You have managed to get to the flop with a good hand but what next? For many players postflop is the weakest part of their game. A key part of postflop play (as with preflop) is knowing the type of players you are up against and playing specifically to counter their style.

In poker, there are 4 different styles of player (tight/loose) + (passive/aggressive). In free online poker micro stakes (.02/.05 blinds), each style of player tends to make certain key errors. In this free online poker lesson we’ll look at how to exploit the Loose-Aggressive style player.

Loose-aggressive (LAG) “maniac”
These are the guys who are betting and/or raising way too often. 33% of flops long-term).

The trick to playing these guys is to realize that their range in any given spot is extremely wide. Operationally this means that if you flop 2nd or 3rd pair then calling their bets and raises can be very profitable as they bet repeatedly with nothing so much.

They’re somewhat difficult to play against because it takes a lot of guts - calling 3 streets (each a relatively large bet, usually) with third pair weak kicker is not particularly easy, but you have to realize that against some of these guys third pair is basically the same as top pair and so you just shouldn’t fold.

But with that said do not universally call any pair against an LAG as there are degrees of maniac and while the true LAG bets and raises 100% of the time some do not.

One other thing note is your draws (and as a result, connected and suited hands preflop) rocket in value since if you get the draw you may frequently get repaid bigtime (you may be recognising this as implied odds, but I won’t elaborate on this until a later article).

Pair hands go up in value and draws go up in value as a rule against LAGs. Pay attention at the tables to get a good feel for a player’s range (is he a true spewing maniac, or is he just hyper-aggressive) and try to make these profitable “thin” (not super easy) calldowns against these players.

In general, you should also be waiting for the river to raise these players with your strong hands because they’re going to be betting all 3 streets anyway; you lose lots of value if you raise flop or turn and get them to fold.

Do always remember that there are levels of player types. Some TAGs are almost LAG, some TPs are almost LPs, etc, so you have to adjust your play to your individual opponents, these player types are just a tool to help you do that.

One thing you have probably realised by now is that learning to spot and use player styles is not an exact science. Yes, sorry to say, plenty of practice is required though if you really focus on this and keep good game notes it will come faster for you. If you’re new to poker do not risk much or even any cash as you learn.

Start of with the lowest stakes games or with free online poker games and work up from there. For the big edition of this article which covers all the player styles and adds some further postflop tips see the free online poker games blog at NoPayPOKER.

How and what hole cards to play and from what tables positions is what you’ll learn about in this poker free online games training article. At the end you’ll also learn about the not well understood area of limping.

Before we get into that we must understand the term “hand range” which means “the range of hands it’s possible for my opponent to have”.

As a poker skill hand ranges count as one of the most critical.

For example, an opponent is super tight and reraises you big preflop. QQ,KK,AA would be the example range. You don’t know which of these hands they have, but you know they have one of these 3 hands, so that’s their range.

You need to record ranges as you play but do not have to write out all possible ones. The range of (QQ, KK, AA) is shortened to (QQ+), meaning any pocket pair QQ or above.

Writing (KTo+) would mean any offsuit king KT or above (so KT, KJ, KQ - note not AK because the highest card is always written first). Offsuit is designated “o” and suited with an “s”, so, K8o+ is any offsuit king K8 or above.

What are the Playable Hole Cards

There are 3 factors to consider:

1) What has happened before your turn
2) Your Table Position
3) The opponents’ behaviors

The first is self explanatory. For example, you fold your pocket 9s if there has been a raise, 3 bet or 4 bet before your go. Basically just understand that when your opponents open you need to be tighter.

Table Position -
The closer to the butotn you are the wider your options for opening..

1) There is a lower chance of other players getting a playable hand and better chance of folds as there are fewer players left to act after you.

2) You get position on your opponents postflop. You have much more information that you can act on when you’re on the button as they have to act before you and so supply you with info. You get to see their reaction to the flop if they play it while they do not know anything about you.

