Online Poker Forum at Full Tilt Poker

drossman17 · Posted: Thu Nov 02, 2006 9:57 pm Post subject:

Play money can be good therapy. I go there when I'm doomswitched. I contribute to the donkfest by practicing my preflop all-in and suckout skills.

ketz · Posted: Fri Nov 03, 2006 1:47 pm Post subject:

pockett10s · Royal Flush Joined: 09 Oct 2006 Posts: 527

Its good for people like me who don't enjoy the stress that comes with real money games. Poker is supposed to be fun after all......

HuJwang · Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2006 4:27 am Post subject:

The_OG_Rocco · Royal Flush Joined: 31 May 2006 Posts: 742 Location: Texas

oops dbl post Embarassed

The_OG_Rocco · Royal Flush Joined: 31 May 2006 Posts: 742 Location: Texas

NickyPoker · High Card Joined: 25 Oct 2006 Posts: 11

play money is only good if you have never played poker before and want to learn the basics, or you just want to have fun with a few friends on a table......otherwise it is completely different from cash games and the 2 require different strategys.
but having said that UB's 1000/2000 NL play money rooms were great fun and very exciting as the pot can sometimes go into the millions, and i remember that as being a great buzz at the time... did it improve my game? i really dont think so, because it took me a long while to adjust to the cash games once i stopped with play money.

godfather199 · Pair Joined: 04 Feb 2006 Posts: 48

Play Money Games are good if U want to Practice hitting the ALL-IN Button Rolling Eyes

The_OG_Rocco · Royal Flush Joined: 31 May 2006 Posts: 742 Location: Texas

DarkRiverDoug · Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:25 pm Post subject:

I just recently deposited real money into my FTP account after playing many play money tourneys and after watching a few real-money micro-limit tournaments ($5.00 + $.50).

I agree with many of the previous posters that using play-money to improve your play has the potential to make you develop bad habits at a real-money game. You just need a different set of strategies to win at a play-money tournament than you do at a freeroll (for a real prize of some sort) and a different strategy for a real-money tournament.

Play money

After playing many of the 90-person play money SNGs, I�ve found that if you are patient, and don�t suffer any terrible beats with your winning hands you will find yourself nearing the final table in a relatively short amount of time.

Once you get past the �all-in-on-the-first-hand-with-J6o� people in the early stages of the play money tourney, you will find the better tournament players (who are actually playing tournament poker) nearing the end and that will help your play since those are the players who are treating the game as they would a �real� tournament.

The problem with the early stages of these play money tournaments is of course the fact that if someone really paid $250 to get into a 90-person SNG you�ll never see 5 out of the 9 players go all-in on the first hand.

Free roll tournaments

The play at freeroll tournaments seems to be much better from what I have seen. You may see one or two people push all-in on the first hand, but most of the time, people are playing poker from the get-go. Unless someone gets an early chip lead at your table and starts bullying the smaller stacks with a lot of pre-flop raises, many players are trying to take as many cheap flops as they can with drawing hands in the hope of flopping a monster hand that will double them up or at least get them a significant amount of chips.

You�ll still see some crazy moves that bust people early on in the tournament that will make you say �Why did that person do that?� after they show their losing hand to the made winning hand, but they are fewer than the play money tournaments.

Freerolls are much better for honing your play, in my opinion, since everyone is actually playing to win an actual prize whether it�s real money or another tournament entry.

Real money tournaments/SNGs

These are obviously the best way to hone your game since all players had to pay real money to get into the game. You won�t see anyone pushing all-in pre-fop on the first hand and expect pre-flop raises with one or two callers to be the norm instead of the exception. Forget about trying to call with A6-suited from 2nd position in the hopes that you�ll get to see the hand un-raised before the flop. It�s just too likely that someone with a real hand is going to correctly raise it pre-flop to drive out other hands including your hand, and you will cost yourself many chips by doing this.

You�ll still see some people push all-in with an Ace-rag four to the flush draw on the flop, when they didn�t really need to push in their whole stack, but the caller will have two-pair of better and will most of the time win the hand to double up.

Many hands don�t get past the flop or the turn and the hands that do go to the end will usually have only two players contesting the pot. Early on in these tournaments, you will need solid hands to win the pot and also, you�ll have to know when to fold the second best hand.

I made a somewhat loose call that knocked me out in one of the $5.00 + $.50 tournaments just to make sure I was reading a player correctly, and sure enough, he had the hand that I thought he had:

