In Texas Hold em real money and free online poker games you play intermediate connectors like 8-7 or 7-5 because they are the best hands with which you can hit a Straight with. With an 8,7 for example, you can make 4 Straights (3 of them nuts), and with 7,5 you can look for 3 Straights (2 of them nuts). In this free online poker instruction tips article we’ll look at ways to play these hands.

Intermediate connectors are not played as strongly when they Pair. For instance, if you have 8-7 and the Flop comes K-7-2, you can be justifiably concerned with the King and you may fold.

It is also likely that you can flop Two-Pair. With 8-7 and a Flop of 8-7-A, you can get a player with A-K in trouble.

If you both keep going until the end, and your opponent’s hand does not get better then he will most likely slow it down in order to show it down. If he improves, you will know if he bets, and you can just pay him off. He can pair his kicker or not, and whether he does, you still have a good showdown hand.

The best play (for you) the opponent can make is to call all-in or move all-in on the Flop (in a tournament). However, this is only the case if the difference in chips between you and the all-in’er is large. If you have almost the same amount of chips, your 8-7 may not be good enough because your opponent may be willing only to call you with something like A-8 or, worse, 7-7.

Or he could call you with A-K and suckout when he pairs his Ace, his kicker, or when, say, a Ten hits the Turn, and another Ten hits the river then his Two-Pair is best. If one stack is small and the other large, and you have the small stack then you’ve a good hand someone holding an A-K might be willing to call. If you’ve got the large stack, your all-in opponent could be desperate for a call with his A-x (without Two-Pair) until they know you have him steamrollered.

Usually you continue playing Two-Pair until you hit a Full House. With that hand, play it just like you would play a made 5-card hand - value betting, pretending to bluff, slow-playing (pick your choice). However, if the Board comes 8-7-5, you might be willing to play it more slowly because if the Board comes Four, 6 or Nine, your Two-Pair may be almost unplayable.

Through the Flop, bet substantially to push a Straight draw out. If your opponent calls, it might signify a Straight draw. If your opponent moves all-in or pushes you all-in, then call - or not call.

You are still the favorite over a Straight draw. You might also be able to hit a Full House later on. But also you can choose not to call because your opponent may have a made Straight. In an 8,7,5 board, the probability of a Flopped Straight is fairly small as players don’t play 9,6 or 6,4 very much.

But you ought to be careful in a Board of 8-7-J or 8-7-4, as their connectors are consecutive numbers, i.e. 10-9 and 6-5, and players, especially experienced ones, play these more often.

However, even if the Board comes something like 8-7-4-5-Q, providing you are sure, or even half-sure, that the opponent does not have the Six, bet a small bet on the river. Should your opponent has 9-8 or Q-x, you may be paid off.

Should your opponent had the Six, you may be pushed, but you can fold without losing much. The thing is that, you need to maintain your aggression most of the time as part of your image, and you can do this by value-betting. If your opponent didn’t possess the Six, he may think that you had the 6, and he may fold, too.

And lastly, here is an addendum to our earlier example. Should you have 8-7 and the Flop comes K-7-2, you can fold. But you can also call a bet - you hope that your opponent had A-K - and if an Eight comes and you bet big, how will your opponent know you had another Eight in the hole? So long as you feel your opponent does not have K-8 or K-7 (not likely) both of you can get it all-in on the Turn - and you’ll emerge almost a winner.

This can be a fairly complex subject so if you’re not quite getting it then go play poker online free to learn it the only real way possible which is to do it for real but learn to play poker free so that any mistakes you make don’t cost you anything apart from time.

In this learn how to play poker for beginners session you will learn the basic poker game processes. While poker looks complex when you’re new to it it’s actually not so bad at all once you know it and will become second nature after a short time. There are many type of poker game but the best one to start with as a beginner is the free online poker texas holdem freeroll tournament (Texas holdem is just the name of the most popukar online poker variant)

free online poker freeroll tournaments vary from 20 to hundreds of players. A good point with these game is that most of the other players you’ll find on them are no more than average and many are beginners too.