Opponents’ behaviours examples -
> Don’t open wide from the button if the big blind is going all in with every hand as you’ll have to fold weaker hands to his shove.
> Loosen up if the players still to act are tight, it gives you a better chance of stealing the blinds.

Make these 2 tweaks if the players behind are loose aggressive:.
> Play tighter..
> Play fewer suited connector hands and more high cards..

Against loose aggressive opponents you can play hands like KJo, flop top pair, and move All in OK. But with say 87s if we miss and cbet the flop you’re unlikely to get many folds and the hand has less equity. In such situations middle connectors go down in value and high cards improve.

Of course, some hands we’ll almost always play (JJ+, AQ+ for example). Others like 52o nearly never, but “it depends on the situation” applies to many more.

Typically:
- Play tight early position, looser late position
- Play tighter against loose players, looser against tight players (preflop)
- Play tighter against aggressive players, looser against passive players (preflop)
- If there has been action before yo play tighter.
- Nearly never play trash and nearly always play premiums.

Here are some examples to Demonstrate.

- UTG (1st position) 10 handed example range: (TT+, AQo+, AJs+)
- Button range vs tight blinds: (22+, A2o+, A2s+, K6o+, K5s+, Q9o+, Q8s+, JTo, JTs, T9s, 98s, 87s, 76s)
- Button range vs loose blinds: (22+, A7o+, A2s+, K8o+, K8s+, QTo+, Q9s+, JTs)
- Button range readless: (22+, A7o+, A2s+, K8o+, K7s+, Q9o+, Q9s+, JTs, T9s, 98s)

Limping

Should you limp preflop? The answer is almost never, apart from:

> When against a loose passive opponent with a marginal hand.

> More common, especially in free poker games, a limpede. Where several players limp preflop (limp+stampede = limpede!)

If you have low pockets or suited connectors join the Limpede as there is a good chance to flop good very cheaply. Your only goal is to flop a very strong hand - if you don’t you should give up and check/fold the flop.

This is not a simple subject but it is fundamental to poker success so to get comfortable with all this practice hard on free poker sites such as NoPayPOKER until you are happy, play with ranges and the way of thinking and different scenarios and so on. with absolutely no monetary loss.

So test away! For a much more in depth version of this article, see the full lesson on the NoPayPOKER free poker education blog

Just what do you have to do to be a great poker player?

This “golden question”, may seem like the end all be all in poker.

So many players want to know if there is some sort of insider strategy for universal success and sets you apart from the free poker online donks and hapless grinders forever.

The answer is very simple and in this ways to win poker games guide I’ll tell you right here and now.

The key to becoming a good poker player at any level, be it free or big stakes, is to make reasoned, logical decisions at every opportunity.

In other words, to “use common sense at all times” and win, sorry it’s not more profound than that.

Common sense you screech? But I have lots of common sense you say and still don’t win much! Ah, but common sense, in the context of poker is not very common at all.

The failing most people have in this area is how they view poker. Too many people reply too much on luck. But in reality poker is totally about skill and common sense decision making has a direct correlation to long term success.

True, short term results seem to be subject to a degree of luck (uncontrollable probability in fact) but long term the skill play approach evens this out and gives players with a profitable style money! Once you adjust your poker view to accept this you see that “common sense” is the core key to winning poker.

Those big bluffs you see top pros make on TV? They have solid (often complex) reasoning behind them.

The online poker pros making a big living every year?

They make their money by grinding out a high volume of hands playing a style more solid than their opponents’.

Even at free poker online sites superior poker players make more than the common herd..

OK great, accepted, so how to apply this? Basically by structuring your game around sound fundamentals and a solid foundation of poker knowledge.

This common sense solution is basically a kind of expanded use of the virtue patience.

How does common sense equal “patience” in poker?

> In a normal Holem game you get 2 cards that only you see befie the betting (apart from blinds) starts.

