This article gives you some key free online poker tips that I have found build winning foundations. We’ll look at different player styles and how to counter them and the importance of table position and how to play each position.
Categories of Players
Call Stations
These players likes to see a flop doesn’t bet or raise he only calls or checks until the river that is why they are labelled as Call Station. You can extract money on this player as long as you play your normal game but be careful not too bluff at this player because it won’t work. Also known as Loose-Passive.
Rocks.
These players do not want to get involved with more hands and thus only plays with strong or premium hands.
The rock is easy to bluff as he believes everyone else is as honest as he is! This players favorite action is folding or calling if he has a premium hand. If a risk calls your bluff respect the call as he won’t be counter bluffing you. Also known as Tight-Passive.
Maniacs.
The maniac loves to bet, raise and bluff all the time almost regardless of the hand. They will often go all in pre-flop without hesitation. This is a common free poker online player. Only call these players if you have the best hand. Don’t bluff them as they’ll counter you right back with no hesitation. Maniacs are also called as Loose-Aggressive.
Solid Players.
The better players you will find, can be regarded as pro players in the context of the free poker online site or game you are in. They understand poker inside out and know a lot of tactics for all occasions and will be trying as hard as you to identify your play style. They know when to fold and when to go all in if sense a bluff. They don’t play on luck or for fun, they play strategically and understand probability. Also known as Tight-Aggressive.
Position
Position is really the answer to getting the most of poker. If you don’t know how to play by position then you’re playing poker blindly. An QK might look nice to call however its really not too good if you’re the first to act and the other players are awaiting your action.
Early Position.
This position refers to the first player to act ahead of the flop. This position follows the blinds.
There 2 early positions in a table of 10 players. In this position you are at a great disadvantage to other players due to not enough information on the table. It’s always best to be tight in this position and raise with only good hands such as AA, KK, QQ, AK and fold anything else. Why? As you lack information on the other players and calling a lot of hands would risk you putting all your chips into the pot. Always raise.
Middle Position.
There are 3 middle positions in a 10 player table. In middle position you will have some knowledge on the other players.
It’s always best to play at least semi loose but still be cautious as there are still other players waiting in line. Hands that can be played in this position are 88 to AA and suited connector cards like 89 diamonds. Be sure to know when you’re beat at the flop and fold your hand. Re-raise only if you think you have the best hand.
Late Position.
Usually this position is the most advantageous. Why? As you have maximum information on the other players. It is possible to play many cards in this position if the pot hasn’t been raised.
Call with unsuited or suited connectors, suited cards, small pairs like 22, 33, 44 and practically any card as long as you know what the other players are like. This is where bluffs are likely to be successful.
For a great free poker lesson on playable cards and position see the D M Vadnais series, “Building Your Bankroll” also on NoPayPOKER, it’s brilliant.
Unsure how to apply these skills? Don’t lose money learning, practice and learn first on micro or free poker online sites such as…NoPayPOKER!
And what better place to play free poker that at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com where you don’t have the fear of taking a loss like you do at on money sites or live tables yet you can still win actual money.
This free poker online article looks at the tricky area of split pots.
A split pot is a pot where two (or more) players have identical five-card hands at the showdown. For example, in a board with 8-9-10-Q-2 both players have a Jack meaning both have a Queen-high straight, therefore, they split.
Or if both players use the board cards as their 5 card hands, for example, if the board is A,K,Q,J,10 where one player has 9,9 and the other Q,J.
Which ones will win? Both. They use the board cards as their hand; both of them have a Broadway Straight, so they split the pot.
The majority of players think they have to use at least 1 card from their hand to make their final hand. In the above example, the player with 9-9 might think that his straight is King-high, when actually it is Ace-high.
The other player, assuming no flush possibilities, might go all in. This action could scare player 1 into folding. Don’t do it! You both have nuts hands.
Some Straights on the Board are a little bit more suspicious. Like 4-5-6-7-8. Someone bets substantially and now it’s up to you whether you call or not, or even raise. Just keep in mind that a Nine can finish you or your opponent.
In this case, you want to represent the Nine. When? If the Board is 6-7-5-4-8, in the order in which they fell? What if it is 4-5-7-6-8? 8-7-5-6-4 or 4-5-8-7-6? On which Board do you think your opponent will be most inclined to represent the Nine so you can fold without remorse? It’s important to be as analytic as possible here.
If a board is say 9-9-8-8-8, what then? It’s a Full House. Both players already have the Full House. Say you have Q-10 and you follow to the river. Then in a jolt your opponent bets enough to put you all-in. Do you call?
It’s possible that he’s bluffing you with, say, J-10; you both still have the same hand. He may just have the last 8, but if so then he really should have folded since you bet the Flop and the Turn.
