Many online poker players prefer to play poker for fake money. While it can seem like a waste of time to some people, poker with play money can be a great way to enjoy the game without losing any money or get used to playing poker before making a significant investment on a given website. If you are unsure about the benefits or risks of playing online poker with fake money, this article should reveal the factors associated with no cost online poker.

1.

888 poker

888poker

Learning the Game

If you are not sure how to play a certain type of poker, it is very advisable to play the game with fake money before betting any money. If you are not sure about betting practices or poker rules, you may make a very costly mistake when playing for real. This is especially important as you will likely not receive any help from opponents when you are unsure about a rule during a real money game. However, fellow players during a free game will be more than happy to help you out, especially if it speeds the game up. During a free game, it is much better to ask about a strategy or rule rather than continually slow the game down through uncertainty.

Testing a Poker Website
Free money games are almost always available on newer poker websites to allow new players to test the software and graphics before actually making a deposit. You can think of these free poker rooms as “test drives” for purchases that may very well be an important financial decision. So, if a website offers free rooms for players that do not have an account, take full advantage of these services. If you were allowed to view a movie before actually paying for it, you would likely do so. Online poker should be no different.

Dangers of Playing Poker with Fake Money

There are some drawbacks to playing online poker with fake money. Specifically, players who play with fake money are much more likely to make poor decisions. For example, an all in call to when you hold a pair of twos may not be a wise call during a real money game, depending on the circumstances. However, in a fake money game, this call will not result in any negative consequences. You can always get more fake money but real money may be harder to come by.

In addition, fake money games typically go a lot faster than real money poker games. Everyone in the game is just there to have a good time and usually wants play to move quickly. This can develop bad habits when it comes to poker patience and quick decisions. After being accustomed to fast games, slow real money games can quickly become tedious and boring.

With the above facts in mind, you may want to abstain from fake money games unless they are used to test a website. You must use the same play strategies when playing for fake money as real money games to maintain solid technique and proper form. By doing so, you may be able to build up a solid strategic and knowledge base before stepping into the real money poker arena.

We’ve of course all seen the famous poker players like Doyle Brunson, Danny Negreanu and Phil Helmuth who aren’t just making a living playing poker. They’re filthy stinkin’ rich from playing poker, and that’s great.

Perhaps you’ve also heard of online poker players, like Durrr (Tom Dwan) or ElkY (the first ever PokerStars SuperNova Elite), famous online poker players, very rich online poker players.

Perhaps you’re the next poker-made millionaire, maybe you’ll get the next Ferrari from Pokerstars, or maybe you won’t be the world’s next World Series of Poker winner, just your average every day profitable online poker player, making a living grinding at the poker websites.  Wouldn’t it be perfect to play poker from home? Playing a game you have a particular passion for, without ever leaving the comfort of your house. This is the same career thousands of other online poker players make a living at, online poker, opting to play poker at home, on the internet.

Anybody that can process simple math can make a living playing online poker from home. We’re not suggesting that it doesn’t take effort, and study, but if you can figure out what beats what, while you begin studying the mathematics of poker, you’re off to a good start.

Play Poker from Home – Make a Living:

The first step is simply to realize that you’re making a career choice, and really to take that career choice seriously. Poker is a game, yes, but it’s more than that, it’s a skill game, a battle of wits, it’s an art. It’s something that has to be learned, and to master the game can take years of experience. It’s likely safe to assume however that you don’t have years today, the bills are still going to come due at the end of the month, and that’s before we even begin to think about what to put back for retirement.

Let’s start with the financials; to play poker online, and win money, you need a realistic bankroll to achieve your goals.  The amount of money you’re going to need to get started much depends on the amount of money you set out to make, the stakes you plan to play, and your own personal skill level.

For the rest of this article we’re going to assume you are at least an advanced beginner. If you’re not playing at AT LEAST that level, perhaps you should try beginner poker as a hobby before making any future goals along the lines of quitting your day job.

The things that are going to help you decide which stakes to play at are going to be things like, the size of your bankroll. To figure that out, you should be looking into things like:

· Setting up a Poker Bankroll

· Working out a Home Poker Schedule

· Managing a Poker Bankroll

When you’re first starting out however, lower to mid level stakes are recommended. If you have a lot of time to devote to playing online poker, you’ll be able to play lower stakes, for more time, and make the same amount of money as you would if you were playing higher stakes, you just don’t have as much risk.

A big advantage that online poker play has to offer over live casino style poker games is that while you’re playing from home on your computer, you have the ability to multi-table. So a pro player can lessen their stakes and therefore their risk, stay home, not hang out in a dirty casino fondling filthy poker chips, and make the same amount of money.

It has been several years since Full Tilt became one of the largest poker sites on the internet. When their popularity first began to grow the highest no-limit stakes that you could find were $50/$100 and occasionally $100/$200.

Around this time, Mike Matusow was one of the staples in the high stakes poker game. John Juanda was also one of the most frequent players at the tables.

As the limits at Full Tilt began to climb, the players in the games changed right along with them. Next the $200/$400 games were introduced and soon after that; the $300/$600 games were brought into play. Now players could sit down with as much as $60,000 at the Hold ‘Em tables.

The games began to get taken over by players like “Yukon” Brad Booth. At the time, Brad was living in a suite at the Bellagio on a permanent basis. He estimated his monthly living expenses after tips etc. at about $30,000, but said it was well worth it for the convenience of playing in the big game and never having to leave the building.

Right around the height of the popularity of the $300/$600 NL tables, Brian Townsend (SBrugby) became the dominant player in the game. He took the place of Brad Booth, who is still around these days, but not playing for stakes anywhere near as high as he was playing at back when the games first started to grow.

Townsend had a good run at the high stakes tables for about a 1 year period. After a heavy loss he started to tone down his stakes and he has also started to play in a few live tournaments. Right around the time that SBrugby was raking in his winnings, Tom “Durrr” Dwan was starting to be seen more often at the bigger limits. He hadn’t become the player that he is today quite yet, but he was certainly beating most of the high limit games.

Now the biggest NL tables that you will find on Full Tilt have $500/$1000 blinds. The popularity of these games has fluctuated over the last year. On occasion the games would be full for several days at a time. Most of the money fueling these games has come from Guy Laliberte who is the creator and owner of Cirque de Soleil. His reported losses in these high stakes games are rumored to be more than $10 million in the last year.

Texas Hold ‘Em is no longer the game of choice in the high stakes games either. Now the majority of players are sitting at the pot-limit Omaha tables, and they are usually playing at least 2 tables at a time.

Tom “Durrr” Dwan is one of the biggest winners in these games and he also is probably the player you will see on this poker site most often. Patrick Antonius is also a frequent player at the highest stakes. Patrick and Durrr have a challenge to play 50,000 hands of heads-up poker, in which they have a side bet where Durrr has put up $1.5 million against Patrick’s $500,000. This will all go to whoever has the most money after 50,000K hands, in addition to whatever money has changed hands throughout the series of matches.

Phil Ivey is one of the few players who has always played at the highest stakes on Full Tilt and has always beaten the games. Some of the other pros have come and gone while sort of maintaining a minimal presence in the big games. John Juanda has always done ok on the site, but you won’t see him sitting down too often in the big games anymore.

David Benyamine is also a player who has stuck around over the past few years. He has had his fair share of big nights on Full Tilt poker site. The rumor is that he lost some money in the Hold em games over this past year, but he has been a big winner in the Omaha games.

Written by Mark from Big Edge Poker Sites.