[Opinion] Is online play $ much different than online Small Stakes?

I am really inexperienced with online poker (I play, probably winning, small stakes limit hold 'em at casinos) and now that I'm back at college I'm thinking about getting into playing online poker so I can subsidize some expenses.

I deposited 20 bucks on Pokerroom (I'm on a Mac... apparently this is very bad for playing online poker, if anyone can recommend some poker related software for my platform, I'd be much appreciative) just to see how things work online. Lost it in a couple days playing loose-aggressive .25/.50 HE.

Will I get any valuable practice playing limit HE with play money? It seems like people can't get any more loose-aggro than when I was playing them (capping preflop with QXo, T8s, stuff like that) and I don't want to waste any more money online until I can get a little more experience with how people play.

I don't play small stakes online but I think it's safe to say real money is nothing like play money.

Right, this I know, play money is supposed to be crazier than real, but the small stakes stuff I was playing was ridiculously loose-aggro. Makes me wonder whether or not it might be good practice for just small stakes online play.

I've never played a small stakes game that was as laggy as play money. The lowest I've played was 25 NL.

It is not the same. In play money you will get people calling 2 all ins with A5 or 22. That crap doesn't happen at any real money table. However, playing loose agro is a losing proposition on any table below .5/1 NL or 2/4 limit

If I played play money, I'd push everytime

Hi Dreadlord,

I think it would be a waste of your time. The play money limit tables are capped virtually every hand preflop, people will go 3 and 4 bets on the turn with gutshots and even worse. Unless you are totally unfamiliar with the rules of the game, there is little to be learned from this.

If you want to revamp your game, I recommend two things:

1. Read Small Stakes Hold 'Em by Ed Miller. This book should pay for itself literally within hours. Read it once, read it again, and study it every day. Take notes. Poker is a subject, no exceptions.

2. Head over to the Two Plus Two forums (www.twoplustwo.com) and post at least 10 times a day in the small stakes forum. Never less. Here you will learn very quickly the fundamentals of the game and begin to think about critical situations that will come up in your sessions BEFORE they come up.

Regards,

Cacophobia

Hi Dreadlord,

I think it would be a waste of your time. The play money limit tables are capped virtually every hand preflop, people will go 3 and 4 bets on the turn with gutshots and even worse. Unless you are totally unfamiliar with the rules of the game, there is little to be learned from this.

If you want to revamp your game, I recommend two things:

1. Read Small Stakes Hold 'Em by Ed Miller. This book should pay for itself literally within hours. Read it once, read it again, and study it every day. Take notes. Poker is a subject, no exceptions.

2. Head over to the Two Plus Two forums (www.twoplustwo.com) and post at least 10 times a day in the small stakes forum. Never less. Here you will learn very quickly the fundamentals of the game and begin to think about critical situations that will come up in your sessions BEFORE they come up.

Regards,

Cacophobia

Yeah, I do both those things on a regular basis. I play 3/6-5/10 in casinos. I'm not really looking to revamp my game. It's pretty good for small stakes. I just want to transfer it over to online play and it's been rough thus far (though I can't say I've made a big serious attempt at it, perhaps I will do this soon).

I'm also playing on Pokerroom which is garbage. Any site that has downloadable software for Mac? Or at least a stat recorder.

Pokerroom does record a few basic stats - maybe it doesn't have this function on the Mac.

Couple of other thoughts -
1. 2+2 is the place to find info. Do some searches. Somebody their would have to know about Mac compatibility.
2. I don't know if Party is ok for the Mac, but you really can get free money at PartyPoker - http://www.tribalwar.com/forums/showthread.php?t=411687 - a lot of people start this way.
3. If you are trying to build a roll from a small amount, you may want to tighten up at first, get a little cushion and then get LAGgy. With multi-tabling you see so many more hands online, it doesn't require too much patience to bump up your starting requirements a little. The easiest advantage to achieve is to play better starting hands than your opponents.