Free Poker

Many poker beginners on free online poker sites or the lower stake cash online poker sites simply play their cards without proper regard for situational nuances. This can lead to errors that can cost them a lot of money despite the fact that they’re playing with strong holdings.

One common mistake that I see players make is failing to account for how the size of their chip stack may dictate how to best play their hand. When I started playing free poker more than five years ago, I made the same mistake.

The optimum play with a particular hand depends on many factors including your chip stack. A good move for someone with a large chip stack could be a dangerous move for someone with a tiny chip stack.

To put it bluntly: in poker size matters. However, that is not to say that larger is always better. Being deep stacked has advantages, but shorter stacks can be equally effective at the money and free poker table.

A Deep Stack Expands Options

For the sake of this article, I will define deep stacks as stacks that are roughly 125 big blinds or more. Others may define a deep stack as a bit less or more than that number of big blinds, but almost no one would consider a stack of 35 big blinds or less to be a deep stack.

I generally subscribe to the notion that deep-stack play is better than small-stack play. Most professional pokers would agree.

This is because deep stacks give you more room to take advantage of implied odds. In other words, you’re allowed more freedom with regard to starting hand requirements. You can play small pocket pairs hoping to flop your set or small suited connectors hoping to flop a flush or straight. If you miss the flop, you can fold and wait for a better situation. You can be more patient because the blinds aren’t much of a concern; they won’t eat up your chip stack that much.

Another benefit of being deep-stacked is maximizing your profits. If you have the biggest stack at the table, you can extract the most possible chips from your opponents. This is not true for short stacks.

Let’s look at an example of this: If you’re the biggest stack with $900 chips and one player calls your all-in bet with his $600 in chips, and you win, then you take all his money.

Now another example: If you are the smaller stack with $600 and the larger stack with $900 calls your all-in bet and you win, you can’t take all the money. He’ll be left with $300 because you don’t have enough money to play for all the chips.

That’s one of the pitfalls of the short stack, but there are some benefits.

A Shorts Stack Encourages Tight, Hyper-Aggressive Play

If you don’t have many chips behind you, you’re forced to basically play for all your chips in every hand you play. This forces you to play premium hands like big pocket pairs and big face cards. You often won’t be getting the right price to play small pocket pairs and suited connectors. Those hands need to see the flop cheaply, and every hand played is expensive for a short stack. free poker sites are good places to practice and play about with short stack techniques.

The best move is to get all your chips in the middle with big pairs before the flop or to shove when you hit top pair on the flop. You don’t have the opportunity to wait because the blinds will eat you alive.

One obvious advantage of this essentially all-in or fold strategy is that it forces you to play tighter. Another advantage of this style of play is that it’s harder to get outplayed by more skilled post-flop players. Your decisions are simple: push or fold. You don’t need to worry about the subtleties of the game like betting the right amount or knowing when to fold the second best hand.

There is also a psychological advantage. For some reason a lot of deep stack players give short stack players very little respect. They assume you are buying in small because you have a small bankroll, are not very skilled or are scared. As a result it’s not uncommon for a big stack player to pay off a short stack player by calling with weaker than usual hands.

I still believe that deep stack play is better, but I’ve faced some tough short stack players and wouldn’t underestimate their abilities so be careful! If you are new, check out how stack sizes can affect play by starting your career on the micro stakes and free texas holdem game side of thing and progressing from there as your confidence, skill and bankroll grows.

One must have the ability sit down at any money or free texas holdem table, online or live and study your opponents. In my opinion patience is the key ingredient when it comes to interpreting players and the most critical stage is when the game starts.

Why is this?
This provides you with you an opportunity to sit back and take mental notes about the player’s actions. This is extremely effective during the first half hour of a free poker game in particular as quite a lot of players like to go all in and hope they win the pot. I myself will only call these players with a high pair, or suited low connectors because I’ve played them before, and they will go all in with any two hand cards given.

What Mental Notes Should You Take?

The notes you’ll want to take in the first 30 minutes or if moved to a new table in any money or free texas hold em game are quite simple.

Determine which players are playing carefully and those that are playing loose.

The ones who are playing loose are going to bet on nearly every hand and call almost anything.You will find this a lot in free texas holdem games

People that are playing careful will continue to fold until they get the cards in hand they want or any pairs of AA’s, KK’s, QQ’s, JJ’s.

How can you tell if they are Bluffing?
This can be tough if you have not been paying attention to the game as can happen a lot with free poker or if you are playing multiple online games at the same time.

If you have been paying attention to the game you should have more of a feeling as to who might be bluffing..

For instance:

When you’ve got an ace and king of spades you will be feeling good about your whole situation. You are waiting for the other player to check or bet, to your surprise the player bets 400 chips when the pot is at 120 chips.

So you call the player and on the flop lands Queen of spades, Jack of Spades, and ten of hearts. The other player goes all-in in order to make you think he/she has the winning hand. You already know you’ve won it so you call the player’s bluff and go on to win.

That is very obvious but if you are facing a more conservative player then they could try to buy you in by betting low not over the pot before the flop and after. These Players really know what they are doing and most likely will have a full house against your ace high straight. Here is where your experience comes into play…have you marked who is loose and who is conservative?

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1) Players who take a very long time and procrastinate are attempting to mislead you into believing they’ve got nothing and wait for you to make a bet worth calling. (Note: in free texas hold em the player might be taking a long time because he/she is playing multiple games.) Filter these players out as this might be a habit for them.

2) Look out for players who anticipate until the last second and raise you all-in. They are attempting to buy the pot with a decent pair hoping you do not have any aces in your hand!

3) Everyone knows a chip bully. Every table has one. The only way to knock a chip bully off his costly chair is not to be affected by his/her large chip stacks. Should you have it, go for it. Quite possibly, he/she is bluffing because, they want to pilfer the pot or blinds.

All Players Have Habits.

And from habits develop betting patterns – But What patterns might they form?

A bad habit (for them) you will witness sometimes is that some players lose a large chunk of their chip stack. They get ticked-off because they’ve taken a serious loss but rather than cut their losses decide to keep going, often all-in until they lose all of it or earn back some chips (rare!). These players have given up and gone on “tilt”. The best course of action is to call them when the time is right. So bide your time and you’ll take their shirt!

Some players are nearly impossible to read because they Know they’re being read and so are always switching their technique. They will repeat themselves at some point but these patterns are very hard to spot. These players will take up the majority of your time! When you can read players like these..well you are probably playing WSOP!

I hope this article will help you fine tune your skills and has given you some ideas you can use at the tables. Every player can be read but if you cannot read players you will make poker impossible for yourself!

My suggestion if you have difficulty with interpreting other players or if this is all new to you is to get in lots of practice in low risk games. Try low or micro stakes games or some free online poker games to get a feel for it all before risking any significant money.