Can Zynga Poker Players Transition to Real Money Games

7 years ago
Can Zynga Poker Players Switch to Real Money Games
21:03
03 Jun

Boasting a player base that has millions of daily users, Zynga Poker is the world’s largest online poker room. Since the play-money only site launched in 2007, approximately 350 million players have sat down at its virtual felt.

But of course, poker players keep score with money. And while Zynga’s poker room did make a brief entry into the regulated UK real-money gaming market, the experiment was short lived. However, the failure of the site to succeed in what is a very competitive online poker atmosphere shouldn’t discourage its player base from continuing to pursue their poker ambitions and transitioning into real money games.

In fact, there is a lot that playing on Zynga can teach upcoming players about how to approach the regular poker tables in a fun - and profitable - way.



Understanding the flow of the game

A poker hand has a certain rhythm in how it unfolds. Understanding not only the rules, but also what actions can be taken at what time, is one of the most important things for any new player to get comfortable with.

Although strategies will certainly change with real-money play, the lack of money involved doesn’t change the mechanics of a poker hand. Mastering the ebb and flow of the game will give Zynga players an advantage over beginning real-money players that don’t have any experience at all with the feel of the game.


Practicing poker odds

Understanding the odds involved in making profitable poker plays - and learning to calculate them on the fly - are both skills that players can easily become familiar with in Zynga poker games. Math doesn’t discriminate between real-money and play-money. If you know that you need to be correct one out of three times when making a call for your virtual chips, you will be ready to make the same profitable decision when there is real money on the line.


Learning about social dynamics at the table

Zynga poker is a social atmosphere, and one that can be used to get a basic understanding of table dynamics. That is a great skill to have at a poker table, because one of the most important aspects of playing winning poker is understanding how the personalities of the people sitting around the table interact with one another.

While the lack of real-money at stake encourages unpredictable play, there are still powerful social forces involved. For example, friends will have a strong aversion to embarrassing themselves in front of their friends with an awful bluff or terrible call.

Learning to be aware of these dynamics is another critical poker skill that Zynga grinders will find can smooth their transition into real money play.



Learning to love the game of Poker

Real-money poker games are not a get rick quick scheme. It takes a lot of hard work to be a winning player, not the least of which is the mental game and your mindset at the table. Learning to handle the swings that are an inevitable part of playing poker for money are a lot easier if you are playing the game not just for profit, but because you enjoy it.


With a little work, transitioning to real money games IS possible

Of course, playing in a real-money poker game is a fundamentally different experience than playing for play-money chips. I certainly don’t recommend that you go straight from Zynga Poker to the high stakes poker tables on PokerStars.

But that being said, by using Zynga as a training ground to learn the mechanics of the game, become aware of table dynamics, and grasp of the game’s key mathematical concepts, you can definitely ease your transition into real-money play.

If playing a bit on Zynga has given you the poker bug, don’t be intimidated. You will certainly have a strategy learning curve to overcome, but everyone has to start somewhere. At the end of the day poker is poker. By approaching the game with enthusiasm, you’ll already have the mindset that you need to improve and become a profitable real-money player.


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Bradley Chalupski made his first deposit onto an online poker site in 2009 and has been paying rake and following the poker scene ever since. He graduated from the Seton Hall School of Law with a J.D. in 2010.Read more

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