Then, with unmistakable confidence, (easy in free poker online maybe) you overtly declare, “I play the Board, I call.” If you did, then you?re the 1997 World Series of Poker runner-up, Kevin McBride, who lost to J-9. The winner? Scotty Nguyen (baby, baby, baby). You have Eights full, baby. Scotty had Nines full (9-9-9-8-8).
With the Broadway Straight (with no flush) it is appropriate to call the all-in, and it is a sign of a smart player to do so. (Don?t call yourself smart if you held the 9-9 and you folded.)
But with the above Full House on the board just determine all possible hands that can beat you: a lone Nine or the last Eight. Surely if you have many more chips, just stack them and wait for some more hands.
But read the board well, don’t be psyched out by the chatter of the other player. During the interview after the heads-up match, McBride admitted that he called because of what Scotty said to him after Scotty pushed him all-in: “If you call it’ll be over baby”.
In some boards, such as A-K-2-2-7, if you have an Ace and your opponent bets substantially on the river, you can well put him on the Ace (but not A-K or A-2) and call him, even though you know you can’t win. You just split the pot.
If he bets heavily, forcing you to make the hard decision, you might as well fold. Why hope for a tie when you can win later?
Split pots is a tricky area no doubt about it, I hope this made sense! If it seems hard then my best suggestion to you is to go and practice lots and play poker online for free then when you play for money all that free poker games experience will allow you to play with a greater degree of confidence.
In this free online poker guide you’ll learn about applying the KISS concept in poker. Normally this means “keep It Simple Stupid” but in poker there are 2 more very relevant meanings.
First, how about Keeping It Simple (Against) Stupid Players? Secondly, Keep It Simple and Straightforward if you’re up against not so stupid players!
On free poker games sites such as NoPayPOKER you’ll come up against both types though maybe a few more of the less clever ones than you’ll find at say a $500 buy in table in Vegas!
For example, with A-10 in hand would you have the courage to play against a clearly good player with the flop showing A-8-3? No problem if it’s a free poker game but what if it’s a really big game with a lot of money on the table?
Your options are to simply call again and again or you might bet and pray he does not play strong. Why? Since he is a good player, you might put him on A-K, or an Ace with a better kicker. Then should he go all-in, you will know what to do. Scamper, and wait until you have the A-K, or maybe a Set.
Here you will have to consider the following. Has he really got A-K? Or just J-J with which he is willing to take to showdown but is not so willing to call a large raise with? Or maybe it is 8-7, since he reckons my bet on the Flop is simply a continuation bet so he will call?
The biggets problem is that 5 or 6 weak or dumb players, you might have to ask these questions for each one of them! Does he really have ?-? (for Player 1). Does he really have ?-? (for Player two) ? Or just ?-? (for Player three)? and on and on until your brain is fried and you get nailed by someone holding A-8.
Let us look at another situation now, with a Board of 5-6-J-Q-8.
You have K-Q. A strong player probably has A-Q or K-K, or J-10, or something special, like 7-4 (usually suited). You might as well fold your K-Q at the end, or just call a small bet at the river. But at least you can put your strong opponent into a hand or into a few hands.
But with 5 or 6 poorer players you must be careful. They may have the hands above, but because they’re weak, there will be more add-ons, like 8-5, J-5, Q-8, or even Q-5, all of which will add to the possibility of your K-Q being beaten.
In such a case why not call a small bet at the river (because with many callers you are getting good pot odds to make the call). Then if one of them goes all-in, it’s a strong signal. Fold that K-Q. What hand might they be moving all-in with? With a strong player you may have an idea. But with a weak player, you don’t.
Why go to war if you don’t know what you are trying to beat?
A strong player is willing to play more stronger hands than weaker ones. He is willing to play A-K more often than A-8 in his life, although frequency of play is no clue to how he plays specific hands. He remains unpredictable. But you will expect him to fold A-8 more often than A-K.
But weak players don’t know what hands they are playing. They will play J-5 as readily as A-K. So, when playing with them, because you can’t put them into a hand because they don’t even know theirs, just show them a good enough hand. A Two-Pair or higher, more desirably. In the A-10 example above, you’ll be happy with 3-3. In the second, I wish you have the 7-4 or the 10-9 before you act rashly.
And, unless you are just messing about in a free poker games don’t attempt any fancy manoeuvres like all-in bluffs.
In the 5-6-J-Q-8 Board, don’t move all-in with A-K. Even with just two weak opponents, they will just readily call you with K-Q as much as with 6-4, J-9, or even 3-3. They don’t know the difference between them.
If they have something, they will be willing to take it along to death. So make your something stronger than their something, and take it to their death instead. No bluffs. No calling of suspected bluffs.
So remember to KISS! Keep it Simple or Straightforward against good players and Keep it Simple against Stupid Players!
And what better place to play poker online for free than at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com where you don’t have the fear of losing money like you do at on money sites or live tables yet you can still win real cash.
