Hey guys,
I was thinking about buying some play money to practice my poker game. I've wasted nearly 200$ over the last few months, depositing $10/15 each time. My game sucks, and I need to practice, especially tilt-wise. I don't want to waste any more money for now, 'cause I know already that I will, since I definitely lack skills.
Is play money a good way?
Originally posted by Rtwice
What's your opinion on play money?
But seriously, play money is nothing like real money. It's ok if you only want to see poker as a little fun game but if you want to take it seriously I have a better solution to your problem and it goes like this:
Read. If your game sucks you don't need to practice, you need to learn. If you don't read you don't know what's right, so you just solidify your mistakes or even just get more confused. Winning and losing isn't a good measure of skill over the short term and since you're a beginner you most certainly are in the short term. It's ok, you will make that $200 back easily once you work enough on your game. I also say read because you clearly haven't read much if you are depositing $10/$15 a pop and blowing it away. Why? BRM - BRM is the first thing you should learn.
Learn to play cash games i.e. 100bb no limit cash. Don't play tournaments to start with. I have a good reason for saying this but you shouldn't worry about that because I'm not sure explaining it will be much help. Basically it has everything to do with focusing on 1 thing and everything to do with stack sizes.
If you really truly want to get better, set aside $50 to deposit and read as much as you can about cashgame strategy. Start and FOCUS on preflop. If you work on your preflop game you will at least set yourself up on future streets from a better starting point thus minimising mistakes somewhat.
so I'll condense my tips for you and you can ask me why I say each:
-GOAL = learn to play cash game poker-
1. Learn about BRM. Look it up and stick to it religiously. I remember in the beginning when I did this and all of a sudden I started improving and I stopped my small deposits and haven't deposited since.
2. Set your auto-topup to be 100bb, or $2 if you buy in to nl2. This is important and one of the things experienced players look for as a telltale sign of a bad player.
3. Play nl2. Screw the money, stop thinking about it. You won't make a useful amount of money until you're on at least nl50, but if you start playing nl50 you will get crushed I guarantee it. You will do things that you don't notice but others will instantly mark you as a weak player and they will take your money. On nl2 this won't happen - that gives you the chance to do that to the players on nl2 and gives you the chance to learn how to do it properly.
4. Focus on the preflop game for now. Poker is super complex and for a beginner, learning things like raising, sizes, 3betting, 4betting, ranges for doing things and planning hands is enough without even considering postflop. But be consistent - don't get a chart and follow it if you will start deviating. At first, if you deviate from it I'm sure you won't be able to explain why you deviate.
4. Post hands. You can't improve unless you get help either from reading other people's posts and hands, or from posting your own thoughts/questions/hand histories.
5. Don't worry about HUDs and stats. Build a solid standard game first and then work on exploiting. The only thing software like HM2 is good for (for a beginner) is to be able to export hands and post into forums for advice. Other than that, you can do that without software by clicking this:
6. Don't get fancy postflop. When you have a good hand bet - don't slowplay because you probably don't know why you should in a certain spot, and if you do know why you should, you might well be misinterpreting the information you have.
7. Just study! Most of the people you will play with won't be studying. They won't be reading and learning. This is where you should do what they aren't doing. Don't just play and hope things get better because they won't. But in poker you'll often be given the illusion that they are and that's why studying is so important. Start with the information in the strategy section of this website - there should be some beginning stuff in there so learn it quick!
There, I'm sorry if that all sounded patronising - it wasn't my intention. Just trying to put it bluntly! Hope that helps. Feel free to ask me some more questions or PM me or whatever. I love talking about poker so I'm happy to help 
whatever you do, dont buy play money chips.
if anything, if you cant build a decent playmoney roll out of the starting 1k playmoney chips (due to tilt issues or whatever), then its probably better for you to just not put in any more money in online pokers
great advice from DR Dunne so will not repeat them,, will only add maybe a good idea to join a study group, allways good to talk with other players that also want to improve..
buying playmoney is in my eyes the worst thing you can do to improve your game
Originally posted by rompas
great advice from DR Dunne so will not repeat them,, will only add maybe a good idea to join a study group, allways good to talk with other players that also want to improve..buying playmoney is in my eyes the worst thing you can do to improve your game
If you take the $ you would spend on play chips, you could put that on real money micros and build a roll.
