One of the players was duped, but so was I even though I wasn’t in the hand. There is a simple lesson that comes out which is, firstly, you must learn when to fold and second, as related to folding, learn to recognize all the outs available in the hand – or else!

Here’s why and how:

BLINDS 30/60

A has As-Jd, calls 60
B has ??-??, calls 60
Big blind and small blind joins (Pot 210)

FLOP: 8c-4c-As

Here A believes that his Ace is strong, so he continues his aggression:

Big blind and small blind check-fold
A bets 300
B calls 300

Since A put out more than the pot, B now has less than 2-to-1 on a call, (1.7-1) and that is a good price with which to call for a Straight or a Flush draw with 2 cards still to come. A’s bet is just enough to drive out an incomplete hand. But because B is a bad player who will chase down draws, he calls.

TURN: 8c-4c-As-5c

The Five of Clubs came, and A, at this point, still has a strong hand, but has weakened. His Pair of Aces is good against what he believes should be a stray Flush draw. If he makes B continue, however, he might not be able to play his Pair. So A continues battering:

A bets 500
B calls 500

RIVER: 8c-4c-As-5c-7d

A Diamond came! Not a four-Flush. Of course A believes his Aces are good already, except if his opponent had A-K. So A tries a check-trap

A checks
B bets 1250
A calls all-in 1250

B reveals 8d-6d, wins the pot

How in the world did B have the Straight? When A saw three Clubs, he thought his opponent had, say, one Pair and one Clover which could materialize into a made Flush later. Not so, so A figured B’s move all-in was due to the value of the small pair B had already. He reckoned it could only be 8-x or weaker and so called with what he figured was the top hand. It wasn’t.

True the board was risky, but A did not realize just how much danger there was. By focusing too much on the Flush, he didn’t realize that the Board was one card off a Straight (only a 6 is needed to topple him), and when only three Clubs came, he was lifted his fright of the Flush, but it made him recklessly disregard all other potential hands. His check was correct, but if he had been aware of the danger then a fold would have been best at this point.

And I, too, was duped. I thought B had a busted Flush, too. When B pushed A all-in, I, too, thought he was doing it with a pair and a busted Flush draw. It was with a Straight.

So what free poker lessons can be taken from this hand?

To know when to fold clearly! If the board is one card off a Straight or Flush or any other big made hand, and a big bet is in front of you (which you reasonably believe is not a bluff), you should, more often than not, fold.

Two is to know which cards can crush you. All of them, not just some.

For A, during the Flop and the Turn, he realized that only Clubs can crush him. On the river, since there are only three Clubs (if B had the flush made, he would have moved all-in on the Turn, and A could have folded), A thinks he?s safe. He focused on the Clubs too much; he forgot the 6.

Of course it’s easy with hindsight and analysis, being aware of factors like all the available outs is a tough one if you’re new to poker (hell even if you’ve got some time tucked away) so for that reason it’s best to practice and play poker online free a lot at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com before you go off to places like Feltstars and PartyPoker or live games and start throwing real money about. Even when you do progress I advise you to come back and play free poker online regularly in order to de-stress, make errors without loss and practice new ideas.

Unluckily the reality is that to ensure success in poker this is a key area of the game that you have to master, especially if you have any aspirations to play live money games.

The biggest problem is that the formula for doing odds is pretty complex and to do it in your head on the fly under pressure you do need to be pretty hot at math.

As an example:

Suppose you have 8-7 and the Flop comes 5-6-A. You want to figure the probability on hitting your Straight later.

If you use a rigorous mathematical solution, you will construct this monster:

The cards which will help you are the Four and the Nine. There are eight of them still remaining in the deck. The odds of your getting them later is P (1-P)Q, where P is the probability of hitting your hand on the Turn, and Q is the probability you will hit at the river. It is P (1-P)Q since (1-P)Q is the probability that you’ll hit at the river if you do not finish the hand on the Turn.

Now here’s the values for P and Q.

