When you play poker, even if it’s just fun free poker online, it’s crucial that you know what sort of players you are up against. Pretty obvious when you think about it.
If you play poker online for free, low stakes money games and freerolls, you will find that there are 4 main groups of player styles. The quicker you are able to establish which player type you are up against, the quicker you can adopt your tactics for that particular type.
Just about all the players you will find fall into one of the 4 following categories. The Rock, the maniac, the calling station or ATM which is a nickname I use as these guys are a licence to print money, and lastly The Pro. In this article we are going to consider the Rock.
Rocks, like their geological name suggests are steady, reliable, dependable and unmoving.
They play very tight, exceptionally so if out of position and will only play a tiny card range, typically a Rock will only play upto 12% of hands.
These hands must be AA, KK, QQ, JJ plus include just about any mixture of face/Broadway cards, low pocket pairs and sometimes suited connectors in position with a limp.
Rocks are simple level players, they are honest and nearly never bluff. If a rock places a big bet then you cna be 99% sure that it means they have a big hand, the sort of hand they will shove with if pushed to. Rocks will also rarely fight against three bets.
Once you’re identified a Rock which, when you get used to it won’t take long, you now need to play them in the best way to beat them (obviously!). The main thing to always bear in mind when playing a rock is that you don’t have to take long on your decisions; these guys will tell you what hand they have themselves.
Let’s think about a rock away from the poker table.
If you needed to remove a big rock from your garden for instance what would be the better way? You would not try to pick the whole thing up all at once as you may hurt yourself, what you’re going to do is break it up into small pieces and shovel it into a skip, and this is how we will eliminate the rock from the poker table, piece by piece. We will chip away at them with small raises, especially in position.
We’ll constantly be stealing their blinds with a massive range, almost any two cards. This works well in the later stages of a tournament when the blinds are bigger and you approach the bubble.
A rock is not a great post flop player, they either hit or miss in their own mind set. We should also be looking to take pot control lines, and flat calling in position with suited connectors provides us with great implied odds.
There are several things you ought not to be doing against rocks and these clearly include playing big pots with weak hands, like one pair. Playing hands which are easily dominated against a rock’s range can also be a big problem.
If you remember back to the type of hands I referred to that are in a rock’s range, then you’ll realise hands like AJ, A9, KJ, and Q10 are all in bad shape. One more thing to consider is, firing double barrel bluffs don’t work, these guys don’t play cabbage.
So lets summarize our rock strategy.
Take time before you mark someone into a particular grouping, three or four folds does not equate to someone being a rock, you need to see a number of hands and watch how they react to their own blinds and when they have position. Keep in mind that you’re playing free poker games or micro cash stakes poker. A raise means a decent hand, a check means I have something I will fold. Avoid big pots with rocks, use your shovel and chip away.
When you are a newcomer to poker then I suggest you play poker online for free first to get a no risk feel for the game and learn to recognize and play against the different player types (you will find many rocks in free poker games).
And what better place to play free poker 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.
This free poker games lesson comes from a hand in an SnG tournament I was in recently.
I wasn’t in the hand yet even I was as fooled by what happened as the losing player! There is a simple lesson that comes out which is, firstly, you must learn when to fold and second, as related to folding, learn to recognize all the outs available in the hand – or else!
Here’s how and why:
BLINDS 30/60
A has As-Jd, calls 60
B has ??-??, calls 60
Big blind and small blind joins (Pot 210)
FLOP: 8c-4c-As
Here A believes that his Ace is strong, so he continues his aggression:
Big blind and small blind check-fold
A bets 300
B calls 300
Because A fired out more than the pot, B is now getting less than 2-to-1 on a call, (1.7-1) which is the right price to call for a Straight or a Flush draw with two cards to come. A’s bet is just enough to drive out an incomplete hand. However, since B seems to be a weak player who chases draws, he decided to call.
