Play money poker to develop/practice strategies for loose freeroll games?

[monkeytilter]

Is it worth spending time on play money games to develop and then practice strategies for freerolls and similarly loose games where people "just don't care"?
(I'm thinking for PLO freerolls in particular where pre-flop isolation just isn't a thing and any piece of the flop is called post - just like play money!)

Has anyone had any experience or success with this approach?

 

[Igor G]

Is it worth spending time on play money games to develop and then practice strategies for freerolls and similarly loose games where people "just don't care"?
(I'm thinking for PLO freerolls in particular where pre-flop isolation just isn't a thing and any piece of the flop is called post - just like play money!)

Has anyone had any experience or success with this approach?

You shouldn't waste time on this. Play for money games are there to get acquainted with the functionality and nothing more. There is definitely no point in playing them. At least I wouldn't waste my time on them.

 

[luckyfish98]

Is it worth spending time on play money games to develop and then practice strategies for freerolls and similarly loose games where people "just don't care"?
(I'm thinking for PLO freerolls in particular where pre-flop isolation just isn't a thing and any piece of the flop is called post - just like play money!)

Has anyone had any experience or success with this approach?

play money is not a good way to improve your experience - then it's better to train for real money micro games - I think it is possible for everyone to spend at least 1 dollar a week
and why would you do that with play money when free tournaments are available for real money
888 has a lot of them and also elsewhere

 

[EiXT]

I do play with Play Money (PM) in home game tournaments, I am currently in a few and as a community we play at our best to get to the top of the leader board. Also on Replay Poker after joining the CC community!

It's completely different than playing in public PM tournaments for sure. As there are real prizes to be won on top.

Personally, public PM games helped me grasp the basics of playing poker and other variants like PLO, but overall players mostly do not care enough about their tournament lives so the pressure of ICM is almost non-existent.

As @ luckyfish98 mentioned above, freerolls are better, if you get far into the money, you will experience real pressure and more careful players who wouldn't risk losing their tourney lives easily unlike PM games. You will definitely experience a more realistic way of learning and playing on a serious note.

That's how it was for me at least.

Cheers!

 

[Sullivanryn88]

maybe for initially trying to learn and understand how the game(s) function and actually play, but otherwise the amount of annoyance and frustration that comes with them isnt worth just spending time to do it if youve got a grasp, just continue to educate and play within your BRM. i feel like play money is more bingo than poker since there isnt any risk who cares

 

[monkeytilter]

I do play with Play Money (PM) in home game tournaments, I am currently in a few and as a community we play at our best to get to the top of the leader board. Also on Replay Poker after joining the CC community!

It's completely different than playing in public PM tournaments for sure. As there are real prizes to be won on top.

Personally, public PM games helped me grasp the basics of playing poker and other variants like PLO, but overall players mostly do not care enough about their tournament lives so the pressure of ICM is almost non-existent.

As @ luckyfish98 mentioned above, freerolls are better, if you get far into the money, you will experience real pressure and more careful players who wouldn't risk losing their tourney lives easily unlike PM games. You will definitely experience a more realistic way of learning and playing on a serious note.

That's how it was for me at least.

Cheers!

I take your points completely. I am looking at devising strategies for loose PLO freerolls specifically though, it's more about me calibrating my game rather than trying to get fish to care which I know is a pointless exercise.

I do play PLO freerolls and do quite well in them (though they don't run that often) but always looking to improve😃

 

[dreamer13]

An important quality for play money is patience. The ability to play poker has never fallen from the sky, and the more time you invest in gaining experience and improving your skills, the more success awaits you in the world of real money poker. And remember that you always need to develop your skills. As the saying goes, “it takes a minute to understand the rules, and a lifetime to master.”

 

[EiXT]

Oh man that's a tough one for PLO, I can't say much on this as my PLO skills are very rusty,

But since I played them a lot with play money to train myself the basics (bad idea), the biggest struggle in those is getting the opponents to fold, they often get there after chasing 2 outers for full houses and so on.

Definitely not the best place to start off, but it shaped how I played, instead of being the aggressor I often allowed my "loose goosey" opponents to lead in those games, it worked out for me as I only involved myself with good starting hands- once I hit, I either re-raise or let them drain their stack while holding the best winning hand.

It was all about adjusting for sure, luck played a big part too, but in those tournaments they will not give up! So, let them "out themselves" is what I like to say. 😂

Good luck though!!