Plus the NoPayPOKER blog contains a huge pro written free poker games training series, with lessons from basic how to play poker for beginners courses to masters level. Complete the intermediate level course at least and you will find yourself in the top 10% of online poker players worldwide.
One fact the majority of free online poker at NoPayPOKER.com and low stakes players do not realize is that there are different poker strategies for each type of game. In this free online poker article a successful free online poker player who started as a beginner, reveals how he figured how to win both small stakes and free online poker consistently by recognizing and taking advantage of these factors.
To start. On free online poker sites you’ll soon realize that there are more aggressive players than in money stakes games. You will also see many more moves all in pre-flop and crazy bluffs in free online poker.
It’s no mystery why this is. At the start of a free online poker freeroll, a player has no time or money at risk. The thinking is simple. If you can hit a big pot early, it gives you leverage later on as your chip stack gets larger.
If I lose, no problem. There’s another free game around the corner. So the player has no time or money invested so can afford to play silly in the hope of grabbing a pot early on.
The key to winning in this type of game is to survive the feeding frenzy at the beginning. If you can get through to the middle part and beyond then skill and strategy can come into play and make the difference.
Quite simply aim to preserve your stack and fold unless you have a very (very) good hand.
When everyone left has time invested in the tournament most settle into a more sane approach. Things like position at the table, reading the players, and exploiting hand strength become easier to manage. It’s also a great time for beginners to learn how to play poker better and start to really learn the nuances of the game.
Once you’ve learned a little bit about poker in free poker games and you are consistent but frustrated at having to wade through the craziness in the beginning of free online poker games and freerolls then its time to take the plunge into cash tournaments.
When you make the choice to go to cash tournaments, start small. Never go into a cash tournament that you can’t afford to lose. If you start small in cash tournaments you’ll find a lot more players closer to your level of play. You will also find players with more advanced skills than you currently have.
This is good because playing against them, if you approach it the right way, helps you learn things to improve your play that books and articles don’t or can’t always teach you.
But here’s the biggie.
You’ll learn a lot more about how to play the beginning of a tournament in cash tournaments.
You learn how to build your chip stack through methods that you learn and start to recognize your own strengths and weaknesses.
Don’t get me wrong, there are always players, even in cash games, that do those crazy things at the start of the tournament like all in before the flop and so on. But, in my opinion, they are fewer and farther between. The good thing is you can usually isolate them and let them burn themselves out.
Finally, I will always play free poker. It’s fun and a little more laid back. But I also like playing cash tournaments because it presents a different challenge. As long as people play within themselves, there is no reason why you can’t enjoy both.
To practice your mental game or indeed any aspect of your poker game and new poker ideas though no pressure or danger of money loss go play free online poker games at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com
The poker at US legal NoPayPOKER is truly free and you get a bankroll full of the Dollar convertible site currency when you join so you can start to play poker online for free right away.
For the full free online poker lesson series on how to play free online poker and for a great how to play poker for beginners course see the lesson series by D M Vadnais on the NoPayPOKER blog. His “Building a Bankroll” series specifically discusses how to dominate free poker games kill off the lunatic players! Go to the NoPayPOKER.com blog at http://www.nopaypoker.com/articles and learn today.
This online poker free article is about a technique I call the Shuffle and Breathe that is a superb method that you can use immediately to win more at poker. This technique isn’t a game tactic as such, instead it is a mental approach based on Tai Chi and meditation.
The Shuffle Up and Breathe technique is not designed to teach you the game of poker, the strategies or its etiquette. It’s designed to help you realize the poker skills you already have and develop the discipline to use them wisely.
Let’s start with what the technique does:
First , it’s important to note that having the greatest poker skills in the world will do you very little good if you don’t have access to them. When the mind or emotions take over, you’re locked out – you become purely a reactionary player.
The technique, described later, is used for balancing and controlling thought and emotion.
The connection of mind, body and breath.
It is a fact that the mind always follows the breath. When you have a busy mind, you’re breath is laboured. When your thoughts begin to slow, you regain control of your emotions and most importantly, your game.
That’s why you can use the “Shuffle up and breathe” technique to:
- Focus on the breath
- Calm the mind
- You do it before, during and after every game.
The technique will help you practice being in the present moment.
Not the past or future, but right now! That’s really truly being in the zone.
Use it to reduce stress
A lot of life is stressful, but add to it having thousands of dollars at stake and you can end up tired and ill. You can reduce that stress to a level you can always handle by using this technique. You’ll feel better and you’ll play better.
Self observation equals self control. By using this simple breathing technique, you’ll become better at discovering your tells and those of others, controlling emotions, developing discipline and time and money management
All of these skills can be used at the poker table, in the office or in any meeting. Learning to stay balanced is the key to success in all areas of life, especially in poker. Consistent use of this breathing technique will result in a clearer mind that makes clearer choices and better math and moves with a great reduction in error.