TURN: 8c-4c-As-5c
The Five of Clubs came, and A, at this point, still has a strong hand, but has weakened. His Pair of Aces is good against what he believes should be a stray Flush draw. If he makes B continue, however, he might not be able to play his Pair. So A continues battering:
A bets 500
B calls 500
RIVER: 8c-4c-As-5c-7d
A Diamond came! Not a four-Flush. Of course A believes his Aces are good already, except if his opponent had A-K. So A tries a check-trap
A checks
B bets 1250
A calls all-in 1250
B reveals 8d-6d, wins the pot
How in the world did B have the Straight? When A saw three Clubs, he thought his opponent had, say, one Pair and one Clover which could materialize into a made Flush later. Not so, so A figured B’s move all-in was due to the value of the small pair B had already. He reckoned it could only be 8-x or weaker and so called with what he figured was the top hand. It wasn’t.
The board was dangerous, but A miscalculated the danger. By putting too much focus on the Flush, he missed the fact that the Board was only 1 card away from a Straight (only a 6 was needed to beat him), then when 3 Clubs came, he was relieved by at the Flush being gone and didn’t consider other potential hands which in hindsight was reckless. His check was correct, but if he had been aware of the danger then a fold would have been best at this point.
And I, too, was duped. I thought B had a busted Flush, too. When B pushed A all-in, I, too, thought he was doing it with a pair and a busted Flush draw. It was with a Straight.
So what free poker lessons can be taken from this hand?
One is to know when to fold. When a board is just 1 card away from something like a Straight, Flush or some other main made hand, and another player has a big bet on which you figure is not a bluff then you should fold.
Two is to know which cards can crush you. All of them, not just some.
For A, during the Flop and the Turn, he realized that only Clubs can crush him. On the river, since there are only three Clubs (if B had the flush made, he would have moved all-in on the Turn, and A could have folded), A thinks he?s safe. He focused on the Clubs too much; he forgot the 6.
Of course it’s easy with hindsight and analysis, being aware of factors like all the available outs is a tough one if you’re new to poker (hell even if you’ve got some time tucked away) so for that reason it’s best to practice and play poker online for free a lot at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com before you go off to places like Feltstars and PartyPoker or live games and start throwing real money about. Even when you do progress I advise you to come back and play free poker games regularly in order to de-stress, make errors without loss and practice new ideas.
In this play poker online free we’ll consider the reasons why you may try to board scare bluff on a paired board like 8-8-Q or K-K-6, 5-6-7-8 or Ac-Kc-5c-8c. For the first 2 example boards it’s due to the mere idea of you having an 8 or K being enough to scare them off. Remember: The mere thought of it!
So if you bet strongly, you change your opponents mindset. Your opponent will put you on an Eight or a King, even if you don’t have it, and he may fold his A-Q, for example.
On my 8-8-Q, my opponent will be if I have that 8 : If I’ve got the 8 and they have A-Q they are near on dead in the water. He can only have one card to catch: that is a Queen, to make a bigger Full House.
If he had J-10 his calls (after his checks) will be very reluctant because he can complete a hand only from a gutshot, and that is unfavourable for him. Moreover, if he completes the Straight on the 8-8-9-Q board, I might have 9-8 (which no one knows if I have) for a Full House which will demolish his Straight.
So my bluff will work for the 8-8-Q. When it comes to K-K-6, my bluff is fine too since the players always think that you play big cards a lot more than small ones, and one might be a King (which, again, no-one knows if I have), and very few will be courageous to carry on with a Six, because I can batter him two more times.
Now for the other two Boards.
If the Flop comes 5-6-7 and I put my opponent on 7-6 (because of, maybe, a bet or a raise) I can call. Because if the 8 comes I’ll bet strongly, even when I don’t have the Nine, because his strong play on the Flop may mean that he has a made hand already, and now on the Turn, only one card can destroy him, and he’d had better be careful.
