If you have any interest at all in playing poker, you’ve probably noticed that a number of online sites and applications are available that will allow you to play free poker games with friends or other site members. Now, these games can be a great way to get in some poker fun without worrying about credit cards, deposits or well, withdrawals. But are they just for fun or a good way to practice your real poker game?

I’m afraid my answer here is going to be that they’re just for fun. To explain it, I’m going to recount some of the action I’ve seen over on the Zynga Facebook site. Now, Zynga has a nice online poker game that lets you connect and play with other Facebook members. And you don’t have to pay for chips since you get a certain number each day. But join in a Zynga poker game and you’ll find wild bets flying all the time and stakes zooming upwards in even the low stakes hands. Why? Well, there’s no real risk here. So players make outrageous bets. Playing on the free games may help you learn the poker hands and even release so stress. But it won’t teach you the realities of the betting part of the game. And that part can’t be ignored if you want to win a real money poker.

So, what should you do? Well, certainly you should play on the free sites if you enjoy them. But if you want to play for real money, check out the small stakes or micro stakes games at an online poker room. Surprisingly even playing for pennies gives you a better feel for real money than playing for “big” money on the free money rooms.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 28th, 2011 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.