Now in the How to play poker for beginners free poker coaching course we’re ready for ‘What Beats What’. When you learn to play poker this something you should memorize so that it is as natural as breathing.

The following is the hierarchical order of poker hands:

• 1st….a Royal Flush
• 2nd….a Straight Flush,
• 3rd….Four of a Kind
• 4th….a Full House
• 5th….a Flush
• 6th….a Straight
• 7th….Three of a Kind
• 8th….Two Pairs
• 9th….One Pair
• 10th….High Card.

Now, let’s fully comprehend each of the preceding rankings.

A ‘Royal Flush’, 1st in the hierarchy of hands, is a Ten/Jack/Queen/King/Ace in the same suit (all 5 cards must be either all diamonds, hearts, clubs, or spades).

A ‘Straight Flush‘, 2nd in the hierarchy of hands, is any 5 suited cards in a row; for example, a 5/6/7/8/9 of diamonds is a ‘straight flush’….so is an 8/9/T/J/Q of diamonds. And, while both are straight flushes, the straight flush with the highest card is the better hand. Thus, the Queen high straight flush would beat the Nine high straight flush.

Four of a Kind, 3rd in the hierarchy of hands, is four of the same card….like four Jacks (J/J/J/J), or four Tens (T/T/T/T), or four Deuces (2/2/2/2). Yet, keep in mind, that Jacks are higher than Tens or Deuces….so the 4 Jacks would win.

Next, a Full House, 4th in the hierarchy of hands, is three of a kind combined with a pair….like 3 Queens with 2 Sixes (Q/Q/Q/6/6). Or, 3 Sixes with 2 Queens (6/6/6/Q/Q). Yet, in that the 3 Queens are higher than the 3 Sixes, the Queen high Full House beats the Six high Full House.

Fifth in the hierarchy of hands is a Flush….5 cards in the same suit; like Q/9/8/4/2 of spades. Or, K/9/8/4/3 of spades. Yet, one beats the other….and, the win is determined by the highest card in the Flush. Therefore, given the above, the King high Flush wins.

Sixth in the hierarchy of hands is a Straight….5 cards in a row; like 3/4/5/6/7 (non-suited; if it was suited, it would be a Straight Flush). If there are 2 straights at the end of a hand, the player who holds the higher straight wins the hand; 9/8/7/6/5 beats 7/6/5/4/3.

Three of a Kind, 7th in the hierarchy of hands, is 3 of the same kind….like 9/9/9. Which, as I’m sure is now obvious to you, would beat 6/6/6. Similarly, Q/Q/Q would beat 8/8/8.

Two Pairs, 8th in the hierarchy of hands, is any double pairs that you might hold….like 9/9 and 6/6; or A/A and 3/3. And, again, now obvious to you, the hand with the pair of Aces over the pair of Threes would beat the hand with the pair of Nines over the pair of Sixes. It’s always the higher of the 2 pair that determines the winner.

Ninth in the hierarchy of hands is 1 pair.…and, a pair of Aces beats a pair of Kings, a pair of Tens beats a pair of Eights, and a pair of Sevens beats a pair of Fours.

Last, and 10th, in the hierarchy of hands is the High Card. And, it’ll be most infrequent that the winner of the hand is ending up with ‘The Pot’ because he/she held the High Card; meaning that no else who played got at least 1 pair.

Best of Luck at the Tables,

Michael.

(c) copyright; January, 2009; no reproduction, all rights reserved by D. M. Vadnais

So now you know! If you are not already a member of NoPayPOKER join and learn to play poker free online today!

NoPayPOKER is the world’s only FREE poker site where you win real cash on every game with utterly no danger of losing any of your own money. So it is the perfect place for beginners to learn how to play poker online for free! If you are more experienced then it is a great place to fine tune your game, test out new techniques or just grind away to win for real free poker cash with no downside risk.

Previous in the How to play poker for beginners series was part 4, poker words and nicknames.

Next - Part 6 in the free online poker How to play poker for beginners series is Moving on to Building a Bankroll the NoPayPOKER intermediate level poker lesson series.

If you’re ready, do keep going with the free online poker instruction but feel free to get stuck into some free poker practice games then there are loads of freerolls to have a go at on NoPay.

We have just released verion 3.9 of the poker software.  This version has the following changes:

- new website player-to-player FreeD Exchange system for buying and selling FreeDs

- password bug fix on tournaments and tables when changing client language

- 50% bankroll buy-in limitation on cash games for non-premium members

- new “High Roller” cash games introduced (with rake fees for non-premium members)

Enjoy!

