Is there a point to playing with play money?

I have been trying to do this to work on holes in my game, but the play is so different that it almost seems stupid to try. I can't count the amount of limpers that call stuff with garbage just because they don't care, and then think they are so smart because they catch straight or flush draws on the river when they shouldn't be in the pot in the first place - or they play with any face card and hit pairs and trips. I've actually been beaten with hands like 5/3o and 2/6o.

You can't bluff, can't check/raise, can't even play top hands properly because the playing field isn't real. It gets so playing with any skill goes out the window and I'm just building bad habits because of the idiots around me. Should I just switch to low limits and build my game there?

The only value for play money is to get you used to the game. The interface and the basic rules. After that pretty much pointless. If you can afford it, jump into the low limits.

IMHO, yes. To see what the interface of that site is. I see no value in it if you are talking about learning how to make money playing poker.

Instead of play money if you want to practice without risking anything you could try a simulation there are several out there I practiced with DD Tournament Poker for a while before I jumped into playing for real money.

If youre interested PM me. I will hook you up.

There are a couple times where play money games are valuable. The first is to see if you like the interface and to get used to it if you like it. I played hundreds of hands on UB with play money before I decided that I liked it enough to put money into it. I played play money at pacific poker and hated the interface so much I decided I didn't want to play there.

I've also found that the tournement games can be somewhat realistic. If anything, play these. The play money ring games are an absolute joke though. It's a totally different game...but if you want to get technical, you should be able to beat the play money ring games too. You need to use a different strategy to win though, so the experience isn't worth much.

Nope.

-'rilla

I like the Sit and Go's on poker stars.

I played a lot of play money S&Gs on PokerStars before starting to play for real money.
The one with 300-2000 Play money are pretty much useless
The 10K-25K are much better and can prepare you a bit for rela money S&Gs in my opinion, although the players there are still more loose then the real money

I won a few Freerolls at FullTilt and then a few $5 SnGs. Then I lost half my hard earned money (I havent deposited yet) on the 0.05/0.10 with second best hands. Since then I havent played real money, just play chips but Im really interested in learning to make money.

I started with play money NLHE on PartyPoker for over a month before moving to real money. Built 2k chips into just under 10 million.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Fnord

I started with play money NLHE on PartyPoker for over a month before moving to real money. Built 2k chips into just under 10 million.

---

did you learn anything?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by vqchuang

did you learn anything?

---

To be honest, the step up from play money to Party $25NL wasn't as steep at the time. The game was THAT good.