You can easily go with your pals at a movie house and watch the latest film or you can simply hang out with your best buddies. There are moments when you don’t feel the need to socialize. In this case you can also do several interesting activities. You can play a game on your computer, you can stay on the web and chat with your best pals or with complete strangers.

But if you don’t like this kind of things and you like gambling and high stakes you can easily try to play online poker. On the internet there are numerous websites which are giving free poker money in order for you to play this game online. Playing on-line poker at times can be very fun.

This is the case when you play poker only to have a quick fun. The persons which are playing the game like this are not wanting to spend a lot in the game. In numerous situations online poker can become very annoying. Usually this happens when you are playing poker for large amounts of cash. The people who like to play the game like this they are taking it very seriously. Such persons are usually experienced poker players or persons which are very passionate regarding gambling.

It doesn’t matter if you play on the Internet free poker or in the conventional way because the game is great played in both versions. You can really have a lot of fun when you play it with a group of buddies or with your best mate. When you play poker with a group of friends things can turn out to be extremely entertaining. You have the chance to tell interesting tales or great jokes. The best thing about the game of poker is that can bring together very fast a group of friends.

The nice thing is that after a while they become good friends just because they share the same hobbies or passion. In the end it doesn’t matter which version of poker you prefer the most. As long as you are entertained by it knock yourself out.

For example, there’s an old story about a poker pro who was the sixth best player in the world but never made any money. That was because he chose to only play against the top five best players in the world. The moral of the story is that you make money when you possess a clear edge over your opponents.

Don’t be overconfident

Everyone wants to be the best and play the best. It’s a matter of pride. However, unless your name is Phil Ivey, you probably won’t have an advantage over every opponent in every game. It’s also important to recognize that even the top poker pros will sometimes step down a level and play lesser competition because it’s more profitable.

If you can’t beat players at lower level cash games, you shouldn’t try to play at higher level cash games. You’re going to go broke trying. Start out on free texas hold em games if you need to and work up from there.

This is true with online games as well as live card rooms. A great example I have of picking the right room is a time a few years ago when I found myself in a small resort hotel casino. The players there were pretty loose and passive and as a result with more aggressive play I was able to hammer them with larger bets that they were comfortable with and as a result doubled my money in 2 hours without even winning a pot simply by getting paid off for OK strength hands.

I also remember one time when I played for five hours in a $1/2 no-limit hold’em game at a five-star hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. I barely broke even. The players were tight and aggressive and played back at me when I tried to put a move on them. I knew afterward that I picked the wrong table.

What kind of game to look for

The first thing to keep in mind is your bankroll. If you can’t afford to play $5/10 live or $.50/1 online, then you shouldn’t do it. You should move down to a more affordable level even free online poker if necessary.

The second thing that you must be honest about is your skill level. You should ask: Can I beat the level that I’m playing? If the answer is “no,” then you should move down. Start with free texas hold em games if you need to, for beginners or anyone learning or practicing new techniques micro or free poker is a great way to get going.

Once you’ve decided the level you can beat, you then need to be choosy about the particular table you want to sit at. Ideally, you want to play at a table where you see players making a lot of fundamental errors like playing too many hands or playing too passively. A loose and passive table is probably the most profitable table. A loose game will allow you to win big pots because players will call you down with weak hands, and a passive game affords you the opportunity to hit your draws cheaply and bully your opposition.

It’s not always possible to find a passive loose table when you need it. But with a bit of surveillance you should be able to work out if a game is at a level you can compete strongly and win at. Yes, it’s good to be a good player but poker is about winning so it’s no good to be a good player beat by better players, instead aim to be a good winning player! So practise the game selection process first, look at micro and free texas hold em sites and work up from there.

Checks, bets, raises, calls, bluffs, and all-ins are still found and still exist with connotations like: to ‘bet’ is aggressive; to ‘raise’ more aggressive; to ‘call’ is never aggressive; to ‘check’ is still passive, unless you are plotting a raise after it. Bluffing, well that’s always aggressive. And then all in’s in no limit games are the most aggressive of all as far as many poker players are concerned.

But with the development and media frenzy many new terms have been invented to help fast commentary. For instance, where a commentator would say ‘check-raise’ today I imagine a 1970 commentator to have said in the same situation ‘He raised after a check.’ ‘Check-call’ may be ‘calling after checking’. 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” With this said I’m not implying these terms were not used before the poker explosion. 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. One example is, 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.

You may also 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 this case, your bluff works, with less danger than a traditional bluff, for a traditional bluff may involve more than the pot or even an all-in, while a value-bet-bluff involves just 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. Enjoy it but don’t go too far! 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!.