And if he had a Nine he should have checked or called only on the Flop, because he has just a gutshot.
The same idea also goes for the Flush board. Additionally, if the opponent is a strong player and he has, say, 6c-x (maybe 6c-5c because he is a strong player who plays connectors), on a board like Ac-Kc-5c-8c, he’s still reason to be scared, and a strong bet can drive him off.
Why? Simply because his Flush kicker is simply the 6c, and you may well have 7c or higher, even if you don’t, or even though you don’t have a Club. His Flush is good only for call-calling or check-checking, not for strong betting, raising, or all-ins.
Once you know which boards are ideal to bluff, you’ll be able to steal plenty of pots. Suppose all your aggressive play is finally detected? Say, 9-9-6 comes. You raise heavily again. The other guy now thinks your aggressive plays are simply bluffs, so he plays back.
Now you get paid off more handsomely because there is a 9-8 or A-9.
But suppose you’re the one put into a decision with the A-Q on an 8-8-Q board? Say you bet, he then raises heavily. If you call, you may as well be all-in on the Turn, because you’re nearly out of chips.
So you must decide whether to move all-in now. Should you?
If you have A-Q, you have Queens up, top kicker (Ace), and you certainly can hope that he only has a little pocket pair (say 10-10), a draw (say J-10), or Q-x (x is a lower kicker), and you can move all-in. If you’re scared of him having the Eight, make him also be scared of your potentially having it, too. Even if no one has the Eight.
Or you can move all-in first making him fold (unless you suddenly have that read on him, or he is a poor player playing loads of rowdy hands).
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Bullets in poker normally mean pocket aces but not this time. The other bullet in poker is a type of bet, specifically a bluff bet that can be just as handy in free online poker as in cash games.
- By ‘first bullet’ we mean the continuation bet.
- By ‘second bullet’ we mean a bet on the Turn like continuation bet.
- And by ‘third bullet’ we mean a bluff on the river.
Why do we still fire bullets even if we don’t have the best hand?
That’s precisely the reason. I bluff on the pot because we do not have anything.
Suppose you have A-8 in a Flop of K-K-5 (no Flushes possible), we fire a continuation bet at the Flop and hope that our opponent believes we have the King and they fold. If they raise, well, it’s the end of the hand for us.
The Flop above would be a hard board to raise if you have nothing. You can assume that a raiser will have a King, and usually many players who do not have it fold after someone else bets. That first bettor should be you, not anyone else.
If someone else calls on the Flop above, it’s the end of the hand for us, too. Should they have the Five, they’ve got the best hand, and even if we pair one of our hole cards, there is still the lingering possibility that the caller has a King and is slow-playing it, so we slow down. The first bullet is enough.
Now, here’s a situation where we can fire a second bullet.
In this example i have 7-6 and the Flop shows 8-5-K. You have first mover position so you bet. While you do not yet have a hand you will get the pot if the opposition fold.
However, if there is a caller, and the Turn does not complete your Straight, (say 8-5-K-J) you can still fire a second bullet. Your opponent may have a King, but he may also have a mere Eight, and when the second overcard popped out, he may be feeling a bit uncertain already.
Possibly he thinks you might be betting because you have a King (which you don’t have) and you continued betting to show that amid the Jack, you feel undaunted.
If you succeed in making your opponent fold then great. If not, i want to hit that Straight. If i hit the Straight, and fire the 3rd bullet, our opponent has no idea that the last card helped massively!
He might interpret it as a bluff again and call. If he folds, then it’s exactly what we expect if he was hanging on with a weak hand. But he may have called because he had the King all along and is now beat.
However, imagine we do not hit the Straight. I fired two bullets. Shall we fire a 3rd?
Say the river came 8-5-K-J-7. The third card made possible a potential Straight. That is one of the reasons to bluff. Make it larger – make it look authentic.
Finally, imagine that the Board didn’t help us fully, like in a Board of J-3-7-9-2 and we have A-10.
