Hi everyone,

I am a former limit holdem player, I'm Italian, I played from 2007 to 2010, I won good amounts in heads-up and short-handed disciplines, going up to 10/20 and 15/30; I remember I also liked a lot Absolute Poker's 4-handed tables, they were amazing!

A few years ago many things changed: we Italians can only play against Italians, in fact I remember that in 2012 I registered an account on PokerStars.it to play a few months and I played the last game maybe in 2013. Only for fun at 2/4, because there was basically no action from 3/6 and over.

I was reading this excellent forum from time to time, so I decided to write to you.
Recently, having a few hours free, I've opened PokerStars.it, but there is no table: this means that from the lower tables (0.02 € / 0.04 €) to the higher ones (20 € / 40 €) there is no open table and no player is sitting!

No problem, I like the action and I find no limit so boring. So, I decided that Play Money can play well too, being able to sit down with players from all over the world. I climbed quickly to the higher tables, but now I'm annoyed by the fact that the room applies a very high rake without cap, with the aim of making chips from the players: I am convinced that most of my opponents buy chips to be able to sit down to those tables, they are incredible fishes.

I'm not interested in complaining about the PokerStars decision, I've already read several discussions about this in this forum. I have only one question for you, friends: where can I play FREE? Are there any alternatives for me?

Thank you!

I have seen WSOP.com and WPT both advertise their free money games. I cannot say whether they have limit hold 'em games that run with any regularity, but you may want to check it out. Some of the US-facing online poker sites such as America's Card Room and Bovada/Ignition probably also have free money games, but again, not sure whether limit games are running.

Can I sign up to these rooms as Italian player? Probably not, but I have to see to find out.

Play tournaments and SNG's.

The only poker discipline I like is LHE, I find NL so boring; I don't like SNG and tournaments too.
Occasionally I played Razz, always cash of course.

You can play heads up vs Cepheus, which is a gto bot at the University of Alberta's website.

I believe that Howard Beale has been crushing play money stud tables on Stars, even with the rake. For all we know, he's the high stakes PM end boss.

Yes. I've played vs Cepheus some hundred hands: it was funny, good bot.
I've also played against Cleverpiggy, another good LHEHU bot.
In my opinion Cepheus > Cleverpiggy.

However, play against bot, especially hu bot, becomes boring...

I remember in 2009 there was Sonia, I played some hu and 6max matches (discussion on 2+2) but seems that the site no longer exists. Anyone knows where is Sonia?

Thanks

perhaps try a bitcoin-based site like swcpoker - i believe they don't IP block anyone - you could also try some of the invite-only sites - they don't do IP restrictions either. but there won't be much LHE on either of those. i recommend trying to learn new games - perhaps other limit games would appeal to you more than no-limit games.


and i think facebook used to have zynga poker connected to it - probably a lot of people there. what about sites like yahoo games, pogo, etc?

Interesting idea, but if the swcpoker website declare "now there are 75 players online", I think there is basically no tables, even for NL players.

I still playing on PokerStars playmoney tables, even if the rake is 5.5% and not capped, I'm having fun and winning a lot of chips (maybe about 8 BB/100 net), without any software like PT or HEM, just observing my opponents. Another funny aspect is that we are always the same players at the higher tables, we know each others.