The first step is to fire up your free online poker software and find a game. As mentioned each of these tournaments will have multiple tables. You can divide the number of players by 10, and you’ll know how many tables are a part of the tournament. 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. There are loads of games running daily round the clock on good free online poker sites so don’t worry about your success (or lack of!) initially, there are always more games to enter.

Who Wins and How?
Basically the winner of each hand is the one with the best combination of cards.

The outline of the game process is this:
You take your seat and the game starts. The software selects the “Dealer Button” (DB) and the “Blind” players make their blind bets (don’t worry this is covered below!)

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 called community cards, and can be used by all of the players who are participating in the hand.

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:
Your 2 face down cards are known as “Pocket Cards”. They are dealt from left to right, 1 at a time round the table. Only you can see your pockets, never show anyone else these cards!

The Dealer then exposes 3 “community cards” to all players on the table. This stage is known as “The Flop”.

When he exposes the 4th “community card”, it’s known as “The Turn” (or, 4th Street).

And, when he exposes the 5th “community card”, it’s known as “The River” (or, 5th Street).

All 3 to 5 “community cards” that are exposed on the poker table at any one time are known as “The Board”.

Every player who is participating in the hand through the process of betting (if you “folded”, you’re no longer in the hand), attempts to make the best possible five-card hand.

They can use any 5 of the 7 cards that are available to them; one, both, or none of their pocket cards, together with 3, 4, or 5 of the “community cards”.
The player with the best 5 card hand wins all of the money that has been bet (The Pot).

The “Dealer Button” is involved in every hand to be played. One of the game’s participants gets the Dealer Button (DB); the selection of the player who first receives the DB is done by the free online poker software.

If you are playing at a live game such as in a casino then the DB is a round disc, normally with a D printed on it. If you’re playing paid or free online poker a symbol on the screen shows which player is the DB.

the DB position is very important as the a players to the left of the DB have to make the blind bets.

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. Additionally, at the end of every hand, the Dealer Button (DB) moves one position to the left; thus, everyone acts as the “virtual dealer” in an Internet game, and, everyone is forced to place “blind” bets.

Blind Bets? What are they?
This is how the game starts.
The player to the immediate left of the Dealer Button (DB) is compelled to put up the Small Blind (SB).
The player to the immediate left of the Small Blind (SB) is compelled to put up the Big Blind (BB).
These “blind bets” are placed in the pot, in front of the dealer. This essentially kickstarts the betting, and, it”s all done before anyone has gotten any cards!

This, for the lack of any other rational reason, means that the winner of the hand that’s about to be played, will, at a minimum, collect the small amount of money that has been “forced” into the pot by the blind bets.

In a multi-table freeroll, or any No Limit free online poker tournament game, the size of the Small Blind (SB) and the size of the Big Blind (BB) are very low at the start of the game. And, every player in the game begins the game with the same amount of free online poker faux-money; or, for practical purposes, poker chips.

Usually, in 15 minute intervals, the size of the “blinds” increase.
As an example, if the beginning “blinds” were $10 (SB) and $20 (BB), within 15 minutes the “blinds” would change to $20 (SB) and $40 (BB).

And, thereafter, as the game progresses, the “blinds” continue to go up every 15 minutes.

In the end, at the final table in a tournament (the last remaining 10 players), the “blinds” could easily reach the point of being $2,000 (SB) and $4,000 (BB).

Now don’t be alarmed, the dollar amounts tied to the Small Blinds (SB) and Big Blinds (BB) in the preceding paragraph, during all freeroll games played on free online poker sites are “fictional” amounts of money. It’s not real money. It’s merely a “tournament representation” of money; it’s free online poker faux-money, they’re poker chips, not real dollars.

This is one reason why it is a very good idea to learn to play poker as a beginner on free poker sites, it can get very expensive very quickly if you start on a real money site!

Winning and MoneyThe 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 faux currency called FreeD which means the poker is 100% risk free, this makes it the perfect place to learn how to play poker for beginners, plus if you’re more experienced it’s a great place to practice, oh and the the fact that the FreeD can be cashed in for real Dollars is a nice tounch too!

