ESPN Poker - What do you think of it? I decided to try it a about a year ago to improve my game. I had been playing live in our local Poker Club of 157 members for 2 years and thought I needed to challenge myself. What I found was little challenge at all. I found it easy to make final tables in the league games and the so called higher stakes tourneys with supposedly the best players on the site. I did find a couple of good online players with experience in live tourneys with some success fun to play with and did give me a challenge. I think of my game as decent but in no way can I call myself an excellent player. I found the so called best would always finish well below my finish. My husband only played 5 tourneys and he won 3 of them and placed second in one and third in another. He got bored with it and has not played again. He also would not call himself even a good player but a learning decent player at only the beginning of the journey to be able to play in big live tournies.

So where do someone like us go to play online with the best of players in order to learn by playing them and challenging ourselves in order to prepare for perhaps taking in live tourneys with decent pay outs. I am NOT refering to the WSOP tourneys etc. but small casino tourneys to make some cash.

What kind of reputation does ESPN Poker have? What do you think of the play there.
Both my husband and I were surprised at how easily we won and cashed in the money( play chips)(this is free poker non cash site).

I would say the art of the slow play there is non exsistent and the art of pulling chips out of another player was non exsistent. Reading betting patterns and reactions to raises and the other mental game were non exsistent. For the most part they fold and fold until they have pocket kings then raise high or go all in. They play so tight that they do not build their stack enough to make it to the big blinds near the end.

This is of course not every player but the vast majority have no game and are reluctant to pull the trigger against aggressive play. It makes it too easy to reel in the fish.

There are good nice fun people there and the usual *** oles. Beat them in a hand from a slow play and they call you a donk or a troll. Even though you had trip kings at the flop.

So like it there or what? Only my opinion.

The step up from no money poker to even $2 buy-in games is a big one. For some reason people enjoy just seeing chips move around and play "play money" poker without any interest to get better.

Not knocking play money though, I started there to get used to how online poker worked and it was worthwhile.

Unfortunately, other than an insight into how some people think, you wont learn much untill you play for money.

Originally Posted by 22Fish

Not knocking play money though, I started there to get used to how online poker worked and it was worthwhile.

Unfortunately, other than an insight into how some people think, you wont learn much untill you play for money.

Very true, I play "PM" when ever I'm trying to get a feel for a new game that I'm learning. But I think it's a good way to warm up for "RM" especially if your a new player to the game and to their (poker site) software.

So where is the best site to start for small buy ins? My money is limited as we are buying a home and have a business we run.

Pokerstars and Full Tilt both now offer the .01/.02 games. Plenty of players on both sites.

im glad ftp has added micros i moved down to 02/.05 games and its easy if my roll ever gets low i just go to micros and build it back up. i love it but it is a big step up from play money