Stages of Development

[GotaFancy?]

Great result Paul - Welcome to the "Club"!!

I think there are various stages to stepping up in poker, any newbie ought to start at the lowest stage and get to the position where they can make it pay at that level before they advance to the next.

If you're a total newbie, then their first stage should be to go to the "Play Money" tables. Don't try and learn strategy from your opponents here, but it's good for learning the game, and understanding how the software works. Play a reasonably tight game, and you can win here easily - if you can't make money on these tables, then you really don't want to be playing for real money. You're obviously well beyond this step though.

Second stage should be Freerolls - that is freerolls without any raked hands requirements. There are literally dozens of these every day. Prize money can be anything from $2 shared between the field, to $50,000 like the Betfred tourneys. (and the $10,000 first prize won by Jamiebhoy, or the $11,000 cruise won by Mr Museman, which I think wass originallt from a freeroll). Again, be careful what you learn from your opponents in these - the "strategy" can often be questionable. Betfred is especially good for Freerolls. Sporting Odds "Safety Net" is quite popular here at the moment, and Paddy Power have a "red hot" week where there is a freeroll every night. And don't forget the Punters Lounge freerolls - these are unquestionably the best value of all (in terms of prize money divided by entrants). Look at the sig of Valiant23 - it's a really good idea what he's done, tracking the payout he's getting from freerolls, and then spending his winnings on tournaments. I like this approach.

Third stage should be tournaments. These vary significantly in cost, and consequently in standard of play, but generally this is where you start to get people playing with some strategy (as well as having your usual muppets). Single Table Tournaments start at about £1 (Betfair). Start with low stakes and build yourself up as you "proove" you can make money at each level. Ladbrokes "Ladders" (other sites call the same structure different names) is somewhere I've had a lot of play for little investment). You start at "Level 1" and then depending on finishing position, you lose out, requalify for Level 1 or qualify for level 2. On Level 2, it's the same - top 3 qualify for level 3 and 4th requalifies for level 2. Instead of playing level 3 however, you can keep playing level 2. If you can finish in the top 3 about 50% of the time, then you will quickly see your tokens increasing in value. A lot of play can be had for your initial 3 or 4 dollar entry. Then you have Multi Table Tournaments as well. Again the standard of play varies considerably, but the muppets quickly get knocked out, and the standard gets a lot higher in the latter stages. There's the monthly PL MTT Tourney which will restart in October if you want to play against fellow PL'rs. TODAY as well there's an exceptional value MTT with sporting odds (at 1PM BST) - entry is $1, last time there were 43 entrants, then Sporting Odds add $500 to the prize fund. Make sure you keep watching the poker forum - tournaments like these are always around and that's where we'll highlight them.

Fourth stage is ring games or cash games. This is "real" poker - and where you can win (or lose) money quickly. I don't know much about this as I haven't got to this level yet, though I have just started playing cheap ring games ($0.05/$0.10) at Sporting Odds. After 500 raked hands, they're giving you $100. I've played just over 200 so far (and am showing a profit). The standard at this level isn't very good, but any new player needs to be very cautious about playing in ring games.