OK, it’s time for some serous free poker learning! This is not a beginner article but if you are new read anyway, it will get your mind working in the background.

On a poker table, to reconstruct a hand is 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, so you can put them on a hand.

With poker shows now showing the hole cards, the player actions, the pot, and other statistics, a third-person analyst not participating can now reconstruct hands from his or own point of view, based on the other factors mentioned above.

So, for our first reconstruction, we shall discuss a 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, meanwhile, may interpret the call from early position as A-A or Q-Q, and because he has a big stack (the two are the biggest stacks in the table) he can afford to raise a little bit, because if the other player reraises and he thinks the other one has A-A, he can fold.

Also, K-K is a little bit unsafe if an Ace falls on the flop, so this may serve 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 usually 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 because there are only two cards which can conceivably help anyone, and also anyone there with a Three will be less likely to call. (Only an Eight will do.)

But with a board with bigger cards like our Flop, B could 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 will want to check on 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, because 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 trouble because he has a bottom Full House. A King can kill him.

What A is hoping, though, is that B backdoored a Heart Flush and just check it along with him.

But B moves all-in. This is a very intriguing move by B. A strong 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, because the board is double-paired, which can destroy Flushes because 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 that they 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 might 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 because of the 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.

It is important to play more unpredictably so you can gain chips later than to gain chips now, but be unable to get some later. I believe this is a brilliant reason.

So now you know! If you are not already a member of NoPayPOKER join today. You can learn to play poker online free on the blog and then put your learning into practice with no money risk (zero, nada)  whatsoever on the NoPayPOKER.com free online poker site.

Learn how to play poker in our Learn to Play Poker Online series of free poker articles from NoPayPOKER members, Pro players and the legendary D Michael Vadnais

NoPayPOKER.com is the world’s only FREE Texas Holdem poker site where you win real cash on every game with utterly no danger of losing any of your own money.

And here in the NoPayPOKER blog we’d like to teach you how to play poker online – For free!

The NoPayPOKER blog contains a complete course on poker, you can learn how to play for free (no membership required)

Then, put what you learn to use. Join NoPayPOKER here and put the theory into practice in a totally risk free poker environment.

• Advertising plays for the pots so that you don’t have to pay anything (it is not possible to deposit)
• You play with and for the site currency ($FreeD) that you can then cash in for real $$s later.
• As a result of this NoPayPOKER is USA legal too

So it is the perfect place for beginners to learn Texas holdem poker online for free!

If you are more experienced online poker player then it is a great place to fine tune your game, test out new techniques or just grind away to win for real free poker cash with no downside risk.

Here is our Learn to Play Poker progam, attention at the back now!

1) If you are not already a member of NoPayPOKER join here and learn to play poker free online today! You’ll get $20 FreeD as an instant bankroll so you can begin.

2) But hold on…if you a beginner, first read through the D M Vadnais series An Introduction To The Game – Poker 101.

3) Go and watch some games being played in the NoPayPOKER games software.

• Time spent in recon is never wasted as long as you don’t get stuck there.
• Don’t obsess over this, just get a feel for the territory and the “enemy”

4) During this time time read (for the first of many times!) the awesome series Building a Bankroll – OK you may not get a lot of it first time around but it will get your mind going the right way.

5) Make a start.

• Try some of the freerolls.
• You will find a schedule in the games software, they run 24-7.
• If you lose your FreeD don’t worry.
• You can do offers to earn more, check the offers section for ideas.
• You can get loads of FreeD if you join one of the money sites like Titan and PartyPoker who we are partnered with.
• If you do this take the FreeD for NoPay play, don’t go play at the money sites yet if you are new, you’ll only get whipped, play there is for later.

6) Keep playing and practising, to learn how to play poker is a lifelong trip that should never end, when you stop learning you’ll get stuck in a rut so keep playing and looking to learn.

Here are the current Learn to Play Poker Online resources on NoPayPOKER:

An Introduction To The Game – Poker 101
For poker beginners. If you don’t know your calls from your folds start here.

Building a Bankroll
Essential reading if you have any ambition at all to win money at poker. D M Vadnais takes you through the fundamental steps you must go through if you are to succeed. Read it!

World Of Brick and Mortar

• OK you’re doing great on NoPay.
• You’ve learned a lot about poker and winning and now it’s time to step up.
• In this guide D M Vadnais takes you through how to win in the real world, which, in his pro player opinion is far far superior (and profitable) than playing online poker.
• Read this, it’s an eye opener into the trembling hand, sweaty brow world that real hard men and hard women play in!

Starts June 2010: Expanding Your Bankroll
Masterclass time. D M Vadnais takes you through what you need to do to fine tune your game to perfection and make some serious money playing poker.

