I have finished watching most of the poker videos on Pokervt and thought I would give the math section of the site a try.

Charley Swayne seems to know the math side of the game very well and although I am not a huge math guy
I think it will definately help my game to go through his course.

On his first video he states that before you play for real money you should play 250,000 hands!!!
That seems like an insane amount. How many players do you think have actually done this??

Personally, I can't play on the play money tables, I find the games just brutal and unless the chips have value
to you players are much more likely to gamble and play any two cards or push with any draw.

I think it would be much better to start out playing low limits online where you won't go broke learning
but it will mean something if you lose and will force you to think more about your decisions because there is actual money on the line.

Any thoughts...

tbh 250,000 hands isnt _THAT_ much in perspective for a player that wants to become professional. Lots and lots of online kids that play million hands a year ... and to be honest you aren't most likely going to be playing superb poker before you hit the 250k-1 million hands mark anyway. 500-1000 hands a day isnt that much imo.

I reviewed a lot of the content on the site before it went live to provide feedback and I discussed this a bit with Charley.

To Charley "real" money means money that has significance to you. It doesn't mean real as opposed to play money like at an online site.

To Charley those 250,000 hands could be play money or they could be at small stakes where your financial results won't have a large meaning to you.

That makes much more sense.
Fake money isn't real poker at all.

i'm pretty sure he mentioned learning software as well. i'm guessing computer opponents so the software would allow you to run through the hands without having to worry about play money players going all in just for kicks.

Oh, Charley.

my 2 cents from a non pro and I played poker for over 30 years

I played for free on pokerstars for 2 years before I started playing for money tournaments.
Trust me follow, Bob and Poker VT. It is much harder on the cash tournaments than it is playing for free.
You need to get the basic's down pat. The competition is fierce as there are many out there at the
lower levels also trying to prove themselves. It is not easy. If you can't master the on line free games then
you will have great difficulty with the cash part of the game. The number 1 rule is patience. Even I have to remind myself of that. gl

I agree with what I think Adam's sentiments are.

Charley is a University Prof and not a gambler and views things in a systematic way. Do A and then B and then C.

I would personally only use play money to get comfortable with the software and then I would suggest people play in freeroll tournaments or micro buyin cash games and tournaments and then go where their ability and results take them.