This “golden question”, may seem like the end all be all in poker.

Is there some secret strategy which makes players successful and sets you apart from the free online poker games donks?

The answer to this is not difficult and this how to be good at poker lesson has it in a nutshell.

The secret, or insider strategy key for successful good poker play at all levels from free to huge stakes is to be able to make cool headed, logical decisions at every decision point.

In other words, to “use common sense at all times” and win, sorry it’s not more profound than that.

Common sense you screech? But I have lots of common sense you say and still don’t win much! Ah, but common sense, in the context of poker is not very common at all.

Where most players go wrong in regard to common sense is their perception of poker. Too many people reply too much on luck. But in reality poker is totally about skill and common sense decision making has a direct correlation to long term success.

True, short term results seem to be subject to a degree of luck (uncontrollable probability in fact) but long term the skill play approach evens this out and gives players with a profitable style money! Once you adjust your poker view to accept this you see that “common sense” is the core key to winning poker.

But what about those huge crazy bluffs the TV pros make? They have solid (often complex) reasoning behind them.

The internet pros making tens to hundreds of thousands per year?

They make all that money by playing thousands of hands in a solid steady style that overwhelms the majority of their opponents’.

Even at free poker sites better poker players make more than the common herd..

OK great, accepted, so how to apply this? Basically by structuring your game around sound fundamentals and a solid foundation of poker knowledge.

My “key”, to use “common sense”, is really just a more general way to say patience though it expands much further than just “patience”

How exactly does common sense equate to “patience” in poker?

> In a normal Holem game you get 2 cards that only you see befie the betting (apart from blinds) starts.

> Applying simple patience reasoning, we wind up with something like we should wait for hands we can play profitably and then play those because we’ll profit.

> There are not so many such hands so basically we are playing tight preflop.

> Adding common sense into this mix we will now say that the idea of poker is to take money from the other players.

> Therefore when we invest money with better hands we will makes a profit.

> Therefore, we only play stronger hands preflop so we can profit, and as such should generally play tight.

How the Common Sense approach differs to plain patience is in the logical reasoning that you will learn to put into your decision making process.

It’s the difference between “this hand is profitable so we play it” and “this hand is profitable because…so we play it”, this is a significant difference when trying to build a game on solid foundations.

You have to know what you’re doing all the time and WHY you are doing it beyond some set in stone rulebook.

The easiest application of this is playing tight (no trash hands!) preflop.

It’s logical to think that starting out with stronger hands than our opponents preflop will lead to us having better hands postflop and making money off our opponents, and the way to start with stronger hands than our opponents preflop is to play tight and fold our trash.

This approach applies to all poker concepts, for example value betting “I bet when I’m ahead of my opponents to win money”, bluffing “I will bluff when I cannot win the pot unless my opponent folds and my opponent is not likely to fold if I don’t bluff”, and so on.

But those are concepts which will be explored more in depth in future articles in this poker free online games training series.

I hope this poker free online games ways to win poker games lesson was useful, for many more lessons and to play poker free online games against real people go see NoPayPOKER.com

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Presently there may also be VIP Clubs which further rewards devoted customers with loyalty points that can be redeemed for 100 % free credits after a specific amount of points usually are accumulated. Whether you’re playing as a High Roller or even a VIP Player, Online Casinos go the extra mile to guarantee that these people are kept happy and satisfied. Currently there are a couple of wonderful Net Casinos offering very lucrative High Roller Casino Games and several other great rewards and bonuses.

Eventhough it was not something that was done incorrectly or was considered illegal, it’s brought down several of the site gambling businesses. Poker Black Friday was comprised of Department of Justice’s seizure on several gambling sites as well as US poker sites. They investigated these firms because they supposedly were breaking laws when running their websites. There has been a few seizures and some companies brought up on charges. The Black Friday is generating a revolution in poker websites and will continue to do so until the running gambling websites meets the justice requirements. They would not stop until they see that each of those gambling websites follow the laws.

