in my seat to call double the BB.