Play Real Money Texas Holdem for Extra Edge
When I first started to play real money Texas holdem, I was already placing in most of my play money SNG's. I was always well up the field in freerolls. I had already learned to play a tight game. As I got a little more confident, or possibly a bit arrogant I started to loosen up. It worked for a short period but then I started on a losing streak.
What did I do wrong? Well, I learned that although I knew the basics of Texas holdem and the mechanics of beating a poor player, I failed to recognize a strong player. Sure you get the occasional strong player with play money but when you are playing real money Texas holdem, you will find a good player on every turn. Not everyone is a good player but if you cannot learn the difference, you won't be a winning player.
So how did I become a better player? After all, I had excelled in my play money apprenticeship. I got my answer through busting out my bankroll a few times. Nothing too dramatic. What I asked myself was why certain people are consistently better than me? What is the skill to it?
Here was my conclusion. It seems silly to state the obvious but I needed to go through the process
1) At play money you can wait for players to make dumb mistakes. During real money Texas holdem game costs you real money.
2) At play money, it's all about proving to yourself and others at the table that you are the best. During real money Texas holdem games your aim is to isolate the poor players, take there money off them, and if you are in a tournament situation, only then do you lock horns with the good players. Put it this way if the top ten poker players in the world only played each other, more than half of them would be losing poker players. The object of the game is to find players that you can beat, not to be the best.
3) At play money poker, I concentrated mainly on my own game. When I started to learn real money Texas holdem, I had to learn about other players. I thought about what strategy they were using to try to get my money from me. Play money is more of a two tone game. Real money poker has many dimensions. That's why I love the game.
My advice to you or anyone who is thinking of playing real money Texas holdem is to ensure you know the basic holdem rules. Once you have accomplished that, move on to real money games. Many people will advise you to stick with play money for a while but I consider that a mistake. Real money Texas holdem is where you will pick up the experience. Play money is simply for the mechanics of the game. The mentality of play money means that is very difficult to progress beyond a certain level.
Now when I am suggesting moving on to real money Texas holdem, I am not suggesting you dive in at the deep end. I am suggesting that you start at very low stakes. Think of it as an apprenticeship. Never play with more than 5% of your bankroll at the table. If you lose the 5%, quit for the day. You have 19 attempts left. Each losing day you have, study you play and ask yourself why? Sometimes its just bad luck, but in the beginning, more often than not, someone has read you better than you got to read them. Many times it wont be the play you made on the particular hand that bust you, often it was the hands leading up to it. You have been played. You have been set up. Analyze and double analyze. Observation is the key to winning at real money Texas holdem.
OK, so where do I play? We me personally, I only play at the poker sites listed on my reviews. This is from trial and error. I have taken many factors into account and have narrowed it down. I always look at a poker site thoroughly. I now play at the higher stakes so as far as I am concerned, it's a financial matter. I go for trustworthy & honest sites. That is my number one rule. Any site I play at or recommend must fill this criterion. I also select sites I can make the most money on. This means, I take into account the availability of game at my buy in. I look at the quality of player and I find a site where I can play on multiple tables comfortably. The software on a site doesn't make a big difference to me. As long as I can bet what I want to and don't have to worry about disconnects, I'm happy
For you, I will suggest a few sites based on criteria
1) Victor Chandler
Ok, I don't play here often. I used too. I managed to give up my day job off earnings from here. This is where I started my real money Texas holdem. This is where I got my first big win. For me, it's about profit. I cannot play as many tables as I want to. I cannot find enough players at my stakes. I still love the site.
Your reason for going there? You can begin your apprenticeship at micro limits. There is enough competition to keep you ticking over, and to start your venture into real money Texas holdem, they offer a free $10 towards your poker with no deposit required. Just sign up and go to the promotions page for the current promo code. Unfortunately VC Poker is not open to US players.
2) Ultimate Bet
For those who like excellent software, this is the site to be at. You can play at the micro limits. They give you decent first deposit bonuses which are easy to clear and if you are a US player, you will be accepted. If you play on a mac/linux Absolute Poker would be a better choice although the software is not in the same class.
