I started playing hold'em a few months ago. One night I was flicking channels on the TV and a replay of the 2003 World Series of Poker happened to be on. It was compelling to watch Chris Moneymaker win it and I decided to try this game out.
I started playing on Yahoo just because it was convenient. I'm already on Yahoo and hold'em was right there in the games section. Also it runs in Java off a web browser so there's no need to download or install anything.
On Yahoo there are three lounges: beginner, intermediate and advanced. They have exactly one game available, 2/4 limit, play money.
I started out in the beginner lounge with the standard $1000 play money. I hardly knew anything. When I started out it seemed blazing fast and I had trouble following the movement of the button and blinds. Over time it slowed down for me and I figured some things out and started winning.
When I got to $2000 I went to the intermediate lounge. That was a bit tougher but I continued to do OK. When I got to $3000 I started in the advanced lounge. The advanced lounge also went pretty well and now I'm at $4000.
Yahoo has a good user interface. Very user friendly and easy to follow what's happening. Unfortunately the good user interface is pretty much wasted by the horrible quality of players on that site.
The so called "advanced lounge", like the other lounges, is overrun with bad players who just aren't any good. People going to showdown 20 hands in a row without folding once, betting and raising all the way, usually with nothing. Bets and raises are not respected. Raising to the cap on the river with bottom pair only when there are four suited cards on the board and three others still in the hand. Never fold before the turn. Foolish stuff like that.
One in a while on Yahoo I'd get to a table with around 3-4 others where everyone was playing properly; folding preflop, respecting bets and raises, winning hands without showdowns, people winning at showdown with strong hands. However these sessions were infrequent and short lived. Eventually some clown would join the table and proceed to showdown 15 consecutive hands.
So winning on Yahoo poker is satisfying (like winning at anything), but hardly a great accomplishment. If you've never played Texas hold'em before then I recommend Yahoo as a great place to start out. I did learn a lot playing there and I've improved quite a bit since starting out.
At this point for me there's nothing left to accomplish on Yahoo, so I'll be moving on to a new site. I also want to try out some other types of poker games including no limit sit and go, no limit ring, and pot limit ring. I enjoy limit and I'll continue to play that too. I'd like to try playing for real money eventually, but there's no rush on that. I'm taking my time and enjoying the journey.
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