Whether you just play free poker or play with house sized buy-ins the Set is one of the hardest poker hands of all to read. A Set is made ip of a pocket pair plus one of the Community cards that has the same rank as your pocket pair. For example, if you have 5-5 and the Board reads 5-4-10-J-K, you have a Set of Fives. Sets are unreadable because most players are accustomed to reading (a) two different hole cards, (b) high cards or overpairs, (c) draws that complete the Board, or (d) cards anyway related to the Board cards.

Our hand reading habits generally a mix of limiting possible hands to the given characteristics of the board/community, how would you put someone on 5-5 or 4-4 when it is much easier to put him on A-K (for top pair, best kicker), A-Q (for a made Straight), or K-10 or 5-4 (for Two-Pair), or even A-A (a high pair)? Or maybe you’ll put him on one Five, say, 6-5. But on two Fives or two Fours? This is why Sets are very potent in Boards which have no Straight or Flush potential.

But lets suppose in a Flop of Q-7-2 with no Straight or Flush possibilities, you have 3-3. You check (hoping to trap him), the other player bets. You raise all in then he immediately calls and reveals Q-Q. You thought your opponent had A-Q or K-Q. How is this possible? It’s possible. Even in this spot you are more susceptible.

Since there are no Straight or Flush potentials your opponent will fold cards that didn’t fit into the Board cards. If you read hands in line with the criteria above, you might put your opponent on A-Q, K-Q, or even Q-7 (can you go as far as 7-2?!). Here because you are the one who moved all-in, the outcome of the hand is not fully on your control; it’s up to whether your opponent calls or not. But suppose the situation is reversed. The player with the Q-Q checks, you bet, then the response is a raise all-in. What would you do?

When you find yourself slammed in a situation like this (which usually occurs on the Flop) on a cash game, take it as it is. Pay him off. Another time you will have the Q-Q, another player will have the 2-2, and you will be paid off. But in a tournament, you have plenty of givens to consider (and you might want to consider these even in an ordinary cash game). Compare your stack sizes relative to each other. If the difference is great, expect one of you to put his chips in the middle.

A Set may be the best hand both of you can have to get a double-up. If you possess the smaller Set get eliminated, attribute it to bad luck. However, assuming both of you have stacks above chip average, and you are put to a decision costing you all or virtually all your chips. You have 2-2. You aren’t likely to be blinded out in a few hands.

You may want to reason out: I have a Set. He raised me enough to put me all-in, or almost. He may do it with Q-7, (and whether your opponent had Q-7 or not will depend on what happened preflop. If no raise occurred it may be with Q-7, and you can safely call. Whether the other guy had 7-7 or not can also come under similar scrutiny) or if there is a raise, it may be with A-Q.

Now, top pair, top kicker is a weak hand to risk an above-average stack. And there’s no Straight and Flush incoming, so the all-in could be made only with an especially strong hand. It might also be with A-A or with K-K (most probably it is) but it might also be just with Q-Q. If I put him on those three hands, there is a 2/3 chance I’m right, but a 1/3 chance of wrong, and when I’m wrong I will be busted. So I’ll fold.

If you possess the middle Set (Set of Sevens), the same analysis may also apply. But you will be a lot safer because there is only one Set to kill you instead of the two possible Sets a while ago. If you possess the Set of Queens, enjoy! The above analysis is agonizing and painstaking, particularly when it all amounts to giving up one of the most valued hands in Hold’Em.

Reading Sets Summary

If you are new to poker then know this seems a lot to take in, the fact is though that while poker basics are easy to learn it is harder to be good at things like reading hands. For this reason most low stakes and NoPayPOKER.com tables are inhabited by manic “chip flingers” who can’t be bothered to learn. They are happy to play for what they think is fun when in fact it’s a lot more fun to win money

Ironically the fact that so many players play at this low skill level is excellent news for you. That’s because once you learn to play poker with above average skill and are able to combat the “all-in-all the time” donk maniacs then you can take them apart in coldly calculated massacres anytime you like. This can mean really good easy money in low stakes money online games and in free online poker tournaments games that pay out real cash such as those found at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com.

As ever practice makes perfect so read, understand and play free poker tournaments to learn how to play poker tournaments good and get your skills finely honed.

The standard (and indeed common sense) poker strategy followed by average skill poker players who mostly play free poker tournaments or low stakes and, for some reason find themselves up against strong players is not to play at all.