> We apply standard patience logic and wait for hands that we know are profitable long term.

> Since relatively few hands can be played profitably, we’ll be tight preflop.

> Adding common sense into this mix we will now say that the idea of poker is to take money from the other players.

> If we invest money with stronger hands than them, we’ll profit.

> Therefore, we only play stronger hands preflop so we can profit, and as such should generally play tight.

Where the “common sense” concept outstrips simple “patience” is in the fact that the “common sense” line of thought is more logical in the reasoning it lends to your decisions.

What we are saying if playing vanilla patient is “I play this hand as it is profitable” whereas when you play with common sense you are saying “This hand is profitable because…so I will play it”, this is a step above just playing with patience, with preflop hands it is not so different as you have a known list of hands to play or not play but in more complex situations this reasoning process sets you apart.

You have to know what you are doing all the time and WHY you are doing it beyond some set in stone rulebook.

The easiest application of this is playing tight (no trash hands!) preflop.

While the patient approach says to play certain hands only as they are profitable your logical approach goes a step further saying that when you play good hands preflop you will get more good hands postflop and make more money, therefore only play tight preflop and fold all trash.

This approach applies to all poker concepts, for example value betting “I bet when I’m ahead of my opponents to win money”, bluffing “I will bluff when I cannot win the pot unless my opponent folds and my opponent is not likely to fold if I don’t bluff”, and so on.

But those are concepts which will be explored more in depth in future articles in this free online poker games training series.

I hope this free online poker games ways to win poker games lesson was useful, for many more lessons and to play free online poker games against real people go see NoPayPOKER.com

This free online poker article is a poker bets guide.

Basically, a poker bet is a declaration that either:

A) You have the best hand and will wager money on it. B) You have a poor hand and will fold if you have to put money on it.

Poker theory says that players should bet if they have a strong hand. Players who don’t have good hands are supposed to fold. Naturally reality is very different and the vast majority of players act play contrary to this in order to try and be a deceptive player.

But don’t try to be too clever when you still learning poker. Your betting strategy should be built upon this simple idea, but you must know when to stray and bet in situations when you otherwise wouldn’t.

Here are some example poker betting types and tactics:

Stealing Blinds
You are in the dealer’s position with only the blinds left in the game, if you raise here it is called “blind stealing”. This is since the blinds often fold, whereas if you did not raise but instead called they would just check. It’s a good way to make a buck or two, but will never make you rich. It’s more of a way to end the game fast and have a new hand dealt with more players.

The steal-raise
A Steal Raise is where you’re last to act and the other players have all checked to you, you bet to limit the number of players or scoop the pot. Don’t use this exclusively, as better players will be onto you quickly and begin check-raising against your (most likely) poor hand. It is good to use a steal raise when you have an excellent drawing hand such as a nut flush draw. Players will tend to “check to the raiser”. Should you draw to your hand, you get a bigger pot to win. If you don’t, you can always check, and hope the fifth card makes your hand.

The check-raise
Check raising is checking to your opponent, with the intention of luring them to bet, so that you can raise them back. Your hope to give them a false sense of security so you increase the pot size by your raise.

The opener
This is generally reckless and used by bluffers. It is when the person first to act raises, making all the other players call two bets at once. The aim is to limit the number of players in the hand. Basically, this move amounts to a backwards steal-raise. It will make many players to fold, but the ones remaining will either be equally aggressive or have a great hand. The Opener is also known as betting for information. This type of bet is best used when there are not many players in the hand.

Squeezing
Squeezing is a tactic only used in a short-handed game. It is a bet when you have a decent hand and think another player or more might be on a draw. For example, you have top pair with the best kicker. Chances are they won’t make their draw. So your aim is to reduce their pot odds.

The above examples are really just examples of bets. If you are playing no limit or pot limit hold em, the whole thinking behind betting changes.

