learn by freegame/funmoney ?

I am a complete newbie (1week), I have read the guide on this site - improved my gaming a lot - but I am still playing free games with no real money...

I plan on trying out in the small limit rooms since I find holdem amusing (probably be one of the fishes at first :roll: )

The thing is - playing with fake chips lets people make a lot of wild bets and play crappy hands, is it still possible to learn the basics this way ?
or will I only learn bad habits ?

I would like to have a fair chance when playing with real money (cost a little less).

bump
advice anyone ?

Free give you a feel for the interface. Nothing clears the baffles like winning or losing real money.

You can learn the basics for free only if you ignore whether you win or lose and just play a hand how you're supposed to play it.

But, it's not as effective as playing for money, and not as rewarding. Lessons learned losing or winning real money are lessons well learned.

I've said this before and I like it:
play money is to poker as monopoly is to real estate investing. Fun, but not the same.

The chance you stand is directly related to whether you've learned poker basics yet. Do you know how to fold? And do you know how to fold? Have you learned the art of folding? Then you stand a chance.

PokerStars is a good place to start. They have real money limit games starting at .02/.04 to get your feet wet without investing much. And it is at least a little bit better than play money games.

http://www.pokerstars.com/?source=flopturnriver

Thank you for replying
- so I'll try playing a week or so implementing the tips from this site and others and then try the real deal.

EDIT: Since I haven't gotten the fold part down really yet - but working on it.

If you have a feel for the interface, then move on to the microlimits. They're much better than playmoney. YOu won't see soo many people playing in all the hands in microlimits, at least sometimes...:P

the only thing i really found beneficial about playing for play money, is you gain the experience in seeing a ton of hands and various outcomes, like how often flushes and straights hit, etc. But winning or losing means nothing really.

Thanks for the tip on PokerStars but since I am swedish and alredy downloaded Unibets pokerapp I thought I'd go with that to start with, players are mainly swedish aswell. Easier to rely on a biz that is native.

I am prepared to loose the money I put in, will start with about $30, loose that :D and then wait some time before I give it another go...

They have a rake of about 5%, no rake under $5, is that good?