I fired two bullets (with the pure goal of making the opponents fold) already. Shall we fire a third?
If we had A-7 with this example, we can just check-check and hope that out pair of Sevens are good in a small-pot showdown. However, if we have A-10, we should bet again.
Which is the only way to win the pot. That is one of the best ways to maintain an aggressive game throughout. And, that is one of the best ways to spare us the embarrassment of checking Ace high and forcing to reveal it first.
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What do I mean by a maniacal snow-shover? This is a player who who moves all in all every turn. These players can be from free online poker tables upto WSOP level but are a particular menace to good fun if you play poker online for free in particular.
On free poker games sites where there is little or no risk of loss they will move all in all the time in the knowledge that they will win eventually.
This is one area where they are a pain. However, when you come across them in short-handed cash Sit and Go tournaments they can be a serious danger to your stack. When the blinds are high (the average stack is just ten big blinds) they move all-in every hand and the others fold. If this tactic succeeds in consecutive turns then they can achieve a big chip advantage.
The main problem is that maniacal snow-shovers are hard to beat.
1) First, when they move all-in, since they do it so frequently, you never know what they are holding.
2) Sometimes it might be 7-2, sometimes 5-5, sometimes, even A-A.
3) When you choose to call them, it’s one of them. And ‘one of these’ translates to, ‘I don’t know.’
In five-person Sit and Gos, coping with maniacal snow-shovers is easy.
1) When they shove all-in every hand, there are three others, one of whom might have a good hand (or great hand) to call with.
2) The MSS is going to be eliminated if this happens. (If I have a perfect calling hand I would be the one to do it.)
3) Or the MSS, with some stroke of extraordinary luck, may knock out one of the other players.
The other players will find it difficult handling the MSS who now has a pyramid of chips to throw bricks with, and I can now afford to play conservatively.
1) I will wait until I have A-A, K-K (or even just A-K or A-Q) so I can double up with the MSS.
2) Or I will hold off until the MSS is knocked out by the other players, or before the MSS knocks out the other players, then we will be heads up with the MSS.
Essentially then what we are doing here is playing super tight aggressive. As the majority of the play is going to be preflop, don’t play with connectors or weak Aces.
1) Forget small pairs which can be underdogs up against the K-10 or Q-9 the MSS may plunge onto you.
2) Wait for a hand where you stand no less than a 70% favorite preflop (tight), then when you get it, put your chips in the centre (aggressive).
When you find yourself down to the last two (you and the MSS, which usually occurs when you play tight and there’s an MSS in play), the MSS usually is leading in chips.
1) Heads-up, your weak Aces (A-8 below) and even K-x will be effective. Your K-x is equally as powerful as A-x once the MSS decides to call you with Q-x.
2) You cannot afford to wait for big hands because here, the blinds are overeating you now.
3) Shove even with 5-4 or with 10-7. If you get called and you are the underdog, you’ve still got two live cards.
Against an MSS heads up, play like an MSS, but fold obviously poor hands.
1) When you fold those weak hands, typically you will have a better hand range than your opponent, so you have the better chance of winning even though you start with the smaller stack.
2) You cannot and won’t beat them constantly but if you follow these suggestions and play tight aggressive poker you’ll beat them more often than not and in poker more often than not is good enough make you good money.
Remember, it takes time to learn how to play poker online or offline at a level above the unthinking, uneducated “chip flinging” seen at many tables. The good news is that so many players do the maniac all in things so once you learn to play poker good you can take a lot of money from them. The job how then is to be patient and practice hard, make lots of use of free poker game sites, they will save you money and also expose you to a lot of snow shovers.
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In our free poker onlinelearn how to play poker guide we’re going to unravel lots of the bizarre words and phrases used in poker to name the different cards hand combinations. By the end you will no longer be completely lost when playing poker and words such as Fishhooks, Duck and Sunset Strip (to name just some) get thrown about!
