Free Poker Games

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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If you are a beginner or a more experienced poker player, whether you play in a casino or play free poker online, bluffing is an integral part of the game. Much of the discussion on winning at poker deals with strategies, mathematical calculations, position, and poker tells. However, the art of bluffing is rarely discussed.

Why? Well, many poker players feel that bluffing is immoral. Historically, bluffing has been a part of poker since its inception and adds a psychological component to poker that makes it more interesting and complex. Bluffing in poker has been around since the inception of the game several hundred years ago.

Bluffing is multi-faceted and has many strategies. The most obvious purpose it to win the pot at hand. Aside from greed, there is also another purpose for bluffing that is more strategic. One strategy for bluffing is to bluff and get caught. Once other players know that you are a “bluffer”, they will be more likely to call your bets in the future. This strategy will lead to getter gains when you are in a winning hand.

Bluffing is an advertisement that you are not a conservative, tight player who will only play premium cards and bet with a winning hand. Giving your self the moniker of being a loose, bluffing player will create a more competitive atmosphere at the table resulting in more calls when you are involved in a hand. After all, who doesn’t want to beat the table “donk”.

A strategy for when and how to bluff in casino tournaments and free poker online is also important and needs to be strategic and planned. Bluffing a hand needs to be planned in advance. Being in the proper position, reading the other players bets, and being aware that a big hand is not being raised prior to your bet is critical. Imagining the cards that you want to be represented when you play will help with the bluff process. Playing the hand the way you would with premium cards will lead your opponents to believe you hold the cards you are representing. Planning and consistency is important in a bluff to deter a good player from spotting your bluff.

Whether you win or lose you bluff is not important. If you win a big pot with a bluff then you have succeeded. However, if you lose the bluff then you have gained a reputation that will serve you well in future hands. Use this reputation to your advantage when you are in a winning hand and your rewards will be great.

I look forward to playing you at the free poker tournament tables, whether you are bluffing or not!