When you’re dealt Aces, Kings, or AK suited, you can raise and even re-raise before the flop, no matter your position.

If you have a QQ or JJ you should be more cautious but it is likely that you are the the best hand preflop. You should raise to force out the draw hands, if there aren’t any raises in front of you.

If you have good cards such as paint suited, aim to raise from mid or late position if nobody else has raised before you. If you raise in middle position and someone in late position re-raises, be careful.

If they’re a strong player they probably have you beat in card strength unless they’re bluffing to try and take the blinds and antes.

I hope this free poker online poker bets guide lesson was useful, for many more lessons and to play free poker online against real people go see NoPayPOKER.com

Is poker luck or skill? That’s the endless debate. For players who are new and many free poker online games players who play for laughs it is, or at least, seems like luck and for them it is as they apply no logic to their game.

For players with skill it is about skill and, an important part of that skill-set requires the ability to use some simple math in your game and basically “make your own luck”. We’re talking of course about pot odds, implied odds and rounding.

Pot Odds refer to the quantity of chips that occupy the center of the table due to bets, call, raises etc. The total of all those chips represents the size of the present pot.

Suppose there are 400 chips in the pot and to continue you need to call with a 100 chip bet. This means you have Pot Odds of 4 to 1, that is, the 400 chips in the pot divided by the 100 chips that you need to bet.

Implied Odds
Relate to the number of chips that are stacked in front of your competitors stacks in the current hand, plus the number of chips that are in the current pot. For example, you and 2 other players are left in a hand.

Player A has 2,000 chips and Player B 3,000 chips. The pot has 1,000 chips. Should you need to call a 400 chip bet this means you have Implied Odds of 15 to 1. This results from the 6,000 chips total held by the 2 other players and the pot versus the 400 chips you would need to use.

Rounding - Making Life A lot easier
You start a hand with 2 pocket cards so of course 50 cards are unknown to you, as such you use 50 as the base of calculations. You don’t need to worry that this changes to 47 unseen post flop, 46 post turn etc. We stick with 50, it is close enough and makes life a lot easier.

For example - You have a King Queen unsuited as your pockets, and the flop is 10, Jack, 4 rainbow (unsuited flop). This means there 8 ‘outs’ (chances open) for you to get an open end straight draw; the 4 nines and 4 Aces that are unseen.

So there is an 8 in 50 chance of catching an ‘out’ on the turn; and, 8 in 50 which equates to 16 in 100, a 16% chance of hitting our desired straight on the turn, basically 1 in 6 chance.

In this example, if you’re not getting a minimum of 5 to 1 Pot Odds there is no sense chasing the 9’s and Aces. But as this is only break even it’s not worth it, in pot odds terms you should fold.

When playing with Pot odds you need to look for advantage with every bet. If 5 to 1 is dead even, then 7 to 1 is a 40% advantage, 9 to 1 a 80% advantage. As a rule, if you have a good Pot Odds advantage play it, for me 45% is my comfort level but you may find yours to be more or less, only game time will tell you what your OK level is.

However, it’s not Pot Odds that are going to result in ultimate success. For big success and to beta up on both good and bad players requires timely application of Implied Odds which, at the right time, can be a lot more powerful than simple Pot Odds.

In the example used above, Pot Odds may dictated we fold. But what if you are playing against some crazy donk with a stack much larger than the pot? If we have hit the our open ended draw with any 9 or Ace at the Turn or River we’ll knock such a player out and take all his chips.

So you should consider the Implied Odds as well as the Pot Odds while being sure you don’t take excessive risks. Should the Pot Odds be respectable, and by this I mean within 25% of acceptable then it’s good to go for it, but do practice on free poker games first! I hope this guide to pot odds was useful, see NoPayPOKER.com for more poker free online training lessons.

This new free poker online tips article is a review of one of the most popular poker software aids on the market, a tool that is totally OK to use in conjunction with your game by all site rules yet can help you out so much that it’s almost cheating in terms of the edge it will give you over non users.

