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A simple error many beginner poker players make (and some who should know better) especially on free online poker games sites or when first playing with real money is using the minimum raise allowed. This is a real bad idea and there are powerful math and psychological reasons for this.

Giving the other players good odds

Making a minimum raise defends your preflop hand very little. If you’re holding pocket aces before the flop and you raise the smallest amount possible, it’s likely that many people will call your bet. The result of this will be that more players see the flop.

When more people can see the flop cheaply, there’s a greater chance that your strong hand will get cracked. The percentages prove this. To protect your pocket aces or kings, you need to bet a reasonably large amount to make your opponents pay to beat you.

A minimum raise does very little to defend your hand after the flop too. If you have flopped a set with your pocket aces and bet the minimum on a risky board, you’re giving the other players the opportunity to beat you.

Imagine that you hold Ad-Ah and the flop comes As-6s-Jc. If the others have flush draws or straight draws, your little bet will not scare them off. They’ll want to see whether they can make their flush or straight on the turn. So you need to put down a good sized bet in order to defend your hand and force them to pay to beat you.

Losing out on value

Part of the reason why no-limit hold’em is such a profitable game is because good players bet the right amount to extract the most value they are able to from their strong hands.

Whenever you make a minimum bet, you aren’t building much of a pot. You are not maximizing value from the hand in any way. You’ve got to be betting a reasonable amount prior to the flop, at the flop, at the turn, and on the river.

Another reason why reason why no-limit hold’em is such a profitable game is because good players let go of a hand that is not worth fighting for.

You need the other players to commit themselves to the pot by forcing them to put a fair quantity of their chips in a pot. It’s easier to fold if you are not pot committed. Minimum betting results in small pots that some players simply think aren’t worth fighting for.

A typical tell

The minimum raise may be a sign of a strong hand. In poker, strong means weak and weak means strong.

Some beginning players think they’re fooling players by betting the minimum, but they’re not. Skilled players know that a minimum bet is often a sign of a powerful hand.

You’ll encounter times when a minimum bet is a true sign of weakness, but a lot the time that basically isn’t the case. This is true both prior to the flop and after the flop.

This is specially true if a player three bets or re-raises for the minimum. Why would someone wish to help you stay in the hand? It’s most likely because they know their hand is clearly one of the best and want you to give them more chips.

If you are setting out to learn how to play poker or after reading this recognize that your betting and raise tactics need brushing up then the fastest way to improve fast is to play poker online for free. If you play risk free you can test things out but without the stress of possible cash loss and that makes a big difference! And if you need learn to play poker for beginners courses then the free poker sites have great intro training too.

If your reason for getting into poker is not just to poker online free only for fun then I assume you’re ambition is to win cash. More to the point you want to make a profit from your poker.

So how is it possible to start playing free poker with very little or no money and generate a real cash bank roll and be profitable to the point where your poker play supply you with an additional of even steady income.

If you are a poker novice and have no start-up cash fund then I can’t say it will be easy, it’s not, it’s hard work. But it is possible and in this article I will give you an introduction into how to do it.

Working out your poker profit – The Formulas
Your objective is to make the most money in the shortest possible time, in other words, the most productive profit. For this we will use some very basic calculations to figure out your poker profitability.

The profit is the difference between your initial bankroll and the final bankroll over a set period of time. So End bankroll minus Initial bankroll = Basic profit.

It’s also important to know what your salary is. To do this divide profit by the hours spent playing poker. So salary = Profit/Hours.

How to play for your profit
There are 2 main types of game you can play. There are tournaments and ring games.

To be able to make ring game poker profitable from the beginning and never lose money you need a sponsor for the initial bankroll. Most cash poker sites will match a deposit but of course it means you have to put your personal money down too.

If you have some cash you are willing to risk then it might be worth the small risk, but if not then check out free poker sites to find one offering an initial play money bankroll. The top free poker online sites have offers where you can swap your free money for real money starter bankrolls on partner money play poker sites once you win enough. Make sure the free site you join has this sort of deal in place with cash win poker sites and that the partner sites accept players from your country.

