Play Money Poker vs Real Money Poker

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 26th, 2010

In this article on poker, I?m going to talk about people who enjoy playing poker at online poker websites, but who like to play for play money and some of the reasons they want to do so.

I play a lot of online poker. I play for real money, but also play poker for play money at a few different online poker websites. Playing Texas Holdem Poker is fun regardless of the money on the line or lack of it.

Whenever you go into any of the poker rooms, there are always people there who believe they are the best poker players since Wild Bill Hickok. But that is actually part of the fun of playing poker. The guy with the most poker chips, whether real or play, gets the bragging rights, no matter how lucky they may have gotten.

But in some of the play money poker rooms online you hear people say, "Well if you are such a good poker player, why don't you play for real money?"

There are a lot of reasons for someone to play poker for play money. Here are some of them.

1. Practice makes perfect - It gives you a chance to explore strategies and experiment with them that you would never gamble real money on until you see how well they work. Believe it or not, there is some extremely good poker players in some of the play money rooms.

2. Non-Gamblers - Maybe the person loves to play poker but just doesn't gamble. You can enjoy poker without gambling real money.

3. Learning - Playing poker for play money is a great way to learn how to play. Just like in practice makes perfect I mentioned above, some people are not advanced enough at poker to even have a strategy yet. Everyone has to start somewhere.

4. Some people play online poker to relax after a hard day at work or with the kids. They like the ability to chat to other players and treat online poker as a chatroom with the ability to play poker while they chat instead of a poker room where they can also chat.

5. Financial Reasons - It is never smart to "gamble the rent", an old gambler's advice goes. And its true. Maybe the person you are playing would be playing for real money if their circumstances were a little different.

The point to all of this? Give people a break. If you go into a play money room at an online poker website, do not assume that because someone is playing in a play money poker room that they are not a good poker player.

Be polite and make friends. You'll find the play money poker game is a lot more fun with everyone chatting and joking around than being too competitive or insulting.