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Low Limit Texas Hold'em for Play Money Players

Playing poker for real money is fundamentally different compared to playing for play money. The rules may be the same, but the difference is in the way people bet. When winning and losing start making a difference, people are much more considered when they actually put money into the pot. We call this playing ‘tighter’.

The higher the stakes, the tighter the game.

When moving from play money to real money, you will have to tighten up your game as well, or you will inevitably lose money. The aim is to play a slightly tighter game than your opponents. On low limit tables however, this is no problem. The game is still pretty loose anyway.

Selecting Tables

Size of Table
The first decision to be made before playing poker is the size of the table. The strategy required for playing on a ten player table is completely different to that of a two player ‘heads up’ game. Pick a type of table and stick to it to make sure you learn it properly.

In general one can say it’s more difficult to play No-Limit than Limit Games and it is more difficult to play short handed than at a full 10-player table.

Opponents
Choosing your opponents is a powerful ploy to successful poker. By selecting the right opponents, you maximize your chance of profitable success. You don’t have to be the best player in the world to be profitable at poker, you just have to be better than the players at your table. (Actually, you don’t have to be the best player at the table either, as long as you know who the good players are!).

Find players that you are better than.

The first and most obvious piece of advice relating to your opponents is to find, and play at, your own level. Secondly, there is some statistical information in the lobby that you can use.

Limit
When, in this document, we refer to low-limit we’re talking about tables with $0.5-$1 and $1-$2. The information here should be sufficient for you to play on this level.

To play at $2-$4 and $3-$6 you need to understand the concepts described here on a slightly deeper level and gain some experience of playing.

Statistics
To assist you in finding the right table, you can use the statistics in the lobby.

Flop Percentage
The flop percentage is the most important figure in determining the quality of players at the table. It shows how many players are paying to see the flop. It will give a good indication as to how loose a game is. On a ten-seat table 25% would be very tight and 40% pretty loose.

Pot Size Average
Another useful figure is the pot size average. It will also give an indication on how loose the game is. If the pots are large, more players are likely to be contributing

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