So what is this amazing technique?
It’s simple. Focus on the tip of your nose and follow your breath with all your attention. All the way in and all the way out again. You will even feel the friction of the air as it goes in and out.
It’s that easy. Your mind will follow the breath and begin to instantly calm. Use this technique before, during and after every game.
Personally, I use it every time I am dealt a hand. If you practice this technique every day and you will find a dramatic increase in your skills and in the quality of your like.
Good players define Luck as the point at which skill meets opportunity. Be ready for it! Just remember to Shuffle up and Breathe.
To practice your mental game or indeed any aspect of your poker game and new poker ideas though no pressure or danger of cash loss go play online poker free games at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com
Plus the NoPayPOKER blog contains a huge poker training series, pro written lessons from basic how to play poker for beginners courses to master. Join today and you will get a free bankroll and can get playing online poker free immediately.
The poker at US legal NoPayPOKER is truly free and you get a bankroll full of the Dollar convertible site currency when you join so you can start to play online poker free right away.
Most poker players, free poker games in particular, don’t like the “technical” parts of poker like odds. After all doing odds means doing math and many of us prefer not to go there!
Sadly it’s a fact that to succeed in poker this is a key part of the game that you need to master, especially if you have any aspirations to play live money games.
The biggest problem is that the formula for doing odds is pretty complex and to do it in your head on the fly under pressure you do need to be pretty hot at math.
As an example ,:
Lets say you hold 8-7 and the Flop is 5-6-A. You want to know your odds on hitting a Straight later.
Should you use a rigorous mathematical solution, you will construct this horror:
You need certain cards to help you do this – Known as “outs” In this case for a straight you need 4 and 9. There are upto 8 such cards left in the deck. The probability of your hitting them later is P (1-P)Q, where P is the probability of hitting your hand on the Turn, and Q is the probability you will hit on the river. It is P (1-P)Q because (1-P)Q is the probability that you will hit on the river if you don’t complete your hand on the Turn.
Now here are the values for P and Q.
- P = 8 cards still on the deck that will help you divided by 52-5 = 47 remaining cards = 8/47.
- Q = 8 cards still on the deck that will help you, as you didn’t complete on the Turn divided by 52-6 (because there are six cards already out, your hole cards and the Board) = 8/46.
The complete answer is 8/47 (1 – 8/47)(8/46) = .170 (.829)(.174) = .170 .144 = .314 = 31%. You’ve got a 31% chance of hitting your Straight later.
Ouch, that’s fun and beyond most of us! However, in a table you usually do not have a calculator (and even if you do you still need to know what to input into it .
And many poker players just understand the outs, but not really much of basic probability theory. How is this? An out by the way is any unseen card that, if drawn, will help your hand win chances.
Here then is a much simpler, easy way to work out odds
Let’s try an approximation formula:
- You divide 8 by 50, because 47 is close to 50, and get 16.
- Double it again and you get .32.
- It is a reliable estimate.
- After all, poker players, in games, do not need exact solutions; they need only a hint as to where they’re standing.
- In this case “about 32%” is an efficient enough answer.
So, in the Flop, here is the approximation:
- Get the amount of your outs, then multiply it by 4, then affix a percent sign.
- This is a reliable approximation percentage of your hitting the hand.
- During the Turn, if you still have outs, multiply it by 2, then affix a percent sign.
- Preflop, when you decide to push all-in, you typically need not do this as you will rely mainly on pure hand strength.
To practice your odds calculations there can be no better way than to play poker online free on http://www.NoPayPOKER.com, at least here you can get it wrong and not lose money as a result! Yes, you can always use odds calculators and many are available for online poker but if you want to play live you need to learn to do it the hard way, so get learning if you have any ambition to move beyond free poker games and win serious cash!
Position is your seat in a poker table relative to other players. Be it free poker games or a cash event, your position defines when you make your move in the hand being played. In normal game of 9-12 players, in any given hand round of betting, it works like this:
(1) Early position consists of the first 3 or 4 players to act.
(2) Middle position includes the following player after early position to the player before late position.
(3) Late position consists of the last three or four players to act. Preflop, the dealer, the small blind, and the big blind are last to act, in that order.
Postflop, the small blind and the big blind are first to act, and the dealer is last to act.
How does position matter?
There are some very definite advantages and disadvantages. The majority of players prefer playing late position. Briefly, it is because you are given more information to work with in late position.
If you are in late position, the actions of the players in early position are added information to you. But the player in early position do not have the benefit of information derived from your actions.
Because of this most players (especially good players) do not like letting go of their button (dealer button) unless they have absolute trash. They call a little raise with any decent hand like 9-7 or A-5 (but not extremely big raises, of course).
