In this online free poker games article we’ll examine split pots. A split pot is a pot where two (or more) players have identical five-card hands at the showdown.
For example, in a board with 8-9-10-Q-2 both players have a Jack meaning both have a Queen-high straight, therefore, they split.

It can also happen if both of them use the board cards as their five-card hand; for example with a board of A-K-Q-J-10; one player has 9-9 and the other has Q-J. Who wins? Both. They use the board cards as their hand; both of them have a Broadway Straight, so they split the pot.

Most players think that they should use at least one card from their hand to complete their hand. In the above example, the player with 9-9 might think that his straight is King-high, when actually it is Ace-high.

Assuming no flush possibilities, the other player might move all-in. That might scare the first player completely into folding. Don’t. You both have nuts hands.

Some Straights on the Board are a little bit more suspicious. Like 4-5-6-7-8. Someone bets substantially and now it’s up to you whether you call or not, or even raise. Just keep in mind that a Nine can finish you or your opponent.

In this case, you want to represent the Nine. When? If the Board is 6-7-5-4-8, in the order in which they fell? What if it is 4-5-7-6-8? 8-7-5-6-4 or 4-5-8-7-6? On which Board do you think your opponent will be most inclined to represent the Nine so you can fold without remorse? It’s important to be as analytic as possible here.

But what about a Board of 9-9-8-8-8? It’s a Full House. Both of you have a Full House already. You have Q-10 for example, and you follow until the river. Then in a jolt your opponent bets enough to put you all-in. Will you call? It is possible that your opponent is bluffing with, say, J-10; you still both have the same hand. Your opponent might have the last 8, but if he really did, then he should have folded, because you bet the Flop and the Turn.

Then, with unmistakable confidence, you overtly declare, “I play the Board, I call.” If you did, then you’re the 1997 World Series of Poker runner-up, Kevin McBride, who lost to J-9. The winner? Scotty Nguyen (baby, baby, baby). You have Eights full, baby. Scotty had Nines full (9-9-9-8-8).

With the Broadway Straight (with no flush) it is appropriate to call the all-in, and it is a sign of a smart player to do so. (Don’t call yourself smart if you held the 9-9 and you folded.)

But with the above Full House on the board just determine all possible hands that can beat you: a lone Nine or the last Eight. Surely if you have many more chips, just stack them and wait for some more hands.

But read the board well, don’t be psyched out by the chatter of the other player. During the interview after the heads-up match, McBride admitted that he called because of what Scotty said to him after Scotty pushed him all-in: “If you call it’ll be over baby”.

In some boards, such as A-K-2-2-7, if you have an Ace and your opponent bets substantially on the river, you can well put him on the Ace (but not A-K or A-2) and call him, even though you know you can’t win. You just split the pot.

If he bets heavily, forcing you to make the hard decision, you might as well fold. Why hope for a tie when you can win later?

No doubt about it this is a tricky area of poker, if you’ve not comfortable with this sort of situation make sure you practice a lot first in free online poker games online so that you won’t lose your bank when you go into money games.

In this free poker online article we’re going to look at the art of semi-bluffing.

What’s a semi bluff then? Well, if you’re bluffing with nothing, that’s what you call a pure bluff or a stone-cold bluff. But if you bluff where you have a bit of something and that’s what we call the semi-bluff.

For example, when you have a hand like Ad-Kd at a board of 6h-7h-8s-10h and you bet large or raise your opponent’s bet large, you are executing a pure bluff.

This is because your hand did not improve in the Flop and weakened on the Turn. But if you put your opponent on a weaker hand like A-Q or even a draw like A-J, then you can push him out of the pot by betting substantially. That is the only way you can win. If he calls your bluff, then you’re A-K can’t stand much pressure.

Suppose you are holding 7-6 and the Flop comes 5-4-J. Your opponent checks. You figure out that your opponent may have a raggedy Jack in there, so you check. You check with the intention of folding if you don’t improve your hand and if he plays aggressively; but the main reason of your checking is to catch a Three or an Eight and kill your opponent’s A-J, K-J or maybe 9-9 later.

However, suppose your opponent checks and you bet? Betting in this situation serves two purposes. One is to increase the pot if you somehow improve to your Straight. Two is to kick your opponent out. If he has nothing well, naturally, he shall move out. (With 9-9 he may move out.)

But what if he has the Jack? If he had a weak Jack (say, J-8) he may put you on a bigger Jack, say, A-J, or K-J and he may move out. Because you bet (or raise) it indicates that your pocket cards somehow fit the community cards.

Now, he may call, and you proceed to the Turn and the River. You figure out now he may have A-J or K-J. Or he may continue with 9-9.

