One of the most important things to look at in a freeroll tournament is how the players got to the tournament. Sometimes a freeroll is open to any new player. Sometimes a freeroll is open to any player at all. Other times, access to freerolls is gained using player points. Still other times, you’re playing in a freeroll series, and the field has already narrowed.

If the freeroll is open to mainly new players, you’ll need to play a little tighter than you’d play against professionals. In the previous article, we suggested breaking trying to get players to fold ahead of the flop. This can really backfire with new players. New players have a wild desire to see the flop. They’ll re-raise with a pair of twos. That can work to your advantage, but if there’s a two in the flop, then the A-K pocket cards that gave you confidence to raise aren’t going to help much.

The most important thing is not to get into a betting war and go all-in if you don’t have a great hand, because once you’ve gone all-in, if you don’t win it, you’re out. If you’re holding weak cards, fold gracefully and early unless you have a bigger stack than anyone at the table. If you can force others to go all in without going all-in yourself, you can eliminate the competition effectively.

Remember, too, that small wins are really fine. One of the biggest names in this year’s WSOP was Michael Mizrahi who earned himself the nickname of ‘The Grinder’ precisely because he is known for taking many small pots and keeping himself out of raising wars. By ‘grinding’ through numerous small pots, he manages to avoid being forced to put all of his chips at stake and still comes out ahead.

As you play on in the tournament, you’ll be playing against better and better players, and their goal will be to force you to go all-in with a less than optimum hand. When you’re going against someone with a larger stack than yours, play conservatively. Be more aggressive if you have the biggest stack at the table and be sure to play more aggressively from later positions, as you’ll have better information from a later position.

A poker free roll has three distinct stages: the early stage, the late stage and the final table.  Let’s look at how you should play in the early stage of a free roll tournament.  In the free roll early stage, it won’t be possibly to get few players to play against if you are making standard raises.  And even if you have an excellent hand, you don’t want everyone to be there at the flop.  This means that you should go all-in ahead of the flop, if you have a very strong starting hand.

Before the flop you should go all in if you have relatively good cards like a high pair, even if another player has raised before this.  If you are sitting in the middle of the table or at a late position you can also decide to go in with a lesser great hand, as long as no other player has raised before you.  If you have a smaller pair of say two 6es and more and are sitting in the middle or late position, players can raise from 4+ big blinds, so long as no one has made a raise until then.

In late position a player can see the flop even if they have speculative cards, just make sure there has not been a raise so far.  This means you are only calling the big blind which is also called limping.

After the flop you have to ask yourself if you have any cards to go on.  Otherwise this is the time to bow out of the game.  If you have 2 pairs or better cards, you can go all-in at this stage.  If you have an OESD or a flush draw, only go all in if a few of the other players have started to put more chips in the pot.

Poker free rolls help to build up your bankroll.  It is possible to move ahead in the game and build your bankroll, without having to pay a single cent.  You can play in free rolls to build your game and gain extra experience.  Its not easy to get the experience to play at a tournament’s final table as chances are you don’t reach that side too often.  Final table experience will help you gain the necessary skills to improve your game.

Its fun to play in poker free rolls.  You get to mingle with lots of other players with various levels of experience and you don’t have to worry about losing money.   Because the free roll is free to enter, you find different types of players in the game.  For instance, you will see absolute beginners and those players who don’t really even try hard to play because they haven’t spent money to enter.  Some of them are simply having a laugh.

What some players do not know is that it’s difficult to play against beginners, as they don’t make the same moves as an experienced player will.  Your raises and bets will not necessarily be respected.  You can’t really guess which cards your opponent has.  You won’t get very far with using moves that are too complex.

You will have to adapt your poker play according to what opponents you are playing against.  Make sure that you just play with great starting hands. Other than in a normal game, you can make big bets and bigger raises.  If you have bad cards, leave it, don’t try to bluff.  That’s basically all we can say for the beginning part of our article on how to play freerolls poker part one.  The rest of this article will continue in How to play freerolls part two.

Let’s first mention that you should always stick with a hand that contains more than one Ace.  A pair of aces starting hand is terrific.  Other hands like As Ad Ks Kd are also great.  When you have the best of 2 pair, your hand can only get better as you continue to play. You can get a flush hand in spades or diamonds or achieve one of the possible highest straights there is.