This software is called online poker tracker and if you’ve not heard of it before read on and get ready to get exited, at the core it is free poker online but with a whole load more on top.

Also, it’s free to start with, the developers are so confident that you’ll want to use it that you can get a 60 day free poker online plus play tacking, HUD and replays full version, very good by any standards that.

OK, so how will PokerTracker win me more?

Firstly it’s crucial to understand that PokerTracker is not a bot or some sort of cheating tool that wins you money by itself, it does not play poker for you which makes it’s use fine with all the poker sites, what it does is give you the knowledge, that, when you learn how to apply it and play poker at a decent standard, will enable you to win a lot more in games that suit your skill and risk level. Now that is, I hope, clear, lets look at what it can do for you.

PokerTracker imports hand histories from your poker sites and parses them into its database (nothing you need worry about its done for you) so that you can check out your poker play AND your opponents from every angle possible. In other words find out what you and your opponents did right and wrong. Learn from it and do better next time.

You can analyze any holdem hands from No Limit, Limit or Pot Limit from Ring Games, SnGs or Multi Table Tournaments.

Track Starting hands
To begin with you’re able to track starting hands, see all the hand combinations, how many times you and others saw the flop, raised, won and lots more.

Tracking Your Play
You can track everything you do playing poker, per hand, per game, per day, week, month etc. Find the problems in your game.

Find out what you make per hand, per game, over time etc. How many times you’ve made a royal flush, straights, you name it, you can find it.

Tracking Games by:
1) Table position
2) Session and tourney
3) Good and Bad hands
4) Hand Results

HUD - Head Up Display
Display your opponents statistics directly on your poker tables for quick in game analysis. Make better decisions while you play based on your opponents past history.

The HUD can be customized to display what’s most important to you. View every statistic you can think of directly on the table via the HUD. Put the stats in the order or position that is best for you by simply right clicking and dragging to where you want them.

Replay
Want to go back and play that hand again? While you can’t go back in time and play with hindsight you can replay your hands, the visual replays added to the data is a great way to learn what you did good and bad.

Table Locator Tracker
This is awesome. Table Tracker, simply put, finds the tables online where you have the best chance to win and shows you where they are in real-time.

How Table Tracker Works:
The PokerTracker servers constantly scan all the major online poker sites to see who’s playing where and on what table(s). This information is displayed to you so you can see what tables are hosting more weak players that normal, you then get on over there and clean them out before someone else does!

A very important note on Table Tracker is that it is an optional extra service and is not part of the free trial, but if you do buy PokerTracker3 you get 25 free searches with it which should be enough to tell you if it’s useful for you or not.

As I say there is a free 60 day trial so there really is no reason not to get it if you play on any of the supported sites, if you’ve got any ambition to win more Poker Tracker will help you.

Only one downside, it doesn’t work with the truly free online poker sites like NoPayPOKER, no reason to unfortunately as those sites are zero risk of loss even though you can win money on them but they’re not risky enough for players to warrant integration work. Get your 60 Day free poker hand analysis software here

This article is a guide to the best free poker online, tools, forums and software resources, you might have used some of them or maybe not but all of them are well worth checking out.

The 2+2 forum and Rec.gambling.poker are 2 very well known online poker tool communities popular with a wide range of online poker players. Said community consists of beginners, experts and professional online poker players too. The poker tools on offer cover all variations of the game from home; online; irc or even at the real casinos.

As they are forums there is also communication and the feedback and advice you can get there is free and can be very helpful.

To locate both of them go to Google and type the site names in and they’ll both appear promptly.

The site Pokenum offers a free poker hand analyzer that’s great for figuring your hand winning percentage versus that of your opponents hands. And they have a really nice feature where you can add cards to the table to see how they affect hand strength in relation to other hands.