Normally this is not a problem, in cash games, when the novice realizes he or she is out of depth all the player has to do is bailout and find a more suitable table. But in tournament poker, it is not so simple to avoid being trapped on a table with some good or even exceptionally talented poker players.

In this article you will learn why good players will generally easily beat the novice, and, if you are a novice or less advanced player what you can try to do to survive and even prosper if you find yourself circled by hungry sharks!

A good player can normally easily beat the novice as he knows the patterns novice player tend to follow, given the Board cards, the novice’s actions and the position. Good players can also put them on a hand.

They will know if a novice player is holding a suited connector; a pocket pair, or even, in some extreme cases, a Set. The good player knows to play a Straight weak or even fold it when the Board pairs and the novice suddenly dumps down loads of his chips.

First lets understand how the novice tends to play so we can understand why the good players have such advantage. For the purpose of this we will say that a player wins a pot when, (a) he wins the hand in a showdown or (b) he makes all his opponents fold. If we want our novice player to win a pot against a good player, what kinds of hands should he play, and how?

For example, if the novice aims to win the showdown. Then he has to play the good players through the preflop, turn and river. At each step, simply by reason of experience, the good player is able to get more information about the novice player than the novice can get from the good player.

If the good player has more information, then he knows immediately whether the novice player has a good hand or not. He can continue to showdown and probably win a big pot, if he keeps on value-betting our novice. Or he can lose a little pot, if he slows down and just checks. Or he is able to make the novice fold.

Imagine our novice now tries (b) to make his opponents fold. (Let us assume the Board can help him only a little, and his hand, from the flop up to the river, will not be of showdown quality.) Throughout the flop, turn, and the river, the good player will extract more inferences from the Board cards than the novice player will.

If our novice, who usually has the tendency to get excited, overrepresents a hand unnecessarily, then he will just be called by the good player (unless he plays really strongly, but he can’t overdo this either).

From all of these, we gather that the pieces of information needed to make a decision is:

1. Your cards.

2. Your perception of the opponents’ cards.

3. The Board cards.

4. Tells your opponent provides.

5. Tells you give away to your opponent.

6. Previous tendencies of each player.

7. Position.

Both the novice and the good player has (1) and (3), but the good player’s judgment is generally more accurate with all these criteria. A good player, for instance, will believe that 8-7 (his cards) is not so nice-looking in a flop of 10-7-3 (the Board cards), but a novice player may. As for (4), (5), and (6) which stems from (1), (2) and (3), the good player is usually more aware of these. And good players care more for (7) than novice ones.

So if our novice really wants to play a pot against a good player, he cannot really rely fully on the information above, for he cannot interpret them well. So our novice should look for a spot in which the good player also cannot rely on most of the information above, so that they will be on equal footing. When is it? Answer: Preflop. How to play? All-in.

Preflop, your perception of the opponent’s cards is less accurate than after the flop falls. Also, since there are no Board cards yet, tells are less reliable. Finally, because a novice is less likely to have previous tendencies resulting from experience, the good player has little hold on (6). And preflop all-ins are dependent on hand strength mainly than position.

By moving all-in you can make your opponent fold (which is a win) or entice him to a showdown. Don’t call yourself all-in, however, unless you’ve got a premium hand. Once your opponent does this move, if he is a good opponent, he knows you are vulnerable.) When he does want a showdown, he is deprived of postflop information that will increase his chances of making an good decision. At this point, even though good player is still good, he has to play in terms of novice play.

The good hands the novice may have are still the traditional all-in hands: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, etc. A-K (or similar) is quite shaky, but if you can lull someone with 7-7 to play with you, you are still about 50-50 with him.Whereas if you take him to the Flop, he will have more opportunities to play his 7-7 better than you would play your A-K, and you will be defeated most of the time. Let us say your chance to win above is just 25% postflop; why don’t you take the 50-50 instead?

In summary

If you are new to poker then know this seems a lot to take in, the fact is though that while poker is easy to learn it is harder to be good at, hence the mad “chip flinging” you will see on many free online poker tables. Most people it seems can’t be bothered to learn, they are happy to play for what they call fun when in fact it’s a lot more fun to learn to play and win more often!.