- P = 8 cards still on the deck that will help you divided by 52-5 = 47 remaining cards = 8/47.
- Q = 8 cards still on the deck that will help you, as you didn’t complete on the Turn divided by 52-6 (since there are six cards already out, your hole cards and the Board) = 8/46.

The complete answer is 8/47 (1 – 8/47)(8/46) = .170 (.829)(.174) = .170 .144 = .314 = 31%. There is a 31% chance of hitting your Straight later.

Ouch, that’s fun and beyond a lot of us! However, in a table you usually do not have a calculator (and even if you do you still need to know what to input into it .

And many poker players just understand the outs, but not really much of basic probability theory. How’s this? An out by the way is any unseen card that, if drawn, will help your hand win chances.

Here then is a much simpler, easy way to work out odds

Let’s try an approximation formula:

- You divide 8 by 50, because 47 is near to 50, and get 16.

- Double it again and you get .32.

- It’s a reliable estimate.

- After all, poker players, in games, don’t require exact solutions; they need only a hint as to where they’re standing.

- In this case “about 32%” is an efficient enough answer.

So, in the Flop, here’s the approximation:

- Get the number of your outs, then multiply it by 4, then affix a percent sign.

- This is a reliable approximation percentage of your hitting the hand.

- During the Turn, if you still have outs, multiply it by 2, then affix a percent sign.

- Preflop, when you decide to push all-in, you usually do not need to do this as you will rely mainly on pure hand strength.

The best way by far to perfect your odds skills is to play poker online free at http://www.NoPayPOKER.com, there you can get it wrong a hundred times and never lose money! Yes, you can always use odds calculators and many are available for online poker but if you want to play live you need to learn to do it the hard way, so get learning if you have any ambition to move beyond free poker online and win serious cash!

For our example we will look at an example from the World Series of Poker:

BLINDS 40,000/80,000

A has As-10c moves all-in (Pot 1.296m)
B has K-K reraises to 5m (Pot 6.296m)

B has two options here. He can just call and then wait for someone to move all-in after him, but that would make him do some thinking…

Could it be A-A? Or Q-Q? If it was Q-Q there is a slight chance he might fold K-K, and regret it. But a big reraise can drive Q-Q or lower out, like what happened to another player:

C has Jd-Jc

(C’s comments on B’s hand were: “Why did you make it so much? … You like your hand that much?”) If C calls, it’s for all of his chips.

C may think that B has A-K, but there are two all-ins in front of him, and one of them might be A-X (and with A-X he is still not safe) or a pair, but a suspiciously heavy raise to about 60 times the big blind is almost always a signal for A-A or K-K. So C could wait for a better opportunity than now.

C folds (Pot 2.39m)

C’s fold was brilliant, after the reraise, but it will still be brilliant even if B did not reraise. B might bet again on the Flop and C may not continue and just let go of the chips.

B’s reraise will work if he has A-A or K-K, but I doubt it if he will do the same with A-K or Q-Q, but it may have the same effect of making C fold. As for A, let us wish for his good health. B won the hand later.

Concluding Big Hand Preflop
I know this may seem like a lot to take in all at once, the fact is though that while poker is an easy game to learn it is hard to be very good at, hence the crazy stupid “chip flinging” you will come across on many poker sites.

Ironically the fact that so many players inhabit this dumb donk zone is great news for you. The reason why is that when you really learn how to play poker well you can turn mercenary and hunt them down in droves in low stakes real money games as well free online poker sites that pay out real money like NoPayPOKER and happily build your skills and bankroll!

As ever practice makes perfect so read, understand and learn how to play poker on the free online poker tables to get it nailed.

Maybe there is a scenario when this is ok- an example would be if there’s not a lot of cash floating about in the pot, or there is no chance of making a profit by making the gamble. This doesn’t move me away from my bad feelings towards checking it down just to go up in the cash however. I guess my feelings come because this type of play stops the chance to win the pot. In addition this can allow the opposition to catch you, when they would have clearly thrown in. It’s a great deal safer and stronger to play to gamble instead of check if you have the cards. This way you won’t loose any more than you have to.

