Playing Online With Fake Money
There seems to be a lot of new players out there that think that by signing up for a online poker site and playing a bunch of play/fake money poker, they can make substantial improvements to their game. I feel this is a huge misconception. There are ways you can use the fake money tables to rough out some of the edges of your poker ability, but it can only take you so far, and you need to understand the differences between playing with real money versus the alternative.
For those looking to just learn the game of poker, these play money tables are a good way to discover the basic fundamentals of the game, such as how the blinds/antes work, how the flow of a session plays out, as well as getting an idea on how to play certain hands. If you’re using the play money rooms for these purposes, you’re doing it correctly. Once you get the regular hang of the game however, it’s now time to make the move over the real money tables.
Why? It’s simple. At the fake money games, the players are playing like their chips are valueless, which they in fact are. They’ll call and raise with any two cards, chase a 4% draw again and again, and move all-in with bottom pair when there’s a potential royal flush on the board. The point is, you can’t learn anything about how to correctly play poker from players that aren’t playing anywhere near realistically. They can’t be bluffed, they’ll always call (or raise), and you’ll be left wondering if poker is really this silly.
Instead, switch over to the real money tables and hit up the micro-limits. These games can be really small, even to the point where you’ll be calling and betting with pennies, but when there’s real money on the line, the players will always play a lot more truthfully than before. Once you work your way up to the higher threshold’s of the low-limit games, you’ll be experiencing the same poker that the vast majority of players do, therefore you can now experiment and find your own personal playing style.