3) Betfair Poker
My dad introduced me to this site. First impressions, rubbish!! The site offers nothing. I generally don't care about the software but I thought it was poor. Going off track a little here, my dad and I were working on my sister's house, he is a qualified electrician, and I was the tea boy. Well it was supposed to be a simple job, but ended up taking a week. Our job was to do the upstairs but we ended up having to rewire the full house. Anyone who knows about rewiring a house would be horrified to find out that halve of the cables were lead. Simply put, the house hadn't been rewired since my dad was in shorts. To cut a long story short, we had to fix a lot of old dangerous patch up jobs. Well I never. My job was to pass down tools and feed wires. My dad was doing most of the work and boredom struck. What could I do? TV off, no heating. Yes, you guessed it. I raided my sister's fridge, no power so the food would go off, logical. Also, we decided I should play on my dads betfair account. He is more of a gambler than a poker player and that's his reason for playing poker at betfair. I am more of a poker player and hate gambling. Contradictory, but not in a way. Poker stopped my compulsion for gambling when I realized how dumb it was.
Back to betfair. I started playing. New site, unknown entity, so I sat back. The betting is crazy. I'm not up against poker players, im up against heavy gamblers. Now this is my dad's money. He plays small stakes. I have $112. I cannot afford to lose it. He would embarrass the hell out of me in front of my friends. I play on the 50c - $1 level to try to build it up. In 2 days I got up to $600 until I got into a one hand game with some guy. He and another guy took me to the limit of almost folding the nuts. I had watched their play. They went with top pair, period. I won $1274 with two pair. I never underestimate poor players because they can catch a hand too. Yeah, I was worried about shouting down to my dad in the dungeon, "Sorry pops, remember that money I won for you? We just lost it in a hand." Well I won the hand, $1274 up, I moved up the stakes a little. Got to $2856. I went over $3k for a period but blamed my dad for shouting up to me to feed some more wire through to him, ha-ha. It was a long week. My dad got paid $2856 for doing most of the work. I got paid a fridge full of food and my sister got 1ok added to her house price.
Again, back to betfair. Do you gamble? If you want to stop gambling, don't go. If you enjoy gambling, go there. You can bet on anything. If you are a gambling poker player, read my previous. If you are working on improving your game and looking for easy pickings, play at betfair.
To conclude, real money Texas holdem is fun. For a gambler, it is just another vice. I became a compulsive gambler in my teens. It started off with throwing coins against a wall, to fruit machines, then to bookmakers and I moved on to poker. Poker was my savior.
Did I become a gambler when I was throwing coins against a wall? No. I learned the capacity for gambling, how to make easy money. It was a skill game. I made money. I worked hard to be good, I earned it. Fruit Machines? Bookmakers? Yes, gambling through and through. I needed the buzz. Damn, on the fruit machines it clearly states on the machine 80% payout. What skill is there in that? Bookmakers are the same only its live events. A bookmaker is an accountant who takes there cut no matter who wins. The only losing bookmaker is a gambler. Is poker gambling? No Poker is a skill. The most skillful rise to the top. As I said earlier, top players don't want to play each other for real money, so the best player is the one who avoids the most pitfalls.
This is coming from a real money Texas holdem play but poker saved me from a life of gambling. It taught me that gambling was a mugs game. It brought me back to throwing coins against a wall. I was playing to win and if I wasn't good enough, I would come back and be better.
I started off introducing players to real money Texas holden then went on a rant. If I delete my conversations, it will just be another BS site telling you basically the same things as me. I can tell you how to play perfect poker. Read a chess book. Any poker player who is anyone has a poker strategy book. Do you think any one of them is literate? If they were, they could analyze the other player's book and beat them. Do you think they just get journeymen to write the books? That would make more sense. Does a world class traveling pro really have the time to write a book? I write because I am pokeranon.com. I am anonymous. I live off my internet poker earnings. I hate gambling. I once had a problem with gambling. I know the destruction on many levels. I will talk about poker bonus offers, but to me that is BS. It's all about swapping your compulsion for a skill and a passion. I cannot stop anyone gambling, but I can say bet on you, and that goes for all walks of life.
Long conclusion? This from the life of a real money Texas holdem payer...PokerAnon.com
I am Ready to Play Real Money Poker- Find me a Site with all Levels of Players!!!
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