Next is the importance of online free poker tournament bankroll management.

It is very easy to stack-off all your roll by not following a few bankroll management skills. I have found that Chris “Jesus” Ferguson’s techniques work quite well. In this technique, you can only buy into multi table poker tournaments for no more than 2% or your total bankroll and Sit and Go poker games for 5% of your total.

At NoPayPOKER we recommend for money competitions you mustn’t put in more than three percent of your entire amount though, Ferguson believes five percent is considered ok. So it comes down to your stance to risk at this stage, it’s a good idea to find your risk tolerance at the online poker sites.

A major part of online poker achievement comes down to decent skill, and knowledge of managing your bankroll. An obvious example of how to use this technique is to move down the scales of stakes when you hit a bad losing run. Most players understand this theory but find it very hard to put into practice, as they want to try and recoup the money they have just lost as quickly as possible. However dropping down in stakes is even further significant than having a decent roll methodology mindset.

Poker, mainly Texas hold ‘em, has been pushed on the public almost too much. Everyone thinks they’re going to be the next great champion. Now sometimes I’ve seen players get frustrated because the person they’re losing to just started learning how to even play the game.

But for me, it’s not even so much that anymore. I feel a lot of the challenge has just been taken out of the game. There are a lot of people nowadays who just don’t know, or don’t care, what they’re doing. People flop bottom pair, middle pair, top pair with BAD kicker, gutshot straight draws, open ended straight draws, flush draw with two cards in their hand, or even flush draws with one card in their hand. Sometimes, they don’t even flop anything. And, they have no excuse why they may even call a bet to go any further, but they do.

What grinds me is this new breed of player has no business playing for any kind of bet, but does, why? Because they either believe they know what they’re doing or believe their lucky charm will carry them through.

As stated before these players all have ambitions and harbour dreams of becoming the next big thing. These guys seek and chase the feel of hitting their cards for victory. Alternatively if there dreams stop short of being the next poker ace, they think of the new riches they’re destined for.

I do place a lot of blame on free online poker sites. People watch/play these sites so much and see bad hands get rewarded so often. That’s where most bad play comes from.

But in the only defence of free online poker, I do understand why you see so many bad plays get rewarded. Online sites make their money by keeping games constantly going. They need the players to move on to another table as soon as possible.

So what happens? Most end up seeing that miracle gutshot hit. Or the one outer hit. Or even worse; the runner, runner (nothing funner) hit. I just wish I could find a site that wouldn’t allow that to happen so, so much. But I never know if my desire will return. Even if I could find a site like that, there’s always the “other” problem. The vast number of players out there who really have no business gambling like that with real money involved. But who am I, or you, or anyone, to judge what might make other people happy?

Solid and Tight early on.
This means that early in a tournament you only play premium hands. Position is very important. Pairs from 22 thru 99 I only call and then only up to only 3 times the Big Blind. A larger raise and I fold them.

Larger pairs like 1010, JJ, QQ, KK, and AA of course call for a raise on a short table.

Get ready to call an all in whichever of those cards are shown- cards such as Queen/Jack, Queen/King, King/Jack & & Ace/10I play similar with tiny pairs & fold to raises higher than three times the big hand.

Now the hands that can get you into trouble.
AJ, AQ, and AK….you got to know when to fold them!! They are great hands when down to 3 or maybe 4 players left, but early on they are dead to any pair.

Learn to lay them down in the early part of a free poker tourney. One of the things I also do until the last 3 and in the money is show my winners. The table see’s Those KK and trip 7’s and so on. And I haven’t bluffed on a single hand…Yet. That comes when only 3 left. No more show and tell.

By doing this you will get the opportunity to have some great robberies. Your opponents have only ever seen your victories and therefore have no reason to start doubting you now.

By only playing premium hands in the early stages you allow the “Bingo” players to play themselves out. Chances are by playing Solid and Tight you will have the opportunity to take one or two out yourselves.