In early position, in a nine-handed game, suppose you have got Q-J, a marginal hand, under the gun (the first person to act preflop).
Do you raise? There are still eight players after you to act, and you will see a better chance that they’ll have better hands than you. (A-x will have you beat). So fold.
In middle position, you may call one raise, or you can raise; you’re indifferent.
With the button, you raise if no one has acted prior to you (you can steal the blinds this way). Or call if someone else raised small (since you have position).
With the blinds, you call (since it is discounted) but you should be careful with postflop play since you are out of position postflop. Or you can also reraise a raise if you believe the raiser was weak (raising with junk is prevalent in good players in late position who want to steal the blinds habitually).
Position also matters a lot when playing with players who have a fixed style.
- It is a good idea to act before a rock in order to bluff him easier.
- It is preferable to act after a loose-aggressive chip flinger so you can raise him if you hit the Flop hard or if you have A-A, then expect a rereaise and then you can move all-in.
- Against a calling station, it does not matter where you sit – just bet if you have a hand and then expect a call.
As for the really good players, your ideal position should be outside the poker table. Don’t tangle with them. If you do get caught in a game with better players try to play unpredictably and make the best of your times in late position.
This isn’t so much about table position now, it’s more to do with your entire poker strategy approach so I won’t go into depth on it here. Don’t play above your skill level except when deliberately practising with money you have set aside to lose or better still on free poker games tables such as the NoPayPOKER ones.
Have a look at the free poker games tactics series from D M Vadnais for a whole lot more depth on the areas such as choosing your battles and climbing skill levels. If you are a beginner start with the how to play poker for beginners 101 course and if ready to move on check out Building a Bankroll which aims to propel to to advanced intermediate level (where you will start to win a ton of cash should you wish)
In this free online pokerlearn how to play poker guide we will unravel a lot of the bizarre names used in poker to name the various cards hand permutations. By the end you won’t be absolutely perplexed when trying to play poker and words such as Hockey Sticks, Dead Mans Hand and Trey (to mention just a few) are being quoted!!
First lets look at individual card names. Then the ranked order of ‘pocket cards’ (what you get dealt at the start of a poker game).
I’ve split pockets into 2 sections, paired and unpaired, in the case of unpaired I’ve listed the ones that are considered most playable. Finally you’ll learn some of more popular and famous hands.
The thirteen cards used for poker have a number of different nicknames. A letter or number symbol is also often used to identify the cards.
At the beginning of any poker game you get dealt 2 cards, these are called the pocket cards or pockets, they’re the ones only you get to see.
Statistically in about about 6% of deals you get a matched pair, for example, 2 Hooks (Jacks) these are called pocket pairs.
In order of relative strength or potential they are:
- AA – Pocket Rockets, Rockets, Bullets, or American Airlines
- KK – Cowboys, King Kong, Gorillas, Kangaroos, Monarchs, or Krispy Kreme
- QQ – Ladies, Hookers, or Siegfried & Roy
- JJ – Fishhooks, Hooks, Jokers, or Jay Birds
- TT – Dimes or Tension
- 99 – Gretzky, Popeye’s, or Phil Hellmuth
- 88 – Snowmen, Fat Ladies, Dog Balls, or Race Tracks
- 77 – HockeySticks, SunsetStrip, or Mullets
- 66 – Route 66, Kicks, or Cherries
- 55 – Presto, Speed Limit, or Nickels
- 44 – Magnum, Sail Boats, or Middle Age
- 33 – Crabs or Treys
- 22 – Ducks, Pocket Swans, or Deuces.
While pocket pairs are great to have they just don’t happen often enough to be your only playable hand option.
The following unpaired pockets though, are ones you may play depending on the risk and cost in the game and what you’re reading from other players, in order of potential, they are:
- AK – Big Slick or Walking back to Houston
- AQ – Little Slick, Big Chick, or Doyle Brunson
- AJ – Blackjack, Ajax, or Jackass
- AT – Bookend or Johnny Moss
- A5 – High Five
- A4 – Topped Four
- A3 – Ashtray or Baskin and Robbins
- A2 – Hunting Season or Acey-Deucy
- KQ – Marriage (if suited) or Mixed Marriage (if not suited)
- KJ – Kojak, King John, or Tucson Monster
- KT – Kate or Katie
- QJ – Maverick or Oedipus
- QT – Quentin Tarantino
- JT – Days of Old
- T9 – Paint Plus Connector
- 98 – Oldsmobile
- 87 – RPM
- 76 – Union Oil
- 65 – Medicare
- 54 – Jesse James or Colt.
There are loads of names for larger hand combinations and finishing hands, here are a few of the better known ones.
- KKK – Alabama Night Riders or Three Wise Men
- TTT – Thirty Miles of Bad Road
- 222 – Huey, Dewey and Louie.
