best place to learn NL?

I've been playing structured limit holdem for a while and want to start to learn NL. I've read some books on it, but of course they're no substitute for experience. What's a good place to start NL (so I don't have to cough up my whole bankroll while learning)? Are there any games w/ small buyins that would be good learning tools?

Thanks in advance,

Joey

[twistedbeats]

paradise, pokerstars, and ultimatebet all offer pot and no limit games with blinds starting at $.10/$.25

these games are great training wheels.

It seems to have gone widely un-noticed, but Planet have also been offering pot and no limit for some time now.
AND they have updated the graphics, just to please those shallow players who are swayed by such things :-)

[AlanBostick]

The online sites with small-blind no-limit hold'em games are a lot better than nothing as places to learn, but be aware that the play in those games is substantially different from the play in real-life games. I can easily see someone learning how to beat the PokerStars game to death, deciding she was a decent no-limit hold'em player, and losing a lot really fast in a real-life game. A sharp, experienced RL player, on the other hand, can easily adapt to online game conditions and beat those games to death, if it is worth it to her.

Where do you live and play? I can only give information about where I myself play.

I'm in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here there is a big game ($10, $10, and $20 blinds, $40 to go, $1,000 minimum buyin) that gets down most nights at Lucky Chances in Colma; this is not a game for beginners or people with small bankrolls. Sunday nights at Artichoke Joe's in San Bruno, there is usually a $2-$3-$5, $10-to-go game. This game is comparable in bankroll requirment to a $15-$30 or $20-$40 limit hold'em game, so if you feel comfortable playing in those, it might be a good place to start.

In Reno, at the El Dorado Casino, a $2-$3-$5, $10-to-go game gets down most nights. It has a pretty tough regular lineup, but can attract good action from tourists in a mood to gamble. Again, if you can afford to play at the $15-$30 level, this might well be a good no-limit school for you.

When all else fails, you could try starting your own home game, setting the blinds at a comfortable level for you. The drawback of this is that, as with the online poker sites, you could learn to play well against your poker buddies and still have collective leaks in your game that would leave you vulnerable to experienced players. But it's a lot of fun, trust me.

Hope this helps.

Alan, there is also a 1-2-2 NLHE game at the Palace in Hayward thursday through sunday (wednesday is 5-5 PLO/PLO8, mon-tue dark). I believe they have a website that might have more info or you can look them up on pokerguide.com or in the yellow pages.