a waste of time

[big_rob187]

unless you have alot of time to kill online poker is too rigged to win anything you have to be rich to get richer if they can't make a dollar off of you they wont help you. kind of like the government

[frob23]

While I respect this opinion and understand how frustrating and difficult it can be to play online with zero or an extremely small bankroll, perhaps there is a better place to vent this frustration than in the Beginner's section of the forums.

I don't think anyone is going to lie to the new players and say it's easy to be a profitable player. It's not easy at all. It takes a lot of hard work, study, discipline, and practice to show a solid profit playing poker. And while you're learning, you need to not just be better than the other people but good enough, compared to them, to beat the rake as well.

In a recent short session on PokerStars, which doesn't offer Rakeback, I was up 21BB (big bets) on the end. During this session I paid 2.3BB in rake. In the entire session, the rake was greater then 10% of my profits. Since this session was only 63 hands long... I was paying 0.37c a hand (this was 5/10c Limit) just to play. It may not seem like a lot... but you've got to beat that amount to stay ahead.

This is hard... it's much harder than people give it credit for when they start out. You can't just get lucky your fair share of the time. Getting lucky your fair share of the time will still leave you down 0.37c per hand (in this case). You need to know how to exploit the people when you have the best of it and get away from it when you have the worst.

Anyway, I'm rambling again, it's discouraging enough to be a new player. Posting a thread like this just piles on more negative feelings and complicates things. Believe me, we all have these days. But I don't go around complaining about them to people who are already having a hard time beating the game and might think of me as a player who should be able to beat the game easily (nothing is easy but everyone wants to think that).

[Mika Ollila]

Some people also play just for the fun of it, and not to make a buck.

[Wyte22]

I play for money because it is rewarding for me to see that I've accomplished something. Play money poker is NOT real poker. Neither is Freeroll poker (at least until hour 2).

Also, the extra money doesn't hurt a thing because my job sucks lol

[Vito_Nuccio]

The cardrooms do make money off of us, rake. That is how it works. If your bankroll can not withstand some hits you are playing at too high a level.

There are many non-rich players online. I see penny games up to thousands. If you want to make money at this game, do as Frob says, study and play. There are many of us playing for free due to a knowledge of the game combined with bankroll management. It can be done and it does not take a great deal of money.

Later,

[PointerJake]

unless you have alot of time to kill online poker is too rigged to win anything you have to be rich to get richer if they can't make a dollar off of you they wont help you. kind of like the government

Check some of the posts on bankroll management. It will be very helpful!! I used to be in your shoes making the exact same comments. You are obviously playing out of bankroll. I have changed my ways and now cash out once a month, for extra spending money. Hope this helps. If it doesn't, I would consider giving up poker and finding a new hobby.

[sharkiller4u]

Very good pionts every one! You DO NOT have to be rich at poker to win! I am NOT I use to play a lit higher limit than I do now but due to somethings I cant now. I play at .25-.50 .50-1.00 I cashed in 5/19/8 only 150.00 I have made 3 small withdrawls since and I have enough in my account to withstand BB's, suxouts, fish whatever u want to call it. Its hard to play above ur means.

[RiverstarsVictim]

unless you have alot of time to kill online poker is too rigged to win anything you have to be rich to get richer if they can't make a dollar off of you they wont help you. kind of like the government

If you want to make money playing online poker then unfortunately, you will require a lot of time to kill. You cant just jump on a table and expect to win huge amounts with 10-2o like you see on the tv. You need to spend a lot of time studying online poker.

Some people are lucky and can grasp it in weeks, others take many months or even years. Even once you've learnt the basics like starting hands and position, there's bankroll management to learn, table selection, learning to cope with upswings and downswings, variance, learning how to bluff, when to bluff, semi bluffing, floating etc etc etc. No matter what limits you play, you can guarantee on every table there will be players who have put in the many hours needed to become a winning player, how can you expect to beat these people if you dont put the time in yourself?

As for saying it's rigged, why would the site rig it against you?. When you're broke you're not earning them rake, surely you can see it would be pointless the site making you lose on purpose?. They'd prefer to keep all their players, not lose them.

My advice to you is if you want to make money playing online poker, then put the hours of study in before committing money you cant take losing. Otherwise treat it as a bit of fun and stick to lower limits only with money you can afford to lose.