Should I Play For Real Money Or Play Money?

If you just want to play occasionally, and purely for recreation, Play Money is fine. But if want you want to be challenge by the game, or if you think you could be could at the game, Real Money is the only way to go.

Play money games are so erratic, and the play is so poor that if you want to take the game seriously you’ll be frustrated right off the bat.  You can’t bluff because nobody wants to fold, but everybody is bluffing!  Your good cards won’t hold up because everyone wants to stay in the hand to see a showdown. 

I don’t even recommend that you start at Play Money if you think you want to be serious about the game.  You will learn nothing but bad habits that you will have to unlearn the minute you move up to Real Money games.

Can I Win If I Play For Real Money

Yes you can, and it’s not hard to win almost immediately.  All of the poker sites have play at many different denominations.  Some have tables with as low as .01/.02 cent  blinds, all the way up to $25/$50 blinds and higher.  Someone just starting out playing at the lower denominations, and studying and reading about the game, learning as much as they can, should be able to win very quickly if not right away. 

What Stakes Should I Play

If you’re just starting out, and you’re a gazzillionaire if you start playing at .02/.05 blinds you may not even feel like your playing anything.  If you’re playing with your last fifty bucks, well you shouldn’t even be playing. But most of us fall somewhere in between. 

In general if you’re just beginning you want to start with pretty small stakes where you can get your feet on the ground without having to worry about losing any significant money (whatever that means to you) while you’re learning the game, the computer interface, and the way the other players are playing.

I do think that if you start with stakes that are too small, some people will have a hard feeling like they are in a real game, and then have trouble concentrating and paying good attention. 

So to start you want to play at stakes that are high enough to be meaningful to you, but not high enough that you can lose any meaningful amount of money.  What stakes you play should not be a thing of pride.  I find no pride in losing money. 

If you play at stakes that are high enough that you can lose money you can’t afford to lose, you’ll play scared, and I guarantee that you’ll lose money.  Or if you are playing above your skill level, you’ll lose regularly, and losing all the time is no way to enjoy playing the game.

When I first started playing online, though I had been playing poker for about 20 years, I started at .05/.10 blinds.  I could have felt like I was too good for those stakes (which I am), but I wanted to get the feel of things, figure out how the interface worked, feel out the level of play, and get used to the pace of play (which is waaay faster than real life).  I didn’t stay at those stakes long at all.  There is just no reason to jump in to deep water first.  Start at the shallow end, and go from there.

When Should I Move Up In Stakes

This is pretty simple really, but unfortunately way too many people move up to soon.  There are two parts to this.  First is that you want to move up a level when and only when you have master the level you are currently playing at.  In other words you are consistently winning money at that level, your bankroll is growing and has been for some time. 

Just because you’ve had a few good days, or a good week or two doesn’t mean that you’ve mastered that level. Far from it.  There is luck in poker, though over time the luck evens out and the more skilled player will come out ahead. But luck can have a major impact over a few day period, and even for several weeks. 

What we’re really looking for as an indicator that it’s time to move up is probably months of solid success at the given level.  And a bankroll that shows it. Some suggest not even thinking about moving up until you’ve played at least 20,000 hands at a level.  Now in the beginning that may be more than is necessary, but after a while it is hard to be ready to move up any faster than that.

The second consideration then is our bankroll.  Remember that if you move up before your truly ready your bankroll can shrink real quickly.  And even if you are ready to move up since we are playing for higher stakes, a couple of tough days can put a dent in our bankroll, and we don’t want to be in the position that if we simply have a couple of tough days of poker our bankroll is nearly wiped out.

Should I Play Tournaments Or Ring Games   

Yes!  Absolutely!   Well ok, for the most part I think that a beginner should start with 95% ring games and 5% tournaments.  Ring games are where you’ll develop your skills.  In tournaments much of the time the situation dictates play so much that it is not a place to learn skills.  It’s a place to use skills already learned. 

Tournaments are also very time consuming.  A 45-player tournament can often take up to two hours to play. A 180-player tourney may take up to 3 hours, and an 1800 player tournament can take a long time.  Ring games you can play for an hour or however long you like and quite when you want. 

I find tournaments to be a great place to win money.  They usually pay out to about the top 10% of finishers.  So if you can find tournaments where you are in the top 10% of skill level of the players, you should consistently place in the money.  If place in the money 33% of the time you should be winning a fair amount, depending on how often you place high.  I generally place in the money better than 40% of the time, and that works out well. 

Ok so now that I’ve got you interested in tournaments I’m going to tell you not to play them very often.  As I said before ring games are where you’re going to build the skill to do well in tournaments.