This process goes on as the board progresses, a very handy tool for understanding the dynamic of card to hand and table strength relativity. It’s an open source free product so you will find it on various sites or you can download it to create your own applications

Next, one you may not have heard of, the university of Albertas poker research group.

Among other things they offer the Open Poker Variance Analysis Tool (PVAT) tools which, if you are into c-programming, use to develop your poker simulation, not for most of us cool if this is your thing. They also have lots of research and ideas all of which makes it a great place for the academic poker player to check out.

Another online poker tool that is highly recommended is chessandpokerdotcom. The site has provides detailed strategy guides for allsorts of games such as Chess and the many flavors of Poker and there is a wonderful limit strategy guide for holdem. Perfect for beginners and intermediates.

Or how about the original home of online poker, IRC poker?

IRC poker is poker played over the IRC chat protocol and was the way poker was played online in the early days of the Internet. World Series of Poker champion Chris Ferguson got his start playing IRC poker.

It is still there, just put IRC poker into Google and go check it out. Resist the urge to click the back button and read the FAQs to figure the place out, once you learn it you can play in the IRC real time free online poker games network against some really serious and good online poker players.

Pokernews.com has a forum section where you can ask any poker questions. There are many of seasoned poker online players both asking and responding to queries there and many replies come from professional poker online players so you’re able to be sure you are benefiting from real helpful advice.

Not forgetting of course free online poker game sites such as NoPayPOKER where you can ask poker questions in the lobby on better poker tactics.

In addition the NoPay blog features an extensive free poker training library with lessons for all levels from beginner upwards. So, off you go and enjoy all the free online poker forums games, free tips and advice.

Learning how to play low pocket pairs (the most powerful cards you ever get dealt) is the subject of this free online poker training lesson.

Low pocket pairs, 2/2 through 9/9, will, long-term, provide you with more wins that any other two pocket cards you’ll ever be dealt.

What more than AA, KK and QQ? Surely not possible I hear you cry! It is not only possible but a fact.

In addition to being superb against good players they are also great for destroying those annoying “all in all the time” donk players.

Low Pocket Power Explained

You have about a 6% chance of being dealt a pocket pair of any type. So on average you’ll get a pocket pair once every 16 or 17 hands.

1) When you get a pocket pair you then have about a 1 in 8 chance of hitting a set (three of a kind) on the flop.

2) Based on this you will be able to play a post-flop set approximately once in every 133 hands. At a 10 player table that equates to once every 13 small/big blind bets you deposit on.

3) In terms of playability you can play low pockets from all table positions with some provisos, namely, from Early only at a cost not more than the Big Blind, not more than 2x the BB from Middle and 3x the BB in Late Position.

4) Plus, the low pocket pairs are never a pre-flop cause for raising the big blind.

5) Also if you limp in from Early Position, or if you have called a 2x BB from Middle Position, and there has been a raise to 3x the BB, and there are five plus players left in the hand,then you should call 3x the BB bet from Early and Middle position.

Why?
When there are five plus players left there is a higher probability the flop will show 2 or 3 low cards.

This is true primarily because it’s logical to assume that the 5 or more players currently in the hand each hold one or more paint cards.

Then the set we get becomes powerful. This is especially so if it is a 2-9 set. Yes, Aces down to Tens are serious weapons too, but the chance to put a big hit on the opposition lies more in the lower pocket pairs, rather than the higher pocket pairs.

That’s because a lot of players don’t fear lower cards in the flop, now do you see where we are going with this?

Let’s use a sample hand illustrate low pocket power.
You are in Late Position and have pocket 5c/5h. There is a ‘bad’ player with Jh/7c and a ‘good’ player with Ad/Qd.

Our better player raises 3x the big blind and the poorer one calls, you also call, everyone else folds. The flop hits the board, and it contains Ah/Jd/5s; giving you a set of Fives. The good player bets 3x the big blind again.

