Where is the best play money poker online?

September 10, 2007 10:54 AM

Where is the best "play money" poker online?

I have started playing "play money" poker online to practice for a weekly real world poker game.

I am getting pretty good and have accumulated a decent amount of play money on pokerstars. I was wondering if there was anyone online that let me "spend" my play money on something... anything? (ie, raffle tickets, etc...)

I just wanted to see if anyone knew of the best place to maximize my play money winnings (as silly as that sounds).

posted by chrisalbon to sports, hobbies, & recreation (13 comments total)

I've never really heard of being able to do anything with play chips on a poker site...
posted by RustyBrooks at 11:12 AM on September 10, 2007

There are a few sites that buy bulk quantities of play money chips. For example, this one is buying PokerStars play money.

I can't recommend any such sites in particular, but you should be able to find a reputable one via google search.
posted by gorillawarfare at 11:23 AM on September 10, 2007

If you join the real money side of pokerstars, there are tourneys that don't charge an entry fee called freerolls. These tourneys pay real money that you can spend on anything you like. I believe the same is true of all the major sites (fulltilt, ub, etc).

I don't know any sites that allow you you to spend your play money on anything, but I really don't pay any attention to the play money world.
posted by Lame_username at 11:25 AM on September 10, 2007

Thanks gorillawarfare, that was exactly what I was looking for.

On a side note I find it humorous that one answerer comments how stupid my question was but then two minutes later another answerer confirms that my question was valid.

Thanks again gorilla.
posted by chrisalbon at 11:30 AM on September 10, 2007

Also thanks lame_username. I was wondering if there was anything like that. I will check it out.
posted by chrisalbon at 11:32 AM on September 10, 2007

Just a additional note. There are some interesting forum threads about new players learning poker in the play money games, then selling their play money chips for real money pokerstar chips and using these chips to make the "jump" to real money poker games.

It is an interesting means for the "risk averse" to get into online poker without putting any of their personal finances on the line.
posted by chrisalbon at 11:51 AM on September 10, 2007

I can see why you'd want to sell play chips but why on earth would you want to buy them? I think I have a few million sitting around on UB or something from when I was testing a strategy for a particular game.
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:10 PM on September 10, 2007

From Pokerhex.com:

"The main reason why people choose to pay for Pokerstars play money is that it is the only site that offers play money tournaments and S&G's. While most poker sites offer play money for practice, none except for Pokerstars allow for tournament practice."
posted by chrisalbon at 1:57 PM on September 10, 2007

That's not true: Full Tilt has play money tournaments too.
posted by dfan at 2:17 PM on September 10, 2007

But you get a certain amount of chips for free, right? And that's replenishable if you blow it?

Also, I guess you can buy an insane amount of play money cheap, but why not play $1 tournaments? Or freerolls (where you can win money but don't pay any) or pokerstars has as I recall like $0.10c multi table tournaments.

I guess I just can't imagine plunking down actual money for play chips.
posted by RustyBrooks at 7:11 PM on September 10, 2007

Also, check out www.twoplustwo.com, especially the forums. It's kind of a clearinghouse for all things poker. You can post hands, get advice, talk about theory, and there is a forum for online poker sites that probably can point out all the little deals you can get on sites.

Personally my tip to everyone getting started is to pick up low-limit cash games, either limit or no limit. Most sites offer bonuses and you earn them by playing. At low limits the bonuses can easily be as much or more than you'd expect to make playing - if you can manage to break even or lose very little money, then you can make a nice bankroll. I started with $50 and whored my way into about $600, and then started playing "real" poker.
posted by RustyBrooks at 7:21 PM on September 10, 2007

I was going to say that learning to play poker in a play money poker room is a terrible idea; but thinking about the quality of most home games, maybe it's appropriate! :-)
posted by srt19170 at 8:00 PM on September 10, 2007

Yes, it's fine to learn the rules and routine of the game from play money games, but it ultimately reinforces poor play. Too many players don't care if they lose and play stupidly. That makes for frequent jackpots when you bust someone, but also unusually frequent bad beats from people that shouldn't realistically be in the hand.

On the other hand, maybe your friends play like that, too. I like Full Tilt. They have (play) cash games and play money tournaments for all the popular games (texas he, omaha, razz, etc).
posted by ctmf at 8:12 PM on September 10, 2007