Yes it is crazy that so many play with so little skill, but it is also very good news for you as a player who aims to learn to play well. The reason why is that when you really learn how to play poker well you can go mercenary and hunt the “fun donks” down in low stakes real money games as well as free online poker sites that pay out real money while you happily build your skills and bankroll!

To make this work first, play free poker tournaments to learn to play poker online free 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 make some serious poker cash!

When you have a big hand like KK and a good large stack preflop what is the best way to play it? And how might the other players react? Whether you play free poker for pennies or high stakes in Monaco this is a critically important situatio and you need to know how to play it best.

For our example we will look at an example from the World Series of Poker:

BLINDS 40,000/80,000

A has As-10c moves all-in (Pot 1.296m)
B has K-K reraises to 5m (Pot 6.296m)

B has two options here. He can call and wait for an opponent to go all-in, though that would make him think…

Could it be A-A? Or Q-Q? If it was Q-Q there is a slight chance he might fold K-K, and regret it. But a big reraise can drive Q-Q or lower out, like what happened to another player:

C has Jd-Jc

(C’s comments on B’s hand were: “Why did you make it so much? … You like your hand that much?”) If C calls, it’s for all of his chips.

C may think that B has A-K, but there are two all-ins in front of him, and one of them might be A-X (and with A-X he is still not safe) or a pair, but a suspiciously heavy raise to about 60 times the big blind is almost always a signal for A-A or K-K. So C could wait for a better opportunity than now.

C folds (Pot 2.39m)

C’s fold was brilliant, after the reraise, but it will still be brilliant even if B did not reraise. B might bet again on the Flop and C may not continue and just let go of the chips.

B’s reraise will work if he has A-A or K-K, but I doubt it if he will do the same with A-K or Q-Q, but it may have the same effect of making C fold. As for A, let us wish for his good health. B won the hand later.

In summary - Big Hand Preflop
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.

Yes it is mad that so many players play with so little skill, but it is also very good news for you as a player who is learning to play correctly. 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 free poker games sites that pay out real money like NoPayPOKER and happily build your skills and bankroll!

To make this work first, learn how to play poker on free poker games 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!

In this free online poker games 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.

Then you can relate this to the context of play. From here you can begin to determine the motives of the other players for their actions, based on the cards that fell, your betting patterns, their player types, their chip stacks, the pot size, and many other 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, though might interpret the call from early position as A-A or Q-Q, and because he has a large stack (the two are the largest on the table) he can afford to raise a bit more, 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, because he has a big stack and can afford it.

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 commonly good bluffing situations. For example, a 8-8-3 board is good 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 since there are only two cards which will 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 might 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 should 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, since there are two draws already, and B might 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 danger 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 solid 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, since the board is double-paired, which can destroy Flushes since 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 as a result of sudden strong play.

It was psychologically jarring.

Did B hide that King or not? A might think 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 in order to 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.

Yes it is mad that so many players play with so little skill, but it is also very good news for you as a player who is learning to play correctly. 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 on line sites that pay out real money like NoPayPOKER and happily build your skills and bankroll!

As ever practice makes perfect so read, understand and learn to play hold em on the free online poker tables to get it nailed.

I can imagine that many a http://www.NoPayPOKER.com free online poker player upon seeing some WSOP or WPT events on TV gets all inspired (carried away) and jumps feet first in to the first high profile money site who advertises during am advert break! As luck would have it he gets dealt 4-4 and, just like a pro he just saw moves all-in early position in the belief that it is a great move. Of course it is sometimes a good play, but not always.

In most cases our newly enthused free poker player will proceed to lose a lot of money in a short period of time to the money site sharks.

Why not tell him to try the same play on free poker, so that he will recognize his mistakes? He can play free poker get knocked out, learn from it and still have hundreds of dollars left.

Play Free Poker On Line can be a brilliant way to build a bankroll too, most sites tend to pay pennies but if you play long enough it can really add up nicely. And if you play long enough you will learn from your mistakes and from the mistakes of others – and it wouldn’t be so costly. Sure, you can try playing your Q-7 offsuit and then flop a Q-5-3 and then get called by A-Q later or K-K – that is when you realize your Q-7 is trash, and you ought not play it again.

