Free Online Poker Starting Hands Lesson

You understand the way the game works now you are going to play the first game – but stop – are you about to make a Common beginners mistake – Playing too many hands

So what sort of cards should you play as starting hands and when?

The Big 4

• > AA
• > KK
• > QQ
• > AK

The big 4 are what we all want to see! Winning is not certain even with them but it’s a damn good start! They’re especially strong against the medium power hands weak players play all the time.

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Poker Ups and Downs By Shadowsee

You can’t win them all. Heard that all my life and know it to be true in every aspect of life. People who take fewer chances suffer fewer losses, but also they tend to miss out on opportunities. I have a cousin who married his first girlfriend, so you might say he went all in first hand. It looks like he won, great kids and still married 25 years later. Of course that’s just how it looks, never know whether he or his wife ever wonder if they missed anything.

What’s that got to do with poker? Well, if you don’t bet u don’t lose, you win one hand and call it good you are a winner, so to speak, with a 100% winning average, but man it’s going to be dull from then on. To get the full, rich experience of a veteran player, you have to take some risks.

Having said all of that, and there’s no charge for it by the way, I need to inform you that there is a down side to taking risks. Sometimes you lose. Oh, I know, you’re thinking “duh”. It’s funny though how upset we get sometimes even when we know that losing is always a possibility. People get so mad at times they don’t speak to anyone, or even worse they do, and the things being said just aren’t nice.

That’s the main purpose behind this article really, to point out that the rewards of winning are sweeter for the pain of losing, and that you have to take the good with the bad, even better if you can do it gracefully.

Not only will you have more fun that way, but you will be more fun to play with. You may have friends here, friends who will be with you through all the ups and downs, in poker and in life.

*** And if losing money is too much of a risk then that’s what NopayPOKER is here for. Play free online poker for fun with your only risk being your time NOT money (and you can win some real money too)

This new free online poker training lesson looks at how you should approach bankroll management when you play poker online for real cash rather than free poker online tournaments and ring games.

Of course the principles also apply to free online poker and I advise that all new players should play at NopayPOKER as it is an ideal place to practice your game and bankroll management, however the focus of this how to play poker lesson is money games where your skill in bankroll management is the largest single factor in deciding if you are profitable or bankrupt.

Bankroll Basics
Some basics first. A bankroll is your total funds into a poker account. It’s a fact of poker that now and again you will suffer a series of bad beats, therefore you need to have a bankroll that is big enough, in relative terms to the games you play to keep you afloat and able to play when you get hit by a run of bead beats. The key is to be realistic with the amount that you can bring on a table per game. Do not play beyond your means because it is the best method of accumulating frustration and lose even more.

Bankroll Goals and objectives
Growing your bankroll is your main objective. Yet, in their impatience to achieve this, many players make the error of entering poker tournaments they cannot afford to lose at. The prize money in the multi-table tournaments are often very interesting. If we win, our bankroll rises dramatically but this is rarely the case. You will lose all your bankroll in a short period of time if you don’t follow the rules. Then, with no money you will be stuck doing very small freerolls in order to get back again and that is a long and boring road.

Bankroll Rules
It is recommended to bring only 5% or less of your total bankroll on Cash Game tables and around 2% Buy In or less for tournaments (Sit n Go and Multi-table). When you stick to these percentage rules, as long as you play a solid game your bankroll will increase slowly but steadily. The mistake many make is to try and go too far too fast by risking too much of a percentage, they lose (which is more often than not in poker) and the bankroll gets cleaned out before it can be replenished.

It is impossible to win every time. As a rule when things are going badly it’s good to stop playing for an hour and do something else. When you will return, the game may be in your favor. Focus on leaving negativity aside, anger or frustration in poker games is a sure way to lose it all. Opponents can spot this sort of weakness like sharks smelling blood and will not be slow to take advantage you.

Cash Game:
The main game many play is the Cash table. They can be long duration and boring at times and you will find all styles of player in them. You need to know how to adapt to each type of players in order to win as frequently as possible. Overall cash games will pay you more money in the long term than tournaments. The key to them is not winning big but winning often.

Even if the gains are large or small, what matters is to leave the table with a profit. In cash games you will find that your funds go up and down slowly so it is essential to be disciplined. Never bring more than 5% of your funds on a table. If you are playing 2 tables then assign only 2.5% per table. Playing on more than 2 table is not recommended because you will start to play your cards without real focus on the game of your opponents.

