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.

As you know, the free online poker games at No Pay Poker are a powerful way to improve your poker game as well as winning some money at the same time. Here are some tricks on how to in money at NoPay without spending anything other than time.

1. Click ads!
Those ads (in the top and the bottom of the lobby, and the sides of the table) that you see all the time and you don’t give any attention are really a gold mine. Each click on them will give you 1 instant FreeD to your account. Only by clicking it, and simply closing the popup that shows up. So, you win money without doing anything more than two clicks. And you can click 26 of them over the day. So, this is 26 FreeDs every day! If you do this 30 days in a row, you will get 780 FreeDs without any effort! Pretty easy, isn’t?

2. Join every freeroll!
If you have enough time, spend it in freerolls! Even if you don’t play poker very well, or if you are learning: you won’t spend anything more than time, and freerolls are an excellent way to practice and improve your poker game. The only thing that you could lose is time. And what you can win? FreeDs, experience, having some fun and even getting to know some players! I have made some friends at the NoPay poker tables and so can  you. When you’re starting out Freerolls are the way to go, so go join them and play as much as you can.

3. Join in leagues!
Many player at NPP don’t play in the leagues and some might consider them a waste of time. Well, let me tell you something: they are not. Most of them are free to join and can reward you with extra FreeDs and great game experience. The only thing that you have to do is join them and play 5 Sit and Go’s of the same kind, and if you do it well, you may get a prize from that league. They are very easy, and are easy money too.

4. Do not play the cash tables!
Not until you’re good anyway. Maybe you are fed up with freerolls and/or tourneys and want some real action in the cash tables. Well, you should not do it. Why? Because you can lose money. You might also win some too but when you do you’ll want to play more and soon or later, you will lose. You can’t win every time you play, and this means you will lose money (if you play freerolls and leagues, this won’t happen) but once you’re a decent player and if you have ambition to graduate to real cash games at places like PartyPoker, Titan and Winner then you can try these games later on, but as a beginner or even intermediate (in free poker) – avoid.

I hope this advice helps, it’s not hard to get some free poker money from NPP very quickly and easily AND you get to improve your poker skills game without losing any FreeD/money.

This free online poker training article by NoPayPOKER member lostandbroke, thanks Well, I say training but it’s more of a school of hard knocks and reality

Heed thee now the erudition garnered from seven decades of observation – and seven minutes of thought. Poker has rules beyond the ken of average mortals. These rules are incomprehensible, immutable, and insensitive to the expectations of all.

These rules impose themselves upon Hold’em fanatics in a manner inversely proportional to need – the more you want it, the less likely you are to receive it. These rules defy the laws of probability, but prove Murphy’s Law.

They are as follows:

Rule #1: If two non-connected, non-suited small cards go all-in against a pair of aces, the board will flop two cards to match the small cards, and no ace.

Rule # 2: The turn card would have given you a win if you hadn’t folded at the flop.

Rule #3: You will draw a pair of aces and the board will flop the other two aces only when you are sitting out to take an important phone call.

Rule #4: You will see multiple hands containing a royal flush; none of them will be yours.

Rule #5: You will hit quads only if the opponent has a straight flush.

Rule #6: If you wish “gl” for the other players at the table, they will have it.

Rule #7: The river card will fill an Inside straight only if your opponent is the one trying for it.

Rule #8: The board will flop a nut flush only if the turn and river cards give your opponent a boat.

Rule #9: If a serious expert induces the novice to bet, the novice will win the hand.

Rule #10: If you take yourself too seriously, you won’t have any fun. Enjoy the game, no matter what frustration it throws at you.

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)

Our thanks to NoPayPOKER member Shadowsee for this free online poker article.

There are some, I’m sure, who come just to play cards and just for that NoPayPoker is the best site I know of. As an American, I appreciate the chance to win real money, which I can’t do on any other site thanks to the new regulations in my country. I have cashed out before, 30 bucks, not much, but still it was nice to get paid just for having fun!

There are many others who have made a lot more, and some who even have made a considerable profit, so money IS a good reason to love NPP.

I guess Iv’e been playing on NPP for about five years now, though its hard to be sure since I’m well over 40 and memory is as selective as en election with sticky chads, hard to say how or when it might come out. One thing I do know for sure is that I have some good memories stemming from the time I’ve spent here, playing poker with my friends.

Quite simply, it’s the friends that make it worthwhile for me and that leads me to why I think NPP is so special.

The lobby chat room is a feature I have only seen at NPP and no other poker site. All the others have a chat window at the tables, usually filled by people I don’t know. At NPP, however, there is a place where everyone in the game can gather to share their thoughts. It may be as trivial as “man, I can’t believe I lost that hand, I had 3 aces!”, but often it gets a bit deeper. Over the years I and my friends at NPP have shared some of the most difficult aspects of life and a few triumphs, too.

We come here when we are sad, when we are overwhelmed by our problems, and find encouragement, sympathy and strength in each other. Even when we feel like crying, we may find a laugh or two, or at the least a few shoulders to cry on.

Maybe it wasn’t intended to be this way when the game was created, but NPP has brought people from all over the world together and made bonds of friendship which have lasted and grown stronger through the years. I think that’s pretty darned special, don’t you?