Let’s compare this hand to one which has As-Ad-9h-5c. This hand is better than most other hands except those who have a pair of aces.  It does not have flush or straight potential and can just flop 1 set instead of 2 and can easily be outdone by your opponents.  Having said this, it’s still important to raise when you have a hand like this.  You can still improve this hand as the game continues.

Other good pair of aces hands would include two aces and two queens, two aces and two jacks, two aces and two tens and two aces and two nines.  In fact, you can be happy with just about any hand that contains two aces.  If the aces are the same suit as one or two of your other hands, this is an even better bet.

Hands that contain two kings or two kings are also good starting hands.  It has almost the same quality has a hand with two aces.  You are looking for another big pair with the two kings or two queens.  This means that if you have two kings and two queens, it will put you in a better position than if you had two kings and two nines.

Wrap poker hands can also be very strong, especially the double suited J T 9 8 hand. Look out for double suited hands that are better than those with similar cards that are single suited, and even better than those that are unsuited.

7 Stud is however still very popular, and it is actually one of our favorite games here at card kings. You will find a whole number of 7 card stud game varieties online. The Poker Room and Caribbean Sun have a large amount of 7 card stud players. The Absolute Poker online poker room has active 7 Card Stud games that range from micro limits to five or ten dollar games. Lastly, for the high roller players out there, you can play with $100 chips per pot at the Party Poker’s high limit 7 Card Stud tables.

The Ante, Deal, and Bring In
Most of the 7 card stud poker tables need an ante from all players before the cards are dealt. After the ante is done, every player gets three cards, of which two are face down and one is face up. The player with the lowest door card posts the bring in. Players to the left of the bring in then choose whether they want to fold, call or raise.

Forth to Sixth Street
In every round, each poker player gets a card face up. Here, the high hand is the one that starts the betting. Because of this the order of action can alternate every round. Another difference in play is that the betting limits go up on fifth street. If you play at a five or ten dollar table, third and forth street’s maximum raise is five dollars a bet. On fifth, sixth and seventh street, the limit will be ten dollars a bet.

Seventh Street
Everyone gets a seventh face down card. As with previous streets, there is another betting round, beginning with the person with the highest face up cards.

The Showdown
A showdown occurs if there are more than one person left after seventh street. The person who can form the highest five card hand will win. The standard best five card hand rules apply here.

Your mom was right when she taught you that patience is a virtue, as this skill will help you come far as a poker player.  Here are a few tips as to how to develop patience as a virtue when playing poker:

Patient poker players do not ever chase cards.  Yes, they will make you believe they are chasing cards, but this is actually all for show, to ensure the pot gets a lot fatter before they can claim their victory.  It is in inconvenient truth that poker players who are always chasing cards, are usually those who end up going home broke.

Patient poker players know when to raise the stakes.  These players are always aware of the right time to make their move, as they are always on top of the general feeling and ‘vibe’ of the table.

Patient poker players make very few mistakes.  When all is said in done, it’s usually the poker players who make the least mistakes that walk away victorious.  And as with all areas of life – patience leads to fewer mistakes in poker games.

Patient poker players know not to take the games personally.  You get a lot of poker players who focus on revenge and “getting back at” the guy who won the pot in the previous round. Many stupid mistakes are made because players get their ego and pride get in the way.  Really good and patient poker players know that this is pointless and they do not allow themselves to get involved in this.

Patient poker players do not allow themselves to react emotionally.  They know that everyone gets a couple of bad beats every now and then. Good players are always patient and don’t allow their emotions to get in the way of their best game

Be sure to also check out our other poker strategy articles here.

Random Rules

We have already explained how you can play the game of Texas Hold’ em poker and will now look at some random rules that you will encounter during the game.  Take note of these rules as they form part of the rules of the game.

Raising

When you have three or more players, it is possible to only have 1 bet and 3 raises during the entire betting round. This means that when the 3^rd raise has been made the betting is so called ‘capped’.  When the betting process has been capped, players may only choose between calling and folding.

There is something known as a string bet.  It is when a player tries to place their chips, go back to their stack, and then place more chips.  This is not allowed.  A poker player must say verbally that they intent to raise before they go over to action.  They can also choose to bet double the amount of the raise.

Buying Chips

When playing Texas Hold’em Poker, there is no maximum amount of chips that you can buy at any time but there is a minimum amount of chips. The house rules of the game will tell you how many chips you are allowed to buy before you start playing your first round.  This minimum amount of chips is usually around fifty or hundred times the amount of the big blind.

A poker players is allowed to add more chips to their poker stack aka reload, in between hands.  But once they have started playing a hand, they may not add any more chips.  Any extra chips will not be used in this game until the next hand is dealt.

