It’s quite unwise to claim online poker games as a gambling activity if play-money is used by the online players when participating in the game. As players use fake chips or currency when playing online poker games with play-money, there’s no point in claiming online poker games as a category of gambling. Although some poker games using play-money may be introduced intending to offer their users with huge level of entertainment, some are intended to provide knowledge regarding the game’s basic rules, structure and strategies. When it comes to advanced players, they usually prefer participating on online poker games with play-money in order to sharpen their skills and to gain knowledge about the new strategies.

The play approach in online poker with play-money is usually very aggressive and loose, and the preflop strategies are something that makes it different from poker using real-money. Loose preflop-play seems to be common when playing play-money pokers, while players participating in real-money poker will play quite tough preflop as they want to play it safe without risking their bucks as long as the odds are high.

Apart from dissimilarities, there also exist some similarities between real-money poker and play-money poker. For instance, the only thing that make multi-table tournament with play money differ from the large Feerolls is the real prize money that are included in Freerolls.

Experts don’t recommend participating on play-money online poker if you seriously want to play poker afterward. It’s because the playing strategies of the players weaken when playing play-money online poker as it wouldn’t be quite tough deal to win a game since opposite players actually don’t cares about losing or winning. However, it doesn’t mean that it’s not totally good to participate on play-money online poker. You can play poker with play-money but becoming habitual on such practice should be avoided because the nature and playing strategies of the defense poker players unexpectedly differ when you participate in real-money poker.