Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Free Play To Real Money

7:50 PM

Obviously there is a big difference in the mindset of most free table players in comparison to real money players, the free tables are filled witha high percentage of people who are just looking to have fun or are using the game to pass time; the real money players are more likely to be taking the game seriously, even though they are still playing the game for fun. Real money players are more aware of losing because there is money involved, this changes the way the games are played; real money games have more structure to the betting rounds and a greater level of strategy is applied, generally the standard is considerably higher than on the play money tables.

The main difference between free money and real money play is the action is a lot looser on the free play tables with bigger pots and a much higher percentage of players staying in the hand for the flop. There are significantly less pre flop all ins on the real money tables, with players preferring to leave themselves room to maneuvre after the flop, it's common to have half the table all in pre flop at a 10 seater free money table, whereas it's uncommon to have more than 2 players and rare to see more than 3 players all in before the flop on a real money table.

One must adjust their strategy when transitioning from the free play games to the real money environment, typically there is more opportunity to use a wider range of tactics because the playing environment is more diverse, the vast majority of play money players would do well to tighten up when stepping up to real money play.