The ‘bad’ player, raises by a factor of three; crazy as he’s holding the middle pair, and the ‘good’ player has betted into the flopped Ace. You call and so does the good player.

Now it is the Turn and the card is a 7d. It gives the ‘good’ player a nut flush draw (Ad/Qd/Jd/7d), and he holds the high board pair (Ad/Ah). It gives the ‘bad’ player two pairs (Jacks over Sevens). You have your set of 5c,5h,5s.

At this point you may be concerned that the River will bring a card to fill the flush or a J or a 7.

Don’t be! In total there are 9 flush-maker cards, and 4 full-house-maker cards, 13; less the remaining Five. It’s a flush-maker but will also give you quad Fives. Thus, there are 12 cards that would cause you to lose, and 34 cards that will bring you the pot. You’re about a 3 to 1 favorite to win.

The river helps no one. The ‘bad’ player moves all in and you call and take a large pot.

So how was it that this pocket 5 situation was so good?
It’s because the set of Fives was hidden; as will always be the case when pocket 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 6/6, 7/7, 8/8, and 9/9 are turned into sets by the flop (1 in 133; although that includes sets of Tens, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces).

Plus the fact that no one could have read the cards. You almost always slow-play it such that opponents, ‘bad’ or ‘good’, cannot identify the powerful set the flop created.

The power of low pockets is not very well known but is used by all pro players. After all, they win more money but do is under the radar so the pros are not going to shout about it!

So as a next step, go and practice low pocket pairs strategy on free online poker sites and then move on to low stakes and make money!

This free online poker games training lesson covers possibly the most popular area of all. What pocket cards to play, from what table position.

Fact - To win good money in lower stakes poker you don’t need to be a professional. Free poker and low stakes games get a constant flow of over-optimistic players many of whom quickly lose all their money. They lose their money to players lying in wait who have a solid grasp of core poker skills.

True, now and again one of these bad players will beat good players playing an insane hand like 4,7 unsuited but remember, this is the exception not the rule, it’s luck to them or to us, the extreme end of the probability curve. Overall, statistics prove that when you play only certain pocket cards from certain table positions you win over the long term.

A quick definition of Pocket Cards
Pocket cards are the 2 cards you get at the start of a hand, only you can see them.

The Evidence
A University of Chicago mainframe computer played 2 trillion+ 10 handed HoldEm games using all 2,652 combinations of 2 pocket cards. The results showed that certain pocket cards have a Negative Expected Value (-EV) i.e., they lose long term and others win long term with a Positive Expected Value (+EV)

However, before we can get into what pockets have +EV you need to know about the affect of Table Position.

Table Position is critical
Poker tables are divided into three areas: Early, Middle, Late. Which area you are seated in has a great effect on whether the pockets you have are +EV or -EV.

1) Early Positions are Small Blind, Big Blind and Under the Gun (UTG), UTG is the player on the left of the Big Blind.

2) Middle. Go from left of UTG and are simply Middle 1, 2, 3 and 4.

3) Late are Late 1, 2 and the Dealer Button.

For fast reference it is a good idea to code positions by 2 character codes: SB, BB, UG, M1, M2, M3, M4, L1, L2, and DB.

Critically pockets are playable or not in relation to the table position to which they are dealt.

Early Position. Pockets with +EV are:

AA
KK
QQ
AK suited
AQ suited
AK unsuited
Low pairs from 22 to 99

Every other possible pocket in Early position has a Negative EV.

Middle Position: M1, M2, M3, and M4

Pockets with +EV are:

The same as early, plus:

AJ suited
AT suited
JJ
TT
AQ unsuited
AJ unsuited
AT unsuited
Any suited picture cards, 10,J,Q,K.

Every other possible pocket in Middle position has a Negative EV.

Late Position

Pockets with +EV are:

Late is early plus middle plus:

A5 suited
A4 suited
A3 suited
A2 suited
A9 suited
And any 2 unsuited paint cards.

