The Cons of Play Money Poker

The pros of play money are rather concrete while the cons are slightly more abstract. Play money can be a trap that turns new online poker players into losers before they even set foot at a real money table. Play money is like playing Duck Hunt as a warm up for war. If you take those skills into battle instead of ones gained at a firing range, you are quite likely to get yourself killed. The main problem with play money is the number of hands people will play. Everyone sees the flop in play money. Any hand can turn into a winning hand, of course, but everyone receiving cards and mindlessly going to the river is an entirely different game. When there is nothing at stake, cards are a game of luck, not skill. The phrase, "well if I lose, it's just play money", is said far too often at PokerRoom.com for the play money game to truly be called poker. Players chase, unaware of key concepts in poker such as pot odds and position. They believe they are pot committed when they don't even understand what the term means. This tendency to see far too many hands far too deep not only means you get rivered more often, but also the pots you win are much fatter than they would be if players were wagering real money. The ease with which a thinking player can win at play money tables can be the downfall of their fledgling poker career. If you turn $1,000 into $1,000,000 at a play money table, you might therefore believe you have a system for success. But using this system, where playing any ace or seeing the showdown with a small pair brings you out on top will not work in the real money world. Play money can be great fun, and as discussed in our play money pros article it can make you familiar with the environment of an online cardroom. But play money is not a viable training ground for real money poker. My suggestion is to put $50 into a real money account and play the micro limits. Even at $.01/$.02 tables there is something at stake, which gives a much greater experience of the real poker world.