Of course, you can watch someone else play the Q-7. He may flop Q-5-3, as above, or even A-J-7. Now you know you have him, because you have K-K (in the first flop) or A-K, or J-J (in the second). Now you remember the times when you win, and when you recall these times every time a similar situation arises, you will win the pot. If you play free poker long enough you will see what these situations are and then be able to characterize them like this: On the first flop, it may be ‘Playing Overpairs’; on the second, it may be ‘Playing Top Pair’ or ‘Playing a Set’.

There is, however, a downfall if you are not careful: Suppose you play 3-2 off and you win. You might think 3-2 off is a good hand, and then suddenly you rush to play real money poker. You lose. You think, “How would 3-2 be harpooned in this board! This just won last week!”

If you are observant enough for a long time in playing free poker you might notice plenty of players doing the same (playing bad hands) and they win. You can watch if they are winning consistently or not, and oftentimes they don’t. Someone plays 7-2, the wins; someone plays it again later, then loses.When you play free poker it may not yet teach you that A-10 is sometimes dangerous to play after a raise because it might be a better Ace, but it teaches you what hands to avoid and what to play.

In free poker you just don’t play any hand. Play as if you are playing real-money poker. Play only good hands as if your big money bankroll depended on it. If you keep playing bad starting hands without the ability to represent them (and representing hands is not so practical in free poker because many free poker players play just any hand, bet when they hit the Flop and throw when they don’t) you will be a bad player sooner.

Regarding this, here is another point, indeed this is the key point that will win you a lot of money:

Most free poker players are beginners or reckless fun seekers so when you take the time to master free poker then you will know how to blast them into orbit

Next, you will find when you move on to lower stakes real money you will mostly be facing these very same type of novice and maniac who have watched too much TV, and what do you think will happen then?

That’s right, your hard earned free poker skills will trash them and they will “donate” their stacks to you time and time again!. And as for the really good players, it’s so easy – avoid them unless you have the nuts.

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I found out that there is a tournament variant called All-in or Fold. The rules are: There’s just 1 blind (called big blind). Each player starts with just one chip; it doesn’t matter how many, anyway, for these reasons: Your only options are: All-in, and Fold. They are increasingly popular in both cash and free poker online so have a go if you come across one but not before you read this quick guide!

If you are on the big blind you are automatically all-in. You receive change, however, if, say, you have 5 chips and someone moves all-in with 2 chips and you call him (which is an all-in, too). He will not win five chips from you; you will get a change of three chips.

If you are on the big blind you just ignore everything else that follows. (This only happens about 10% of the time though on a 10-player table. If you somehow want to become hooked.) So it’s really a math game, and a position game too.

Why math game?
Because you are relying totally on preflop all-ins you must commit to memory the probability of your winning, or at least have a good feel for them. I can give some examples (You can generalize; the probability’s pretty much the same in a similar situation; for instance the first example will be: Two Overcards vs. Small Pair, or the first example will apply too if it were, say, A-10 over 5-5) and approximate the probabilities:

A-K vs 8-8
55%-45% in favor of 8-8

A-K vs A-Q
75%-25% in favor of A-K

A-10 vs K-K
75%-25% in favor of K-K

A-K vs 7-6
65%-35% in favor of 7-6

A-10 vs K-Q; A-Q vs K-J
63%-37% in favor of A-10 and A-Q

A-A vs 8-8
80%-20% in favor of A-A

A-A vs A-K
93%-7% in favor of A-A

A-A vs K-Q
85%-15% in favor of A-A

But these do not imply that you should wait for A-A or K-K or A-K before you move all-in, of course. Do it with two face cards, a pair, or A-x. Just make sure the big blind doesn’t reach you, for if that happens your decision’s beyond your will.

All-In or Fold is also a game of position. Oftentimes players in these tournaments play hands similar to the above, and throw away the rest.

Consider these two examples:

(1) You are in late position with 4-4 and there are two all-ins in front of you. You might be facing three or four overcards, or an overpair. Fold.

After all, if you are in late position, there will be many hands before you reach the big blind.

(2) You have A-8 in early position. You are two hands away from being the big blind, so you move all-in, and players after you will interpret an early-position all-in as a sign of strength.

