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!