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.

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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!

Free online poker video

The core problem most of these “experts” have is that they think poker is a game that can be mastered quickly with application of a few tricks and tips. Not so I’m afraid, poker is not a standard model game that can be “solved” there are simply too many variables involved to allow any one system of play to accurately lay out the best way to beat every opponent every time.

The fact is that no one opponent plays the same. To win a lot you must consistently keep up to date on the way standard games work and how the flow of play is working.

The perfect illustration of that is to consider the tournament arena ten years ago versus the tourneys of today. A decade ago, if you stole more blinds than the competition, you had been nearly likely to win money.

In today’s game, players continuously raise and reraise. Due to this, you need to settle back a little more and bide time until these over ambitious opponents give their cash to you.

I strongly feel the easiest way to learn about poker is to watch videos of the most effective players playing the game you need to understand more about.

To get you going here is a very good and really truly free poker coaching videos.

When you are learning tournaments, there is absolutely no point in observing cash game videos. Additionally, you must take note of the way good players play and behave.

You should not only try to emulate these players but also try to figure out an appropriate counter strategy to defeat these great players.

The most important thing in poker is to be flexible. Even though you had a good tactic to beat the games two years ago it does not promise you will be able to defeat the games of today.

If you continually look at and study the action, you will get great results in your future.

If you need to learn how to play poker and take your game to another level make a start by looking at this free poker training videos here.