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Play Money. Part Two: Cons
The pros of play money are rather concrete while the cons are slightly
more abstract. Play money can be a trap that turns new online poker
players into losers before they even set foot at a real money table.
Play money is like playing Duck Hunt as a warm up for war. If you take
those skills into battle instead of ones gained at a firing range, you
are quite likely to get yourself killed.
The main problem with play money is the number of hands people will
play. Everyone sees the flop in play money. Any hand can turn into a
winning hand, of course, but everyone receiving cards and mindlessly
going to the river is an entirely different game. When there is nothing
at stake, cards are a game of luck, not skill.
The phrase, “well if I lose, it’s just play money”,
is said far too often at PokerRoom.com for the play money game to truly
be called poker. Players chase, unaware of key concepts in poker such
as pot odds and position. They believe they are pot committed when they
don’t even understand what the term means. This tendency to see
far too many hands far too deep not only means you get rivered more
often, but also the pots you win are much fatter than they would be
if players were wagering real money. The ease with which a thinking
player can win at play money tables can be the downfall of their fledgling
poker career.
If you turn $1,000 into $1,000,000 at a play money table, you might
therefore believe you have a system for success. But using this system,
where playing any ace or seeing the showdown with a small pair brings
you out on top will not work in the real money world.
Play money can be great fun, and as discussed in our play money pros
article it can make you familiar with the environment of an online cardroom.
But play money is not a viable training ground for real money poker.
My suggestion is to put $50 into a real money account and play the micro
limits. Even at $.01/$.02 tables there is something at stake, which
gives a much greater experience of the real poker world.
By Dustin Burkert