Tournaments are similar. Start free and build from there losing only money which is already profit.

Firstly you begin with free poker freerolls. Free poker tournament sites offer many and as with ring games you can earn play money credits that you can convert to real cash on cash poker online sites. As you become better and win more you raise entry cost and risk-reward levels and build your online poker income.

Critical – Keep the risk consistent with your bankroll and winning consistency

Only step up levels when you are certain your poker skill is good enough to win at the next level up on a regular basis. A simple formula you can use is to say once you’ve played 30 tournaments at $0.10 and have won a minimum of $10 then you can step up to say $0.20.

And if of course you get a losing streak then you are losing money that is profit not your own money. Not fun but you get to keep going. Back down to the level below if you need to and keep going – “2 steps forward, one step back” is the name of the game. Your profit will not be a linear straight line and if you can accept that you will be able to keep going and progress steadily and absorb those corrections.

If you are new to online poker then learn first and play free poker at one of the best free online poker sites. Here you can learn to play poker free absolutely free with no risk to your own money and start building a bankroll to cash in for real money when you are ready to go bigtime and play poker online to win money.

My introduction to free online poker games was not a pleasant experience. I copied these guys who were forever going all-in and lost all my play money chips really 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. Check out some games and try to get a feeling for how they work, the speed and the players.

Don’t start off big and if someone goes all-in, don’t follow because you feel you have to. See what cards you have and play your hand, not other hands. Make a decision and stand by it.

If you think you have a strong hand, don’t let yourself be pushed out by the All In gang. On free poker sites the All in gang are generally new clueless players (unlike yourself) or are playing silly for the fun of it.

A little tip that hasn’t failed me yet:
Value your cards. When you get your first 2 cards (pocket cards) give them a value that relates 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. A pair of Aces would become 450 chips (200 + 150). 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.

You will find that free online poker games players tend to be more reckless with their chips yet this in itself is good practice for playing against reckless players and you will learn how to play free poker with no risk to your finances.

Whether you’re playing free poker online or at the money tables, the achievements you have will be linked to how well you can use psychological tactics to your advantage. The free online poker games can turn out to be decent money making buy in games and competitions further on.

Using psychology in poker gives you an edge that can make the difference between winning and losing. In fact, I play the players more than I play the cards.

If you’re going to win the money, psychology is as important as position at the table, the odds and percentages involved in making a hand, knowing how to price the pot, or running a trap.

Good poker psychology is based on two things: intelligent observation, and common sense. Psychology also calls for old-fashioned ham-acting and some high pressure salesmanship. If you put it all together right, you’ll win at poker, whether it is the weekend family game or high-stake poker.

I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you that a massive part of playing poker and using psychological tactics is to know your opponents. If you’re playing with strangers it’s key to start observing them to notice their patterns and how they play. Once you have a grasp into the mindset of your opponents you can make decisions on your hand even before the second turn of the cards. By understanding your opponent’s strategy forms the foundations of an astute poker player.

Here appearances count for everything, neighbour, what they say is true: a man’s eyes mirror his soul.

There are many signs and bodily giveaways or as the pros call it- tells. An opponent could start becoming a ‘chatter box’ if they hold good cards. Another example could be if a player seems restless to get into the action or a different opponent could become silent if they’re holding decent cards.

If you were playing against me however you wouldn’t know the cards I was holding as I maintain a consistent level of conversation. I also enjoy playing the fool- as the tells of most novice or standard players have is remarkable. For instance I wouldn’t give you a dime to look at these players cards and call them out. As they would have inevitably by now told me by their body language what they’re holding.

Some of these psychology pointers you will have realised only apply in real world games where you can see eye to eye but others, such as the chat (or lack of chat from a normally chatty player) speed of action and so on are very applicable to paid and free online poker games. So if you don’t already do it start to observe, think and observe more and think you way to more winnings.