Firstly lets see what the popular nicknames for individual cards are. Then the ranked order of ‘pocket cards’ (what you get dealt at the start of a poker game).
Pocket card hands are divided into paired (cards that are the same such as Ace-Ace) and unpaired but still playable such as Ace-King. Finally you’ll learn some of more popular and famous hands.
Depending on where you play you may hear the 13 cards used in poker called several different names. They are also commonly referred to by a letter or their number.
Now when you begin a poker game you get two cards called your pockets or pocket cards.
If you get 2 cards of the same type, e.g., 2 Queens, then you have what are known as a Pocket Pair, this happens about 6-7% of the time (or once every 16 deals)
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.
You’ll always at least want to go onto the flop with pocket pairs but of course once every 16 isn’t often.
Unpaired pockets are what you will get 15 out of 16 or 93% of the time so you will be playing with them more often than not, not all unpaired combinations are worth playing, these ones though, in order of potential, are considered playable.
- 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 many names for the bigger and final hand combos, here are a few of the ones you may hear more often.
- 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 ‘board 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 free online poker where you can learn without fear of loss.
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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 Bling (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 rounf 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 part two of the learn how to play poker online free online poker lesson series we will step on from part 1 where we outlined the bare bones of the game.
Where part 1 simply outlined how the game works, in this part you’ll learn exactly what you do action by action in a real hand and at the end will be able to go play.
We join the action once the blind bets have been posted by the Small Blind (SB) and Big Blind (BB) Now the cards get into action. If “Blinds” means nothing to you hop on back to part 1 for an explanation.
Moving clockwise around the table from the Dealer (DB), each player receives two cards dealt face down, one card at a time. These are your Pocket Cards, also known simply as pockets and alternatively 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? The whole betting and winning with it’s associated moves of dare and deception is the main reason you’ve joined that online poker site be it free online poker or massive stakes isn’t it?
Of course it is, the game of poker is all about winning money! Nothing more, nothing less (with the possible exception of social interaction in the chat lobby or the table’s chat box).
At this point in the hand (holding 2 pocket cards), each player is betting on what hand they feel their pocket cards could 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. He’s given the UTG label primarily because the Small Blind and Big Blind players were forced to put up bets prior to receiving any cards.
Thus, both the SB and BB are already participating 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. You do this if you think you have rubbish cards, also called “rags” cards. By folding in this first round you won’t lose anything but nor can you play the rest of the hand.
2) To raise. You raise if you think you’ve got good cards.
3) Or you can call to match the Big Blind bet. You may do this if you think your cards have at least a bit of potential.
A 4th option you may have heard about, checking, often available in subsequent betting rounds, isn’t a choice 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
As this is a No Limit Texas Hold Em tournament, the amount of any one raise is only limited by the number of chips the player who is doing the raising is in possession of. If his stack of chips is 1,500, he’s allowed to raise by any amount up to and including the 1,500 (all of his chips).
If the player uses all the chips then this is the infamous All In bet. Any time a player raises with all their chips it is called Moving All-in.
And, of paramount importance, especially since you are at the how to play poker online level of the game, make sure that YOUR use of an All-In bet is very low.
Please try not to become yet another free online poker ‘chip-flinger’ (someone who tosses chips around without regard to the quality of their cards).
Once 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 middle of the table by the Dealer.
1) Each player may use these community cards’ to build their hand. Make sure to read and print a guide to what card hands beat what so that you have a feel for what you are trying to build!
2) Again, as here-to-fore mentioned, the middle of the table where these cards are dealt is typically referred to as ‘The Board’.
3) With ‘The Flop’ exposed, it’s time for the next 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 starts 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 will be the first player to act; through the hand providing he doesn’t fold.
He is able to 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 who 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 who follow do not have the option of ‘checking’.
Once 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 who have not folded). It’s another ‘community card’.
