In my experience with poker of all types, be it simple free poker online or more serious cash games, with its ups, and what seems to be its MANY downs, I have come to know that the most important thing you could ever learn is patience.

Even the blind mouse finds the cheese sometimes, and no matter how unlucky you think you are, how many chips you have, or how many people are left in your tournament, the most important thing is that you are patient with yourself.

Sometimes you get so tired of seeing terrible cards and your chip stack starts to drain enough to the point where you get desperate, and start calling with J5 off-suit, or other hands with the same idea. I can tell you I’ve been there many times, and it has been the death of me many more times than it has helped.

Another key in patience is not only pre-flop, but throughout the rest of the hand too. Let me show an example, You draw a K (c) Q (d), and you call with 2 other people in the hand. The flop comes out K (h) A (h) 8 (h). This is obviously a very dangerous hand, and many times I would just fold this off the bat. But to the desperate, sometimes I would get a false source off confidence in my hand, and 85% of this time I will get burned, despite only having two others in the hand.

Patience is one of the many obvious traits important to poker success. Some people get carried away sometimes, and it’s important to be consistent in your poker playing. Try to find a baseline on what you would call pre-flop and what you won’t.

Obviously free online poker is a much different game than live, as online is much more fast-paced and live is more in-depth and slower. Despite many complaints from my peers, I like to milk out every second of my time limit for each decision. I recommend this to any competitive and casual online poker players, because it may be the difference between a bad beat and a great fold.

Many times in online free poker play you will run into, what we call “Donks”. Most of the time they will have a much larger chip stack, and will win hands using brawn and bluffing. It’s important not give into his bullying, and play it slow. If you get a good flop, let him make the mistake. The classical check-raise works well, but if you move too early, your chance will be lost to cash in. “Donks” can be a great source of chips, if you be patient and play it out right.

We will all get bad beats, it’s unavoidable. It happens to the best of us, and there’s nothing we can do about it. What we can do, though, is play smart, take your time, and, again, be patient. These are all extremely important no matter who you are playing with or how long you have been playing the game, which brings me to my next point; You can read as many poker articles, magazines and books, but nothing can compare to experience, so just go out there and play poker online for free at first to build your skills and understanding of the game and develop that all important patience habit.

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

Be it a free online poker game or $100 buy in there are many qualities demanded of a good poker player such as the ability to read an opponent, to make a “big lay down”, to know one’s limitations – as Dirty Harry said – but in my humble opinion, the greatest virtue, and one best suited to money and free poker, is patience.

Like most players I remember the bad beats, but there are two occasions I recall in particular where I had the run of the cards; both were cash games.

The first was in a live session where with a £50 minimum buy-in we were playing £1-£2 Pot Limit Omaha/Hold Em (a round of each).

The other was a not free Texas holdem online poker session on Ladbrokes, a site I don’t often play, although the site is not important, what happened, is.
In the live session, I had such a terrific run of the cards that in about twenty minutes I had turned my fifty pounds into over five hundred. In the online poker session, though I was multi-tabling, I “sat down” at one table, and in about the same time period, turned twenty dollars into over a hundred and fifty. This time I was playing Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo, my game of preference.

Being a dedicated free poker and small stakes player I seldom win big, but it is not the stakes that are important, rather the lesson to be learned.

How often does a player sit down and increase his starting stack by a factor of ten or even seven in half an hour or less? The answer is very seldom, but once in a blue moon the cards do run for you like magic.

The reason for this is not far to seek; cards, including electronic cards, are random, and it is possible though extremely unlikely to win several big pots in quick succession.

The downside of this is that it is extremely likely you will be dealt garbage hands for prolonged periods, or that the cards will run against you for hours at a time.

If you are playing live, especially in a cash poker game, when the cards run bad there may be a temptation to push things, to play marginal hands, or hands that you really shouldn’t play, to draw too much, to see just one more card. The result can be disastrous.

In online poker where you can multi-table, there is no excuse for this sort of lax play. When I play cash games, four is my preference, but some people can handle six or even more tables comfortably.

Even so, the cards can run bad on all tables; I have to say that for me at any rate, some sites are far worse than others. But when they run bad, you must fold, fold, fold.

It really is not nice to raise a pot with a pair of kings at Texas Holdem, to see an ace flop, and someone bet forcefully into it, but you should face the fact that you are probably beat, and that the wisest course of action is to fold and wait for the next hand.

Yes, it is incredibly frustrating (and you get it more on low stakes and free poker sites) to see loose players, neophytes or even total morons call raise after raise with borderline hands or even raise with total garbage and hit or suck out time and time again, but when you miss the flop, you must throw your premium starting hand in the muck. It will hurt, but it will hurt a lot more to chase, especially at pot limit.