If your hand doesn’t improve yet on the later rounds then you can pure-bluff your opponent all the way or stop.

But what if you hit your Straight? Then there is a possibility that he was putting you on a weaker Jack after the Flop (like J-8) and he may even raise with A-J or K-J. He has no idea that the Straight was completed!

He has no idea that the Three or the Eight helped you vastly. You can now crush your opponent. This is the semi part.

Here you can now win in two ways: Through the “bluff” part – Your opponent will fold. You still have the pot. Or through the “semi” – both of you will show down your hands, and you win a large pot.

Also, you can check and check until you complete the Straight, but you show your opponent your hand. The next time he will play with you, he might be scared if a similar situation arises.

If you semi-bluff, however, you still show your opponent if he decides to continue, but additionally, you can make your opponent fold so he cannot guess what you have.

Overall lesson?

You can be more unpredictable with semi-bluffing so get practising! And what better place to play free online poker than http://www.NoPayPOKER.com where you don’t have the fear of losing money like you do at on money sites or live tables yet you can still win real cash.

Thanks to NoPayPOKER member hot_pan for this helpful member eye view of offers and how to do them and how to sort out any problems you get.

There are not very many people who do the sponsor offers in order to get into the weekly $1k every Tuesday. Hopefully this article will help people realize that it isn’t very hard to do .. Just time consuming..

First off: There are free ones, pay ones and survey offers (depending on where you live). The majority of the survey offers are simple to do and all they require is a simple sign up and clicking on a confirmation email.

Now in regards to those that go, “enter your email to win”

• Once you do that you will be asked to enter your information.
• Then offers will appear but all you need to do is find the skip or pass button
• Go through all the pages until you see final steps.
• Once that happens you should receive a email titled “Confirm” or “Confirmation”
• You must then open that email up and confirm, make sure you put your correct name and address and phone number when doing the offers or they will not work.
• Some of them take some time and a lot of pages to click pass or next or skip but you can also click on the offers that do appeal to you if you want.

Now what to do if the offers don’t work within 24hrs.

• Click on offers via the nopay applet.. A box will open showing the offers and in the corner is Check offer status.
• Click on that and it will list all the ones you have viewed
• If you have confirmation proof in a email you need to click on the report a problem and that will open up a box to send in a ticket into Sometrics (the company who manage the offers)
• In that ticket you want to put your info and copy of the email proving you did the offer.
• The best way to do this is get a http://www.photobucket.com account. Its free to use photobucket.
• When u get a account there.. you can then go to that email and hit prtsc (print screen) then click on u’r start menu and open up Paint.
• Once paint is open, u want to click on edit and paste.
• That should put a pic into it that is your email.
• You will want to save it as a jpg.
• Once you have the photo on your computer then go to photobucket upload the photo to it and then save it.
• Under each picture you add to photobucket you can click to get the link .
• You want to select link for email and  copy and paste that link into the ticket you started to Sometrics.
• Once you have provided links to the pictures showing you did the offer you submit that ticket .. It usually takes them 24 to 48 hrs before you will hear from them.

(Editors note – I use some software called Jing that is great for image capture too. See http://www.jingproject.com/features/ it’s free too)

I know, this probably looks like way to much to do just for a ticket to a game, but the game is for 10k.. Its definitely worth it.

All you need to do is 25 FreeD’s in offers, you can do as many as you want.

Its a good way to build up your balance as well.

If you have any questions about this article or anything I’ve explained here. Feel free to contact me. I’m Hot_Pan on NoPay. I will be more than happy to help you get your ticket for the game  and do the offers the right way.

This poker article was the winner of the June 2010 NoPayPOKER article writing contest. Member Buried_Child gets $1,000 FreeD and a big pile of Bonus Chips.

There is a poker tournament variant called All-in or Fold. The rules are this: There is only one blind (called big blind). Each player starts with just one chip; it doesn’t matter how many, anyway, for these reasons: Your only options are: All-in, and Fold. If you are on the big blind you are automatically all-in. You receive change, however, if, say, you have 5 chips and someone moves all-in with 2 chips and you call him (which is an all-in, too). He will not win five chips from you; you will get a change of three chips.

If you are on the big blind you just ignore everything else that follows. (It happens only about 1/10 of the time, however, in a 10-player table. If you somehow want to become hooked.)

So it’s really a math game, and a position game too.

Why math game?

