Quote:
How so? It seems that it would make no difference what you're playing for. The only reason I can see is that the competition is so bad that you can play really poorly and still win.
The stakes make all the difference in the world and it's easy to see online. I have some guesses as to why it's so different, but it's very plane that it is.

When playing NL Hold Em with play chips online, it is very typical for people to push all of their chips in before the flop with almost any playable hand. This just doesn't happen when people are playing for any stakes at all. You can still win in these kinds of games by basically waiting for the big hands (AA, KK, QQ, AK, etc.) and then pushing them HARD. So I get delt AA in a play chip hand and I'll either go all in, or at least raise some insane amount. You're almost sure to get a caller. In a money game this is the WORST way play AA (unless you have somoene fresh from the play chips table, which does happen on occasion). You'll chase everyone out of the pot and come away with nothing- a waste of a great hand.

NL Hold Em is a great game because there is a lot of finesse and playing the players. You make certain bets to discover what other players might be holding, and you react based on the information you have. You can detect trends in the way a player reacts to certain situations and then use that in your favor. This *important* aspect of the game is completely missing in the play chips games- there is no bluffing, because you'll almost always get a caller. Slow playing is easy, because someone will always bet your hand for you. In the final analysis, you either have a hand or you don't, and most of the betting is decided before you've seen enough cards to know.

What you'd learn by playing the play chips games is that most players will stick around to see all the cards and very few fold. In a game of any reasonable amount, most hands are decided before the turn, and less that half of the players will stay in to see the flop.

It isn't hard to beat the play chip games- but it isn't much fun either. You're just waiting for the good hands, getting all your chips in the middle and praying the cards fall your way. I'll take a game with finesse and strategy over that any day, and you'll never learn good strategy playing that way.
_________________________
-Jeff
Rome did not create a great empire by having meetings; they did it by killing all those who opposed them.