- AA88Q – Dead Man’s Hand
- AKQJT – Broadway
- A5432 – Wheel
- 3 of a Kind – Set (if you hold a pocket pair matched by a ‘community card’)
- 3 of a kind – Trips (if one is in your pocket and two are ‘community cards’)
- Full House – Boat or All The In-Laws
- 4 of a Kind – Quads or Quad Set.
I hope this was a fun and useful article, if you are at the stage of learning the card names then I suggest when you play you play poker online free where you can learn without fear of loss.
For even more how to play poker for beginners poker online free guides and to actually play poker online free go check out the http://www.NoPayPOKER.com poker online free blog and site. At NoPay you’ll find poker online free lessons covering beginner to expert levels, and you can play poker online for free totally risk free for real cash prizes.
In part two of the learn how to play poker for beginners free poker online lesson series we will step on from part 1 where we outlined the bare bones of the game.
Now it is time to get into specific detail and learn each part of a hand of poker so that you can (cautiously!) start to play.
Now you are seated at the table and the Small Blind (SB) and Big Blind (BB) have placed their starting blind bets. Now it’s time for cards! If “Blinds” means nothing to you hop on back to part 1 for an explanation.
From the Dealer Button (DB) going clockwise round the table each player gets 2 cards, face down, handed out one at a time (so the DB goes round the table twice). These are also called Pocket Cards or hole cards.
Now it is time for the betting to begin, that is after all, I imagine why you want to play poker! Isn’t that why you’ve entered the multi-table freeroll tournament in the first place? Isn’t that betting and winning buzz thing the reason why you’ve joined a free poker online site?
Of course that’s why you’re there, poker is all about winning money at the end of the day! With the possible exception of the social side anyway, the table and lobby conversations though if you are at all serious about money then this is a very minor reason.
At this point in the hand (holding 2 pocket cards), each player is betting on what hand they feel their pocket cards may lead to.
The betting begins with the player to the immediate left of the Big Blind (BB).
This player sits in what’s known as the Under The Gun position, UTG for short. This is because the Small and Big Blind position players were forced to lay down bets before they got any cards.
Thus, both the SB and BB are already taking part in the hand; albeit not voluntarily, at least not yet; they’ll have to wait until the betting comes around to them.
And, for this round of betting, each player has three choices:
1) To fold. Usually when they think that their pocket cards are garbage (or rags). You won’t lose anything as you have no chips in play but you will now sit out the rest of the hand.
2) To raise. Usually when they think that they hold really good pocket cards.
3) Or to call, (match) the Big Blind. Usually when they think that their pocket cards hold some potential.
A 4th option you may have heard about, checking, often available in subsequent betting rounds, isn’t an option at this stage.
When the betting reaches the person who posted the Small Blind (SB), if they want to fold then they’ll lose the chips they were forced to put into the pot prior to the cards being dealt. Or, as SB you can Call the BB by putting in the difference between the SB and BB amounts. Or as SB you can choose to Call whatever Raise has been made, make a new Raise or Re-raise the bet amounts to a new level, I advise you watch and learn this process at the start and as SB keep it simple and just Call the BB unless you have awful cards in which case fold them.
Then, the Big Blind (BB) player gets to act. If there has been no raise then the BB can Check (do nothing and let the play pass by), or Call, Raise or Re-raise.
About Raises
In a No Limit Texas holdem tournament the amount a player can use to raise is limited only by the chips they hold (limit games as the name suggests have a limit) If say the chip stack is 1500 then the player can raise by any amount upto 1500.
If the player uses all the chips then this is the infamous All In bet. It’s always an all-in bet any time a player raises by the total amount of chips he currently holds.
And, of paramount importance, especially since you are at the how to play poker for beginners level of the game, make certain that YOUR usage of an All-In bet is tiny.
Please try not to become just one more free online poker ‘chip-flinger’ (someone who tosses chips around without regard to the quality of their cards).
When the opening round of betting is completed it’s time to see ‘The Flop’. Things will now start to get really interesting!
The Flop is the set of three cards that are dealt face up in the center of the table by the Dealer.
1) Each player may use these community cards’ to build their hand. Be sure you read up on what card hands beat what so you have an idea of what you can build!
2) Again, as here-to-fore mentioned, the center of the table where these cards are dealt is typically referred to as ‘The Board’.
3) With ‘The Flop’ exposed, it’s time for another round of betting. And, the betting that will occur is based on the 5 cards currently available to each player, i.e., 2 Pocket cards and 3 Board’ cards.
The betting begins with the player to the immediate left of the Dealer Button, regardless of whether the Dealer is still active in the hand or not.
The player to the left of the Dealer Button will keep the initial betting action for the rest of the hand. Later, you’ll come to learn that this is the worst position to be in at the table.