Sit n Go:
Sit n go’s (SNGs) can be good earners when you play the right type. Find tournaments where there are large stacks and the play is normal speed, by this I mean Blinds increase every ten minutes or so. Such tournaments will let you see more pre-flop meaning you can play only the better hands. In games like Turbo’s where the Blinds go up fast luck becomes a bigger factor more than strategy and relying on luck means you are gambling and gambling is not good business. If you play with luck then you may as well just play roulette.

Multi-Table:
Multi-table tournaments are tournaments which look attractive but where a lot of players go away without a profit. Luck can sometimes give you a good profit but it is not something to rely on as this type of tournament can really hammer your bankroll quickly. The variance (or probability range swings) in MTTs is simply too high and my advice is to avoid them. Maybe play them every now and then if you feel luck is with you but just for fun with a little bit, perhaps 1%.

Critical Tips:
The most important rule should be to have fun. Poker is largely a game of luck blended with probability, there is nothing secured. If you have no fun, you better stop for a moment, your cash will not run away. It is best to reload emotionally before reloading monetarily.

And rehearse your bankroll management on free poker sites such as NoPayPOKER.com  and benefit from all the free online poker training we offer you will find there, this can help your greatly when you are playing for real money.

In Texas Hold’em real money and free online poker games intermediate connectors such as 8,7 and 7,5 are played as they are the best hands with which you can hit a Straight with. With 8-7, you can form four Straights (three of them nuts), and with 7-5 you can form three Straights (two of them nuts). In this free online poker coaching article we’ll look at ways to play these hands.

Intermediate connectors are not played as strongly when they Pair. For example, if you have 8-7 and the Flop comes K-7-2, you can be justifiably concerned with the King and you can 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 person with A-K in trouble.

If both of you continue until the end, and your opponent’s hand doesn’t improve, he will slow it down trying 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 (in your interest) is for your opponent to call all-in or move all-in on the Flop (during tournaments). However, this is only so if the difference in chips between you and your all-in opponent is great. 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 may 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 better. If one stack is small and the other large, and you have the small stack then you have a good hand someone holding an A-K may be willing to call. If you have the large stack, your all-in opponent may be desperate for a call with his A-x (without Two-Pair) until he knows you have him steamrollered.

Usually you continue playing Two-Pair until you hit a Full House. With that hand, play it as if you would play a made five-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, Six or Nine, your Two-Pair may be almost unplayable.

During the Flop, bet substantially to push a Straight draw out. If your opponent calls, it may 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 can also hit a Full House later. But also you can choose not to call because your opponent may have a made Straight. In an 8-7-5 board, the possibility of a Flopped Straight is quite low because players do not play 9-6 or 6-4 that much.

But you should be careful in a Board of 8-7-J or 8-7-4, because 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, as long as you are sure, or even half-sure, that your opponent doesn’t have the Six, bet a small bet on the river. If your opponent has 9-8 or Q-x, you may be paid off.

If your opponent had the Six, you may be pushed, but you can fold without losing much. The thing is, you should 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 have the Six, he may think that you had the Six, and he may fold, too.

And finally, here is an addendum to our earlier example. If 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 doesn’t 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 is a fairly complex subject so if you’re not quite getting it then go play free poker at NoPay 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 free poker games we’ll look at why understanding why and where to play what cards is one of the critical parts of poker success.

In addition taking account of other players position is equally important. For example, if a player in early position flat calls the blind it is a sure sign that one of 2 things is going on (A flat call, incidentally happens when you just call a bet same amount where a raise seems appropriate or expected.)

1) Either the player has no clue what he’s doing or (2), he is slow playing a somewhat major hand. Why you can make this wager is, in most cases, because the correct move with a strong hand in early position is a 3-4x bet of the blind in the hope that others will raise so he can re-raise.

In late positions players can often call with hands like 3-4 suited, 5-7 suited, 8-10 suited, just about any hand which is better then complete junk. The reason for this is because with less players after you there is a far lower chance that you’ll be raised out of the hand.

This is the same reason that you do not want to call with mediocre hands in an early position. Now and again you will just be throwing your money away. When the table is aggressive don’t even give a second thought to laying down that J-10 off suit.

