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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.

Weighing up and calculating the percentages will give you an idea on the chances of earning some cash. For instance I’m taking part in a free poker game with twenty nine other opponents and ten of us getting waged. The percentages are quite easy to work out: one in three, and for this I would play quite mild for the majority of the game. Don’t be fooled into thinking I’m not going to be the front runner come the end of the night- but most of the time the cards dealt in the first forty five minutes will determine this.

I’m going to share and explain some of my better card play strategies. Remember this is not a beginning spot and is a long way off the real game. 77 I flat call and receive two times back and call. Flop comes 6D, 3H, 4H- 1st person to make a play all in on a one hundred and sixty five dollar, with a pot of three grand. I fold as they probably had better pockets or a nut flush draw/straight. Even though I had a fair chance of holding the best hand its way too soon to go for such a crazy move.

99 I flat call and the same opponent as previously shoved all in on flop 8D, 8S, 8H; I’m now wondering if I was incorrect on the previous play but I still fold regardless. He shows a Jtwo so I’m deciding I was right before. KJ off I flat call only due to the fact the pot is higher due to another player calling prior to me. We’re around fifteen mins in and I hold two thousand nine hundred of my initial three thousand dollars.

AJ I slow play A,6,9 flop and a player bets $350 the pot at this point was only $115 and the blinds $20/$40 so I fold. This player gave to much away with the size of his bet, if it were only me and him I would have reconsidered but I would like to think he wouldn’t try that with more players in the hand. I put him on a higher kicker, A6 suited or A9. Just in case I mention that he “should start showing a few to make it more believable.”

This way if he is doing something fishy hopefully my comment will make him think I am on to him. Even if this isn’t the case now I have him thinking that I do in fact think he is bluffing and that I may call him if he keeps it up. When in fact as you all know I am just saying it to keep him in line.

About 20 minutes later I catch him pushing with K8 on a K66 flop while I had A6. Needless to say I double up and get some valuable information. He does have hands when he does these silly bets but the hands he is doing it with are easily beatable. He is relying to much on his odds because the table is short handed at the moment.

I will now employ a method of waiting for this player to make his next error. A different opponent to my right gambles before the flop- who seems to be on the same wave length as me, however playing it completely off the mark. The problem is he’s forceful with his cards and not stupid. I continue with the six grand double up here at first break 1hr into the game. At this point there’s still twenty two players at the table.

One hr and forty odd mins gone and I grasp the same opponent again slow playing a AK for an even 9 grand making my full sum twelve grand with seven opponents left and sitting in a modest third. Although this opponent had managed to pull together around eighteen grand in chips with an attacking style his final place is eighth while the low stack at the prior table is now playing for first spot. Looking for a mark and staying with it will work out in the lengthy game however you need to ensure you have another plan to bring in money to ensure you’re at the table long enough for the big dollars.

AA I bet the minimum and have no action. Hour two is now in the books and I am in last. 4th place with 6k left so I’m all in on my next blind no matter what. The next closest player has 16k and blinds are 600/1200. 55 and flop comes Q510… a little luck never hurt anyone! I lay down AQ off to a bet that would put me all in. I didn’t feel like losing my newly found chips so fast. Went out in 3rd place with A4 suited vs K10 off. Not bad for a free poker tournament where I won some money too, shame it wasn’t an WSOP top table!

I look forward to playing you in a free poker tournament soon!

Whether you are new to playing in free poker tournaments or not, you may wonder how to play your chip stacks. If so, then read this guide which will help you decide how to play the stacks from short to big.

First here are a few pointers on playing a short stack. If you are a short stack play as tight as possible but play aggressive. The best way to do this is to steal the blind where possible, rather than just pushing your opponents into a decision. There is no advantage to trying to trap as a short stack seeing you are risking a lot more than your opponents.

Now we look at the average stack. Here you should play your normal game and do not change your style as you are good enough on chips to not need to be aggressive in order to survive. This is the best time to try and steal blinds and antes though. You have enough to scare the bigger stacks and enough to cover smaller stacks.

Finally the big stack. There are two ways to approach this. You can sit back and play as tight as you can until the weaker players are out of the game, or the other approach is to be aggressive and force others into tournament life or death decisions. You can get away by moving with marginal hands in this case.

However, remember that playing aggressive can cause you to let others back into the tournament by doubling them up with marginal hands. So play wisely if you go this route.

By knowing how to play each type of chip stack should enable you to stay in the game longer and hopefully start winning some tournaments and increase your winnings.

I hope these pointers help you out, start by practicing and perfecting your method and skill in free poker tournaments and games and then move onto the money tables.

This approach is just as applicable to free poker games as it is to paid, practice it with the free money and chips and you’ll be doing it naturally when the time comes to play with real green.

Before you even hit the tables, set yourself a couple of ground rules on spending money and time. You DO NOT want to spend an hour losing money over and over again. I try to stick to 3 conditions when playing poker, if I come across one of them at any point, then I know its time to have a break from playing.

