Play Poker apps are Great Casino practice. Change my mind. (1 Viewer)

They're great for understanding how poker is played, like who's turn it is, hand rankings and how the betting works but they're not a good gauge of skill because there's no repercussion for losing. Playing for real money, even $2nl will be more accurate to small stakes live poker as losing $2 has an actual impact whereas losing play chips means you have to watch an ad for 2 seconds to reload.

In conclusion, free poker is not "great" practice because nothing is at risk, unlike $2nl online.

$2nl -$10nl would be "great" practice or perhaps a bar tournament. Going from free poker to casino $1/$2 is a bit of a leap.
 
They’re good for learning mixed games. If you can find one that has them. Poker stars is good for that. I recently played 2-7 triple draw on stars for an hour. Now I wouldn’t be afraid to play it for cash.
But I’m general, no. Free apps are dumb. People play stupid on them. There’s no substitute for real experience, and free poker ain’t it.
 
Also, just like the financial market, poker has a mathematical and emotional human factor. It’s easy to play fantasy stock market, just like it’s easy to call or make a big bluffs. Under duress, decision making becomes very difficult.
If you call a 3 bet preflop with AK, then hit the king on the flop, villain check raises ‘All In’ - no money, snap call. The bigger the stakes the harder the call.
 
I hear ya and I feel the passion against the donkeys haha. I'll start with you guys are right, there's no skin in the free games so most players play very loosely. However, I find it very similar to when I go to the casino and play $40 NL $1/2 blinds while I'm waiting for a tourney to start. A lot of all ins and loose cannons, no respect for raises (at that level). A lot of "lucky" players at this level.... Way different crowd at the $500 min buy-in $5/10 blinds (actual casino). I see somewhat of a parallel at the 25k-50k free game level. Even though its play chips I find that people take more pride in their chips at that higher level.
"If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a dodgeball" The low levels are the wrench. Imho.:D
 
DMI said:
It’s good for the absolute basics but not much more than that.
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Agreed. As a newly recent poker player when I started seriously about a year ago, I played on the free apps to get comfortable with the flow of play, understanding hand ranking, etc but I learned nothing about how to actually play the game. The same is true for free bar leagues with a similar progression. I needed to feel comfortable at the table and betting. I quickly became frustrated with the that there is not any pain associated with it. I couldn't make sense of my opponents decision making and in turn hurting my game rather then helping. Many have said it here but to truly get better at the game you need to study and pay the tuition.
 
It can teach someone the poker basics, but it also will teach the same people really bad poker play. Great for a introduction, but that's about it IMO.
 
johnnyesper said:
Agreed. As a newly recent poker player when I started seriously about a year ago, I played on the free apps to get comfortable with the flow of play, understanding hand ranking, etc but I learned nothing about how to actually play the game. The same is true for free bar leagues with a similar progression. I needed to feel comfortable at the table and betting. I quickly became frustrated with the that there is not any pain associated with it. I couldn't make sense of my opponents decision making and in turn hurting my game rather then helping. Many have said it here but to truly get better at the game you need to study and pay the tuition.
Click to expand...
Free bar poker is the nut low. The absolute worst. I played twice and then quit when I realized the same thing - this will make me a worse player.
 
I suggest all my players who come to my home game to play on P*s. It’s the perfect way to help make my game more profitable for me. :)
 
I'm just trying to play devil's advocate here, but aren't these guys at these free sites fishys? You guys should be feasting here. What's going on sharks ? :D
 
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play free to learn how it works and then play $.02/$.05 online - very, very different game when money is on the line, even a small amount IMHO and IMHE. I took the same path myself starting mid-last year and have moved up to $.05/$.10 this year.
 
If you consider discipline, control of emotions, and perseverance as key components of your gaming strategy then play money is a great precursor to a real casino (As long as you play as IF it was real money). I've dealt with so many donkeys, I welcome them onto the table when I play for REAL MONEY $5/10 no limit. "Please have a seat... let's dance!"
 
Yeah, to up your “all in” skills while saying it out loud with authority?! Hell, I dunno... I don’t mind playing around online,
 

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