Although these seizures have happened there is still a way for those individuals to play poker online. In order for them to play the safe way and not to see their favorite internet sites being shut down they would need to make sure that they find a website that follows the Department of Justices regulations. By finding a website that follows these regulations a person would be able to enjoy the experience of playing poker online.

When a person is trying to discover the perfect website online to gamble then they would want to make sure that they do their proper research so that they can find a website that would be legal to play at. A person would not want to deposit money on a site just to have it taken away from them when the website shuts down. When researching a website you should ensure that under your state and country laws against gambling on the net they should want to make sure that they are following the proper rules. If online gambling is not allowed in that area when money is exchanged on the internet then you would not want to sign up for a website that allows that. People make money online by gambling but in the end they would need to make sure that they are following the proper regulations. There are several web portals that have done this job for you. They provide lists of US poker sites and what areas they accept players from. Most will even have reviews of the poker sites to show how reliable they are and the deposit and withdraw methods and alot more. Even with these sites, an individual should be sure that they adhere to all the rules and the regulations.

Poker Black Friday might have revolutionized online poker sites but it also has shown us that there have been some companies in which have not been following all the proper regulations. Poker Black Friday should open their eyes in order to change their websites to fit the regulations of the Department of Justice.

Low pocket pairs, 2/2 through 9/9, will, long-term, provide you with more wins that any other two pocket cards you’ll ever be dealt.

What more than AA, KK and QQ? How is that possible you shout! It is not only possible but a fact.

In addition to being superb against good players they are also great for destroying those annoying “all in all the time” donk players.

Low Pocket Power Explained

Your probability of being dealt any pocket pair is about 6%. This equates to approx. every 16 or 17 hands.

1) With a pocket pair you have about a 1 in 8 chance to get a set at the flop (3 of a kind).

2) So 6% followed by 1 in 8 comes to you having a post set flop once per 133 hands. At a 10 player table that equates to once every 13 small/big blind bets you deposit on.

3) Low pocket pairs are playable from all table positions however ONLY at a cost that does not exceed the big blind from Early Position, over 2x the big blind from Middle Position and 3x big blind from Late Position.

4) In addition when you have them you should not raise the big blind pre flop.

5) Also if you limp in from Early Position, or if you have called a 2x BB from Middle Position, and there has been a raise to 3x the BB, and there are five plus players left in the hand,then you should call 3x the BB bet from Early and Middle position.

Why?
With 5 or more players in the hand, there is an increased likelihood that the flop is going to show 2 or 3 low cards.

This is because it’s likely that the players left in the hand have 1 or more paint cards.

Then the set we get becomes powerful. Especially if it is a set of 2’s, 3’s, 4’s, 5’s, 6’s, 7’s, 8’s, or 9’s. Indeed, Aces to 10s are heavy weapons but with the lower pairs you have a better chance to do evil to your opponents.

The reason is that many players, especially poor ones, do not fear low cards that hit the board as part of the flop.

Let’s use a sample hand illustrate low pocket power.
You’re seated Late Position with pocket 5c/5h. There is a ‘bad’ player with Jh/7c and a ‘good’ player with Ad/Qd.

The ‘good’ player raises 3x the big blind, the ‘bad’ player calls, you call, and everyone else at the table folds. The flop shows Ah/Jd/5s; you have made a set of 5’s. The good player bets 3x the big blind again.

The bad player raises by 3x which is mad as he has a middle pair and the good player clearly betted onto the flopped Ace. You call and so does the good player.

The turn card is a 7d. It gives the ‘good’ player a nut flush draw (Ad/Qd/Jd/7d), and he holds the high board pair (Ad/Ah). The bad player gets 2 pairs, JJ and 77. You have a set of Fives (5c/5h/5s).

At this point you may be concerned that the River will bring a card to fill the flush or a J or a 7.

