There are many ways you can win at playing poker online. The reason is there are different types of games you can enjoy, and different environments in which you can play them. You’ll find poker games at online casinos and in online poker rooms. Check out sites that review and recommend great gambling spots where you can play your favorite games, like http://casinomaestro.com.

Another fantastic aspect about sites that act as your online gambling news source is that they provide you with more than just articles that offer you practical and helpful information. They also feature breaking news, giving you up-to-date information about great topics that are of high interest to players. These topics may include where to find the best bonuses, promotions, tournaments, and new game releases.

Knowing where to find best online casinos is another perk that these guides provide. You will also find answers to some of your questions when you view the different blogs, articles, and forum posts on these pages. Discover tips, rules, strategies, and additional exciting facts about Poker and other spectacular casino games.

Exceptional online gambling entertainment is yours to enjoy

Early Stage Poker Tournament Strategy Play – OMG that loose “donk”

By dcudonk

Accumulation of chips in a tournament is vital in the early stages, some players prefer to play a tight range of premium hands and pairs and try to extract as much value from them as they can.

They use a variety of bets and raises to define hands, and play aggressively to extract chips. This may be the “by the book” or “old school” approach to poker.

Don’t get me wrong it can work for people especially if they are comfortable with it, always play with a style you are comfortable with! But there are a few inherent flaws that go with this strategy.

Poker Tournament Strategy Video – It’s always good to see some live action!

Here are the top reasons why I think it’s better to adopt a more loose approach to the game at this stage, and no I’m not talking about shoving with 72, that’s just stupidity.

Read the rest of this entry »

Can You Spot an Online Poker Bluff?

By camikaz420

So bluffing, yes it’s a big part of the game. But equally, if not more important, is the ability to sniff out an online poker bluff.

Not an online poker bluff this one but fun to watch nevertheless.

1. Know your opponents
Before you even start to okay, watch your opponents to see how they play: If they bluff a lot, keep going all-in…ALL the time, and if they keep raising in high amounts even though they only have a pair or nothing at all at the end of each hand.

Categorize your opponents as habitual bluffer, a straight forward player, or a sporadic bluffer (which are the hardest to play against)

Read the rest of this entry »

Incoming search terms:

• free tips bluff

We all know (or should!) that setting specific goals in all aspects of our lives is essential. After all, if you don’t know what you want you’re never gonna get it! So take some time to think about it and make them as specific as possible, even for shorter term things like new shoes

Everything from shoes to houses, boats and, not forgetting of course, winning the WSOP…or maybe just moving up to the next skill level (Set a goal of reading all our read our free online poker articles to learn how to do that!)

Now for a real example, for this we thank NoPay member Malverium for the article “Happy new Year” here it is -

It’s the start of a brand new year. It’s the time of the year to set goals and challenge yourself!

I’ve played poker casually for the past 4 years whilst studying. Never made it past 10 NL 6 Max and 25 NL full ring, but hopefully that will change this year!

To make this relatively short, I’ll just list the goals I’ll be working towards this coming year. Both in poker and life.

Poker Goals:

1. Make it to Mid-Stakes, haven’t decided if I want to play full ring or 6max.

But I’ll move up when I win $500 playing either 10 NL 6 Max or 25 NL Full Ring. Move up when I hit 1k, move down if I lose 8 BIs at 6 Max/4 BIs at Full Ring.

2. Achieve a decent win rate at all stakes.

3. Take some time to study poker every weekend.

4. Review my hands after every 10k hands.

Life Goals:

1. Find a job! I just finished studying and have been looking for a job with no success so far. So I need to get my act together and get a graduate/entry level position (Its pretty expensive living in Australia, I probably won’t go pro unless I earn 40k+ per year).

2. Get fit, go to the pool at least once a week, lose 5 kg (I’m not going to be too strict on how much I lose but I’d like to be fitter than I currently am, atm I’m about 24.3 BMI).

Summary:

• Make Mid-Stakes, Find a job, Get fit.
• When I’m playing I’m gonna enjoy it (play hard)
• When I’m working I’m gonna work hard

GL to everybody else in 2012 also . Will start grinding today or tomorrow.

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

Since these sites are forums you can also ask questions and get, at times, useful advice for free though keep in mind that such advice is often an opinion so take with some salt!

To find both of them just go to Google and put the names in and they will both appear right away.

