Now, i know that playmoneyplay is at the lowest levels very bad. But at the higher limits, like 5mio NL+ it starts to feel like nl2.

What one can practice at playmoney could be bankrollmanagement and tilt.

What do you think?

And math/odds. From a strategy standpoint play money is silly, because the correct adjustments will be ones you will never need to make, even at penny poker.

You can learn how software works, the rules of the game, and maybe some basic poker math but after that it's time to jump into 2nl or 5nl and start playing for (small amounts of) real money.

I found it useful as a dry run before I did the real thing.

When I started playing poker, I didn't, as far as I knew, know anyone that played poker. I just watched it on TV and I thought it could be good at it and maybe be a professional poker player someday. I now play full time (about 450 online MTTs in 2017) and I study 10 hours a week.

I'm always thinking a step ahead. I took it seriously enough that I actually kept track of my "profits" and "losses." I wanted to try the things in poker books and see if I improved after studying, but even more important, it was a dry run for my recordkeeping system.* When that did what a I wanted, then I started playing for real money.

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*At this point (1985)I had never heard of programs that track results, but even now I still keep my own set of records because there are things that Holdem Manager and Poker Tracker don't pick up, such as bonuses, bounties and rebuys. I want it all in one place where I can see it, 17 columns for each site. Also, it would all be there if the IRS ever wanted to take a look.

The first 250k hands or so I ever played was play money on absolute poker. I'd say just do play money until you understand the rules, though; then after that just play the game for $2 or $5.

you can use it to learn how to adjust to what certain players do.

I've long been an outspoken advocate of playing play money poker until you're demolishing it:

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...54&postcount=6

https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/s...52&postcount=5

I'm with DTCF. Nothing terrible about play money. And as preki says, you do learn a bit about adjusting to different villains.

You can use it to learn the rules and then how to valuebet relentlessly. You learn to beat the massive calling stations and that is a skill every poker player needs. Many people lose at real money games simply by being stubborn and overbluffing.

I used to play playmoney on full tilt years ago when i first started. The good thing then was FT used to run a $5 tournament every night which you could buy in for 500k play money chips. Maybe they still run it i have no idea. So with some free rolls it was a way to build a free bank roll. But i think play money can be a good way to learn once you get passed the first few lvls.

Before online pokers, some of the old school players would take a deck of cards and deal out hands repeatedly to get a sense of the flow of the game. Maybe they didn't understand the math, but they probably gained an intuitive understanding of how hands would play out that was good enough to be a winning player.

Playing play money and seeing hands run out might help you understand what to expect and how the odds work. It might not, but it depends on what kind of learner you are.

Play money is good for learning pre-flop shoving frequency. Otherwise, apart from learning the software, it's worst than playing vs ai.

You have also long been an outspoken advocate of relentlessly linking your mediocre post in way too many threads.

Are you saying you're not going to run for president of the official DalTXColtsFan fan club?

I started playing playmoney sngs on Party back in the day. Funny thing is many of the players actually took them fairly seriously at the time (or seemed to).

I read a book by the author of "Kill Everyone" that contained a strategy for beating playmoney sngs and it worked. Once you could beat those you moved up to real money sngs at the smallest stakes.

Maybe, but I'm saying you need to get over your multi-year-old post and also rethink your advice re "crushing playmoney."

Staying in playmoney games too long (even working your way to higher stakes PM) is not only a massive waste of time vs. playing 5nl, but it'll give you a bunch of bad habits that you'll later have to unlearn to improve.

You made two points in this post. For the second part of it, you made valid, sensible arguments to support your point. For the first part of it, you did not. Would you care to?

yes i believe so honestly its still poker

I think it would help with getting used to the software if you are playing at a new site/network.

However, if your wish is to practice your play without paying money, playing poker themed games (like WSOP tournaments or governor of poker) might be a better idea.

Edit: And yeah it's my first ever post at twoplustwo, yay!

i started off my playing on zynga poker and that gave me a good understanding of the very basic.
I made bilions of chips on the site and realized i was ready to try some small stakes for real money and worked, i recommend u do the same if u dont want to risk ur own money till u feel secure. If u crash high stakes play money surely u will make profit on small stake

Agreed, sometimes I play wsop out of sheer boredom and sometimes it's no different than globals plo games, and ive played all the way up to 2/4. Actually, the biggest nits on global as far as plo is concerned play the lowest stakes.

Poker is only poker if there's a risk of losing

you can lose your pride and time in free money poker.

Agreed, i played variuos high stakes games at casino and poker rooms, and some of player can t even switch on a pc :P

Lost all my millions of chips and got now again 4 millions through grinding.

Waste of time? Surely, but it made fun.