Play Money vs Real Money
When you start playing online poker games like Texas Hold'em, you'll note that the game play is actually slightly different with real money compared to play money. The reason is simple: A lot of play money players tend to go all in and hope to get lucky. There's nothing more frustrating than going all in with two aces, and being called by someone who has 7-2, and loosing! Obviously, there's the "actual personal interest" factor that comes into play. When I play poker for fun with play money, I treat is as if it was real money and I don't make the stupid calls. Unfortunately, not everyone thinks like me and this can impact your game. This article will give you a few points to consider.
Poker and Luck
It's not a mystery that some players treat play money as play money, while others like me treat play money as real money. But then, that's the difference between a serious poker player and someone who just wants to get lucky. If you want to become a great poker player, then don't rely on luck to win. Just acknowledge that luck can influence your game, but always rely on your skills. Luck will show up once in a while. Sometimes it will be good luck, other times it will be bad luck. You know, sometimes you'll make all the right moves, all the right plays, and you'll loose anyway. It happens. It's part of the game. The luck factor can be significant in a hand or a game, but it's is not that important when you look at your entire poker experience over a long time period. If you want to go all in on the first hand with no good cards because you hope to get lucky, then you don't grasp the concept of what poker really is. Perhaps you should consider playing something more random like Bingo!
Play Money Means More Luck and Less Poker Strategy
There's always people out there who join a table, go all in in hopes to get lucky and double up. That's life! I just want to point out that this "win the lottery" play is frequent with play money, and less frequent with real money. It means that if you are a serious player, then you need to play with serious players. Real money is the place where you'll see a lot less of these crazy irrational bets. I was once playing in a tournament with play money and my first hand was two aces. Naturally, I decided to take advantage of the "win the lottery" players and I typed a message that encouraged players to go all in on the first hand. 4 out of 9 went all in, and I won the pot. I hope they learned a lesson from this! The issue that I have with this practice is that during tournament play, one person will benefit from this “all in” play. One person will end up with a lot of chips to start off and that gives them a significant advantage. It's a situation that is frequent with play money but practically non existent with real money.
Non Existent Poker Stakes
Because loosing play money doesn't really impact you financially, a lot of play money players will be more aggressive then they would with real money. They'll make calls that they wouldn't do with their own money. Remember this when you play online. For the ultimate poker experience, you need to give real money a try. You'll notice a huge difference. Still, play money is a great way to prepare yourself for real money games so don't dismiss it, but once you figure out how things work in general, you can move up to low limits using real money. Maybe you’ll struggle a little at first, but consider that a small investment for a greater experience. I view the initial looses as a poker lesson, and I learn from them. Things can be turned around pretty quickly, and if you spend time reading all of our poker strategy articles, you’ll have a huge advantage and your winnings should come sooner than later!
If you haven't done so already, please check out our Online Poker section for a list of poker sites we recommend.