Don’t be! Left in the deck are 9 flush maker cards and 4 full house maker, 13 in all minus the last 5. the last 5 is a flush maker but will also make you quad 5’s. So there are 12 cards left that can be dealt that will make you lose and 34 that will win it for you. That’s 3-1 in your favour, pretty good odds.

The river card is one of the 34 so is no use to the others. The bad player moves all in, you call and take the pot.

So how was it that this pocket 5 situation was so good?
It’s because the set of Fives was hidden; as will always be the case when pocket 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 6/6, 7/7, 8/8, and 9/9 are turned into sets by the flop (1 in 133; although that includes sets of Tens, Jacks, Queens, Kings, and Aces).

Plus the fact that no one could have read the cards. And as you slow play it so that both good and bad opponents cannot identify the powerful set the flop created.

The power of low pockets is not very well known but is used by all pro players. After all, they win more money but do is under the radar so the pros are not going to shout about it!

So as a next step, go and practice how to play low pocket pairs on poker free online sites and then move on to low stakes and make money!

Free online poker sites frankly have little reason to rig games in order to cheat players out of money as of course on a proper free online poker site there is NO money involved to be fiddled!

What about when real cash gets involved though? Ever since the beginning of poker online there has been an endless discussion on whether online poker games are as fair as live poker games. In this article we’ll look at the evidence and, as you will find, come to some limited but definite conclusions that can help you feel safe in your choice of online poker site.

The Argument

Just how honest online poker is has been a subject of great debate for years. Accusations of site cheating include the cash-out curse (where after a winning run you withdraw winnings and then when you start to play again you get beaten time and time again…as if the site does not want you there as you were too good before) to pot juicing where the house is also playing and adding money to the pot to increase rake. Some think that counting to 10 before moving all in can help.

Virtually all career live players will tell you that just the slack, gullible and cheats (the victors) seriously play poker online for money.

The fact is that online poker is having a hard time right now. The debacle of Black Friday in the US along with the downfall of Full Tilt and others with associated criminal charges have made things even worse for online money poker. For Full Tilt to fall so hard would have seemed almost impossible before and yet they did adding petrol to an already hot fire.

The Method

In poker runs of bad beats and good runs are part of the online and live game. The theories of cheating and rigging online many will say are just poker variance in action. Now though one group is trying to end the doubt.

Using statistical tests with millions of hands Online Poker Watchdog are now trying to establish if online poker really is fair or a fools game. They claim to be an independent statistical auditor with the sole aim of proving or disproving the integrity of online poker cash games.

They have so far surveyed PokerStars, PartyPoker and OnGame network. They used 2 solid tests on the 3 sites that are far reaching enough to determine if the sites are operated fairly.

First of all 1 million hands were loaded to the sites and the results compared to what would be expected in live games. In the 2nd test they split hands that were ahead and behind pre-flop and compared the results to expected ranges in live games.

The Results

At PokerStars the test was a million hands down loaded and 69,663 pre-flop all-ins coming from tourneys and Sit n Go games. The expectation in live games is 35,748 successful hands. The test returned with 35,850 winners, showing a deviation of just +102. Anyone who is familiar with maths will explain this is as near normal as does not matter. The Second test outcomes contrasting pre-flop all-ins ahead and behind also revealed very close to normal outcomes.

PartyPoker assessments assessed 1.26 million hands that broke down 11,984 hands from $50NL full ring cash game tables. Live game expectation predicts 6,267 wins. From the test they had 6,198.5 wins – a deviation of a meager -68. The pre-flop all-in checks also came in near normal.

The OnGame tests used a 1.42 million hand sample together with 12,306 hands coming from $30NL short handed cash tables. The live game expectation is 6,457 winners. The internet site tests returned with 6,454.5 wins, an infinitesimal change of -2.5. The pre-flop all-in comparisons not surprisingly were very close to normal.