We have now come to the end of our Learning How to Play Texas Hold’ em Poker series.  We hope that you have enjoyed reading this series and that you are on your way to becoming a good Texas Hold’ em Poker player.  Once you know the basics you still have to make sure to practice, practice, practice if you want to be able to compete against the big boys.  Luckily Texas Hold’ em is such a fun game that it won’t even seem like work.  Good luck at the tables!

How to evaluate your hands

The aim of Texas Hold’em Poker is to form the best possible hand by using any combo of your 2 cards & the 5 community cards that you will find on the table.

You can choose whether you want to use none, one, or both of your own Texas Hold’em cards to form your best hand. Let’s look at some rules that can help you learn how to evaluate the best possible poker hand:
• There is a specific poker hand ranking order. This order is always the same and there are no exceptions. For example, 3 of a kind always beats two of a pair and a flush will always beat a straight.
• Poker hands must consist of exactly 5 cards, and those five cards only.
• When 2 players have the same hand, it means that the pot will be split between them. The rest of the cards and what the other players have (which is not such great hands) means nothing. Only the best 5-card hand will be taken into consideration.

• If the rest of the players have nothing to contend these hands the winning hand is the one with the single card of the highest-value:
o A of clubs, 3 of hearts, 4 of diamonds, 6 of spades & 7 of spades trumps K of spades, Q of spades, J of clubs, 9 of clubs & 8 of diamonds
o A of clubs, J of hearts, 9 of spades, 8 of diamonds & 6 of hearts trumps A of hearts, J of clubs, 9 of diamonds, 8 of clubs & 2 of spades
• Suits do not determine the strength of a poker hand.

Once the winning hand is determined, that player wins the pot. The person to the left of the dealer now gets the dealer button and the 2 players who is now to the left of the dealer button will have to put out their big & small blinds.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 10, which will be published on this site next week.

In this eights part of our Learning how to play Texas Hold’em poker series, we will take a look at two of the most important parts of the Texas Hold’em game: the river and the showdown.  This is the part of the game which will really make or break your game.  Please pay special attention when reading this part and make sure you are fully alert when taking part in the River and Showdown part of your Texas Hold’em game.

The Texas Hold’em Poker River

When the Texas Hold’em game comes to the river part, there has to be more than one player left at this stage.  If there are more than one left who hasn’t given up and decided to fold on the previous streets stages, the fiver cards are now dealt.  The dealer deals the river cards just like he did the turn cards, with one face down card, and another single cards being dealt faceup.

The river is the final street of the Texas Hold’em game, and there will be no more cards dealt after this. This betting round is the same as the turn betting round.

The Texas Hold’em Poker Showdown

Once the river phase has completed, the players enter into the Texas Hold’em showdown. At this stage, having the best hand will win you the pot.

Here are the rules about the Hold’em showdown:

• The player who wagered at the river stage is the first player that must reveal their hand. If another player prefers to go first, this is allowed.
• If no one bet at the river stage, the player on the left of the poker dealer must reveal their hand first, and this continues in a clockwise fashion.
• If a player has a losing hand, they can now decide to simply fold or to reveal their hand to the other players.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 9, which will be published on this site next week.

The Flop

After the poker game’s pre-flop wagering round comes to an end, the flop is dealt.  The top card in the deck of cards are placed on the table’s surface, and acts as the burn card.  After that 3 cards are placed face up.

Once each player has his four cards, the 1^st post-flop round of betting begins.

The post-flop round of betting is very similar to the pre-flop betting round but there are 2 exceptions here.  The player who makes the first move is the next player, and this player can bet or check, as no bets have yet been made, and calling is therefore free.

If you want to place a bet on the flop, it will be the same amount as the big blind amount.  In our example game, you would therefore have to bet a quarter in order to place a bet.

The Turn

At the end of the betting round on the flop, the dealer wil then deal one face down card and one face up card to each player, also called the burn and turn cards.  After the burn and turn cards have been dealt, it signals the start of the third betting round.

This 3^rd round of betting is exactly the same as the flop betting round, except that there is one single exception: more money is at stake.  The size of this betting round and the last betting round, is doubled.  If players in our example game want to stay in the game, they will have to bet 50¢ per round.

Don’t miss our next article in this series, where the example game gets really serious and interesting.

To be continued in Learning How to play Texas Hold’em Poker Part 8, which will be published on this site next week.