Full Tilt Poker Game #1214684564: $5 + $0.50 Tournament (8345828), Table 21 - 25/50 - No Limit Hold'em - 14:53:55 ET - 2006/11/08
Seat 1: GritsnGrvy (315)
Seat 2: Kevinvru72 (2,925)
Seat 3: Wavrnner1 (4,180)
Seat 4: MrLucky711 (2,635)
Seat 6: edbrownie (660)
Seat 7: DarkRiverDoug (1,285)
Seat 8: cjpenguin (1,185)
Seat 9: Texas Deal (6,715)
DarkRiverDoug posts the small blind of 25
cjpenguin posts the big blind of 50
The button is in seat #6
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to DarkRiverDoug [Kc 5s]
Texas Deal calls 50
GritsnGrvy folds
Kevinvru72 folds
Wavrnner1 folds
MrLucky711 calls 50
edbrownie folds
DarkRiverDoug calls 25 (I�m getting 7-1 pot odds on a call with my crappy K5o and I�m pretty sure the BB will check)
cjpenguin checks
*** FLOP *** [5d 9c 5h]
DarkRiverDoug checks (WOO-HOO! I flop trips and one of the other 3 players may have a nine to pay me off!)
cjpenguin checks
Texas Deal checks
MrLucky711 bets 100
DarkRiverDoug calls 100 (OK, he bet half the pot, either he has a nine or he was just taking a stab at it since I the SB, the BB and 1st pos. all checked to him, I�m guessing he has A-9 but even AQ could have made that move in the face of apparent weakness )
cjpenguin folds
Texas Deal calls 100
*** TURN *** [5d 9c 5h] [9h]
DarkRiverDoug checks (Now I�m saying: �F#ck!� out loud to myself since I�m waaay behind any 9 at this point.)
Texas Deal checks
MrLucky711 bets 150
DarkRiverDoug calls 150 (he bet 150 into a 500 pot. It smells like a suck-bet but I am compelled to call given the 4.3 to 1 odds.)
Texas Deal folds
*** RIVER *** [5d 9c 5h 9h] [Jd]
DarkRiverDoug checks (at this point I�m just hoping that he has AQ and that he will just check behind me seeing how I called his bet on the flop and turn, but that doesn�t happen�)
MrLucky711 bets 450
AllInAt420sGirl sits down
AllInAt420sGirl adds 1,920
DarkRiverDoug calls 450 (Crap�He bet 450 into a 650 pot, and I think he�s making a value bet w/A9. I�m getting 2.4 to 1 pot odds, but I�m 85% certain I�m beat. I call for two reasons: 1.) Previously I had to fold some hands to large bets/overbets on the turn and river with 2nd best or drawing hands, so my image was starting to look like I was a �folder� to big bets on the turn/river. 2.) Even though I was pretty sure I was beaten and would be out of the tournament, I really wanted to see his hole-cards for this hand, and I knew he wasn�t going to show me them if I folded.)
*** SHOW DOWN ***
MrLucky711 shows [9d Ac] (a full house, Nines full of Fives)
DarkRiverDoug mucks (Yup, he had exactly the hand that I thought he had from the beginning, A9.)
MrLucky711 wins the pot (1,700) with a full house, Nines full of Fives
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 1,700 | Rake 0
Board: [5d 9c 5h 9h Jd]
Seat 1: GritsnGrvy didn't bet (folded)
Seat 2: Kevinvru72 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 3: Wavrnner1 didn't bet (folded)
Seat 4: MrLucky711 showed [9d Ac] and won (1,700) with a full house, Nines full of Fives
Seat 6: edbrownie (button) didn't bet (folded)
Seat 7: DarkRiverDoug (small blind) mucked [Kc 5s] - a full house, Fives full of Nines
Seat 8: cjpenguin (big blind) folded on the Flop
Seat 9: Texas Deal folded on the Turn

I would suggest downloading the .COM version of the FTP software, if you haven�t already, and just watch the play on several tables at the beginning of a small-stakes tournament. This will give you a much better idea of the style of play and as a bonus you can make notes on that person�s avatar when you see them show a hand down or when they try a move that succeeds or fails.

It will take adjustments to your play as I am finding out. I do feel that you need to play for something other than play money in order to really improve your game.

Good luck at the tables!

Doug
Smile

deadmoney314 · Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 3:42 pm Post subject:

I have two strong opinions on play money.
1) play money cash games will not help your game, in fact it will probably hurt your game thinking that poker is played like that.
2) the closest play money poker comes to real money is in the play money tournies simply because there is no option to reload. They are most similar to freerolls in nature and have more similarities than differences.

I think it is important to mention that collusion does happen, but just as likely to occur in a B&M and in fact more likely to be caught online. There are flags that are raised if players are always sitting together, and even more flags raised if these same players have the same background programs running like AIM, messenger, etc. When enough flags are raised investigations begin and money can actually be returned to the victims of this crime (to the exact penny unlike in a B&M where you are unlikely to recover anything). These flags act as an extra defense from the normal hand history examination from observant players. From the online pit boss point of view, collusion is obvious when observed whereas in a live situation it is extremely hard to prove as the cards are often mucked and video is not taken of hole cards.
In fact a year ago I spotted a collusion team of two players on FTP and it was dealt with in 24 hours. My opinions aren't solid fact but they give me a lot more confidence in the integrity of online poker and I have made a lot more cash with poker after transfering from the slow pace of 25 hands / hr (B&M) to 300-600 hands / hr.

HuJwang · Posted: Sat Nov 11, 2006 4:02 pm Post subject:

	Full Tilt Poker is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. © Copyright 2004 - 2005 FullTiltPoker.com., All Rights Reserved