The Opinion

These outcomes are precise to put it mildly. All three sites in the trials clearly show no indications of rigging or cheating. A lot of online players haven’t ever genuinely considered that online games are rigged (why might they play otherwise!) our hope is that this material indicates to doubters the fact that the water is safe, at least at these 3 reputable online poker websites.

While on line pokers legal status might be unclear at this time it is always good to find out that these websites are playing honest, fantastic news for those who play now and those in the US who’ll, in all likelihood have the ability to play once again once the US government works out how to get tax from online poker for cash games!

If you’re not yet ready to play poker online for money or if you’d prefer to just play some free fun online practice poker versus real people and, or get free online poker instruction then go to NoPayPOKER.com.

All the poker there is totally free of risk of losing money due to the fact that you literally cannot deposit any, though, by clever use of advertising you can actually win some real cash! Nopay is also legal for US based players.

If that’s not you then by all means stay with me, the post underneath is amusing (we reckon) if you are a donk…please don’t take offense, stay with me and discover how to get much better.

Okay, it’s up to you how you play but would you not prefer succeed by design rather than by luck as, guess what, poker is not a game of luck or chance When you’re conscious what you happen to be undertaking.

If you play donkey style though then poker is just about luck and the odds on any even medium term success are way worse than say, a simple coin flip so you will lose – poker odds make that fact 100% certain. Why not visit the free poker training sections to learn about that.

If you’re an addicted donk but you do truly want to get better you need to check out all the free poker lessons and also run through the simple 12 step program below. Once you are out of the hole then you can ignore step 12.

The NoPayPOKER.com 12 Step Donk Therapy Program

1. Recognise that you have a fold option.

2. Acknowledge to your self and others that there is a issue using the fold option.

3. Ponder the likelihood of using the fold button.

4. Fold.

5. Try not going all in with the first hand ahead of the flop, just once.

6. Get over the idea that having pocket cards 39 offsuit is a good reason to push in all your chips.

7. Realize that a successful donk is just lucky, rather than really a person you would like to imitate as a fundamental strategy.

8. Confess that you’re and forever will be a donk if you can’t take constructive steps to stop.

9. Reconcile with those you have donked, by way of apology or reimbursement of freeds.

10. Trust your individual power to get over your donkiness. (Learn the way to play poker)

11. Quit hoping for the higher power to baptize your preflop calls.

12. Keep of ring tables.

To these I can also add a kind of unofficial number 13 and 14 too.

13. Check out poker games free download for pc, these games versus the computer only are an easy way to play for fun and if you’ve got donkiness to get out of your system it can be done in a standalone game like the Governor of poker games collection.

14. Check out poker training videos, there are some excellent poker coaching videos about now, nothing to spend to view and you’ll get some great tips from some of the top pros.

So do yourself a favor, believe us, poker is much more fun when you play it properly. Do it right and learn now to play free online poker first and there is absolutely no reason why one day you might actually be able to play poker for money at a place like PartyPoker and not lose your shirt!

If you’ve not looked at our poker free online games training lessons yet go to the lessons master page and read now, you’ll find tons of excellent stuff there that can be accessed by both members and non members.

The NoPayPOKER lessons form a great free poker library that will be added to all the time but of course it cannot cover all poker knowledge!

So to expand we have researched what we think are the very best poker strategy books.

The poker books reviewed have been aggressively filtered and only top rated poker books have made the cut.

The structure is always to provide the essential information on the poker book, a summary of the content with a summary of critiques we have located on the positives and negatives of the books.

Title – Sit ‘n Go Strategy
* Author(s) – Colin Moshman
* This version printed – July 2007
* Pages – 281

Synopsis –
Many good reviews on this one, in addition there is relatively very little of quality written on SnGs, so this is a very good book/bible for SnG’ers.