Because you will be relying entirely on preflop all-ins, and you have to commit to memory the probability of your winning, or at least have a gist of them. I can give some examples (You can generalize; the probability’s pretty much the same in a similar situation; for instance the first example will be ‘Two Overcards vs. Small Pair, or the first example will apply too if it were, say, A-10 over 5-5) and approximate probabilities:

A-K vs 8-8
55%-45% in favor of 8-8

A-K vs A-Q
75%-25% in favor of A-K

A-10 vs K-K
75%-25% in favor of K-K

A-K vs 7-6
65%-35% in favor of 7-6

A-10 vs K-Q; A-Q vs K-J
63%-37% in favor of A-10 and A-Q

A-A vs 8-8
80%-20% in favor of A-A

A-A vs A-K
93%-7% in favor of A-A

A-A vs K-Q
85%-15% in favor of A-A

But these do not imply that you should wait for A-A or K-K or A-K before you move all-in, of course.

Do it with two face cards, a pair, or A-x. Just make sure the big blind doesn’t reach you, for if that happens your decision’s beyond your will.

All-In or Fold is also a game of position. Oftentimes players in these tournaments play hands similar to the above, and throw away the rest. Consider these two examples: (1) You are in late position with 4-4 and there are two all-ins in front of you. You might be facing three or four overcards, or an overpair.

Fold. After all, if you are in late position, there will be many hands before you reach the big blind. (2) You have A-8 in early position. You are two hands away from being the big blind, so you move all-in, and players after you will interpret an early-position all-in as a sign of strength.

What you consider, then, is the strength of your hand and the surrounding action. With one-on-one, which happens mostly, the above probabilities still apply. But with three or more, hand strength matters more.

Big pairs are still big; medium pairs shrink in power (because you can’t see the Flop yet; usually we see the Flop with a medium pair to hit a Set). A-x becomes weaker; A-K and A-Q weaken down a little bit. However, make sure you play a hand while you’re still in control of your decision. When you get yourself blinded out, it’s for your tournament life, mostly.

This was the winner of the NoPayPOKER.com May 2010 free online poker article writing contest. Member Buried_Child got $1000 FreeD.

I can imagine a player who, after watching some episodes of the World Series of Poker or the World Poker Tour, suddenly gets ‘inspired’ and tries out one of the big advertised poker sites. Suddenly – suddenly – as he imitates the plays he saw in some episode, like moving all-in with 4-4 in early position – he thinks he is making a good play. Of course it is sometimes a good play, but not always.

As it is, he lost a large stack again, and it costs hundreds of dollars in real money.

Why not tell him to try the same play in free poker, so that he will recognize his mistakes? He can get knocked out and still have hundreds of dollars left.

Free poker is also a great way to build a bankroll, if you don’t have one, and if you play long enough. And if you play long enough you will learn from your mistakes and from the mistakes of others – and it wouldn’t be so costly. Sure, you can try playing your Q-7 offsuit and then flop a Q-5-3 and then get called by A-Q later or K-K – that is when you realize your Q-7 is trash, and you ought not play it again.

Of course, you can watch someone else play the Q-7. He may flop Q-5-3, as above, or even A-J-7. Now you know you have him, because you have K-K (in the first flop) or A-K, or J-J (in the second). Now you remember the times when you win, and when you recall these times every time a similar situation arises, you will win the pot. If you play free poker long enough you will see what these situations are and then be able to characterize them like this: On the first flop, it may be ‘Playing Overpairs’; on the second, it may be ‘Playing Top Pair’ or ‘Playing a Set’.

There is, however, a downfall if you are not careful: Suppose you play 3-2 off and you win. You might think 3-2 off is a good hand, and then suddenly you rush to play real money poker. You lose. You think, “How would 3-2 be harpooned in this board! This just won last week!”

If you are observant enough for a long time in playing free poker you might notice plenty of players doing the same (playing bad hands) and they win. You can watch if they are winning consistently or not, and oftentimes they don’t. Someone plays 7-2, the wins; someone plays it again later, then loses. Free poker may not yet teach you that A-10 is sometimes dangerous to play after a raise because it might be a better Ace, but it teaches you what hands to avoid and what to play.

In free poker you just don’t play any hand. Play as if you are playing real-money poker. Play only good starting hands. If you keep playing bad starting hands without the ability to represent them (and representing hands is not so practical in free poker because many free poker players play just any hand, bet when they hit the Flop and throw when they don’t) you will be a bad player sooner.

Regarding this, here is another point: Because many free poker players are novices, if you take a little longer time to wade on free poker, you will know how to play against novices. In real money you will mostly be facing them – well, because, most players are novices. You can bring free poker skills at your disposal. And as for the really good players, it’s so easy – avoid them unless you have the nuts.

This article brought to you by NoPayPOKER. The world’s only FREE poker site where you win real cash on every game. NoPayPOKER is the perfect place for Beginners to learn how to play poker without risking money. Experienced poker players can fine tune their game, test out new techniques or just grind away to accumulate all the free poker cash!