A vast selection of today's online poker destinations offers players the option of playing traditional casino games without investing real money. In fact, it is one of such gambling websites' greatest attractions because it provides truly exciting entertainment for which players are not required to pay. In addition, it is a great way to learn poker basics without going completely broke.

However, we should not ignore the fact that play-money games have obvious limitations to them. After a while of playing these demo games you eventually realize that all you manage to achieve is figuring out poker rules and getting used to the gaming software. Play-money games are not truly useful if you plan to become a really great poker player with winning aspirations. Additionally, what you need to understand is that the skills you develop while playing play-money games are not the same skills you are likely to need when playing real-money games. In fact, sometimes there are even negative consequences to playing play-money games. For instance, picking up bad playing habits which are later on very difficult to get rid of.

Play-money players typically stay in the game disregarding their hand's strength. The reason for this phenomenon is rather obvious. If there is no money at stake, you can afford to continue playing with whatever hand you are holding. When the risk is not there, even if you happen to have poker's worst hand, you would typically keep drawing in hope of nabbing a better one.

It is then very simple to explain why gaming strategies are very different when it comes to real-money play. For instance, smart fake-money strategy involves loose preflop play with the hope of catching some 'friends' (a term referring to cards that are likely to improve a player's hand). Since in real-money games unwise decisions typically cost players a lot of money, it is advised to play much tighter prior to the flop and filter the starting hands you are willing to stay in the game with.

Another rather negative impact associated with fake-money games is a player's false confidence in his gaming skills. The fact that a player is successful in fake-money games does not automatically mean that he is a poker genius in real-money games. Don't ever forget that the money factor changes everything. Furthermore, statistics often demonstrate that winning fake-money players tend to lose big time when testing their skills in real-money games.

Although, thus far, we have established that fake-money games actually have very little in common with real-money games, it is not entirely so. Many times, as part of their overall promotional policy, online poker rooms organize poker tournaments called freerolls. Freerolls are essentially tournaments which do not require real money investment. The only difference lies in the fact that freerolls offer winning players real-money prizes. Usually, the more insignificant the amount of money you can potentially collect, the more similar a freeroll is to a fake-money tournament.

To tell you the truth, play-money games are designed to hook you up. Poker room operators believe that once you become confident enough playing a game, without investing money, you will eventually seek to try out your skill in real-money games. Sometimes such an assumption works and sometimes it does not. All we mean to say is that play-money offerings also have their downsides.