Favorable review comments –
* Very well written and comprehensive manual on how to play low and medium buy in, 1 table tournaments. SnG strategy divided logically into low, medium and high blind play sections.
* Goes over a really tight aggressive form of play, whilst he acknowledges, that other playing models may also be successful, when the players are good at post flop play
* A systematic examination of table situations, specific player types, stack and blind sizes, payouts, chip values, and ways in which they influence optimum strategy is presented.
* May perhaps be as valuable for the SNG player as Harringtons No Limit Series is to MTT players.
* After looking at it I understood the idea of equity (including the term in general) so much better than before.
* I completed it in 2 days and right away put $250 into my PokerStars balance.
* I really like that this book is targeted toward online SNG play. There’s lots of players just doing Sit N Go’s just for laughs, and Moshman enters into depth on taking advantage of such bad players.

Disadvantages –
* Not for totally new players

Title – How to Win at Online Texas Hold ‘Em: Insider Tips, Strategies, and Advice to Help You Master the Game of Online Poker
* Author(s) – Jack Parker
* This edition printed – February 2010
* Pages – 78

Synopsis –
Great for beginners. Every single tiny bit of the book is rich with all the latest poker information on how to control the online poker tables. Within, you will discover for example:

- The correct way to work out pot odds and outs.
- When you should blind steal.
- When and how to effectively make use of the squeezing technique.
- How to adjust your speed of play when playing with seasoned players.
- Tips on how to properly utilize check boxes/auto plays.
- Methods to monitor your opponents fold & flop percentages.
- How to use the chat box to your benefit.

Benefits –
* I found the info concise and helpful
* specifically took advantage of the chapter on bluffing and also the one on playing in online SnGs.
* I took an absolute beating in an online poker site about 2 weeks ago and came to the conclusion I had better find out a few things before I went back. So – does it work? I earned over $400 yesterday online.
* for anyone like me who has never read a lot and is aiming to start developing their game by learning, I believe this is a really beneficial small book, and personally think that it’s undoubtedly paid for itself based on the amount of cash I’ve won so far during my first forays into online games.

Drawbacks –
Only for novices or those switching from live to online for the very first time. Beyond this and for those really into the maths side you will find it too minimal.

So ends our best poker strategy books review, keep your eyes peeled for more soon, no, they are not free but at the same time do not cost mush and will pay for themselves quick if you are willing to apply the lessons therein.

Here is a hand illustration that shows the idea:

BLINDS 6k/12k

PREFLOP:

A is from small blind, has 9d-4d, raises to 35k
B from big blind, has As-3s, calls 23k (Pot 88k)

Both plays are simply standard plays. A may be trying to steal the big blind with a raise from the small blind. B calls since he’s got a good hand for the upcoming Flop.

FLOP: Js-Jh-10h

A bets 25k (Pot 123k)
B calls 25k (Pot 138k)

The bet A makes is small as he has very little but he wants to take the pot by showing a J on a paired table, or a draw. On a flop with Straight and Flush possibilities presenting, B may, indeed, put A on a draw and just see if A slows down later. Also, with a call he gets 5-1 odds.

TURN: Js-Jh-10h-Kc

A bets 25k (Pot 163k)
B calls 25k (Pot 188k)

A places another bet! Could A have the Jack, or even the Ten? Now, what B is thinking is that he is getting about 6.5-to-1 on a call to hit an Ace (where if A also has an Ace, they may split the pot) or a Queen (for a Straight). So he calls.

RIVER: Js-Jh-10h-Kc-8h

A bets 30k (Pot 218k)

Still A bets again! Now with a blank river card which hardly fill any possible Flush or Straight (maybe 9-7 or Q-9, but I don’t think both of them think the other one has it) why did A fire three times! Not only that, it’s a small bet. It may be a value bet where A had a Jack and trapped B for two more rounds of betting.

It may also be a value bet where A had A-Q. B might consider: “A might know I’ve got nothing, but if uses big bets he’ll make me fold. So he’s betting small to get more chips out of me. I’m getting 8.5-to-1 on a call, but no matter. I am not going to fail again B says and folds.

A shows a bluff!

