When dou you think it’s posible to go from play for no money to playing for actual cash. After winning a few tournaments maybe?
There is no comparison I think, being a winning player for real money online is very hard as it is a shrinking pool of new players, the people who are still playing and making profit are very clever computer literate folk who actually understand and can apply GTO, have numerous programs to assist them and they are few and far between.
Unless you are one of those geniuses safer here 
3 Likes
Micro/low stakes online cash is not quite that extreme, but you do need to know a decent amount of strategy. Even if you don’t follow it exactly, you need to be able to identify the opponents that are making the biggest mistakes.
I’ve found the biggest difference is just that there’s far less people playing purely for fun, willing to gamble it up and donate a ton of chips. It’s much harder to recover from you mistakes when everyone else is playing at least somewhat competently - the variance is higher and you will go on much bigger downswings for sure. You will also see less preflop mistakes in the fast fold games, so I would strongly recommend avoiding those.
It’s probably not a huge thing at micro/low stakes, but you do also need to be aware that people will use bots and RTA on these sites, so there’s always a chance you’re playing against a computer.
Finally, although the micro stakes games are beatable without being a GTO wizard, you’re not going to be winning that much money at these stakes, so really you’re still playing for fun and the experience.
There are low buy-in tournaments, and sometimes even free rolls, so you can play for real money with very limited risk if you really want to, but they’re hardly worth the time IMHO. You’re likely to find playing on Replay and lot more fun and generally more rewarding even if it is just play chips.
2 Likes
I have to disagree, people make a good income just grinding micro stakes, that’s the folk you are up against, most of us have to start at these stakes and very hard to make progress, you may have a good run and win some, but the clever folk are way ahead. I agree for fun and a wee adrenaline rush, but these guys make there living doing it, and very hard to beat over time.
I know that used to be the case. I think it’s shifted now though because the rake is so high on most sites it’s not really profitable to grind micros anymore.
It depends on what counts as micros though. There’s a pretty big difference between 5NL and 25NL. I would have considered 25NL to be low stakes, but the internet tells me it’s still considered micros, in which case, yeah those games are pretty tough, but the pool is still soft enough that I could see someone being able to grind out a living with enough volume.
2 Likes
Watch a video on YouTube from any of the top reputable poker coaches/explainers. I like Saulo Costa, for one.
If you can follow most of what they’re saying and feel like you can implement their advice readily, I would say you’re ready to play for cash. Not saying you’ll win, just you will feel reasonably competent at a 1/3 game.
Online real money poker is really hard. If you want to win money there, anything but nosebleed ring on this site will be literally no help preparing. Even nosebleed ring will teach you a number of strategies that work on RP but will lose money (either quickly or slowly) in real cash games online. The weakest pools there are roughly equivalent to the hardest pools on RP.
Live poker at a casino is a totally different story. You can jump in there as soon as you’re consistently winning on RP at the 20k/40k ring game or 250k MTT level, IMO. The strongest players will still be much more skilled than you, but there will usually be at least a couple “spots” at your table who just play badly. Avoid the sharks and feast on the minnows. I turned a nice hourly rate at 1/3 live cash for years, before I even knew much advanced strategy, just by being prudent about who I got into pots with.
Here’s a wee story, when I had played for about a year and a half online and was starting to get a bit better I decided to try a live tournament at my local casino.
Quite a small casino and Edinburgh quite a small pool of players so maybe 50 people.
The thing is I had only really been in a casino a few times usually for a late drink and a free sandwich, maybe a couple of shots at roulette.
I had played cards for cash money in pubs every so often but had never used actual poker chips.
Playing with poker chips for real in that environment was very different as it had all been done for me online.
I also did not know casino table etiquette etc.
The point of my wee tale is for anyone who may also not be much of a casino type, it would be good to go and watch a tournament before playing in one and just watch points. I wish I had !
I found the general standard of poker was actually less than I was used too online, although there were a few obviously good ones who’s table talk was all about the tournaments coming up previous ones etc.
I was the bubble boy first tournament and went home slightly poorer but feeling ok about the game.
So if anyone is a reasonable player online, the cards are still the cards, but good to feel comfortable in the environment as well, not everyone will be.
I had stop going after a few weeks, I found some of the poker players to be a bit too rude or obnoxious for my tastes, I would have ended up in prison for assault eventually
1 Like