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.

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!

Regardless of whether you play free online poker games for fun at NoPayPOKER.com or seriously for money you always get a buzz when you get a good starting hand such as a pair of kings. The perpetual question that follows a split seconds later though is how to make best use of this stroke of luck? After all, if you go All-In hoping to win big there is a big danger that the other players will think “hmm must have a real strong hand” and will fold.

This can happen a lot and is very frustrating, however, there are ways to cash-in on such opportunities and in this article I am going to look at such scenarios.

Sadly there is no magic bullet, very simply it is about experience; knowing about things such as playable pockets, implied and pot odds and how to play in such a way that the others think you’re bluffing and not fold.

At the start of a hand, in most cases having a pair is good news and you will definitely get chances to win based on the cards that follow on the flop, turn and river.

Lets look at an example: You get a nice pair to start: Ks, Kd. A great pair that should give you strong winning opportunities.

<b>Your options at this point are</b> to either go all-in or wait for the flop.

If you wait you must keep in mind that if an Ace opens on the flop then your winning chances will be greatly reduced.

If an Ace does fall then going on and betting more could be a waste and you would be advised to fold as if someone else is bets then it’s likely they have an Ace in their hand and will be able to beat you. Alternatively they could be bluffing or are playing crazy. Your experience helps here, once you learn to observe other players you can get a feel for if they are bluffing, playing crazy or if they really might have a better hand meaning it’s best to fold.

You might think that it would have been better to have gone all-in but you need to remember that in that case too the person having an Ace might have gone ahead and bet and you would have lost more money. Having folded you are just down a bit but very much not out.

Now lets look at your Ks,Kd again but where the flop cards are 6s,6h, Qh. Now you know that if anyone has a 6, you will be beaten.

But do not lose hope, a 6 is a lower value card and there is a good chance that a player holding a 6 might have already folded. So in this case you should raise the stakes and see how the others react. If someone goes all-in then, unless you’ve flagged them as a crazy player, there is a good chance they have a 6 so your best option is to fold and minimize damage.

Don’t be disheartened by the examples, they’re not meant to imply that you can’t play to win or have to reply on pure luck. Not at all! What I am trying to get across is that poker is a game that involves a lot of probability (also known as luck) to which is added psychology, and into this is mixed what cards open up as the hand progresses which in turn affects the power of your hand.

That’s how poker works and sometimes even the best cards will be rendered powerless by events, so keep this fact in kind and when you get a great hand that turns bad just accept it as part of the game and aim to lose as little as possible.

As long as you playing solid good poker then probability will come out on your side in the longer term and as you have minimised your losses during the bad patches you will have money to bet when probability smiles on you.

The best way to learn better poker online is in quality but low risk games,learning by your mistakes is very much the way of things in poker so it is a good idea to keep those mistakes cheap! Micro stakes and free poker games are the way to go in the early stages and be sure to read up on lots of free poker lessons too in order to learn about things like pot odds and playable pockets.

See the DM Vadnais learn how to play poker free lesson series for lot more details and ideas about these sorts of situations.

The free online poker players at NoPayPoker are having a good time; they’re being challenged, they’re focused on winning, they’re playing solid (and free poker games online), and, at least twice a day, they’ve got the screen name ‘D_M_Vadnais’ in their sights.

If you didn’t know it, D M Vadnais is our NoPayPOKER Resident Professional and he is one of the reasons NoPay players are enjoying themselves on the freerolls that bear his name… apparently it’s lots of fun to ’beat up’ on a retired professional poker player!

It’s been about a month since we started the ‘Vadnais Bounty BC 500 Freeroll’ games and, while we want to be as brief as possible in this post, there are some things we just have to cover; not the least of which is the $300 to $700 of FreeD bounties placed by Vadnais every day on himself and other willing “victims”.

So while we can’t go into depth on all the positives we will highlight the, well, “highlights” in this post.

At the top of the positive observations list is the tangible, and easily visible, ‘Quality of Play’ that has been a dominant factor in these games. It might be free poker but NoPay players have clearly brought their respective ‘A’ games to the freeroll tables.

And, while there is excellent play in many other games on NoPayPOKER few come close to the elevated, skilled, and insightful play being seen in the ‘Vadnais’ games.

So an enormous “Thank You” from us at NoPay as well as D M Vadnais to all you NoPayPOKER members who have made the ‘Quality of Play’ reach these heights.

Without the participation of so many good NoPay players, the ’poor to mediocre’ levels of play, seen in many freerolls and low stakes games would, no doubt, be present in these games too. And, no one who regularly plays in the Vadnais Bounty games would find that acceptable. It’s much more fun and, ultimately, rewarding to play poker properly!

So, again, “Thank You”, it’s you, the players that have made this possible

Plus, if you have been playing in these games, keep in mind that you’ve been competing against a very successful poker player….D. Michael Vadnais.

For 9 years he played high-stakes, no-limit, ‘cash games’ in casinos and card rooms throughout the Gulf Coast of the United States, in California, in Florida, and in Las Vegas. He retired from the ’rounders’ circuit in June of 2010; he wanted to spend more time with his eleven grandchildren.

That said, have the NoPay Poker ‘Vadnais Bounty’ games been ultra-competitive? Yes!

And, how well have all of you done in the games you’ve played with Michael? Guess what, you’ve done no less than exceptional.

Results

His average finish in the Bounty games is approximately 5th. Is he unhappy with that? Vowing revenge?

And what about the NoPay players who’ve beaten him? They’ve done it often, in style, in order, so you can bet they’re happy!

So do you think our friend Michael is a bit down, a little sad, maybe sulking?

• > Not at all - We know him well and can tell you that actually very pleased with the fact that the games have averaged approximately 110 players.
• > He’s pleased with the fact that the Bonus Chip usage is between 50 to 80 thousand chips per game.
• > And, he’s very pleased with the very high levels of social interaction, polite banter, quality of play, chat box laughter, fun times, and common courtesies.

> He has won 8 of the 56 games played in January (not bad at all we say),

> 7 other players have each won twice (‘arnold2112′, ‘nicesong’, ‘spokes90210′, ‘x_Doughboy_x’, ‘pokermayhem’, ‘only1dani’, and ‘foxywise’).

Of interest, is the fact that one of the games was won by a player (‘sanpei’) who started with the minimum number of chips (50); no Bonus Chips were added. And, knowing Michael, he had to be truly impressed by both the play of ‘sanpei’, and, the magic of serendipity; a word he often uses. It’s his substitute word for both ‘luck’ and ‘bad beats’.

So don’t be shy, get involved!

If you haven’t played in the ‘Vadnais Bounty BC 500 Freeroll’ games then you are missing out on both a fun experience and some quality poker play.

The games are played everyday at 11:45 am EST and 2:00 pm EST (4.45pm and 7pm GMT) .

And be sure you add to the tradition of ‘beating up’ on Vadnais. Who knows, we might get his average finish into the double digits!

Additionally, if you would like to know a little more about Michael, you can visit his ‘MySpace’ page here at NoPayPoker, where he has posted a blog entitled “A Brief Introduction”.

And, if you’re looking to regularly win FreeD’s, you’d be well advised to read his NoPayPOKER blog free poker lesson series, all of which are written by him.

1. An Introduction To The Game which covers poker basics.
2. Building a Bankroll – Getting into depth. Learn to apply all that this course contains and you will be able to make good money on cash poker sites.
3. Expanding Your Bankroll - The advanced masterclass, master this and you’ll be off to WSOP!