Are winners at Play Money still fish at micro stakes?
Would the best Play Money player still get crushed at the $0.01/$0.02 tables?
Last week I reported on how Chris Moneymaker is currently the second biggest winner on the Play Money version of PokerStars.
Just like his teammate Barry Greenstein, both men are playing and doing well at Play Money because as US-based Team PokerStars Pros, this is the only format they can currently play in their homeland.
This led me to suggest that by default, that would make them the best two players at Play Money. I made this claim because I believe that the gulf in class between Play Money and even $0.01/$0.02 is monumental.
Is that a fair claim? Is the best Play Money player in the world still a fish at the lowest stakes real money game?
Nobody takes Play Money seriously
Right now just above Moneymaker in the Play Money rankings is ‘Dash_Lane’ who has 17,603,388,798 chips, which if they were bought would be worth over $20,000. Among other Play Money players, ‘Dash_Lane’ may well be their Phil Ivey.
However when real money is on the line, the game changes. Last year I spoke to PokerStrategist and PokerStars Pro Mati312, who started at Play Money, and he agreed:
“A lot of people don't really take Play Money seriously. So you know the jump in skill level was really high when you go to real money. Even from high stakes play money to micro stakes real money. I was a winning play money player, but a losing real money player when I made the jump to $0.05/$0.10 ring games.”
The reason why I believe Play Money Masters are still unprepared for real money is because of the psychological effect of risking money. Risking money, even when for a small amount, exposes your attitude to risk and pressure. There is none of this in Play Money, which is why folding doesn’t really happen.
The pain of losing money is vital
The pain of losing money is so strong that when it happens, we learn from it. The allure of money is so enticing that when we win it, it motivates us to work hard to win it again.
Mental game coach Jared Tendler agrees with me on this:
"In general, people underestimate how much a game, not just poker, changes because of pressure. The difference between Play Money and real money poker is big. It's as big as the difference between sweating someone play and actually playing yourself. When you're sweating someone, it's easy to see details of the action and clearly think through the right play because there's NO PRESSURE. As soon as you sit down to play, there are consequences if you get the decision wrong and that makes it harder to play well."
Perhaps most of all, the cruelty of variance in poker is not exposed until real money is on the line. Some people cannot handle losing money because of bad fortune and will never make good poker players. Other people can develop a bulletproof mental game in the face of variance, and they might go on to become professionals. Even highly experienced real money players struggle to understand the unfair nature of luck, so a Play Money expert is not prepared in the slightest.
Play Money is fantastic and very important for the game. It's obviously the best way to learn the rules, get to grips with the software and for many people its fun enough so that they never need to stop playing it. But if you want to take poker seriously, you have to put your money on the line.
Does Play Money prepare you for the real money game? Is the best Play Money player still a fish at micro stakes? Let me know in the comments.