Dr Dunne said it best. The study part is most important.
What to study?
I suggest you start at the very basics even if -- or especially if -- you have played poker before and "know a bit about it".
This is a good starting point: No Limit Hold'em lessons overview
Best of luck,
VS
The main reason to avoid play money games is that other players do not value their chips in the same way that they would if they had money on the table. They often don't care whether they win or lose. If they push all in it could be just to gamble with a poor hand. It is not a good way to learn how to be a winning player.
Originally posted by DrDunne
Originally posted by Rtwice
What's your opinion on play money?Spoiler
But seriously, play money is nothing like real money. It's ok if you only want to see poker as a little fun game but if you want to take it seriously I have a better solution to your problem and it goes like this:
Read. If your game sucks you don't need to practice, you need to learn. If you don't read you don't know what's right, so you just solidify your mistakes or even just get more confused. Winning and losing isn't a good measure of skill over the short term and since you're a beginner you most certainly are in the short term. It's ok, you will make that $200 back easily once you work enough on your game. I also say read because you clearly haven't read much if you are depositing $10/$15 a pop and blowing it away. Why? BRM - BRM is the first thing you should learn.
Learn to play cash games i.e. 100bb no limit cash. Don't play tournaments to start with. I have a good reason for saying this but you shouldn't worry about that because I'm not sure explaining it will be much help. Basically it has everything to do with focusing on 1 thing and everything to do with stack sizes.
If you really truly want to get better, set aside $50 to deposit and read as much as you can about cashgame strategy. Start and FOCUS on preflop. If you work on your preflop game you will at least set yourself up on future streets from a better starting point thus minimising mistakes somewhat.
so I'll condense my tips for you and you can ask me why I say each:
-GOAL = learn to play cash game poker-
1. Learn about BRM. Look it up and stick to it religiously. I remember in the beginning when I did this and all of a sudden I started improving and I stopped my small deposits and haven't deposited since.2. Set your auto-topup to be 100bb, or $2 if you buy in to nl2. This is important and one of the things experienced players look for as a telltale sign of a bad player.
3. Play nl2. Screw the money, stop thinking about it. You won't make a useful amount of money until you're on at least nl50, but if you start playing nl50 you will get crushed I guarantee it. You will do things that you don't notice but others will instantly mark you as a weak player and they will take your money. On nl2 this won't happen - that gives you the chance to do that to the players on nl2 and gives you the chance to learn how to do it properly.
4. Focus on the preflop game for now. Poker is super complex and for a beginner, learning things like raising, sizes, 3betting, 4betting, ranges for doing things and planning hands is enough without even considering postflop. But be consistent - don't get a chart and follow it if you will start deviating. At first, if you deviate from it I'm sure you won't be able to explain why you deviate.
4. Post hands. You can't improve unless you get help either from reading other people's posts and hands, or from posting your own thoughts/questions/hand histories.
5. Don't worry about HUDs and stats. Build a solid standard game first and then work on exploiting. The only thing software like HM2 is good for (for a beginner) is to be able to export hands and post into forums for advice. Other than that, you can do that without software by clicking this:
Spoiler
6. Don't get fancy postflop. When you have a good hand bet - don't slowplay because you probably don't know why you should in a certain spot, and if you do know why you should, you might well be misinterpreting the information you have.
7. Just study! Most of the people you will play with won't be studying. They won't be reading and learning. This is where you should do what they aren't doing. Don't just play and hope things get better because they won't. But in poker you'll often be given the illusion that they are and that's why studying is so important. Start with the information in the strategy section of this website - there should be some beginning stuff in there so learn it quick!
There, I'm sorry if that all sounded patronising - it wasn't my intention. Just trying to put it bluntly! Hope that helps. Feel free to ask me some more questions or PM me or whatever. I love talking about poker so I'm happy to help
Thanks for your nice instructions. i will try to follow your suggestions.
