playing yourself in poker for practice...

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idiotic. why would you ever do this when you can play playmoney or micro-stakes for practice against other opponents. Much of the uniqueness of poker is that you don't know what your opponent has. Remove that and there is no poker.

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I think you are being overly harsh.

Playing against other people is undoubtedly the best way to learn - but there is some crucial information that you do not glean from this.

For example, unless the hand goes to a showdown, you don't know what the player had. Similarly, you do not know what other people are folding.

To be FAR more helpful, I am pretty sure there are several poker programs where you play against bots/the computer where you can play the hand and then AFTER the hand is over, you can see what everyone had.

[odellthurman]

Don't do it. It will make you go blind and grow hair on your palms.

[Willluck]

BTW, I've never done this. I'm just trying to get some discussion going on the theory behind this.

[Why Are You Envious?]

I would definitely recommend Poker Acedemy Pro for limit games and setting up a bot is easy and you can mimic whomever's playing style you wish and make it similar to your home game. Has improved my game by throwing in random other players into the mix so I have to spot styles. But wait until August since that is when the new version comes out and it has significant improvments.

[XXXNoahXXX]

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why would you ever do this when you play play money or micro-stakes for practice against other opponents.

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Yeah, Playmoney tables are real educational. I never knew that I was supposed to call an all-in preflop with 37os then immediately rebuy and go all-in with 49os...I may have lost a thousand on the first hand, but when seven people called my preflop all-in and i hit a full house I was up 6k just like that!

Until someone starts a play money site where it takes 45 minutes to sign up and you can only rebuy once a month, to give some incentive for smart play, they're useless.

[Sniper]

PAP2 is the best of the poker software available right now for practicing your game. Play money games online are not a good way to practice, since your opponents will play significantly different than even low stakes tables.