Pokenum, is a poker hand analyzer that is excellent for determining the win percent of your opponents hands against yours. And they have a really nice feature where you can add cards to the table to see how they affect hand strength in relation to other hands.

And here’s one you probably haven’t heard of; The university of Albertas computer poker research group. Here, if you are into math and c programming you can find the Open Poker Variance Analysis Tool (PVAT) toolset which can be used to design your own self-owned poker simulation, not for the faint hearted but great if this is your thing. You’ll also find more publications and resources here, it is an ideal pitstop for the academic poker player.

Chessandpokerdotcom is another excellent resource site. There are strategy guides for hundreds of games including an excellent holdem limit strategy guide. Perfect for beginners and intermediates.

Or how about the original home of online poker, IRC poker? IRC poker is poker played over the IRC chat protocol and was the way poker was played online in the early days of the Internet.

Pokernews.com has a forum section where you can ask any poker questions. There are a lot of skilled online poker players both questioning and responding to questions there and a lot of answers come from professional online poker players so you can be certain you’re benefiting from real helpful advice.

Not forgetting of course free online poker game sites such as our very own NoPayPOKER.com where you can ask poker questions in the lobby on better poker tactics. Plus the NoPay blog has a big free poker training library with training lessons for beginner upwards.

In face to face poker room games it is easier to read your opponents than is the case online. In online play there is no way to see the many physical tells but don’t worry, online poker has a whole load of tells you can spot when you know what to look for and this free poker online guide is all about ‘em.

Speed of Play
In online poker games there is a time limit on making moves or else the players hand is auto moved all-in or folded. Due to this player speed of action is often a good Tell.

A lot of the time if a player makes a fast bet it is a sign of weakness, slow speed though often indicates strength because the player is busy figuring how best to play their good hand. Note how long opponents take to act and if you get to see their cards at showdown, see if you can determine what they were fast and slow with, that can help a lot next time round.

Do you give away speed tells? Ideally aim to take time for each play unless you can be a real master and mix speed no matter what type of hand you have.

Check Boxes and Auto Plays
A lot of poker rooms online have check boxes to allow players to set automated fold, raise any or call any instructions.

You can tell when a player has used a check box, because actions are immediate. If a player has checked “raise any” it indicates a strong hand. If it is “check” then it is likely weak. If it is “call any”, then the chance is good that it is a draw hand that is not completed but definitely not ready to fold.

While not 100% definite tells, over time you can draw some good conclusions from check box use especially with regular opponents.

Opponents Fold and Flop Percentage
This percentage can’t be exact but over several games you will be able to get a feel if some players fold a lot of hands or if they stick it in most pots.

A lot of folds equates normally to a good player but the player who stays in most pots is not good and can be hammered when you have a good hand.

Chat Box
Generally, if a player chatty player suddenly goes quiet he may well have got good cards.

Alternatively when a player is betting and gets antagonistic in chat it may well be a show of bluffing as the player hopes the show of “confidence” will bluff you off the table.

The chat classic is the “Tilt” player who is whining a lot. Tilted players can’t play good poker until they calm down so it’s a great time for you to push them into making errors.

Waiting for the Big Blind
You will often have the option to wait for the big blind to get to you when you join a table, or you can choose to post a matching big blind so you can get into play right away.

If a player is not patient enough to wait on the big blind to come around, it may indicate an overall lack of patience. Impatient players are loose players and loose players make mistakes.

On the other side players who wait are showing patience or maybe that they are tight fisted with their money, both are good qualities so note who waits and take care with them.

Novice Tells
Free online poker, micro and low stakes games will exhibit a lot of these.

The first is betting with a weak hand and feigning weakness with a strong hand. If you have pocket aces, don’t slow play them. A lot of novices will slow play such pockets and find themselves getting beaten on the flop, turn or river by players who make straights and trips.

Another beginners tell is when they wait one card after he has paired before betting. For example, the player gets a King on the flop and checks. The Turn shows a 2 yet the player starts betting hard. No way would he bet like that on a pair of 2′s so you can be pretty sure he paired the Kings on the flop. If you can beat it bet it.

Seeing Tells and acting on them takes practice, so start of by testing yourself and learning and play free online poker games at NoPayPOKER.com or the lowest stakes possible at PartyPoker before you start to risk real money.

