Heres the situation im only recently 18 but have been playing poker with friends since I was 17. We normally play with 4-7 players for £5-£15 buy in and winner takes all (sometimes something for 2nd) and I know for a fact im the best player, I'm up probably £200 ish or more total from these, although no one there is a 'pro'. 2 of them play some online poker (one is profitable at 2nl the other $3 spin and gos) so my thinking was that I'd put £150 on pokerstars and play the $1.50 6-max turbo sng's. Instead of doing that straight away I decided to play play money first (playing 6-max turbo sngs) and my aim was to get 1mil or so chips then go to real money (as a confidence booster) however I'm play money chip broke I'll run it up to say 100k then lose all of it. I find it hard to bluff and make plays on opponents like I do on my friends and I find it's only the get good hands strategy that works. I also thought it might be the bank roll problem that you start with 3 buy ins maybe? or am i just not good enough?

thanks, jack

Move up to where they respect your raises.

(Also, sample size, and you prob aren't playing your A game in play money, and you're learning nothing about real money games,your time is better spent learning at the micros).

Not really. You don't need to bluff against the fish who limp every pot and call with any pair but you need to be in tune with how strong their hand is by hand reading and value bet like crazy with second pair decent kicker or better or whatever the appropriate hand strength is in that spot. This is a crucial skill worth learning and you'll need it for the micros.

I wouldn't worry too much about blowing the 100k chips (did it myself) but be very honest about why. Tilt/not caring/moving to the wrong stakes?. Something about knowing its not real makes us play different.

Play money is a waste of time for learning strat.
In SNG profit basically comes from 2 things, stealing ie making others fold their equity, and not making ICM spews.
In play money nobody wants to fold and SNG where nobody folds is nothing like the real game as people don't want to bust and lose their buy in$$.

Play real money but as low as possible, then move up based on results.

If however you are losing at say $1 don't try $7 because it's "more like proper poker" - you have to realise you make money by capitalising on others mistakes, and $1 players make alot more mistakes than $7 players and $7 make more mistakes than $100 etc hence you need to be a better player to beat each step up than the previous level.
Doing well at any stake basically means you are good at exploiting the mistakes the player pool at that stake are making, so learn the skill of spotting errors, and then learn how to exploit those errors. Thats the making of a good player.

Short answer: Very likely not and financially it doesn't matter cause even if u are somehow able to beat micro stakes with real cash right now, the ev will be pennies. Same holds for potential loss tho, so if your goal is to get better at poker, start right out at real money.

GL at the tables!

stop playing play money

deposit, study, grind

start with 3$ games but move up as quickly as possible...use life roll to speed this up (if possible)

So i thought i'd post an update for anyone reading this down the line. I've played 150 ish $1.50 6 max turbo sng for about $25 ish profit and about 30 $3.50 for about $25 profit and i also came 5th in the big $3.30 for $260 profit all of which im very happy with so yeah... F**k play money

yes. yes you can.

It seems like your style matches up better against the real money players.

You will come across good real money players who'll deliberately try the strategy that was working for the play money players by accident, i.e. calling you down light. So you still have stuff to learn about who and when to bluff, but it looks like you're on the right track.

Good luck.