What you consider, then, is the strength of your hand and the surrounding action.

With one-on-one, which happens mostly, the above probabilities still apply. But with three or more, hand strength matters more. Big pairs are still big; medium pairs shrink in power (because you can’t see the Flop yet; usually we see the Flop with a medium pair to hit a Set). A-x becomes weaker; A-K and A-Q weaken down a little bit. However, make sure you play a hand while you’re still in control of your decision. When you get yourself blinded out, it’s for your tournament life, mostly.

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Recently I played a 6 player Sit N Go free poker site where my belief in the power of the set was seriously knocked; by set I mean a hand that is made from a pocket pair and board card of th same rank, e.g., 5-5 and the flop shows 5-8-K

More so, it was a sharp free online poker lesson on maturity. After this experience I know a lot more about when to fold what seems like a good set or hand.

A set can be really strong, for example, you have 6-6 and the flop comes A-10-6. In this situation, against A-x (excepting A-10), you are 99-1 favorite, and if another player happens to have A-K or A-Q, you will see all the problems he will face later when he goes all in or calls your all-in.

But at this Sit and Go, there were 6 six players (blinds 10-20, average stack 1500), I was first to go. I had 4c-4s. I raised to 50. The button called, as well as the blinds.

The flop came 4h-6h-7d. Small blind checked; before me, big blind bet 200.

I said to myself, “How could he place such a big old bet (pot-sized)?”. Those players in previous hands always play any hand that drops on their computer screens. They may have A-6 or A-7, but also 8-7 or even 8-5. Or any two Hearts. They don’t know when to fold or not. And you don’t know when your made Two-Pair will be crushed.

So I figured that the power of my Set was gravely reduced, so I just called in the hope that the Board would pair during the Turn, but the main reason is because there are were dangerous cards that can fall.

A Three, a Five or an Eight will render my Set unplayable, unless everyone checks; a Heart will jeopardize my chances.

Usually, I am inclined to move all-in with a Set, but there might be a stray Five. They are willing to call all-ins, even with draws. Even with gutshot draws. They do it all day.

And I can’t banish them out of a draw by power-play. What if all of them call?

The turn came 3d. There are two Flush draws on the Board and one to a Straight.

Small blind checks; the Big Blind moved all-in (he had 1400 chips, I had 1200).

On already a pot of 2200, although I am getting 2-to-1 on a call all-in (or possibly 3-to-1 or 4-to-1 if the two others call), I folded. The Button called; Small Blind folded.

They showed the hands I guessed they had: an Ad-5c, and Qh-Jh. Either way, I will be smothered if I called too; the chance of the Board pairing is just 25% (10 out of 40) and I would be getting only 3-to-1. Not only I escaped devastating math; I also escaped the onslaught of made hands and big draws.

The point is this, if a hand starts good but then goes sour it is no longer good and won’t EVER get good by magic! Its goodness is just a memory, and if you pursue the beaten path your chips will soon turn into a memory as well.

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The game of poker, free poker games and shows such as the WSOP and World Poker Tour has propelled poker to huge popularity, and much like other high profile games like football and hockey it has developed a whole dictionary of jargon. Many of poker terms have been around for a long time so it seems the core game maybe hasn’t changed so much.

Bets, Calls, Checks, Raises, Bluffs and All ins are old favourites and still mean what they always did. For example, to ‘bet’ is an aggressive move; ‘raise’ aggressive too; ‘calling’ is not aggressive; ‘checking’ is passive…unless you are planning to raise after it! A bluff is aggressive all the time. And then all in’s in no limit games are the most aggressive of all as far as many poker players are concerned.

But newer terms have emerged, thanks to the poker commentator’s ideal to be crisp and short. For example, in the 70’s they may have said “he raised after a check” now we’ll just say “check raise”. Calling after checking becomes “check call”. The Value Bet might have been described as betting for value or maybe be even in as much detail as “betting because player As hand is good and he wants B to call” Although this does not imply that no one used the shorthand terms before. It may be that they are not clear enough to a general audience before in a time when poker was accessible only to a few.

So let us analyze some compound poker terms, like ‘check-raise’ and ‘check-call’. We will be using the terms in their traditional sense, i.e, checks and calls are non-aggressive, and bets, raises, bluffs, and all ins are aggressive.