In middle positions you may use your own discretion as this is the middle ground as it were. For those who don’t know at a 9 person table early would be the first 3 players, middle will be the next 3 and late is last 3 players. Also having the button means that you will be last to act so if your style is aggressive with a good amount of well planned bluffs or if you have a read on a weak player that is easy to push over you will want to have the button as it is easier to bluff last to act.

To learn how to play poker free and practice your position play NoPayPOKER is the ideal free poker online to learn on and see how playing or folding certain cards and hands affects your game and results. Only once you are happy with it should you venture into real money poker and risk your hard earned green!

Many believe that to win money or online poker free tournaments you must chip up as quickly as possible.

On the other hand there is a school of thought that maintains it is best to be passive for the first few rounds so as to allow the maniacs and donks to eliminate themselves in the initial blinds.

I am not sure that either of these strategies are correct or incorrect but neither works well for me. In this article I will outline what does work for me and hope it helps you win more at the poker tournament tables.

Where both the fast chip out and passive strategies are 100% correct is that the early hands in a poker tournament are critical to the overall result. Where I disagree is that neither of these strategies will work all of the time.

Both early chip out and passive start approaches can be seriously affected by local conditions such as the player mix and the simple fall of the cards. I try and play a more measure pace somewhere in the middle of the 2 schools of thought.

I feel that early on you need to play quite tight, top 10-15 hands and pocket pairs only, but you need to play them aggressively. Aim to build your pot early on so that you can take it down later you know you have the edge.

You should muck all other hands preflop and forget about them. Yes, forget them, that’s because say you fold a marginal hand like 6h 7h that you’d normally play in a tournament and the flop gives 345 rainbow you’ll go tilt really quickly and be in danger of losing chips badly.

Later in a tournament it is advisable to play these hands as throughout a long tournament suited connectors will probably be your biggest money makers. For now, however, you need to play safe and stay in the game while other people are throwing chips away and being eliminated.

Make sure that you try and maintain a decent size stack relative to the other players and never get too far behind or our final table hopes will be dashed ahead of the bubble.

How you maintain this optimum stack size is actually straight-forward, particularly in online play. We will play tight-aggressive-aggressive and monitor the biggest stack, smallest stack, number of players in the tournament and the average stack size.

What we need to do before the first bubble is merely stay alive to make it into the cash. The way to do this is to watch these things rather closely and, by playing your hands properly, maintain your stack at or a little above the average.

I’ve had people tell me that this won’t work as you can’t make the final table this way. Untrue! If you’re stack is always at the average you are forever in the top 50% of the remaining player in the tournament, this means that when the final table begins you are sitting in 4th or 5th place and poised to take the larger stacks. I play this plan in both live and online play and it works rather well for me.

Play after the bubble is slightly different as you still want to maintain that average+ stack but by now the average class of players you’re facing will have gone up too.

Now it’s time to open up your hand selection a little bit. If you can get in cheap, say 1-2 BBs, you now want to play any top 20-25 hands as well as any suited connectors from any position, off suit connectors can now be played from late position as well.

Keep in mind that when I say connectors I mean cards that really connect, i.e., 6h,7c are connectors while 6h,8c would not be, lots of people get confused by this saying that these cards do connect and while they are able to connect to create a straight you’re now drawing inside and hurting your chances. You’ve much better odds of making that straight with 6,7 than you do of making it with 6,8.

I really hope this helps you with your poker tourney play, if you’re a new comer to poker tournaments then I advise you to learn to play free poker and at no risk of cash loss at a free online poker tournaments games site first before moving onto cash play.

In poker online free games where there are many inexperienced players who don’t have the poker skills needed to win frequently by skill a good player deploying solid ABC poker will win a lot of games. Against experienced players, even in some free poker games online and for certain in cash games, ABC poker won’t work so well.

To win frequently you need at mix new methods into your game. One tactic that you can employ to confound skilled poker players is the ‘light’ three-bet.

It serves a very different purpose than the typical ‘value’ three-bet in which you raise with premium pre-flop hands like aces, kings, queens, or ace-king. With those kinds of hands, you’re looking to extract the maximum value from a strong hand before the flop.

The ‘light’ three bet is a really different sort of move altogether.

Purpose

When you “light” three-bet, you’re re-raising with a hand that may not be the best before the flop but may turn out to be the best when all is said and done. The Light-3 bet then is a type of semi-bluff, but only semi as the hand is not total rubbish.

