Good place to practice

[node runner]

Hi everyone. I'm new to the forum (and to Holdem).
While I'm going through holdem bootcamp and reading the Lee Jones Low Limit book, I'm wondering where the best place to practice these ideas might be.

The "Play Money" rooms at pokerroom.com seem to be filled with Maniacs. Many raise 2+ bets with trash. This doesn't seem to be a very realistic place to practice. Do people actually play like this in real LL games? I would expect to see more loose-passive playing than this.

Most of my practicing has been with WTTH, loaded with LL profiles, but I'm wondering if this is correct. Would I be learning more in a micro limit room? Or am I doing the right thing, sticking with WTTH until I get good at the basics?

TIA

[Tosh]

You can probably get some good practice at the micro limit tables at Stars.

[sthief09]

When you write WTTH, are you referring to Turbo Texas Hold'em? I played that for a while, and I picked up some bad habbits. The computers are easy to push off hands like AK so when I started playing online again I would check-raise people with nothing assuming they'd fold AK, but instead they'd show it down. The opponents are not nearly as loose as what you're used to.

However, it's really good for getting your pre-flop strategy down. I agree with Tosh, that the micro-limit tables at Stars is probably the best place to start. If you can afford to lose at first, .5/1 at Party would be an even better idea.

[TobDog]

[ QUOTE ]
You can probably get some good practice at the micro limit tables at Stars.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, most sites have micro limits (.25-.50 and below, some even .01-.02). You will be better playing there than free money games, while the money there is small, it is still money. You should check the internet section so see some others views of many if not most of the sites treat customers, security with your $, etc.

[3rdEye]

I play .25/.50 limit on PokerStars for practice and to pay may way into any small buy-in tournaments I have a fancy to enter.

An added bonus to playing at these tables is that, if you're a decent or good player, you'll be getting paid to practice. I've been making nearly 6.5 BB/hour; 10 BB/100 hands at these tables, with a 2,000 hand sample (which is, I realize, pretty small; however I doubt that this number will decrease significantly over time).

[daveymck]

Dont worry so much about practicing get playing its the best practice you can get.

You need to be able to have a bankroll of 300bb's and be prepared to bust out. It depends what you can afford, if you have $300 then the .5/1 at party are as good as any place to start, even with your limited experience you are ahead of a lot of the players there as you are studying. If you folow the basics of Lee Jones book you will be at worse a breakeven player even at this stage.

Do some searching of the forums on lee jones as a lot of people on this site feel he plays too loose, there are lots of threads on how to adjust his strategy.

If you can afford it get Poker tracker $40 or $50 www.pokertracker.com (http://www.pokertracker.com) I am not linked to it but it is excellent for analysing your hands, stats and has a good replay feature so you can go over hands you are unsure about.

Search and read the small stakes and micro forum look out in particular for posts by Mike Gallo who is writing a future 2+2 book on small stakes games and has a lot of good advice.

Lastly post hands where you question the correctness of your play on the micro forum people will give you good analysis and comment on your play.

Welcome to the forums!!

[colgin]

I think that Wilson Turbo is a pretty good starting tool although I never use it anymore (except for the occassional simulation). If you have $50 I would invest it in either Poker Stars or UB and play $.05/.10 and work up from there. If you have more to invest you can start a little higher, say $.50/1.00. Personally, I started at $.05/.10 and now play mostly $3/6 with a little $5/10. If you have $500 available, even if you don't want to play with it all, you can get a nice $100 bonus deposit at most sites. Do some searches in the Internet forums for the best deposit deals. Good luck and welcome to the forum.

Colgin