Thus, each remaining player now has access to 6 cards, 4 Board cards, and 2 Pocket cards. Now there are 4 cards on The Board, one additional card to come.
It’s now time for the fifth and final community card to be dealt: The River, or 5th Street.
And, given that all the cards have finally been dealt, each player remaining in the hand can see what their best five card hand is. Therefore, it’s now time for the final round of betting. And, once 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, beginning 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 determined 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 or not to show his cards or not.
Most people don’t, and it’s almost always advised by me never to show your cards. If you’re not required to do so; keep ‘em guessing!
Yet, when you reach an ‘advanced level’ of play, you’ll get a whole 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 actual mechanics of a hand of poker. In part 3 we are going to move on to more poker words and terminology, all those crazy card and hand nicknames are going to be unveiled! But so long as you’ve understood the first 2 parts now you can 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’ll get a feel for how to build your hand in the game stages and be able to think about whether to fold, call, raise or check.
At this point I strongly urge you not to try and play on sites where real money is involved, you can expect to lose all or nearly all of it 99% certain!
Show patience (incidentally that is a key poker skill you will need to master) and start out on one of the excellent free poker sites you will find online. Later when you’re more skilled there’s lots of time to win a lot of money and the time spent playing free online poker will pave the way for this.
Nick is from top free poker online site NoPayPOKER.com. NoPayPOKER.com uses a virtual currency, FreeD which makes the poker games totally risk free, this makes NoPay the ideal place to how to play poker online. 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!
In this learn how to play poker for beginners lesson you will learn the basic rules of poker. I know that at first look poker seems incredibly complicated but good news, it’s not. We’ll start by using free online poker tournament freerolls as the example, you should start with this type of game so they are the perfect example.
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. Each tournament has multiple tables of 10 players each. To figure how many tables there will be look at how many players are registered and divide by 10. If the number is not exactly divisible by 10 as is likely then you round up, so if there are 77 players it means there will be 8 tables to start.
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?
Fundamentally, the winner of any 1 hand will be the player who has the best cards.
The outline of the game process is this:
You are seated and the game begins. The Dealer Button player is selected and the small and large blind players make their bets (all covered below so don’t worry!)
Firstly you are given two cards, known as pocket cards, only you can see these. 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.
After the first round of betting is done the dealer lays 3 cards on the table for all to see. 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.
Next the dealer adds one more card to the community cards to make four face up cards for all players to use.
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:
The first two cards you get that only yoiu can see are called Pocket Cards or just Pockets for short. 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.
At a casino, it’s a round disc, about the size of a hockey puck, and the letter D is usually emblazoned on its flat surfaces. At a paid or free online poker site, the software will automatically place a symbol of sorts on your PC screen to identify the DB.
And, the position of the Dealer Button on the poker table is important since the 2 players to the left of the DB are forced to place the blind bets.
The DB is the best position to have and blind the worst, no something to worry about now, the NoPayPOKER.com intermediate level article series Building A Bankroll goes into great depth on this subject. However everyone gets a go as the DB moves to the next player to the left after each hand round so everyone will get the best and worst places during a game.
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 runs marketing for leading free online poker site NoPayPOKER.com. 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!
In this free poker sites guide we’re going to reconstruct a hand, specifically in this article the poker hand know as the big hand.
The point of poker hand reconstruction is to learn how to play poker better by understanding how the hand works.
This can then be related to the context of play. You can start to get meaningful insight the motives of your opponents based on the cards, betting patterns, player profile types, stack sizes, pot size and other relevant factors.
The result I hope is that you can play that type of hand better in the future and win more money!
For this poker hand analysis we will examine the “Big Hand”
BLINDS 1,000/2,000 – (Pot 5,400)
PREFLOP:
A has Js-9s, calls 2,000
B has Ks-Kc, raises to 14,000
A calls 12,000 (Pot 33,400)
A just initially calls, hoping that there will also be many callers because he has suited connectors and wants to get sufficient pot odds.