Poker Hands Analysed and Reconstructed.
Just started. Many articles on the way over the next 2 months. A brilliant series of articles from a NoPayPOKER member that looks in detail at the various hands work. How they work and what to do if you find yourself in such a situation. Advanced pro quality stuff.

User Articles – Best of the Rest

• Send us a poker article you’ve written yourself (don’t copy we spot copies easily)
• Every one accepted gets $50 FreeD.
• The best one every month wins $1000 FreeD with runners up each getting $100 FreeD.
• We publish the best of them here.
• Have a look there are some great free learn poker tips from the guys at the coalface.

So now you know! If you are not already a member of NoPayPOKER join and learn to play poker free online today!

Poker pro rocket scientist now you got it

23 Players battled in the NoPayPoker $5.50 Buy In With $250 Added tournament at FeltStars. Final Positions were:

Don’t despair if you didn’t strike it rich this time. We are running another $500 USD freeroll at FeltStars on the 19th June and another $250 Added on teh 20th June at Feltstars. Check out the details here http://www.nopaypoker.com/articles/index.php/feltstars/

In case you missed it here are all of the prize money winners:

And dont forget Sunday the 23rd at 6pm EST, 1pm GMT we are running the $250 USD Added Tournament at FeltStars where you can take out our resident professionals Vincer (Vincurrr) and MOTORH3AD (MOTORH3AD) for $1,000 FreeD each!

Make your way to FeltStars tomorrow at 1pm where you can enter the “NoPayPOKER $5.50 Buy In with $250 Added”.

You will also find two new NPP Pros who will be playing at FeltStars tomorrow and regularly in the future.

Give a big warm welcome to  -  Vincer (AKA Vincurrr at Feltstars) and MOTORH3AD (AKA MOTORH3AD).

This article about poker and luck was a runner up in the Febuary 2010 NoPayPOKER Free Poker Article contest. Member WRIG88 got $100 FreeD. See the poker article writing details page. All accepted articles get $50 FreeD plus bonus chips and the best may win $1000 FreeD or get a runner up prize of $100 FreeD.

In this article, I would like to try and give some insight into the age old battle of is poker a game of skill or luck. I have personally been a money and free online poker player for some 7 years. I have made some nice cash at times but I have also busted several bankrolls.

In my opinion a skilled player is one who can recognize betting patterns, understand flop odds, and percentages, and have a solid concept of strategy and theory. I have noticed however, not matter how well skilled one may be, you must account for variance, and sometimes aggressive, even poor play from others.

I believe in conclusion it is best to assume that poker is a combination of both skill and luck where the skill level of the player involved has a definite effect on the “luck” component of the equation in the medium and long term.

The assumption would be based on this conclusion that you have to be both pre flop aggressive, as well as post flop smart. Many times a player might find themselves in a position where they made the proper call, yet they find themselves behind due in part to an opponents luck hitting a one or two outer.

It is very difficult to try and overcome such a situation. This also can be attributed more toward online poker vs. traditional brick and mortar casinos because of the amount of hands dealt online. The action of online poker is much faster, and decisions must come much quicker.

Many individuals feel that they take more bad beats online as opposed to live play. This mathematically can be attributed to the number of hands both seen, and played. As well, there is a tile factor involved when one feels that they are being pushed too hard, or perhaps have suffered a bad beat.

The decision making can become irrational, and typical hands that would be thrown away are now played, or even pushed pre flop out of anger in trying to win back lost funds.

Others, who are skilled can pick up on such trends and play them to their advantage, which in turn leads to an even more increased loss, and in the eyes of the losing player, more bad beats which he feels was based on luck.

The successful poker player knows how to manage both aspects of the game. In effect you become able to manage probability (luck) by application of skill and so apply the old phrase beloved of annoying sales managers/gurus everywhere, “make your own luck”. Basically meaning that your skill flattens out the “bad luck” to the extent that you are up consistently in the medium and longer term.

And how to do this? Learn your skill on free poker sites before moving into micro and low stakes money games and beyond.

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PartyPoker has increased their May freerolls for NoPayPOKER Players!

On Saturday 29th May at 3pm EST all NoPayPOKER referrals who have deposited at PartyPoker can play the NoPayPOKER $500 USD 10 Fold Freeroll at PartyPoker.

On Sunday 30th May at 3pm EST everyone is invited to the NoPayPOKER $250 Added Buy-In Tournament which will cost $5+$1 to enter. We will have our PartyPoker/NPP Pro at that event and will have a special bounty on their head just to keep ‘em on their toes

Please note this amends the previous $500 USD freeroll that would have played on the 30th May.