You want to win the hand before the flop with your re-raise, steal the hand from your opponent after the flop, or get lucky and make up a big hand.

Even if it fails you will succeed in affecting your table image and balancing your range. Should you play too tight you will find it hard to get your pay off when you get a Big Hand. But if you Light-3 bet the other players will not think you’re a nit.

They won’t know whether you have pocket aces or a hand that may be much weaker.

Ideal Opponent

You don’t want to use the “light” three-bet against a poor player. You do not need to get sophisticated with them, if you have good poker skills you can beat them with your ABC solid tactics.

You do want to use the “light” three-bet against a good player who plays somewhat loose. Since the player will play a wide opening range of hands, he’ll be playing less than premium hands frequently. Oftentimes, this type of player will lay down his hand when you “light” three-bet. He wants to steal pots. He doesn’t want a confrontation.

Ideal Hand

You obviously don’t want to “light” three-bet with the worst starting hand possible. Although, some young online pros have been seen to “light” three-bet with all sorts of trashy hands.

Ideally, you’ll want to “light” three-bet with suited connectors or suited aces. Even when you miss the flop, you may pick up a strong enough draw to allow you to stay in the hand the hand. If you “light” three-bet with 7-2 off suit, it’s essentially a stone cold bluff with no real outs.

Summary and Warning
You ought not risk the “light” three-bet too much and without an understanding of the intention of the tactic. You should play a generally solid game but still generate enough action to get paid off with your good hands. If you “light” three-bet too much, you’ll just develop into another weak, loose player who bleeds money at the table.

If you’ve not tried the light 3 before practice it when you play free poker first and work it into your cash game repertoire when you feel confident in its use. If you’re new to poker learn how to play poker for beginners first at a online poker free site and learn this sort of tactic in the process.

Despite the fact that I started playing free poker tournaments on NoPayPOKER my early days were not much fun. I assumed that the other players knew what they were doing and followed their all-in-all-the-time ways, as a result I lost all my chips very quickly.

Not a financial disaster it is true, after all it was poker online free play stuff but for me it felt nearly as bad as my goal was to make cash from poker after doing the play free poker to learn thing, now I was faced with not even being able to cut it in the free poker game, my ambition seemed destined for failure from the start. And my pride was pretty bruised too!

In this article I will tell you what I did to get past the early blues and win first in the free poker games and then on cash games.

Firstly, when you join a free poker site, hang out there for a while but don’t play yet, familiarise yourself with it, how it works, the poker games on offer and the players and how they interact. Watch a few games, and get a feel for the general speed of the games and players.

Don’t start off big and if someone goes all-in, don’t follow because you feel you have to. Assess your cards and play the hand you have not the one you wish you had! Make a decision and stand by it.

If you have what you feel is a good hand, don’t be pushed out of the game by the All In crew. These are mainly new players like your-self or just people messing about.

A little tip that hasn’t failed me yet:
Value your cards. Give the pocket cards (the first cards you get) a value according to your chips. For example, say you have 1000 chips, lets call an Ace as value 300, King 290, Queen 280 and so on, set your own values. If they Pair up, the value becomes one card value plus half. So 2 kings will be 435 (290 + 145). Once the first round of the hand is done and you get to the stage where 3 new cards are laid on the table (called the Flop), you revalue your cards.

If you’re not confident, then click check and do not raise your bet. Only call if the cards are worth the risk.

On the turn of the forth card, known as the TURN, check the cards and if they are worth it start to raise your bet. The turn of the final card (known as the River Card) is the most important card of the game.

Unless you’re all-in at this time, your bet could decide the outcome. A sharp rise could force the less confident players out of the game. After you’ve been playing a while you will know by now how confident they are by their bets.

But remember; don’t over value your cards. Obviously Three of a kind is good, along with a flush or straight. But 4 of a kind is normally a winner.

A good poker player reads the cards and players well; a bad one goes all-in straight away. Only bet what you can afford whether they free chips or paid for chips.

Here is an interesting free poker games strategy you can try in “trial mode” on NoPayPOKER that’s modelled on roulette strategy  that you might want to have a go at to see if it works for you.

Roulette as you may know isn’t a game that can be won like poker, it’s basically a coin flip for red-black or straight % for the various number sets, yet a simple, we could call it, investment formula used by savvy roulette players can be used in poker to great effect. Read on and give it a try in free poker games first to see if it works for you.