All others are negative, fold them

Other factors
All of the playable pockets by table position apart from AA and KK should only be used when the cost to see the flop does not exceed 3 times the big blind. Low pocket pairs; 22 though to 99 have some important blind cost rules but they need a lesson in their own right so look out for that later (not complex, don”t worry!).

To remember the playable pockets make a reference card to keep by your PC. It simply needs 3 sections. Early Position, middle and late position, with the associated playable pockets.

So get to it then, once you have playable pockets nailed down you can start to play with a lot more confidence, go look up low pockets now, then make a what poker cards to play reference card and get over to play some free online poker at NoPayPOKER.com to perfect your new skills.

This poker article is a review of free online poker games and is specifically looking at the quality of the games in terms of their usefulness as training aids for poker players wanting to play against real people for money online.

To clarify, what we are looking at are download poker games you play by yourself against the computer rather than the type of free online poker game downloads you’re able to play at most online poker sites that feature free practice play games against other beginners or people testing out strategies.

Our review focuses on the most popular download poker game about, that is the Governor of poker games collection and the links are going to parts 1 and 2, suitable for both pc and mac downloads..

Truly free?
Each game is $6.99 but you can try free before you decide as they give you a poker games free download complete version trial for pc and Mac, so there’s nothing to lose.

So what are these games all about? This is my summary, this is the publisher description which is the marketing pitch.

Governor of Poker One
Governor of Poker, is a poker game unlike anything you’re ever seen. Do you have what it takes to play against the Pro players of the old western? Dare to join a tournament or a cash game and perhaps bet ‘all in’. How do you think you’ll feel if you can totally clean out all the players, take all their money and even their houses, horses and land! Can you rise to the challenge and become the Governor of Poker and lord it over all Texas?

We bet after playing Governor of Poker you haven’t had enough! Then it’s time for Governor of Poker part 2 where you’ll find a ton of extra’s!

Governor of Poker 2
This sequel features many changes. Towns and become cities and many new people have arrived. It’s all good, but some things cannot be accepted just like that! Now there are loads more cities to conquer, more tournaments to play, interactive wallpaper, downloadable theme music and an extra Pro level of difficulty.

And the biggest challenge of all awaits. It’s the most exciting adventure in the Wild West, fighting the ban on Poker!

In Governor of Poker 2 you will also find a poker training tutorial feature. Play all new tournaments up to 120 opponents in 19 cities and 27 poker locations. It also includes a bounty hunter game, where you win cash prizes when eliminating an opponent or play against a whole team of players!

Plus you can set up your own tournaments and, for real risk takers, get bank loans. Travel by train, river casino boat or stage coach and play another game while travelling.

Get yourself customized hats for style and also to unlock new game locations. Judge your opponents based on new emotions, including nervous, on fire, steamy and tilt. And to regain your Governor status beat the 9 most notorious poker players in the west!

Player reviews - Is Governor of poker any good?
The reviews we have found for Governor of poker 1 and 2 have been mixed. It is a case of love it or hate it so we advise that you get the free poker games downloads trial, try it out and decide for yourself.

What does seem key is that it is more a game than a real life training sim. If you want real poker against people simulation and training then this is not quite there. For that you need to play the poker game free downloads for pc training games that you can find on most major sites, try NoPayPOKER.com for a beginning.

One area where the Governor of poker games can help even those who want real life simulation is with the processes of the different types of games and the terminology, so they are good for beginners as you can learn all about how poker works which can save you some blushes and maybe a few tart comments when you play against real people.

So you’ll be fully familiar with position, the blinds, betting, raising, folding and so on and hopefully an idea on what hands to play and NOT to play. Governor can also be set to a very hard skill level (as well as easy) so maybe it can help you get ready to go up against some hardcore players!

But if what you want is a fun poker game, one that is also suitable for kids to play then the Governor of poker series is one you should look at. Go get the Governor poker games free download for pc or Mac today.