What about the May 1st NoPayPOKER $500 USD 10 Fold Freeroll?

Believe it or not, only 20 players competed for the $500 Prize! This meant PartyPoker was giving away big prizes for next to no effort. Congratulations to the  following players for their wins

1. kraljevic01 won $250
2. paulpop888 won $150
3. francis1237 won €75.55

Don’t make the same mistake twice! Make sure to get your buns to PartyPoker on the 29th and 30th of May to clean up on some easy money!

This article about reading players was a runner up in the February 2010 NoPayPOKER Free Poker Article contest. Member Zombified got $100 FreeD. See the poker article writing details page. All accepted articles get $50 FreeD plus bonus chips and the best may win $1000 FreeD or get a runner up prize of $100 FreeD.

It is important to be able to sit down at any money or free texas hold em poker table, whether you’re online playing or at a real game and study your opponents. I believe patience is the number one key ingredient when it comes to reading players and most important when the game first starts.

Why you might ask? This gives you a chance to sit back and take mental notes on the player’s actions. This is very effective during the first half hour of a free roll tournament because a lot of players like to go all in and hope they win the pot. I myself will only call these players with a high pair, or suited low connectors because I’ve played them before, and they will go all in with any two hand cards given.

What Mental Notes You Must Start With

What mental notes you should take during the first 30 minutes or if moved to a new table in any poker game is moderately simple.

1. Determine what players are playing conservative and which ones are playing loose.
2. The ones who are playing loose are going to bet on almost every hand and call just about anything.
3. Those who are playing conservative will continue to fold until they get either the cards in hand they want or any pairs of AA’s, KK’s, QQ’s, JJ’s and any of them in combination.
4. How to read a player if he or she is bluffing can be difficult if you have not been paying attention to the game as can happen a lot on free poker sites or if you are playing multiple online poker games.
5. If you have been paying attention to the game you will have more of an advantage to who might be bluffing, and it will be obvious to you.

For example:

If you have an ace and king of spades…you will be feeling good about your whole cards. You are waiting for the other player to check or bet, to your surprise the player bets 400 chips when the pot is at 120 chips.

So you call the player and on the flop lands Queen of spades, Jack of Spades, and ten of hearts. The other player is either going to go all-in in order to make you think he/she has the winning hand. You know you got this won so you call the player’s bluff and on 4th street lands a 9 of clubs and on the river a king of diamonds. Well, you just won with an ace high straight while the other player had nothing.

This is very obvious but if you have been paying attention to all the players, and you were up against a more conservative player. They might try to buy you in by betting low not over the pot before the flop and after. These Players know what they are doing and most likely will have a full house against your ace high straight.

Here are some practical tips that I use.

Players who take too long and hold back to the last second to check are trying to miss lead you into thinking they have nothing (note: in online poker the player might be taking too long because he/she is playing multiple games.) and wait for you to make a bet worth calling. Filter these players out as this might be a habit for them.

Players who anticipate until the last second and raise you all in are trying to buy the pot with a decent pair hoping you don’t have any aces in your hand!

Everyone Knows a chip bully. Every table has one. The only way to knock a chip bully off his costly chair is not to be distressed of his/her large chip stacks. If you have it, go for it. Most likely, he/she is bluffing cause, they want to pilfer the pot or blinds.

All players have habits. All players will develop a pattern of betting structure out of habits.

What habits might they form?

A player that makes the initial raise and watches others fold and only two other players call his raise. The same player that made the initial raise won’t bet any higher or lower but the same amount. In the end, one of the other two players will fold and the player who made the initial raise will fold.

Another habit I witness now and then is that various players will lose 80% of their chip stack. They get upset because they had a substantial loss and choose to keep going all in until they lose or earn back some chips. These players have given up and gone on “tilt” best thing to do is to call them when the time is right be patient.

Some players are almost impossible to read because they Know they are being read and are always changing up their technique. Subsequently, they will repeat themselves. These players will take up most of your contemplating analyses.

In conclusion, I hope this article will help you fine tune your skills and have given you some strategies you can use of your own at the tables. No player is impossible to read but its the one who can’t read that make the game inexplicable (for themselves!)

My advice if you struggle with reading other players or if this is all new to you is to get in lots of practice in low risk games. Try low or micro stakes games or some online free poker NoPayPOKER games to get a feel for it all before committing any meaningful money.

See this free poker lesson for an advanced lesson on the mental side of the game and player note taking see the NoPayPOKER blog series by  D M Vadnais. Scary stuff!

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