If you liked this and want to learn how to play poker more check out the NoPayPOKER.com blog which is full of free poker games articles and lessons. After that you can go put what you’ve learned into practice on the free online poker site.

Now I suppose in some situations it is fine. For instance if there is not much money in the main pot, or there is no raise-equity in making a bet. But I simply hate the play of checking it down just for the sake of moving up in the money. My personal opinion is it takes away from your chance to win the pot. You also can let the other opponents catch up to you, when they would have obviously folded to a bet. It is a much safer play and stronger play to bet instead of check if u have the hand. This way u wont loose any more than u have too.

The following part of this article will illustrate the significance of online free poker tournament bankroll skills.

It is very easy to stack-off all your roll by not following a few bankroll management skills. I have found that Chris “Jesus” Ferguson’s techniques work quite well. In this technique, you can only buy into multi table poker tournaments for no more than 2% or your total bankroll and Sit and Go poker games for 5% of your total.

At NoPayPOKER we suggest that in cash games you should not invest more than 3% of your total roll though Ferguson says 5% is ok. So it comes down to your attitude to risk at this point.

This is very important because good bankroll management is the key to success in online poker. It is also very important to move down in stakes if you go on a bad losing streak. This is problem the hardest thing you can try to do. Moving down in stakes is even more important than keeping a good roll management technique in mind.

For example, there’s an old story about a poker pro who was the sixth best player in the world but never made any money. That was because he chose to only play against the top five best players in the world. The moral of the story is that you make money when you possess a clear edge over your opponents.

Don’t be overconfident

Everyone wants to be the best and play the best. It’s a matter of pride. However, unless your name is Phil Ivey, you probably won’t have an advantage over every opponent in every game. It’s also important to recognize that even the top poker pros will sometimes step down a level and play lesser competition because it’s more profitable.

If you can’t beat players at lower level cash games, you shouldn’t try to play at higher level cash games. You’re going to go broke trying. Start out on free texas holdem poker games if you need to and work up from there.

This is the way of it online and offline. I remember one time, for instance when I came across a $1/2 no limit Texas Holdem game at a minor casino in a small Florida town. In 2 hours I just about doubled my money while not taking a single pot. The players there were very passive and loose and I was able to pressure them with large bets and got paid off for relatively strong hands. This is a great example of picking the right table!

I also remember one time when I played for five hours in a $1/2 no-limit hold’em game at a five-star hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. I barely broke even. The players were tight and aggressive and played back at me when I tried to put a move on them. I knew afterward that I picked the wrong table.

What kind of game to look for

The first thing to keep in mind is your bankroll. If you can’t afford to play $5/10 live or $.50/1 online, then you shouldn’t do it. You should move down to a more affordable level even free texas hold em if necessary.

Next, your skill. Be honest now, can you compete at this level? If you can’t or are not sure (and not sure means you probably can’t) then drop down a level or even 2. If needs be play free texas holdem or micro stakes in order to hone your skills and build self confidence.

Once you’ve decided the level you can beat, you then need to be choosy about the particular table you want to sit at. Ideally, you want to play at a table where you see players making a lot of fundamental errors like playing too many hands or playing too passively. A loose and passive table is probably the most profitable table. A loose game will allow you to win big pots because players will call you down with weak hands, and a passive game affords you the opportunity to hit your draws cheaply and bully your opposition.

You won’t always be able to find a ridiculously loose and passive table. However, with a bit of observation, you can probably figure out how beatable a game is before you sit down. It’s good to be a good player, but being a money-making good player requires skill in the fine art of game selection. If you’ve not really looked at games this way before practice games selection on micro, low or free texas hold em sites first before working up.

The basic’s are pretty much the same with three simple rules that are bet, bet, and bet. Pre-flop you want to bet the pot as much as you can with your big hands and call the minimum with most everything from low suited connecters on up in the later positions. After the flop you want to bet with any made hands or draws equal to or greater then a flush draw taking the strength of the finishing hand into consideration.

The main idea is to just bring up the pot as much as you can whenever you think you may win the hand. The pro and con of limit hold’em is that it is much easier to chase a hand to the river for both you and your opponent and this is the reason that you should just bet, bet and bet. They will get their share and you will get yours when the time is right. Hopefully this guide will help, give it a go, on a free poker site if you can and see how it goes and above all have fun!

Bluffing can reward you or demolish you.
When playing with real money, I would be extra careful when it comes to bluffing. I will discuss my ideas and concepts of bluffing in no limit money and free texas holdem poker.

Here is the first lesson of bluffing that I find works most of the time (if done right) It’s the gut feel after an opponent checks after the flop, turn or river that they have nothing so you can bet confidently.

