Poker Tournaments

Free Online Poker Skill Guide To The Most Important Poker Money Winning Skill Of All

There’s one skill, or maybe you could call it personality trait that sets successful poker players apart from the herd more than any other, be you a fun free poker games player or casino cash player the fact is that if you do not possess it you’ll never do well, what is it then, simple – Patience.

Even the blind mouse finds the cheese sometimes, and no matter how unlucky you think you are, how many chips you have, or how many people are left in your tournament, the most important thing is that you are patient with yourself.

Sometimes you get so tired of seeing terrible cards and your chip stack starts to drain enough to the point where you get desperate, and start calling with J5 off-suit, or other hands with the same idea. I’ve done it, so have most of us and it’s killed me 99% of the time.

A key to success through patience is not to be patient just pre-flop, it must be all hand. Let me show an example, You draw a K (c) Q (d), and you call with 2 other people in the hand. The flop shows K(h) A(h) 8(h). Clearly this is a very risky hand, and most of the time you will fold no question.

But to the desperate, sometimes I would get a false source off confidence in my hand, and 85% of this time I will get burned, despite only having two others in the hand.

Patience is one of the many obvious traits important to poker success. More so, is consistency with patience. Sometimes we may get carried away for a bit and then the losses occur. To build this consistency try to make rules on what you are willing to call pre-flop and what you won’t.

Obviously free online poker is a much different game than live, as online is much more fast-paced and live is more in-depth and slower. Despite many complaints from my peers, I like to milk out every second of my time limit for each decision. I recommend this to any competitive and casual online poker players, because it may be the difference between a bad beat and a great fold.

Many times in online free poker play you will run into, what we call “Donks”. Most of the time they will have a much larger chip stack, and will win hands using brawn and bluffing. It?s important not give into his bullying, and play it slow. If you get a good flop, let him make the mistake. The classical check-raise works well, but if you move too early, your chance will be lost to cash in. “Donks” can be a great source of chips, if you be patient and play it out right.

You will get bad beats, sadly they’re unavoidable. It happens to the best of us, and there’s nothing we can do about it. What we can do, though, is play smart, take your time, and, again, be patient.

These are all extremely important no matter who you are playing with or how long you have been playing the game, which brings me to my final point. Experience. You can read all the articles, books and magazines and watch all the TV and take online courses and classes but nothing can replace or shortcut true experience, so get out there and play poker online for free if you’re new to it all, build your skills and understanding and work hard to develop that crucial patience habit.

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Free Online Poker Guide To How To Semi Bluff

In this free poker games article we’re going to look at the art of semi-bluffing.

A good place to start is to define what a semi bluff actually is. A full, or stone cold bluff is when you have a hand with no potential at all. But if you bluff where you have a bit of something and that’s what we call the semi-bluff.

For example, when you have a hand like Ad-Kd at a board of 6h-7h-8s-10h and you bet large or raise your opponent?s bet large, you are executing a pure bluff.

This is due to the fact that the hand didn’t get better with the Flop and got even worse at the Turn. But if you put your opponent on a weaker hand like A-Q or even a draw like A-J, then you can push him out of the pot by betting substantially. This big bluff is the only chance you have should you choose to go for it rather than fold. If he calls your bluff, then your A-K can’t stand much pressure.

Now lets say you have 7-6 and the Flop shows 5-4-J. Your opponent checks. You reckon he might just have a raggy Jack so you check. Your intention is to fold if your hand does not improve and/or if he plays aggressive, but your primary reason for checking is to catch a 3 or 8 and nail the opposing A-J, K-J or 9-9 later on.

However, suppose your opponent checks and you bet? In this situation betting has two purposes. Increasing the pot if you manage to improve to your Straight is one. Two, of course, is to nail your opponent. If he’s got nothing then he’s out of course. (With 9-9 he may move out.)

But what if he has the Jack? If he had a weak Jack (say, J-8) he may put you on a bigger Jack, say, A-J, or K-J and he may move out. Because you bet (or raise) it indicates that your pocket cards somehow fit the community cards.

Now, he may call, and you proceed to the Turn and the River. You figure out now he may have A-J or K-J. Or he may continue with 9-9.

If your hand doesn’t improve yet on the later rounds then you can pure-bluff your opponent all the way or stop.

If you hit your straight though, what then? It could be that he was putting you on a weaker Jack post the Flop (such as J-8) or he might raise with A-J or K-J. He has no idea that the Straight was completed!

He does not realize at all that the 3 or 8 made it for you. You can now crush your opponent. This is the semi part.

Here you can now win in two ways: Through the “bluff” part, your opponent will fold and you still have the pot. Or through the “semi”, both of you will show down your hands, and you win a larger pot.

Also, you can check and check until you complete the Straight, but you show your opponent your hand. The next time he will play with you, he might be scared if a similar situation arises.

If you semi-bluff, however, you still show your opponent if he decides to continue, but additionally, you can make your opponent fold so he cannot guess what you have.