While it may seem like they will restrict your winnings, and cause you to make slow progress in the poker world, you limit your losses, and so stop yourself progressing backwards. A penny saved is a penny earned, and those pennies will build up over time if you restrict your losses and have PATIENCE!

The purpose of this is to prevent a huge blowout of all your money and thus causing you to miss out on a huge win after lots of bad calls. Here are my three rules that I stick to:

1. Quit playing and have a break if I have used up half of the cash flow I started with.

2. If I have doubled the money I have bought in with, and start losing it, quit and come back later. On a side note never risk losing a big hard earned stack by going all in. I made this rule and adhere strictly to it so that I never make a loss on what I have earned.

3. If you’re going nowhere (played for 20-30 mins in my case) and haven’t made significant gain or loss then quit and come back later, chances are your luck will be better.

If you have joined a game to win big, then remember, its not the cards you are playing against, it’s the other players. It’s no use going all in with a royal flush knowing you’re bound to win, and watching everyone at the table fold.

A rather general guideline (no more rules!) is that players tend to bet big when bluffing, and small when they have a great hand to try and squeeze as much cash out of everyone as possible.

However, this is not always true. First look at the players at the table, try to guess their playing styles, notice patterns in their behaviour and then apply this guideline to them. It works for me I would say around 80-90% if the time.

A good poker player will try and do this to you, so always vary how you play after you hit the table! If you make yourself seem predictable and easy to read. E.g. start off by folding weak hands and only playing the good ones. When people see that you raise whenever you get a good hand, and fold on weak cards they will write you off as unable to bluff, and you can bluff your way through the next couple of weak hands, with most being too scared to call your bluff.

If you have a rubbish hand and have no chance of winning, make it clear that you are bluffing. Then as soon as a good hand does come along (it will eventually, it’s all just about PATIENCE) then you can bet big, people will probably call your bluff, and you can just rake in their cash.

When starting out playing poker, its best to stick with playing free poker games before taking a risk with your own money. You’ll find that many free players don’t do rules very well and play silly but you will get a lot of experience in general game aspects on free poker sites so that you won’t waste too much money when you play for the real thing.

I remember when I first started playing free poker and there were so many terms that I didn’t understand, it was like a whole different language.

This guide is to help decipher some of the more complex terms and hopefully introduce you to some new ones in hopes that they will help not only improve your game but can make poker more enjoyable.

We all know some of the terms like , flop, turn , river, check, raise and so forth but there are even some terms for those that are foreign to some players. Such as…

4th street – aka the turn

5th street – also more commonly called the River

But that is not the limit of the terms you can keep in mind while you’re contemplating your next moves. Keep these in mind when you are watching the bets come around to you.

Plays tight – generally means that a player does not play lots of hands

Plays loose – the opposite to playing tight, and the player tends to play lots of hands

Plays “ATC”- they play anything “ATC”= any two cards”.

On tilt- means that a player is being erratic with their bets usually from losing a tough hand earlier.

Now that you have an idea on pre-flop situations now let take a look at board activity terms.

Over pair – When you have a better pair in your hand than the board.

Top pair – means that you have paired the highest card on the board with one in your hand. Next down is middle pair and bottom pair respectively.

If you manage to survive the flop but have 4th and 5th St. left to endure. Then you have three more terms to keep in mind as you go.

Outs – the amount of cards that can give you a winning hand.

Drawing dead- this basically means that you have no chance of winning a hand. Some players if they are drawing dead may bluff or go on tilt at the last second to try and steal the pot.

Having the “nuts”- Having the nuts means you have the best possible hand available from the cards on the board and in your hand.

Some tricks on betting

Granted, in all free poker play and pay poker, everyone can bet, check, and raise but even those three options can lead to some interesting possibilities.

Even terms like check and raise can lead to some pretty interesting scenarios and put players in a frenzy.

One example is to check-raise. That term means to check when the bet comes to you but then raise if a bet comes up. This tactic can hide the strength of your hand and can lure a player into losing a lot chips if he is not careful on how he plays it.

Value bet – Is a bet that is not a large bet but is considered small enough to call. Some players may call a value bet in hopes of gauging a player’s game play or to see their hand.

Semi-bluff bet – Is similar to a bluff bet but is enough of a bet to make a player think very carefully about what their next move is.

[b]Pot odds -[b] This term I would say is the most useful term to keep in mind. Pot odds is the ratio of your chips in the pot versus the whole pot. For example if you have $1500 in a $6000 pot your pot odds would be 4:1. Keep this in mind if you are in a tight hand and not sure if you should risk more or not.

Pot committed – Term meaning that a player has a majority of their chips in the pot. This is a very useful term as it can decide to back off on a hand or force them all in if you have the nuts.

These terms can all be used in free poker games as well as other poker situations, but if it’s at your table that you see and hear them, then you will know what is going on and that vital knowledge can give you the edge on your next game and hopefully put more chips on your side of the table.