What about poker tournaments?
Now the fact is that even if you are both the best player and the luckiest player in the world, you can’t cash in every tournament.

And at No Limit Texas Holdem you can be busted out in one hand at any time, but patience does count here too, especially and perhaps even after the bubble or on the final table when you are short stacked.

This is where inevitably everybody tightens up, but it is surprising how long you can wait, and how few hands you can get away with playing when both time and chips appear to be running out.

Patience is not to be confused with timidity and especially not with cowardice; a big draw may be a favourite over a pair, or even a set; whilst most players find it difficult and some find it impossible ever to fold a set – any set – a draw is still only a draw, and you should play or fold your hand not according to abstract principles like pot odds but according to the state of your bankroll, position in the tournament, and so on.

You may be 75% to win the hand, but remember that does mean you have a 25% chance of losing it, and if losing that one hand means busting out before the money when you can comfortably fold and allow a couple of the short stacks to be subsumed, folding may be the best option.

Again, it will hurt, but not half as much as calling and losing. And as ever with poker, manage your bankroll, if you have none or little start out on the free poker sites such as NoPayPOKER.com and grind your way up. Remember what the man said: chip and a chair!

This NoPayPOKER.com free poker education lesson looks at Patience – A “skill” that can justifiably be described as the single most important poker skill of all (and in many other aspects of life for that matter)

There was a time when almost everyone involved with the poker community had a respect for the game. Granted, it was many years ago. And, with the exponential online poker participatory growth that has occurred in the last decade, what was a game played by those who occasionally flirted with Lady Luck, and always sought knowledge of poker strategies for the sole purpose of improving their play, has now become a circus environment for many of the countless millions who have joined the Internet’s world of free poker gaming….the Internet’s world of online poker madness.

The majority of the added players have entered the ‘Hallowed Screens of Imaginary Felt’ with about as much command of poker skills as would a day laborer deploying his lack of medical skills in a trauma surgery at a prestigious hospital; he’d clearly bastardize the use of all the accepted surgical tools, much like the added Internet poker players bastardize the use of all the accepted poker tools.

Or, is it possible that the added players just don’t know anything about the accepted poker tools?
And, possibly of greater consequence, would it better serve our interests to leave these herds of misguided ‘Farm Animals’ out to pasture, while we proceed through the process of ‘Building a Bankroll’. I’ll choose the latter, and, in so doing, I’ll invite you to join me in this free online poker coaching course where we will aim to turn your initial poker aptitude skill into tens or hundreds of dollars.

And, if you chose to join me, please understand that I am going to put forth eleven free online poker instruction articles; one per month (12 in total, since Article 5 will be in 2 parts). Each will offer a brief tutorial, or, render unsolicited advice, as to how you can build your bankroll here at NoPayPoker.

However, I should add, that the monthly free poker coaching council offered up by me, may not be the very best way of increasing your poker-related net worth at ‘real money’ poker playing enclaves.

In short, the Articles are specifically intended for the sole purpose of winning Freed’s at NoPayPOKER (where 200 FreeD’s equal $1 (US). However many of the free poker practice skills you will learn here can certainly be applied both in online cash games and the real word.

You may, or may not, have heard this said: “It’s more difficult to win while playing against ‘bad’ players, than it is to win while playing against ‘good’ players”.

• And, you may, or may not, have believed it when you heard it.
• Fortunately, I didn’t have to deal with the issue of credibility, I had it proven to me.
• A friend…a professional poker player well known on the tournament circuit…once took me to a ring game filled with non-skilled participants, and, after a bit less than 2 hours he brought me aside to ask for my description of the players in the game.
• I couldn’t answer. I had few, if any, reads…I was never able to ascertain with any degree of confidence what pocket cards any of these players held; no patterns, no idiosyncrasies, no respect for money, and no regard for the accepted poker play standards.

Such is the case at NoPayPOKER. Oh, don’t misunderstand me, there are three or four dozen very talented players who are members of this site. But, the vast majority of players present at any one time are ‘less-than-average’ (at best).

Yet, the ‘Farm Animals’ sit at the tables, they regularly fling their chips around, they routinely decimate their individual stacks, and they subsequently proceed to the next available game as they free poker games online for fun. In so doing, one or more of the skilled NoPay members ends up adding to her/his bankroll at the final table.

Well…if there are so many ‘less than average’ players, and, it’s “more difficult” to win against ‘bad’ players, how is it that the very same ‘talented’ NoPayPOKER members can frequently be found at the final tables?

And, how is it that these ‘talented’ NoPay members sit atop the Leaderboard on a week-in and week-out basis? Is there a key to their play?….are they just plain lucky?….is there a strategic advantage at their disposal?….are river cards always benefiting them?….or, have they stumbled upon a magic potion that leads them to money payouts?

