A fondness for fun dollars
Posted by Dave Bremner on 23 Feb 2010 at 15:02
Playing online poker for play money isn’t something I’d admit to on a Friday night in town with my mates.
Round our way, admitting a fondness for fun dollars is almost like being caught wearing your girlfriend’s G-string. So I hesitate to confess this, but every now and then I like to forsake the real-money tables for a bit of play-money action on the side.
Boys’ bragging apart, there’s a strong argument against playing for fun money. You can’t really call it practice, say the experts, because you won’t make the same decisions you do in a real game.
Say you’re pot-committed: you’ve invested too many chips in the pot and found yourself with a weak hand. Do you call, hoping for a low-percentage miracle, or fold and cut your losses? It’s a proper dilemma when you’re risking real money.
In a free game there’s no problem: you can breezily go all-in; try and scare your opponents into folding (note: it won’t work; they’ve got nothing to lose either) or just fold. It may be a big loss, but it won’t hurt.
And if you run out of chips? So what – just rebuy! Again and again, if you like! You literally can’t lose.
That’s the problem: making choices without the hazards of a real-money game won’t help you at all back at the cash tables.
But I still think there’s a place for play money – as long as you accept the above and don’t expect to play the same aggressive gut-shots of a fun tournament in a real money game.
The faster pace of the game is one reason I like to play for fun every now and again. Turbo poker isn’t my cup of tea when I’m staking my hard-earned on the table: I generally don’t like to be rushed.
But I find turbo fun tournaments helpful: they force me to work a bit faster, get used to absorbing information fast and making quick decisions. I reckon it genuinely ups my game back at the real money tables.
Just don’t tell my mates I said so.
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