In this free online poker coaching lesson learn how to play low pocket pairs. 2/2 through to 9/9 are what we define as low pocket pairs and they will, believe it or not (and you will believe by the end of this article) win you more money long term than any other pocket cards.

More than pocket A/A, pocket K/K, pocket Q/Q? How is that possible you shout! It is. They will.

And they’re good against all skill levels of players too and especially good for taking out “know it all” donks and maniacs.

Why Are Low Pockets So Good?

First lets look at some base facts and rules of pockets pairs and low pockets in particular.

1. You have about a 6% chance of being dealt a pocket pair of any type.
2. This equates to approx. every 16 or 17 hands.
3. With a pocket pair you have about a 1 in 8 chance to get a set at the flop (3 of a kind).
4. So 6% followed by 1 in 8 comes to you having a post set flop once per 133 hands.
5. At a 10 player table that equates to once every 13 small/big blind bets you deposit on.

 

Low pocket pairs are playable from all table positions however ONLY:

1. At a cost that does not exceed the big blind from Early Position.
2. Over 2x the big blind from Middle Position
3. 3x big blind from Late Position.
4. Plus, the low pocket pairs are never a pre-flop cause for raising the big blind.

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

Why?

When there are five plus players left there is a higher probability the flop will show 2 or 3 low cards. This is true primarily because it’s logical to assume that the 5 or more players currently in the hand each hold one or more paint cards.

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

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

This example hand illustrates the point.

1. You’re seated Late Position with pocket 5c/5h.
2. There is a ‘bad’ player with Jh/7c and a ‘good’ player with Ad/Qd.
3. Our better player raises 3x the big blind and the poorer one calls, you also call, everyone else folds.
4. The flop shows Ah/Jd/5s; you have made a set of 5′s.
5. The ‘good’ player, again bets 3x the big blind.
6. The ‘bad’ player, raises by a factor of three; crazy as he’s holding the middle pair, and the ‘good’ player has betted into the flopped Ace.
7. You call and so does the good player.
8. Now it is the Turn and the card is a 7d.
9. It gives the ‘good’ player a nut flush draw (Ad/Qd/Jd/7d), and he holds the high board pair (Ad/Ah).
10. It gives the ‘bad’ player two pairs (Jacks over Sevens).
11. You have your set of 5c,5h,5s.

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

But do not be.

1. Left in the deck are 9 flush maker cards and 4 full house maker, 13 in all minus the last 5.
2. It’s a flush-maker but will also give you quad Fives.
3. So there are 12 cards left that can be dealt that will make you lose and 34 that will win it for you.
4. You’re about a 3 to 1 favorite to win.

The river card is one of the 34 so is no use to the others. The ‘bad’ player moves all in and you call and take a large pot.

So how was it that this pocket 5 situation was so good?

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

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

The power of low pockets is not very well known but is used by all pro players. After all low pocket pairs win more money at a poker table than any other two cards so why shout about it!

So add these rules to your playable pockets reference card (see Playable Pockets Tutorial or Building Bankroll part 2) now and start practicing hard and play free online poker games at NoPayPOKER.com!

In this free online poker lesson we are looking at one of the areas of poker that most players want to learn about most. Namely pocket cards, what ones to play and from which position on the table.

Fact – To win good money in lower stakes poker you don’t need to be a professional. Free, micro and lower stakes tables have a constant inflow of new players who are very bad at playing poker and lose their cash fast. They lose all their cash to players who know this fact and are there waiting to pounce, these players aren’t pros but they do have good poker skills.

Occasionally one of the bad players wins an all in when playing a terrible hand like 4,7 unsuited but this really is exceptional, to them it proves their theory that poker is luck, you know of course that it’s simply the bad thin end of probability.

Overall, statistics prove that when you play only certain pocket cards from certain table positions you win over the long term.

Pocket cards – Quick definition
The 2 cards you start the game with that only you see.

The Evidence
UCLA (the University of Chicago) mainframe computers played over 2 trillion hands of 10 handed Texas Hold Em poker games assessing all 2,652 possible combinations of two pocket cards (52 x 51 = 2,652). The results statistically defined pocket cards with both Positive Expected Value (+EV) that win in the long haul and Negative Expected Value (-EV) that lose.

That’s great you say, just play +EV cards then, ah, sorry, there is a small complication which relates to your Table Position.