When first investigating this idea I was surprised just how much math and strategy roulette fans are prepared to try in order to win a casino game that is fundamentally not winnable on mathematic basis!

Then I thought that as poker is a game where math and profit can work why not try to apply some roulette investment basics to poker and find out if it works.

Firstly I thought about progressing bet-sizes, which are meant to ensure, that you win roulette even when you lose several bets in a row. For instance: You bet 1 piece on black and you lose. Then you bet 2 pieces on red and lose again. Now you put 4 pieces on black and it wins. The result is that you have bet 7 chip for a return of 8 pieces from your last bet and made a profit from a small 33% win rate.

How to include this in poker strategy
For instance, lets use it in SnG tournaments. Starting with a short buy in, advancing to higher buy-ins, if you lose. As you can’t only play heads up, but 6-max, full-ring or even multi-table SNGs, you may not need to raise buy in after each loss.

For example: You play a 6 player SnG for $1 and lose. You play again and if you place 1st get $3.90 or 2nd $2.10 and therefore have gained win or at worst broke even and can rewind and play again at £1. If you lose, play again for $2 and so on.

I think this system could work very well if you can find a range of games with costs to suit the structure and populated by players of a skill level you can compete with. When you get to your profit then, depending on how much profit you have you can either begin again at the entry level or go back in at the next cost step up and aim to increase your profit take in your next “round”.

I believe this is a simple and profitable strategy. If you are excited about playing this method be sure to look at the payout you can get at your favourite poker site and factor in the effects of rake back. Then map out which tables and games will fit the plan and where you can break even or win by placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so forth. Remember, you don’t need to play games end on end, there isn’t any time rule here, and games may be hours or even days apart to suit your schedule and that of suitable games.

One key point is to try it out safe first, play free poker games on NoPay first. Do this to get used to table and game selection and to prove it to yourself in order to get trust in the system. And if you are new to poker you first need to learn how to play poker for beginners before you can use this so get on over to a good free poker site and get learning.

No matter what type of poker game you play, free poker games at NoPayPOKER or casino money tables you’ll find 4 main player types by way of their psychology, playing style and philosophy, you too fall into one of these groups. They are tight-passive, tight-aggressive, loose-passive and loose-aggressive,

Within each type there are gradations, for example, probably the most extreme loose-aggressive is termed the “maniac”, this is a player who plays most hands and raises all the time, almost no matter the cards he’s got.

All poker players have a natural tendency to play a certain way. For most players this natural tendency will make them lose money as it makes them play too many or too few hands, makes them too aggressive or passive in many hand situations. All styles have a time and place and good poker players are the ones who can switch styles in order to maximize their chances.

As a first step to improvement you need to identify your natural playing tendency. It is also important to learn to recognize the style of the players who sit at your table so you can counter them in the most effective manner and exploit their shortcomings if they are weak.

Loose-passive
The loose-passive player calls many hands pre and post flop. He wants to lay in as many hands as possible, and will try to hold on to the bitter end while not the slightest chance of winning. Loose-passive players are also generally known as “calling stations”.

Loose-aggressive
The loose-aggressive player plays many hands aggressively with lots of betting and re-raises. Although these players lose long term they’re dangerous sometimes as if their luck in no-limit Hold’em tournaments is good they can get a lot of chips quickly and become the chip leader.

Tight-passive
Generally known as rocks, they play a few hands and play passively. They just bet if they are sure to have the best hand, making their earnings small when they do win. One of many disadvantages the rock has is when you identify them as a rock and they play a hand you’re certain to fold. For that reason on any table with players who have some skill the tight-passive player is largely sidelined.

Tight-aggressive
His game is selective, will bet hard whenever they have the upper hand. Most players who follow this style will be more skilled and have learned to play well and considers things like pot odds and implied odds. Not all players using this style are good but many are and overall it is the best singular style to adopt while adding loose and passive elements as game demands and situations change.

The ideal way to identify your style, learn to spot other players and improve yours is in good yet low risk free online poker games. It’s a fact that we learn by mistakes in poker so let’s keep those mistakes cheap! Micro stakes and free poker games online are the best way of learning new poker skills and the NoPayPOKER free learn how to play poker  lesson series is brilliant with lessons for all player styles and skill levels, learn about things like pot odds and what pocket cards are best, so go start learning more now!