It’s very surprising that over recent years the level of boasting a win against an opponent has took an upwards turn. Even more surprising is that this tendency not only occurs on the free online poker sites but also on the money tables. Scaring a smaller “fish” away is not a very shrewd tactic; as keeping this player involved should result in winning their money. On the contrary this type of player may not realise their own lack of ability, and consequently the longer you can keep them in the “water” the more of their money you can win. Hence the saying: “don’t tap the aquarium”.

To help keep fish in the water you may conceder playing a few bad hands to ensure they’re having a good time; as the better time the opposing player is having will result in the length of time they stay in the water and continue to gamble.

You may even congratulate them on their bad play to make them think that they’re playing correctly. This, of course, would be a form of hustling that some people wouldn’t be comfortable with engaging in.

If you don’t feel like hustling the fish, then you should at least try keeping it jovial at the table. By creating a fun atmosphere at the free online poker tables, people will care less about the money that they’re throwing around and start playing loose and wild. This is what you want if you’re a good player. You’ll be playing solid poker, while they’ll be throwing their money away.

No one likes being disrespected and the chances are if you’re obnoxious or impolite, your fish will find another bowl to swim in (table to play at) and inevitably take their purse with them. By pushing this opponent away you will have potentially pushed away money you could have won from their blunders.

Can you imagine if everybody played well? The game of poker would be very tough to beat.

To think simplistic poker is about making good judgment choices, and leading your opposing players to make poor choices. As you would expect it’s much easier to help fish make bad choices and for this reason you should keep them nibbling and not push them away. Because the bottom line is you want their money and the worse the fish the more you will gain.

Another reason why you shouldn’t berate fishy player at the table or in your online chat box is because you don’t want them to improve. If they feel embarrassed with how bad they play, they may actually take the time and effort to improve their play. In other words, you’re encouraging bad players to become good players. Once they’re good, they’ll be tougher to beat. You won’t be getting their money quite as easily anymore. Why would you want to make it any harder to earn a buck in poker?

The modern game is fast becoming harder to win; this is partly due to the masses of knowledge that’s available to learn from. The difference in standard today compared to when I first started playing many years ago is massive.

That’s why I try not to “tap the fish tank and why I still play at free online poker freerolls were there’s real money up for grabs!

In live poker, expert poker players rely on poker tells. Traditionally, poker tells are the body language of an opposing player to get a read on what cards they are holding or what actions they take. Poker tells are normally where a player has the same type of reaction patterns when holding certain cards. Some poker tells include, but are not limited to: fidgeting in the seat, placing of chips, breathing, tone of voice, facial expressions, and the directions of one’s gaze. Following the huge success of online poker and free online poker, tells are moulding into other factors other than the ones that can be seen.

A popular tell when playing free online poker is how fast an opponent is playing. Providing there is not a bad internet connection the speed that a player is placing bets is a tell tale sign of what kind of hand they are holding, whether it is good or bad. Although, it is widely believed that quickness in betting is a sign of weakness and slower time to bet is a sign of strength, this needs to be analyzed more carefully.

A more precise way of working out an opponents strategy is to watch each one as an individual and see how fast they play certain hands and look out for the pattern. If possible keep track of each players speed and watch the results of their betting. For example, if a player is involved in a large pot and bets quickly after seeing the flop and eventually loses the hand, then this person’s betting quickness is a sign of weakness if it is fast. A person who bets slowly in a big pot might be building the pot and indicate a strong hand when they exercise a slow rate of betting. Since each individual has his/her own style of betting speed, it is important to analyze each style before making assumptions.

When looking out for tells its always worth considering what else may be happening with the other player behind the scenes rather that just assuming they are fast or slow playing due to the hands they hold. For example, they may well be playing a few tables at once, or surfing the net while waiting for their turn. Consistent slower betting from these players shouldn’t be considered a tell to their cards but is simply a sign they are distracted. Consistency is critical to eliminating bet speed as a tell with this type of player. In addition, the quality of the player’s internet connection can interfere with their bet speed.

Online poker tells are always changing, especially with the way the internet and the speed of the internet works. My best advice would be to watch each player as an individual and avoid that every free online poker player plays the same tells.