B, meanwhile, may interpret the call from early position as A-A or Q-Q, and because he has a big stack (the two are the biggest stacks in the table) he can afford to raise a little bit, because if the other player reraises and he thinks the other one has A-A, he can fold.
Plus, K-K is a little bit more shaky if an Ace falls on the flop, so this can work as a tester raise. A calls, he has a larger stack so he can afford the risk.
FLOP: Kh-9d-Kd
A checks
B checks (Pot 33,400)
Suddenly B has Quad Kings! A checks, because he has only a Nine, and can proceed carefully if B bets. B, hoping to conceal his unbeatable hand, checks too.
Paired boards are typically good bluffing situations. For instance, a 8-8-3 board will work for bluffing because on a, say, J-7-3 board, there are three cards which can pair one of them, and a bluff will be less effective.
But on the 8-8-3 board, bluffing has big benefits as there are only two cards which can conceivably help anyone, and also anyone there with a Three will be not as likely to call. (Only an Eight will do.)
But with a board with bigger cards like our Flop, B could have bet, but after that, A will be less likely to put him on a bluff (and more likely on a made hand) because he may have, say, K-10, and we play big cards more than small ones.
B doesn’t want A to back out of the pot. So B just checks.
Also, with two Diamonds B will want to check in the hope that A will put him on a flush draw so that if the flush doesn’t come, A will bet or raise to push B away, and B can gain extra chips.
TURN: Kh-9d-Kd-5h
A checks
B bets 20,000
A raises to 70,000
B calls 50,000 (Pot 173,400)
B still has invincible Quads, A still has Two-Pair. B could have now put A on the Nine or a draw, so B bets 20,000 so that A will call.
But since during the flop B may have represented a Diamond flush draw in A’s perspective, A raised to 70,000 so that B will move away.
B just calls, as there are two draws already, and B may want to represent one of them again so that A will try another bluff on the river.
RIVER: Kh-9d-Kd-5h-9h
A checks
B moves all-in 106,000 (Pot 279,300)
A folds
B still has Quads, but A is now in trouble because he has a bottom Full House. A King can kill him.
What A is hoping, though, is that B back-doored a Heart Flush and just check it along with him.
But B moves all-in. That is a very intriguing move by B. A powerful player would value-bet this (sat, 40,000 on a pot of 173,400) and A can just call it.
It is OK to represent a Flush here, as the board is double-paired, which can destroy Flushes as the board is just one card off a Full House.
So what I am thinking is: B moved all-in because (1) he wanted A to think they may have the same hand or that his hand is weaker, like a Flush. B’s play on the Flop and the Turn was weak, so A may not have put B on a King but likely on the Flush draw we are talking about.
B wants a call. B now hopes that A backdoored a Flush too and also that he thinks his all-in is just a bluff, but A is in trouble because of the sudden strong play.
It was psychologically jarring.
Did B hide that King or not? A might imagine that better hands could come later, so he folds.
Also (2) B may not want a showdown; he did not want to show the two Kings; he wanted to trouble the minds of A and other opponents.
If they saw how he played K-K it will be added information. He wants to keep them guessing.
You should play more unpredictably so you can gain chips later than to gain chips now, but be unable to get some later. I believe this is a brilliant reason.
Concluding the Big Hand
It takes time to learn how to play poker online or offline at a level above the unthinking, uneducated “chip flinging” seen at many tables.
Ironically the fact that so many players inhabit this dumb donk zone is great news for you. The reason why is that when you really learn how to play poker well you can turn mercenary and hunt them down in droves in low stakes real money games as well play free poker games sites that pay out real money like NoPayPOKER and happily build your skills and bankroll!
To make this work first, learn to play poker for free on free online poker tables where you can learn while you lose but without losing real money, then once ready to can move up to low stakes and start to get rich!