The best way to demonstrate this is when you are playing someone heads up. If there are only two of you and you have top pair or top kicker, you are most likely to win. The reason is because the other person only has two cards out of the deck just like you so the chances are slim. When you bluff against a heads up player, make sure you know something about that player, so you know when to bluff at just the right time.

Next, you have to understand what is at stake when you produce a bluff. If you push all in and you know you do not have the best hand, you must consider the worst. You may get lucky, or you may not. Bluffing is similar to betting on red or black in roulette, it’s a fifty-fifty chance. If you are bluffing in fun free poker you may think it does not matter because it is not real, true maybe but you’ll never become a very good poker player with that approach and you will never move beyond the free poker level.

Bluffing is only part of the game but can never be mastered. Even the poker professionals would agree that even they still do not know when to make a bluff or not. Sometimes it is hard to tell if someone is slow playing you or they just simply do not have anything.

Third, another concept of bluffing is the persistent value bet method. During this method, you are betting on nothing from the flop all the way to the river hoping they will fold if they have chased their hand. If you bet the same amount on the flop and turn but bet a little higher on the river with your bluffing hand, the other person is most likely to fold their hand to you. But again, this does not always have the same outcome every time.

Finally, my favorite part of bluffing is when you try to produce a bet that seems like a bluff, but is not. The best bluff bet is the famous all in or the bet pot. Also, if you are playing with the same group of cash or free texas holdem poker players on a regular basis, you can change up your style by betting an amount they would not expect. The best way to get as much as you can get from someone out of a hand is to simply call all the way and go all in on the river, hopefully they will think you missed what you were chasing and they will call.

In closing, I hope you now understand a bit more about bluffing as a whole. It is one thing to be a poker professional but being a bluffing poker professional is an entire different world. Bluffing is either something you are good at or not. If bluffing works for you most of the time, you may be just lucky or you may truly have the gift of bluffing mastered. But just remember, the most important concept to understand about bluffing is that it will NOT always be successful.

If poker of bluffing is new for you be sure to get low or no risk practice in first. Try it on, test, fail, succeed and learn on free texas hold em sites before you start to try and bluff with real money!

The first concept of bluffing will most likely work 80 to 90 percent of the time if done correctly. If you have that “gut feeling” after someone checks after the flop, turn or river that they do not have anything, then you should bet any amount. The best way to demonstrate this is when you are playing someone heads up. If there are only two of you and you have top pair or top kicker, you are most likely to win. The reason is because the other person only has two cards out of the deck just like you so the chances are slim. When you bluff against a heads up player, make sure you know something about that player, so you know when to bluff at just the right time.

Next, you have to understand what is at stake when you produce a bluff. If you push all in and you know you do not have the best hand, you must consider the worst. You may get lucky, or you may not. Bluffing is similar to betting on red or black in roulette, it’s a fifty-fifty chance. If you are bluffing in free poker, you may think it does not matter because it is not real, but that does not make you a very good poker player. Bluffing is only part of the game but can never be mastered. Even the poker professionals would agree that even they still do not know when to make a bluff or not. Sometimes it is hard to tell if someone is slow playing you or they just simply do not have anything.

Third, another concept of bluffing is the persistent value bet method. During this method, you are betting on nothing from the flop all the way to the river hoping they will fold if they have chased their hand. If you bet the same amount on the flop and turn but bet a little higher on the river with your bluffing hand, the other person is most likely to fold their hand to you. But again, this does not always have the same outcome every time.

Finally, my favorite part of bluffing is when you try to produce a bet that seems like a bluff, but is not. The best bluff bet is the famous all in or the bet pot. Also, if you are playing with the same group of players on a regular basis, you can change up your style by betting an amount they would not expect. The best way to get as much as you can get from someone out of a hand is to simply call all the way and go all in on the river, hopefully they will think you missed what you were chasing and they will call.

In parting I trust you have a better idea of bluffing and how a simple concept has many levels, and these levels split the world of poker. It’s one thing to be a decent poker player and another to be a decent bluffer. It takes a certain amount of time to know if you’re good at bluffing or just have a considerable amount of beginners luck. The bottom line is bluffing will only get you so far and whether your playing money games or free poker; just remember only bluff what you can afford to lose.

One common mistake that I see players make is failing to account for how the size of their chip stack may dictate how to best play their hand. When I started playing free poker more than five years ago, I made the same mistake.

The optimum play with a particular hand depends on many factors including your chip stack. A good move for someone with a large chip stack could be a dangerous move for someone with a tiny chip stack.