So as a beginner you should play mostly ring games, an only an occasional tournament just to get the feel for the tournament environment.  Most of the sites have what are called “freerolls” – free tournaments.  They will be a large number of players, maybe 1800 – 2500.  You should try some of those.  Your goal at first is to just get in the top 20%.  When you can do that pretty regularly, then set your goal at the top 10%.  There are also inexpensive 9 – 180 player tournaments on most of the sites that can often be played for no more than $1.  When trying to learn to play tournaments I suggest playing with about 45 players, and avoid the 9 man tournaments. As I said in a tournament of any size (which is where the money is) you have to learn to get to the paying positions.  If you can’t do that nothing else really matters.  Once you’ve learned to do that, then the 9 man tournaments can be good experience for the end game strategies of a tournament.

But as I said before, when you’re just beginning, don’t worry about tournaments too much.  Just play an occasional tourney to get the fell of them.  As you progress in your play, you may want to play them more frequently.

Which Sites Should I Play At?  How Do I Choose?

If your new to online poker, or just plain new to poker, and you’re an American player, I think that PokerStars.com is the best place to start.  The reason is that it’s the largest site; they have the most players and therefore the most choices of stakes to play for, from very low to high.  They have lots of tournaments at all stakes, and they have quite a few freerolls.  They also have a good introductory bonus where they match your first deposit up to a limit (most sites do, they change from time to time).  It’s just the ease of finding games at your level, whatever that is, that makes PokerStars.com a good first choice. 

Once you become a regular player, I suggest checking out the other sites, and having accounts at several.  I play at all 6 sites that allow U.S. players.  You will find you like different things about the different sites.  And your style of play will win more at one site, than it does at another.  Simply track your results at each site and you will likely find that at one or two you tend to do better than at others. 

Playing at multiple sites also makes it harder for other players to get to know your play.  Of course it also makes it harder for you to get to know other players playing styles, but I believe I’m better at picking up on how players play than most (and you can be to if you decide to focus on it), so I think it works to my advantage.

How Do I Learn To Win

While I’m sure there are some who are just naturals at the game of poker, but I’ve never met any of them. Most of the players that win consistently have had to work at it.  But that’s good news!  That means that if you are willing to study and learn the game you can win consistently too! 

First of all, just by the fact that you’re here and reading this means you have the desire and willingness to learn to win.  There are so many resources, so many places you can go to gain insight and knowledge.  Make it a habit to seek out the information that you need, and put it to use.

The whole reason that I have this site is to be a resource for players to learn to play better poker.  At this time my focus is primarily in beginning and intermediate players.  But as time goes on I’m sure I’ll ad more advanced content. 

There are other sites you can find with good information, tips and articles.  But one of the best things you can do is get a good book, written by someone whose playing style seems to fit your personality (not the personality that you wish you had, but the one you really do have) and read it, study it.  Have it open next to you while you play.  And then get another book and do the same.

The bottom line is, if you study the game, and don’t play at levels above your head, you are 98% to be a winning player, simply because most of the people you play against will not be doing that.

If you are satisfied playing low stakes, it shouldn’t even take much effort, or take very long, maybe only a matter of a few days.  If however, you want to progress beyond that level, it will take more time and effort.  But if you enjoy the game and the challenge it gives you, it will be lots of fun along the way.

What Do I Need To Do Learn To Be A Winning Player

Often when we are starting something new we don’t even know what we don’t know. So I’m what I’m going to give you here is simply a listing of some of the areas that you will want to learn more about.  Information on all of these areas you will be able to find on this site.

What Opening Hands To Play – beginners and weak players play to many opening hands, and don’t know when to play the different hands, and when not to.

Pot Odds – This is HUGE.  I don’t think you can be a consistent winner at any but the lowest levels if you don’t understand and use pot odds.  There are two parts to pot odds, the pot odds you’re getting, and the pot odds you’re giving.  Most average players if they use pot odds, ignore the latter.

Learn The Odds Of The Game Well

Pre-Flop Betting – This has many facets.

Post-Flop Betting – Again, this has many facets.

Bluffing – Most players either bluff to much, or not enough. 

Keeping Your Cool – A Must

Track Your Results – Maybe not a must, but it will help you learn about your game.

Think About What The Other Players Cards Are – Most beginning or weak players think mostly about their own cards, but that’s less than half of the equation.

Think About What The Other Players Thinks You Have – More advanced thinking.

Think About What The Other Players Think You Think They Have – More advanced yet.

There are plenty more topics, but this is a good starting list.

Remember, if your not winning, it’s up to you to figure out why.  Read and study, and you probably will.  But just continuing to play the same way isn’t going to change things. Continually blaming bad beats, or bad luck, or the cards is just a smoke screen.  It’s not the problem, your play is.  But that’s the good news, because that is something you have total control over.