Table Position is critical
Early, Middle, Late are the 3 areas on a poker table. You seat position is fundamentally important to card EV as you will see.

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

2) Middle. Count left from the UTG player; Middle 1, Middle 2, Middle 3, and Middle 4.

3) Last, are the Late Table positions: Late 1, Late 2, and the Dealer Button.

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

The thing to know is that pockets become playable or not depending on where you are sat.

Early Position. The pockets with Positive EV are:

1. AA
2. KK
3. QQ
4. AK suited
5. AQ suited
6. AK unsuited
7. Low pockets: 22 through to 99

All other pockets in Early are -EV, fold.

Middle: M1-4

Pockets with +EV are:

The same as early, plus:

1. AJ suited
2. AT suited
3. JJ
4. TT
5. AQ unsuited
6. AJ unsuited
7. AT unsuited
8. Any suited picture cards, 10,J,Q,K.

All other combinations are negative, fold them.

Late Position

Pockets with +EV are:

The same as early and middle, plus:

1. A5 suited
2. A4 suited
3. A3 suited
4. A2 suited
5. A9 suited
6. Any unsuited picture cards.

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

Other considerations
With the exception of AA and KK, only play them if the cost to get to the flop is not over 3x the Big Blind bet. The Low Pockets, 22-99 have some further play rules in this regard but that is another whole article, look for that later.

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

So create your reference card now and start practicing hard on some free online poker games at NoPayPOKER.com!

This article is a cut down version of the DM Vadnais Building a Bankroll lesson 2, check that one out for expanded details on the points in this article.

This free online poker help article comes to us courtesy of pippy04111, thanks pippi  I added the bit about CC Cleaner and Defraggler as those are my absolute cannot be without tools on my computer (Nick)

Having fun anywhere online including NoPayPOKER means there are steps you should take to keep your computer running well.

Your computer will store a list of all websites you visit, these are called temporary files. In addition to these it will also store information from these sites called cookies.

NoPayPOKER is supported by the ads we click and the sponsor sites we visit. We are paid to click these ads and do the sponsors but this along with other sites we visit is a lot of information added to our hard drives.

This information remains on your hard drive until you remove it. If you are experiencing freezes or lags this may be the reason why. To help with this do the following.

DAILY

• Clean cookies and temporary files - Open Internet Explorer, find the tools option, generally this is at the top right of your screen. Then go to Internet options and under general you will find a place to delete cookies and temporary files.
• CC Cleaner – IMHO Better than Internet Explorer tools and free to download. Cleans cookies and temp files and has other handy tools like a registry cleaner and ability to clear up other files that slow performance down. Get it at http://www.piriform.com/CCLEANER

WEEKLY

• Disk Defragmenter - Under all programs, accessories, system tools, disk defrag, set it to auto run weekly at a time when you will not be using your computer.
• Or, from the same people who do CC Cleaner, Defraggler. Faster than the PC Defrag tool – http://www.piriform.com/defraggler
• Spyware removal - Be sure to check for updates prior to running.
• Modem – Turn your computer off and unplug your modem and router for ( 5 )minutes at the end of this time and in this order plug the modem back up, when it is on plug the router up, when it is on restart your computer.

OTHER

• Antivirus – Be sure to set this to run continuously in the background, otherwise you are setting yourself up for problems. In addition set it to automatically update.
• Java – This also stores temporary files and this may cause it to abort on you at times. To keep this from happening do the following.
  • Go to start then control panel, double click the java icon. Go to settings, clear the temporary files there and at the top uncheck keep on my computer then reboot NPP.
• Don’t have too much running at once. Especially on an older PC don’t overtax it. If possible just have poker running when you play, failing that poker plus the bare minimum of other applications. This can really help stop freezes.

All of the suggestions above are just a small amount of what it takes to keep a healthy well running computer but hopefully they will make your time spent on NoPayPOKER a more pleasant and enjoyable experience.

If these do not help or not enough then I advise getting a PC expert to give your computer a health check, they can do things that the freely available tools just can’t. Also, as ever, be sure to keep your important stuff backed up, preferably on an external hard drive or online place like Carbonite.com and keep copies of important software like Windows systems discs in case you ever get a total wipe out and have to get Windows re-installed…I know (Nick), it happened to me and Carbonite saved me bigtime!