To put it plainly: size matters. That is not to say that bigger is indeed better. Being “deep-stacked” has its advantages, but small stacks can be equally effective at the cash and free poker table.

A Deep Stack Expands Options

For the sake of this article, I will define deep stacks as stacks that are roughly 125 big blinds or more. Others may define a deep stack as a bit less or more than that number of big blinds, but almost no one would consider a stack of 35 big blinds or less to be a deep stack.

I generally subscribe to the notion that deep-stack play is better than small-stack play. Most professional pokers would agree.

This is because deep stacks give you more room to take advantage of implied odds. In other words, you’re allowed more freedom with regard to starting hand requirements. You can play small pocket pairs hoping to flop your set or small suited connectors hoping to flop a flush or straight. If you miss the flop, you can fold and wait for a better situation. You can be more patient because the blinds aren’t much of a concern; they won’t eat up your chip stack that much.

Another benefit of being deep-stacked is maximizing your profits. If you have the biggest stack at the table, you can extract the most possible chips from your opponents. This is not true for short stacks.

Let’s look at an example: If you’re the largest stack with $800 chips and a player calls your all in bet with his $500 in chips, and you win, then you take all the cash.

Now another example: If you are the smaller stack with $600 and the larger stack with $900 calls your all-in bet and you win, you can’t take all the money. He’ll be left with $300 because you don’t have enough money to play for all the chips.

That’s one of the pitfalls of the short stack, but there are some benefits.

A Shorts Stack Encourages Tight, Hyper-Aggressive Play

If you don’t have many chips behind you, you’re forced to basically play for all your chips in every hand you play. This forces you to play premium hands like big pocket pairs and big face cards. You often won’t be getting the right price to play small pocket pairs and suited connectors. Those hands need to see the flop cheaply, and every hand played is expensive for a short stack. I find it good to practice short stack play on free poker sites.

The best move is to get all your chips in the middle with big pairs before the flop or to shove when you hit top pair on the flop. You don’t have the opportunity to wait because the blinds will eat you alive.

One obvious advantage of this essentially all-in or fold strategy is that it forces you to play tighter. Another advantage of this style of play is that it’s harder to get outplayed by more skilled post-flop players. Your decisions are simple: push or fold. You don’t need to worry about the subtleties of the game like betting the right amount or knowing when to fold the second best hand.

There’s also the strange psychological advantage you will have. For some reason, many deep stack players don’t treat short stack players with much respect. They assume that you’re buying in for a small amount because you have a small bankroll or aren’t very skilled. It’s not unusual for the big stack to pay off a short stack player by calling with weaker than usual hands.

I still believe that deep stack play is better, but I’ve faced some tough short stack players and wouldn’t underestimate their abilities so be careful! If you are new, check out how stack sizes can affect play by starting your career on the micro stakes and free poker game side of thing and progressing from there as your confidence, skill and bankroll grows.

Poker, mainly Texas hold ‘em, has been pushed on the public almost too much. Everyone thinks they’re going to be the next great champion. Now sometimes I’ve seen players get frustrated because the person they’re losing to just started learning how to even play the game.

But for me, it’s not even so much that anymore. I feel a lot of the challenge has just been taken out of the game. There are a lot of people nowadays who just don’t know, or don’t care, what they’re doing. People flop bottom pair, middle pair, top pair with BAD kicker, gutshot straight draws, open ended straight draws, flush draw with two cards in their hand, or even flush draws with one card in their hand. Sometimes, they don’t even flop anything. And, they have no excuse why they may even call a bet to go any further, but they do.

What grinds me is this new breed of player has no business playing for any kind of bet, but does, why? Because they either believe they know what they’re doing or believe their lucky charm will carry them through.

As stated before these players all have ambitions and harbour dreams of becoming the next big thing. These guys seek and chase the feel of hitting their cards for victory. Alternatively if there dreams stop short of being the next poker ace, they think of the new riches they’re destined for.

I do place a lot of blame on free online poker sites. People watch/play these sites so much and see bad hands get rewarded so often. That’s where most bad play comes from.

Ok- maybe I jumped the gun a bit by laying into free online poker sites- as I understand the reasoning for poor play taking home the pot. The methodology is continuation, and they must ensure people go onto the next table asap.

So what happens? Most end up seeing that miracle gutshot hit. Or the one outer hit. Or even worse; the runner, runner (nothing funner) hit. I just wish I could find a site that wouldn’t allow that to happen so, so much. But I never know if my desire will return. Even if I could find a site like that, there’s always the “other” problem. The vast number of players out there who really have no business gambling like that with real money involved. But who am I, or you, or anyone, to judge what might make other people happy?