Tournies

Today, I did something new. I have been playing online with play money, trying to get lots of experience. I read something, and then go on and try to apply it. There is a problem - I have no idea how representative play money is of how people play for real money. I am assuming that many will play a much looser game since "it's just play money". I actually have been trying to avoid those people like the plague, because I am not learning anything from someone who can throw 1000 bucks around and not take it seriously as at least a way of scoring. Last night, I was reading some things and watching some videos and I found there was some advice out there I hadn't yet tried to follow: Play in Sit'N'Go tournaments, because although some don't take it seriously there are enough that take pride in winning that when the table gets short handed you should be up against some decent players. This serves 2 purposes - you learn to play short handed and head-to-head, a skill which is different from playing with 10 people around a table, and it better represents how people would play if playing seriously (a.k.a. for real money). I played a total of 5 tournaments today. How did I do? I won 2. I came in 2nd once. I came in 3rd once. And in the last I came in 4th. Only top 3 finishers in these small tournies get money. So, 4 out of 5 times I would have won something. For example, had I been playing in the $6 PokerStars games, I would have paid $32.50 to play and I would have made $81. Of course, what I actually earned was something like $4050 in play money, which does not buy a lot of groceries - but hey, maybe the potential is there?