The whole idea in any tournament is to win, however making the money in SNG’s much easier. In most cases top 3 pay with 3rd usually paying back at least your buy-in. So making the money is critical to successful SNG play.

Another factor in play is a pet peeve of mine. I cannot count the times I have seen a table fold to a dead seat. There is nothing like seeing a deadhead getting free chips. The key factor here is PAY ATTENTION. You have to be in the game and not on vacation.

Add with this there are always the common sense fundamentals when playing for money. I’m one of the old school and being in my fifties I have seen the game evolve in many forms over many decades. To quote one of mu idols “No limit holdem can be taught in half an hour but can take over a lifetime to master”.

Remember, all players new to the game or more experienced who have lost there way; go practice on the small stake or free online poker tables. There are some very good set ups and by gaining experience or finding that winning way again, your doing it with peace of mind that you haven’t lost a wallet full of cash.

This obviously sends all but one player to an early grave. My recommendations are to stay safe until the final table, which I like to play more aggressively. I fold folded a lot of good hands early in the game and never regretted it because whatever happened I was still in the game.

The best free roll final position I made was forth with one hundred and fifty competing- in all honesty I was ecstatic with this, especially being a novice. From this I started to believe the chances of getting a pay out would not be as hard as first imagined especially when so many people go all in.

A good tip I continually use is the step up method. The highest I have won in a single hand is seventy five dollars- FreeD in the same hand and I managed to get my 1st sr8 flush smashing a very sure ace high flush which had the player go all in.

Mathematics I have found to be incredibly important. Knowing the chances of a flush by the river from two suited cards or the chances of winning from a certain pocket pair. Wising up on your odds will help greatly.

I have found the community at my free online poker site incredibly friendly and I always enjoy each game, whether I win or lose.

I know that I will continue to play free poker online for a long time to come and I look forward to perfecting my game as time goes on.

Moving all in on the river or pre-flop is only the right move when it’s really your only option, for example, Short stacked. In poker you need to think to yourself what would I do if I was in the same situation I am putting them in? When do call an all in pre-flop or on the river?

Hopefully your answer was when you think you have a better hand. If your all in on the river or pre-flop then your most likely going to get called with hands no worse then AQ pre-flop and at least top pair with a high kicker on the river.

Think before you act:
Why gamble your normal wager if you place a player on a flush draw and they haven’t hit on the river? Gamble on something he could potentially call on even after missing.

Rather than go all in with the top boys I would suggest if you’re that way inclined, to gamble just over the pot with your made hands.

The more you blag the higher chances you will get called- the majority of opponents will blag with over bets rather than all ins.

By letting your opponents see one or two of your poorer hands works leaps and bounds too. If fore say you managed to get your opponents to lay down with a middle of 6’s even though this was the top cards in the game- it will illustrate to everyone you are willing to gamble with less than flawless cards.

Hopefully my tips will help you get the best out of your hands when you are playing free online poker…. good luck and I really hope to see you at the poker tables very soon!!

I spent many years trying to perfect my game and working out the percentages of the hands and outs, etc. I would say that it benefited me, but not as greatly as I would have liked. What I did not factor in, was the style of play by others. Playing the player is a strategy that should not be overlooked.

Many players will play nearly any cards dealt to them. Bluff out the table to take in the pot. Other times just plain get lucky and “donk”. After all it is poker and any 2 cards can typically win a hand.

The question some may ask is how do you play a player. The simplistic answer is to observe and study how possible opponent’s play before you attempt playing a player. Make note of their playing techniques and take in as much about them as possible, such as how often they raise, how much they bet, etc. This may take you some time, but it is well worth taking as much in as you can before you attempt to take them on.

Does it always work to your advantage? The answer is no. It is poker and a game of chance after all. Regardless of how good you are at poker, you are never going to win every single game you play. However, by taking on this strategy of watching your opponents before you play them, you are much more likely to win more hands than you otherwise would have. You may not win every hand or every time, but you will win more than just playing your cards.

Good luck with these tips and I hope to see you at the free online poker tables soon!