Overall lesson? You can be more unpredictable with semi-bluffing so get practising! And what better place to play poker online free than 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 on risk free free poker games.

Free Online Poker Lesson On How To Play Backdoor Draws

In a poker game whether it is free poker online or cash game, a backdoor draw is a draw missed on the Flop but made on the Turn. This free online poker article will show you , using some examples, ways you can play for a backdoor draws with the best chance of hitting it.

Backdoor Draw As an example

In this situation you have 8-7 then the flop shows 5-A-J. There is no Straight draw as you need 2 cards to complete it.

But if a 4, a 6 or a 9 falls on the Turn, you have a backdoor Straight draw which you can hope on the river. If you complete your Straight on the river then you have a backdoor Straight (you can also have made hands like backdoor Flushes or Trips or Full Houses, by the way).

Lets presume we have 8-7, then the flop shows 5-A-J. Usually, when we don’t have anything on the Flop which will improve on the Turn into a complete hand, we fold.

But what about if you check and a conservative challenger decides to check his, say, A-10 or A-9? You then check, too (just as normally). When the Six (or Four or Nine) still doesn’t come then our options are to just retreat or bluff.

But additionally you can call in this situation. Suppose the pot is 200 (blinds 10-20), only two of us are in the pot, and he is first to act and bets only 25. The bet will swell the pot size to 225, and we are getting 9-to-1 on a call here.

We may as well call, so we can get a chance at even just a draw.

Also, it’s possible that after he bet his 25 he might be seeking to push you out of the pot with a really small bluff but it doesn’t change matters. Just call so you can have a chance at a backdoor draw.

And, note, don’t show you are a weak player by folding to some bunk bluff. Folding in a 500 pot after a 30 bet? Now that’s not just cowardice. It’s senselessness.

If the Six, Four or Nine appears, this is the time to figure out whether or not we shall still proceed. Usually we hope he plays conservatively and we hit our free Straight on the river.

Back to the aforementioned situation: What about if at the already 250 pot, he bets 200? Fold. 100? Fold, or call, if you feel like calling.

For a gutshot draw we’re about 11-to-1 hitting our Straight; to have an up-and-down Straight draw, about 5 1/2-to-1. Therefore if he bets 100, the pot is 350, and on a call we get 3 1/2-to-1.

It may still not be the right price, but if you feel like calling, call the 100 bet if it’s up-and-down. If it is a Gutshot then fold. 50 or lower? We get 6-to-1 (300 pot, 50 to call); so the pot odds are advantageous for an up-and-down Straight draw, so just call. Not quite for a gutshot.

But it’s also possible to call like, you’re representing A-K and you could take action on the river.

Next, should you get the Straight at the river it is time to play aggressive. Typically an opponent will put you on a made hand that the Flop and your “weak” call indicated that you have, e.g., a second Pair, J-10, even third Pair.

But we completed a Straight that contains the Eight and the Seven, and he has hardly any clue about it! Why? Because you called on the Flop, and unless he is a strong player and knows about it, that call may indicate a made hand! If he bets, raise (maybe a raise for value that will not scare him off), or if he checks, bet large.

If it is not looking good!

If you don’t hit your Straight, surrender.

Or, if you called on the Turn with the plan of representing A-K and moving at the river just play it fast but only if you can afford to lose. If it is just a smaller bet, you could call, but only in order to get information. Muck out as quickly as possible.

That is, if you do go and chase the backdoor draw; if, say, you can afford it with your chip stack. In general, don’t chase cards. Chasing is the favorite pastime of losing poker players (maybe next to tilting).

Or don’t pursue a backdoor draw with the intention of chasing. Usually you should be on the offensive by bluffing; on the above example, he may even fold the A-10 if he checked and you bet substantially. Just treat the Straight as angel’s grace.

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Play Poker Online Free Guide To Poker Card, Pocket And Hand Name Nicknames

For this free poker online how to play poker for beginners guide we are going to demystify a lot of the code words and phrases used in poker to name the various cards hand permutations. At the end you will no longer be completely perplexed when trying to play poker and words such as Fishhooks, Robbins and Jesse James (to name just a few) are being bandied about!!

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).

Here we’ll define pocket pairs and the better meaning playable) unpaired starting hands. 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.

- Ace – Bullet, Rocket (A)
- King – Cowboy, Monarch (K)
- Queen – Lady, Dame, Dyke (Q)
- Jack – Knave, Hook, Fishhook, (J)
- 10 – Dime (T)
- 9 – Niner (9)
- 8 – Snowman, Fat Lady, Ocho (8)
- 7 – Hockey Stick (7)
- 6 – Boot (6)
- 5 – Spot (5)|Jesse James
- 4 – Sailboat, Sharp Top, Four spot (4)
- 3 – Trey, Crab (3)
- 2 – Deuce, Duck (2)

Now when a poker game starts you’re given 2 cards known as pocket cards.

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 “power” 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 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 poker online where you can learn without fear of loss.

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