(I accidentally sent a message early and left to do something else while on Edit, not knowing there was a time limit LOL)

 

[R.Melnyk77]

Is it worth spending time on play money games to develop and then practice strategies for freerolls and similarly loose games where people "just don't care"?
(I'm thinking for PLO freerolls in particular where pre-flop isolation just isn't a thing and any piece of the flop is called post - just like play money!)

Has anyone had any experience or success with this approach?

Freerolls are a kind of mini-lottery, bingo tournaments. Therefore, anyone who wants to try their luck can try to do so in freerolls. Those who want to develop their skills and accumulate experience should do it in buy-in tournaments, and treat all game expenses as training costs. The main thing is to be disciplined and stick to bankroll management.
As for playing poker for play money, in my opinion, this function is intended for players who do not understand anything at all and want to start learning the game not from a training course, but from pressing all the buttons in a row

 

[eetenor]

I take your points completely. I am looking at devising strategies for loose PLO freerolls specifically though, it's more about me calibrating my game rather than trying to get fish to care which I know is a pointless exercise.

I do play PLO freerolls and do quite well in them (though they don't run that often) but always looking to improve😃

There are several strategies we can develop by playing in play money games to prepare for the game types you describe. The first PLO strategy is range refining in multiway pots. We want to create a preflop range for limping and raising and then experiment with it to refine it.. Then refine how we play post flop on board textures. Then we can input these hands into Equilab and get an idea of equity vs V ranges. The advantage of play money is we can just get all-in to see show downs to then analyze if our preflop and flop decisions were correct based on equity. We will lose a lot of play chips doing this, but the idea is to reverse engineer our actions.

PLOMASTERMIND is an excellent resource and has some free content---their youtube videos regarding multiway hands -your 3-bet vs flat ranges are good as well

 

[odonob]

No I don’t think that is a valid strategy. Freerolls are a law unto themselves, playing cash games will not prepare you for the variance and randomness seen in freerolls.

 

[monkeytilter]

There are several strategies we can develop by playing in play money games to prepare for the game types you describe. The first PLO strategy is range refining in multiway pots. We want to create a preflop range for limping and raising and then experiment with it to refine it.. Then refine how we play post flop on board textures. Then we can input these hands into Equilab and get an idea of equity vs V ranges. The advantage of play money is we can just get all-in to see show downs to then analyze if our preflop and flop decisions were correct based on equity. We will lose a lot of play chips doing this, but the idea is to reverse engineer our actions.

PLOMASTERMIND is an excellent resource and has some free content---their youtube videos regarding multiway hands -your 3-bet vs flat ranges are good as well

Thank you for outlining a process, interesting you think there is some value to the play money approach, I see most don't agree.

I do watch the odd video of his, need to take a deep dive. I feel he's just advertising though and he only gives a teaser of the "good stuff" on youtube. do rate the guy massively though as a player and a coach. I will bet getting his book but not sure how relevant it will be at baby levels.

 

[Sullivanryn88]

i would at wherever your game is right now, seek out as much information as possible to continue to learn and grow if thats what im gathering is your goal here...

maybe irrelvant but i feel personally as im going through it myself,
the cardschat 30 day poker course...... always as is this forum, an amazing resource to check out and use

 

[eetenor]

Thank you for outlining a process, interesting you think there is some value to the play money approach, I see most don't agree.

I do watch the odd video of his, need to take a deep dive. I feel he's just advertising though and he only gives a teaser of the "good stuff" on youtube. do rate the guy massively though as a player and a coach. I will bet getting his book but not sure how relevant it will be at baby levels.

You want to watch the Luuk Botter videos not J's Much more solid content in Luuk's

 

[monkeytilter]

You want to watch the Luuk Botter videos not J's Much more solid content in Luuk's

Yes I have recently discovered him, seems like a lot of educational content, so Luuk for education, J for inspiration!

I have got J's book now. It's very good theory and application, some notes on tournament adjustments, but sadly not enough for my liking! Still, a fantastic book.

 

[pentazepam]

Believe it or not: In some non-NLH games, people on pokerstars and Replay Poker take the games seriously.

Mostly players from the states in the US and other countries that can't play for real money online, or at least have a hard time getting money in and out.

So some play money games can train for nano stakes and freerolls.

 

[monkeytilter]

Believe it or not: In some non-NLH games, people on PokerStars and Replay Poker take the games seriously.

Mostly players from the states in the US and other countries that can't play for real money online, or at least have a hard time getting money in and out.

So some play money games can train for nano stakes and freerolls.

Yes they do. It's a past time for a lot of them and regulars know each other and chat - I've seen it

 

[Bhargav]

i tried to improve my PLO on replay poker but there are very few games and at odd times. most of them are NL omaha. 🤷‍♂️