am I ready for real money?

hey everyone! 8)

first off, this site rocks. i've already gotten a ton of good information, and am happy that FTR basically got me playing $25 NL PL holdem (as opposed to always playing limit). it beats the grind of tight-aggressive limit.

i've been playing Party Poker play money 5/10 limit and $25 NL PL for the past few weeks, am up ~1500 play chips, and have done a lot of poker reading/studying. i play tight aggressive (a bit more on the tight side) and rarely bluff. if i ever play you in a game, you didn't hear that last part. Very Happy

my typical stats for a session of $25 NL PL are:
Hands won: 11%
Showdowns won: 100%
Flops seen: 37%
win% of flops seen: 23%

so my two questions:

- am i ready for real money? do i have enough experience? (i'm pretty "even" and not prone to tilting.)
- i'll play pretty loose pre-flop (10,8s - 6,7o - but not crap, e.g. 7,2 - 10,3 etc.) for a .25 call, but get out if there's a raise. i like to see a many flops as i can on the cheap, then get out if i've got nothin'. is this bad pre-flop strategy?

thanks for the help, and keep up the good work.

From my experience, play money games and real money games are totally different. The reason to do the play money thing is just to get use to the software and the beeping if you take too long to play. Other than that, it's really no indication of playing poker with real money. As for the stats, showdowns won can be decpetive since you can be in the big blind, not have anyone raise thoughout the hand and loose the showdown because someone happend to have two better cards than you. Hands won is meaningless since I'd rather win fewer big hands with big pots than stealing blinds worth 75 cents.

The only stats that I'm concerned with are # of hands played or time I've been playing and how much I won (or occasionally lost.) I think comparing play with the stats offerered on PP tends to handicap, more than help, your outcome. At the risk of sounding philosophical, just like in life, setting short term goals tend to limit results. Always keep in mind the "big picture." In poker, it's all about making money, not how many flops you've seen.

As far as the "seeing as many flops as possible cheap strategy," I prefer to play against players that practice this. (See my post in the real casino section about Commerce Lake.) The reason is because I tend to play a very tight aggressive game. If someone stays in with an average hand against my strong hand, I'll definitely have the advantage when we start betting against each other.

I agree with J here, you're seeing too many flops, particularly for someone just off the play money tables.

Most players like that will either bust out fast or go on a big rush building up a nice stack before going down in flames. However, every now and then I see a player skilled enough to pull it off and it's a wonder to behold. I really learn a lot about potential profit left on the table.

Here are some issues with playing lots of hands:
o Many hands make very good second best hands, so knowing when to make a laydown becomes much more important.
o Playing lots of hands out of position makes this problem even worse since you have less information to work with.
o Limping from early and middle position often exposes you to raises from behind you either need to call or abandon your 50c. Often a lose/lose situation as very few hands have high enough implied odds to withstand the additional cost.
o Here is a big one I like to cash in on. Playing lots of hands gives away your playing style! I watch those players very closely knowing I'm likely to do battle with them soon. Usually within an orbit or two I can have them pegged pretty closely on a particular betting/calling strategy giving me a big edge over them. I have a better idea how they act with a legit hand and know how to get them to put the most chips in the center when I got them on the hook.
o PP cash NL has a max buy in of only 50x the BB. Other games have 100x BB giving even higher implied odds for limping with marginal hands.

thanks for the feedback. i think i need to try some real money play (.25 NL PL on Party Poker) to assess where my game needs work.

you're points are well taken on real money versus play money. it's kind of like "just hitting the tennis ball around" as opposed to playing a game where you keep score.

you're points on playing too many hands are also well taken. i think very tight (but aggessive with appropriate starters) is the way i'll get my feet wet. better too conservative than too loose.

thanks again for the comments. 8)