Apart from that, the betting process is the same as it was in ‘pre-flop’ betting. However, keep in mind, all of the players who were dealt ‘Pocket’ cards may not be currently playing the hand as they could have folded during the opening round of betting.
So, whichever remaining player is ‘to the immediate left’ of the Dealer Button (DB), it is that person who is the first player to act; throughout the hand providing he doesn’t fold.
He can check or bet.
A) If he checks, he’s simply passing the options of checking or betting to the player who sits to his left.
B) If he doesn’t check, and decides to bet, then those that follow will have 3 choices:
1) They can fold
2) They can call
3) Or they can raise. But, since a bet was made, those that follow don’t have the option of ‘checking’.
When the round of betting has finished, it’s time for another card to be dealt face up on The Board.
This fourth card is called The Turn card, or 4th Street, and, again, the card can be employed by all of the remaining players (those players that have not folded). It’s another ‘community card’.
Thus, each remaining player now has use of 6 cards, 4 Board cards, and 2 Pocket cards. Now there are 4 cards on The Board, one additional card to come.
It is now time for the fifth and final community card to be dealt: The River, or 5th Street.
And, seeing as all the cards have finally been dealt, each player remaining in the hand can see what their finest five card hand is. Therefore, it’s now time for the final round of betting. And, when the betting ends, the hand is over.
It’s time to see who wins.
Each player that has remained in the hand shows their cards, starting with the last person to initiate a bet. At a cash or free online poker site the software will handle the process of showing the cards.
The winner is decided via use of the universal poker hand rankings. You’ll find that in subsequent chapter; entitled ‘What Beats What’.
If a player wins a pot because every other player has folded, he can decide whether to show his cards or not.
Most people don’t, and it’s generally advised by me to never show your cards. If you’re not required to do so; keep ‘em guessing!
Yet, when you reach an ‘advanced level’ of play, you will get an entirely different perspective from me. You see, there are occasions when ‘deceitful strategies’ are going to be added to your acquired set of playing skills. And, a part of the ‘deceitful strategies’ will have you showing your cards. Not now though.
Summing up How To Play Poker For Beginners Free Online Poker Rules Part 2
In part 1 you learned the bare bones of poker, the structure and ideas of the game. Now that you’ve read part 2 you should now understand the specific mechanics of a hand of poker. In part 3 we are going to move on to more poker words and terminology, those crazy card and hand nicknames are going to be unveiled! But so long as you’ve understood the first 2 parts you can now go and start to play poker. It’s a very good idea though to firstly read and print off a sheet on what card hands beat what! Then you will have some sort of idea whether you should fold, call, raise or check!
At this stage I strongly urge you not to try and play on sites where real money is involved, you can expect to lose all or most of it 99% certain!
Have patience (by the way that is a key poker skill you will need to master) and start out on one of the excellent free poker sites you’ll find online. Later when you’re more skilled there is plenty of time for you to win plenty of cash and the time you spend playing free online poker will set you up for this.
Nick is from top free online poker site NoPayPOKER.com. www.NoPayPOKER.com is USA legal and uses faux currency which makes it totally risk free and so is the perfect place to how to play poker for beginners as well as practice your game if you are more experienced or want a break from the stress of money sites!
In this learn how to play poker for beginners guide we will look at how the game of poker works. While poker looks complex when you’re new to it it’s actually not so bad at all once you know it and will become second nature after a short time. There are many type of poker game but the best one to start with as a beginner is the free online poker texas holdem freeroll tournament (Texas holdem is just the name of the most popular online poker variant)
free online poker freeroll tournaments vary from 20 to hundreds of players. A good point with these game is that most of the other players you’ll find on them are no more than average and many are beginners too.
The first step is to fire up your free online poker software and find a game. As mentioned each of these tournaments will have multiple tables. You can divide the number of players by 10, and you’ll know how many tables are a part of the tournament. You round up to eliminate the decimal point, if any; e.g., 68 players divided by 10, equals 6.8, rounded up, means there are 7 tables in the tournament.
Now the online poker software of the site you play at will seat you at a randomly selected table and seat. On any decent free online poker site games start very regularly, maybe every half-hour; 24-7 so initially, don’t be overly concerned about how successful you are in any one game; there’s always another game that you can enter.
Who Wins and How?
Basically the winner of each hand is the one with the best combination of cards.
The outline of the game process is this:
You take your seat and the game starts. The software selects the “Dealer Button” (DB) and the “Blind” players make their blind bets (don’t worry this is covered below!)
The games first action is to give 2 cards to each player that only the player can see, these are called pocket cards. Next there is a round of blind betting, it’s called blind as there is no way to guess or infer what cards other players have, no more than 3 raises to the first blind bet are allowed which is a rule that remains so in future rounds.
Next, the Dealer will expose 3 cards on the table. These are known as community or board cards and can be used in conjunction with pocket cards by all players.
At this point, another round of betting occurs.
