Zillions of play money players: why don't they play for real?

[MicroBob]

Had a neighbor who plays on play-money tables somewhere.
On Yahoo perhaps?
In her 50's with a couple of cats. She was my pet-sitter when I was out of town.

Tried to tell her that she could play for just pennies on places like pokerstars if she wanted to. She would literally be unlikely to lose more than a $1 in a given session of .01/.02.
But she still wasn't interested.

Funny thing is that she occasionally goes down to Tunica and plays the slots.

And I know she has no problem buying stuff with her credit-card because she gets a lot of packages from the Home Shopping Network.

I think there's something with depositing REAL money online with an actual gambling site that makes people ill-at-ease.

If the sites were allowed to fully advertise their dot-com sites they could overcome some of this stuff just with basic info/propaganda.

"It's safe. It's easy. You can win a seat to the WSOP for only $2. Thousands of players are on right now all playing for REAL money all the way from penny-stakes up to our high-roller tables with thousands of dollars on the line.
Depositing into our secure network for as little as $10 will get you started on the road to riches....and you'll get a free $10 bonus as our welcome gift to you."


Talking in terms of actual money and how many people are actuially doing it would encourage more people to give it a try.

The dot-net ads just aren't as effective at getting people over the hump, "Learn to practice and play like the pros. NOT a gambling site."

[MrFizzbin]

[ QUOTE ]
I'm surprised networks don't capitalize on these frequent play money users by giving them a dollar or two every once in a while.


[/ QUOTE ]

The freerolls are an opportunity to win money 4 or 5 times a day on Absolute or FullTilt. They usually pay top 2 tables from $2-20. depending on place. PokerStars uses a 2 tier system where the the last 2 or 3 tables go to sunday, make the top 15-20% in Sunday you win $$$.

[Benholio]

You are thinking of these players from the perspective of a poker player. Why would a poker player spend so many hours playing for free?

The better perspective would be from someone who plays card games on the internet. Millions of people spend countless hours playing games on yahoo, pogo, etc without any chance of winning anything of monetary value.

For them, the chance to win a card shuffler or a $10 freeroll prize is a big deal compared to what they might otherwise be playing for.

[ToNYlol]

[ QUOTE ]
Had a neighbor who plays on play-money tables somewhere.
On Yahoo perhaps?
In her 50's with a couple of cats. She was my pet-sitter when I was out of town.

Tried to tell her that she could play for just pennies on places like pokerstars if she wanted to. She would literally be unlikely to lose more than a $1 in a given session of .01/.02.
But she still wasn't interested.

Funny thing is that she occasionally goes down to Tunica and plays the slots.

And I know she has no problem buying stuff with her credit-card because she gets a lot of packages from the Home Shopping Network.

I think there's something with depositing REAL money online with an actual gambling site that makes people ill-at-ease.

If the sites were allowed to fully advertise their dot-com sites they could overcome some of this stuff just with basic info/propaganda.

"It's safe. It's easy. You can win a seat to the WSOP for only $2. Thousands of players are on right now all playing for REAL money all the way from penny-stakes up to our high-roller tables with thousands of dollars on the line.
Depositing into our secure network for as little as $10 will get you started on the road to riches....and you'll get a free $10 bonus as our welcome gift to you."


Talking in terms of actual money and how many people are actuially doing it would encourage more people to give it a try.

The dot-net ads just aren't as effective at getting people over the hump, "Learn to practice and play like the pros. NOT a gambling site."

[/ QUOTE ]

Totally agreed. And to a lesser extent I think this is why Party was so successful. I miss Party. Look at FullTilt for example, the kinds of people you described don't really care whether or not they play with the pros. The only people that that type of advertising attracts are card sharks and railbirds.

[PokerEveryDay]

I won't play online anymore after 6 years, not surprised these play money players won't either. Too many soft games locally, and a lot more fun.

[morphball]

[ QUOTE ]
playing 10 dollar tournaments is basically play money. Lot of people play for the fun of it, and not for the money.

[/ QUOTE ]

I have made $1,000's at $10 tournies, but how much did I lose?

[Biggle10]

Lets say one person gets up the nerve to make the transition. They deposit and likely go busto as many new players do (variance, BR management, just plain bad). Some declare the games to be rigged. They likely tell their friends to avoid it thus losing other potential players as well.

[Mondogarage]

[ QUOTE ]
I always wondered this too. I mean, poker is sooooo boring without money changing hands.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wouldn't say it's boring, per se (I play both for play mobnies and real mobnies).

However, I find people play a LOT looser with ye olde fake mobnies, if that were even possible, given the donkishness at the stakes I play.

[train.]

My dad has been playing on pokerstars almost as long as I have. (~3 years) He knows how well I have done (which isn't very well compared to most of you but still...) I transferred him $20 right after he started. About the only real money he has ever played has been .02/.04 HE and Stud. He still has about $10 in his account (and that's because I lost some of it playing on his account.) He hasn't played real money in over a year probably. He doesn't think it's rigged. He doesn't think he money is not safe. He just doesn't like to play for real money. He will play playmoney sng's all day tho and tell me how good he is. And he is not gambling averse. He will go to the casion once in a blue moon and he likes to go to the horse track.

[Better Than U]

They are losers.