#1 Check-raise: To check-raise is to check, then if an opponent bets, you then raise. For example, in a Board with 4-7-J and you have 6-5, if you are the first to act, you can check-raise. You can check because you can hit your Straight for free later if your opponent checks, and if your opponent bets, you can raise, so he will think you are on a bluff or on a made hand, so if you hit your Straight later your hand is disguised.

It’s also possible to check-raise if you think your opponent’s weak so that he’s not going to call if you bet, but you want your opponent to think you’re weak so that he can bluff, then you can raise him.

#2 Check-call: To check-call is to check, then if your opponent bets, then you call. Check-calling is standard for the above Board (4-7-J and you have 6-5),p provided you are priced to hit your Straight later. Check-call can also be good if you flopped a monster on the Flop and you want your opponent to represent it so you can trap him.

#3 Value bet: Value is the relative strength of your hand compared to what you think your opponent has. For example, you have A-10 in a Flop of J-10-6-5-2. You can consider your Pair of Tens to be not so strong, but if you put your opponent on 7-7 or weaker, then you can bet a small amount at the river (say, one-third or one-half the pot) so your opponent will pay you off if he, indeed has the 7-7, and if it turns out that he has the Jack, your loss is not so great. The point is you bet the largest amount you think your opponent will call.

#4 Check-raise-bluff: Now we move on to more complex compound terms. You usually check-raise if you have a strong hand or a drawing hand that you want to disguise. If you have none, but want to represent, do this. Check, then if he bets, put pressure on him.

#5 Value-bet-bluff: A value-bet is generally a fraction of a pot, typically 1/3 to 2/3. A bluff is usually greater than the pot (twice or more to be credible). If you bet 1/3 or 2/3 of the pot with nothing, a strong player is likely to recognize the value-bet and just fold. In such a case, your bluff works and with less danger than a standard bluff as a standard bluff may involve more than the pot or even an all-in, in contrast the value-bet-bluff involves only a bet that is value-bet sized.

#6 Three-bets and four-bets: A three-bet means this: Someone bets (or raises preflop), then someone reraises, then someone reraises again (possibly the first raiser). This action is the third, hence ‘three-bet’. If anyone moves over the top after this, then this action is the fourth, hence ‘four-bet.’ To reraise a raise requires a very strong hand, then to reraise this requires a far stronger hand, then to reraise this reraise requires a hand far more stronger. Unless one is representing. So we can make terms like ‘three-bet-bluff’ and ‘four-bet-bluff’, meaning ‘a bluff with a three-bet or a four-bet’.

#7 Bluff all-in: An all-in implies a strong hand. If you have nothing and this is what you do, then you ‘bluff all-in’. It is good to bluff all-in in a dangerous board (one off a Straight or a Flush, or a paired Board) but it is more dangerous, because your opponent may have the nuts and call you. In less dangerous boards, you can just bet and your opponent will fold if he has nothing – it has the same effect as the bluff all-in.

#8 Call all-in: Technically, call all-in is non-aggressive. To call is not aggressive; you just moved all in because you have a hand that you will be willing to move all-in if you acted first, and someone just set you up to it (or maybe you slow-played and your opponent became aggressive and pushed you all-in and you called).

#9 Check-raise-all-in: A very aggressive move. You check, then someone bets, then you move all-in. Many will not interpret it as a bluff, and will call only if they have a hand. Say, on a board with J-10-Q-7-6, even with A-Q it is difficult to call a check-raise-all-in. You must have, say, A-K or 9-8 to do it, or a Flush.

#10 Check-raise-bluff-all-in: The #9 when you have nothing. Say, in the above board, you have 5-5. You just represent a strong made hand.

You can make some more variants of these poker moves. Have fun doing them, but don’t overdo them. Your value-bet bluffs will just confuse weak players, and they will call check-raise-bluff-all-ins just as they will call regularly and that can be bad for you!.

This article is by NoPayPOKER, the perfect free online poker site for beginners to learn to play poker online without risking money. For experienced poker players the attraction is practice, the ability to fine tune their game and test out new techniques in a totally no risk zone while collecting free online poker cash.