If A was betting big B might think A is trying to sustain a 3 round bluff, and might call it. And recall B is a good player, and can detect sneaky stuff like this. (B by the way is Elky Grospellier. A is Jeff Shulman, anyway.) But A bet small, and strong players think small bets are value bets, so strong players doing reverse-psychology can bluff other strong players with a small bet that looks like a value bet.

Why not give small bet play a go by practicing risk free on a free online poker site such as NoPayPOKER where you can play with no risk of loss and get loads of free poker online training too.

Faster play:

This is one of the most important distinctions between real world and internet poker. When playing online poker, players are given the chance to play more hands. This is because there’s no waiting for dealing and shuffling of the cards and because money is counted automatically. The result is less dilly dallying and more playing.

Play multiple tables:

Many players like to play several games simultaneously which is definitely something that could not happen in a casino. In online poker sites, however, a player is allowed to open quite a number of different rooms. This means they can have even more hands in an hour and have lots of chances in winning though lots of chances of losing as well.

Cheap games for all:

In an online poker, players who want to play yet can’t afford to lose can play penny games where they only need a few pennies in hand to play. You can never encounter such games in a casino because this is something that can’t give them profit.

Play any time:

Although casinos are open day and night, never closing, they are not easily within reach to all the people that enter a casino. This makes playing poker a pleasurable treat once in a while and not in every day basis. Contrasting to real world poker, online poker is accessible anytime and anywhere as long as you have a computer and an internet connection.

Play for just a few minutes:

There’s no point in going to a casino if you’re only going to play a few hands, but logging into an internet poker site for a few minutes is no big deal at all. It’s easy to just pop on and play a few hands during a commercial if you’re watching television, or on a lunch break if you’re at work.

Play with strangers:

Poker is typically just a social activity that’s done with friends particularly if there are no casinos near at your area. Yet, with online poker, you can be exposed to different styles of play and challenging scenarios since the players they play with are from all over the world. This is a great bonus in logging on.

It’s great practice:

Practicing poker in the internet is very easy and accessible since there are cheap and even free poker table online. Anyone who wants to advance their playing of poker can log on to any online poker site and within an hour you can play dozen of hands. This gives them more idea on how to play the game since they are exposed to many different styles of playing.

With all these benefits though, remember that it’s still gambling. As alluring as online poker may be, don’t forget that you should never play outside of your limits.

To get helpful poker tips and strategies and play free poker online visit our website.

Typically the reason behind the success of this game is since it still offers the standard Poker experience, only with a few exciting variations. Video Poker is simply a fusion of a Slot Machine Game and Poker so this means that players can also enjoy both simultaneously!

The card ratings and hand ratings in Internet Video Poker is just the same as that of 5 Card Draw Poker and a strong hand is based on the identical principal as traditional Poker. The variances however is there are many different types of Internet Video Poker like Deuces Wild, Jacks or Better and Aces and Faces with every game possessing slight variances such as the value of a Joker when playing Joker Poker. Yet another great concept is Video Power Poker that is a Microgaming Video Poker Game allowing the player to have fun with anything from 4 to one hundred hands at the same time, which makes it one of the best casino games to play.

The basic principles of these games are same as regular Video Poker other than that the cards the player is given is the exact same for every single hand which means that you have more of a chance to win on one hand. Picture winning on a single hand one hundred times! It’s a given that Multi-Hand Internet Video Poker is seriously popular and many players decide to play internet casino games of this kind above the others.

Several popular Power Poker Games consist of Aces and Faces Power Poker, Deuces and Joker Power Poker, Deuces Wild Power Poker and Jacks or Better Power Poker. Microgaming offers Internet Video Poker Games of great quality with a great number of different games to select from. There is no lack in variety and the majority of the very best Internet Video Poker Games are also offered in a Multi-Hand option and that means you could play your most liked Video Poker Game, only with more of an opportunity to win! We’ve reviewed several of the top Online Casinos which offers players a big variety of quality Internet Video Poker Games.