And, is it all of the above that sends the ‘Farm Animals’ to the fields filled with manure, stench, and a bevy of flying insects?

The answer, my friends, is not blowing in the wind….it’s a simple fact.

• Poker is a game of skill, not chance.
• The NoPay members who are regularly at final tables, who are regularly winning tournaments, and who are regularly adding to their respective bankrolls, have each brought a skill set to every game they enter….to every table they sit at.
• And, while the number of different skills a ‘winning’ player carries with him can vary (some possess well in excess of 100 different skills), there is one skill that stands heads and shoulders above all the others.
• In all candor, that one skill represents about 50% of all the assets you’ll ever bring to a NoPayPOKER free poker table.

This particular skill, inherently more common in women than it is in men, is cause for the only ‘words of advice’ that will be present in this article.

If you’re unable to bring this skill to a NoPayPOKER poker table, you don’t belong at any live or online poker table. That merits a repeat….if you’re unable to bring this skill to a NoPay poker table, you don’t belong at a poker table.

What one skill am I writing about? What one skill makes me spell PPPPPoker with five P’s? Sure….you’ve identified it; how couldn’t you. It’s PATIENCE.

In real estate it’s location, location, location. And, in poker it’s patience, patience, patience, patience, and then more patience. Without it, you can’t win. Not at NoPay, not at home games, not at ‘real money’ Internet sites, and not at Brick and Mortar (B & M) venues.

At this point, allow me to identify the initial use of patience in NoPay free poker against other people tournament play.

• It’s the singular skill we’ll need to defend ourselves against the ‘dimwits’ who take great pleasure in flinging chips around during the opening rounds of every game we enter.
• While they may choose to play ‘Bingo’ with their opening stacks, your intent is to wait for premium cards such that you can relieve them of the chips they’re so unconsciously eager to part with….so unconsciously eager to add to someone else’s small space on the green felt.

How hard can it be to sit in the comfort of your chair, and wait for the dealer to toss a couple of ‘premium’ cards in your direction?

How hard can it be to simply relax until those cards arrive?

Yes….I know, I’ve heard it all before:  “I’m here to play free poker games online for fun” & “I’m here to be entertained” & “I’m here to play free poker not real money” and, worst of all, “I’m here to gamble”.

Well, winning money is a whole lot more fun than losing money. And, if you haven’t come to the realization that playing poker is about winning money, nothing more, then you need to get on a different bus.

Patience and women, as mentioned earlier, seem to naturally co-exist. Patience and men….different horse, different color.

Men need to go out of their way to develop the required levels of patience in order to become frequent winners at the poker tables.

And, there is a practice exercise that can help. As a matter of fact, even after countless years of playing poker myself, I use it every month. It’s a simple exercise, and it produces the desired results. Although, I’ll openly admit, it’s both boring and time consuming.

Yet, remember, if you don’t bring patience to the table, you don’t belong at the table. Without patience, you’re in a downward spiral heading toward the inevitable status of ‘broke’, ‘busted’, and ‘begging’.

The Patience Developing Exercise (PDE) involves registering yourself in a freeroll….my choice is to enter a game that has a great many players.

• For the entirety of the game you’re only allowed to participate in a hand if you were dealt pocket aces or pocket kings.
• No other pockets can be played.
• And, you’re never allowed to initiate a bet, or put forth a raise.
• If you do have AA or KK in the pocket, you can call a bet and partake in the hand.
• Again, though, you can’t raise, nor can you initiate any betting.
• Also, if you’re the Big Blind, and you do not hold aces or kings, you must fold; even when there may not have been a raise made against your big blind.

This PDE has helped thousands of players bring patience to the forefront of their skill sets. And, since patience represents 50% of all the skill you’ll bring to a NoPay poker table, it can’t hurt you to advance your level of patience through the use of this tool.

Oddly, this may be one of the few times a handful of men may wish they were females….may wish they could eat quiche.

• Why? Well….as you play in a PDE game you’re only going to participate in about 1% of the hands; AA and KK are each dealt to you approximately once in every 212 pockets.
• I said it would be boring….I meant it.
• And, in your boredom, the damn quiche has a remote chance of being palatable.

Now, I could easily agree that there wasn’t a whole lot of material in this Article to inspire, excite, or entertain too many readers. Yet, I’ll take one last opportunity to emphasize the critical importance of PATIENCE at a poker table. It truly represents half of all the skills or assets you’ll bring to the free texas hold em tables of NoPayPOKER. And, bring it you must….you’ll not Build a Bankroll at NoPay without it.

Best of Luck at the Tables

Michael

(c) copyright 2008; no reproduction, all rights reserved by D. M. Vadnais

Next – Part 2: Playable Pockets and Table Position

To play free poker practice games get over to NoPay now and play free poker against other people for fun and money