Then the Dealer will add another card to the community cards; there are now 4 cards that can be used by all of the players who remain in the hand.
This is followed by another round of betting.
Last, the Dealer will add a 5th card to the community cards. Again followed by another round of betting.
Now lets look at this in more detail:
Your 2 face down cards are known as “Pocket Cards”. They are dealt out, one at a time, left to right, to everyone at the table. You only see your own pocket cards.
The Dealer then exposes 3 “community cards” to all players on the table. This stage is known as “The Flop”.
When he exposes the 4th “community card”, it’s known as “The Turn” (or, 4th Street).
And, when he exposes the 5th “community card”, it’s known as “The River” (or, 5th Street).
All 3 to 5 “community cards” that are exposed on the poker table at any one time are known as “The Board”.
Every player who is participating in the hand through the process of betting (if you “folded”, you’re no longer in the hand), attempts to make the best possible five-card hand.
They can use any 5 of the 7 cards that are available to them; one, both, or none of their pocket cards, together with 3, 4, or 5 of the “community cards”.
The player with the best 5 card hand wins all of the money that has been bet (The Pot).
The “Dealer Button” is involved in every hand to be played. One of the game’s participants gets the Dealer Button (DB); the selection of the player who first receives the DB is done by the free online poker software.
If you are playing at a live game such as in a casino then the DB is a round disc, normally with a D printed on it. If you’re playing paid or free online poker a symbol on the screen shows which player is the DB.
the DB position is very important as the a players to the left of the DB have to make the blind bets.
Plus, as you’ll come to learn later, after you read the “Building a Bankroll” series of articles, the DB position is the best seat at the table. Additionally, at the end of every hand, the Dealer Button (DB) moves one position to the left; thus, everyone acts as the “virtual dealer” in an Internet game, and, everyone is forced to place “blind” bets.
Blind Bets? What are they?
This is how the game starts.
The player to the immediate left of the Dealer Button (DB) is compelled to put up the Small Blind (SB).
The player to the immediate left of the Small Blind (SB) is compelled to put up the Big Blind (BB).
These “blind bets” are placed in the pot, in front of the dealer. This essentially kickstarts the betting, and, it”s all done before anyone has gotten any cards!
This, for the lack of any other rational reason, means that the winner of the hand that’s about to be played, will, at a minimum, collect the small amount of money that has been “forced” into the pot by the blind bets.
In a multi-table freeroll, or any No Limit free online poker tournament game, the size of the Small Blind (SB) and the size of the Big Blind (BB) are very low at the start of the game. And, every player in the game begins the game with the same amount of free online poker faux-money; or, for practical purposes, poker chips.
Usually, in 15 minute intervals, the size of the “blinds” increase.
As an example, if the beginning “blinds” were $10 (SB) and $20 (BB), within 15 minutes the “blinds” would change to $20 (SB) and $40 (BB).
And, thereafter, as the game progresses, the “blinds” continue to go up every 15 minutes.
In the end, at the final table in a tournament (the last remaining 10 players), the “blinds” could easily reach the point of being $2,000 (SB) and $4,000 (BB).
Now don’t be alarmed, the dollar amounts tied to the Small Blinds (SB) and Big Blinds (BB) in the preceding paragraph, during all freeroll games played on free online poker sites are “fictional” amounts of money. It’s not real money. It’s merely a “tournament representation” of money; it’s free online poker faux-money, they’re poker chips, not real dollars.
This is one reason why it is a very good idea to learn to play poker as a beginner on free poker sites, it can get very expensive very quickly if you start on a real money site!
Winning and Money
The good news with a poker tournament is that the 1st place player doesn’t take all the money. Yes, the absolute winner does get a lions share but other players do get a cut too. How many players and how much is determined by the number of players who enter and the size of the pot. You an find out this information before the game starts.
As the game progresses players are knocked out and tables amalgamate. At some point only those who will share the money are left. If you are still in at this stage then you are now “in the money” or “in the bubble” as it is also commonly called.
When just 10 players are left you will be on the “Final Table”, typically to win any decent amount you need to be here even in very large poker tournament though places lower than this can often at least pay back your cost of joining the game if it is a buy in game.
Right at the end with just 2 players left you will be “head to head”…but that is a story for another day!
Summing up How To Play Poker For Beginners Part 1
In this stage we looked at basic game processes. In part 2 we’ll get into more detail on the stages described and look at what you actually physically do and consider some essential basic free online poker strategy.
Nick is Marketing Manager for leading free online poker site NoPayPOKER. NoPayPOKER.com uses a virtual currency, FreeD which makes the poker games totally risk free, this makes NoPay the ideal place to learn how to play poker for beginners. More experienced players also like it as it’s a great place to try new ideas and stategies out, plus the fact that the FreeD can be swapped for real Dollars is a nice touch too!
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