Posts Tagged ‘free online poker’
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 behavioural patterns related to cards, actions, and emotions of players. Some poker tells include, but are not limited to: changes in body position, placing of chips, breathing, tone of voice, facial expressions, and the directions of one’s gaze. With the advent and popularity of free online poker, tell have become related other factors instead of visible body language.
Speed of play is one of the more popular free online poker tells. Aside from a bad connection or lag, the rate of speed a person bets is a good indicator for their strength or weakness in a hand. It is widely thought that the faster you place a bet, the weaker the hand you have, and the slower a bet is placed, the stronger hand is held, however this may well be a myth.
A more useful strategy regarding speed of bet is to watch players and analyze their speed when in a hand. Each individual may vary. 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 theories have evolved over the years. It is still the best bet to analyze each player individually rather then make overall assumptions regarding tells. This holds true in both real and free online poker.
Whether playing online playing for money or free poker can be a rewarding, but a tiring addiction. So here are a few simple (tongue in cheek!) tips to keep you playing for as long as possible.
1. As anxiety has maximised due to an overload of hope on the river, run to the fridge freezer grab an ice pack and wrap this round your head. This will dissolve the anxiety around your head, but may make you cold.
2. When playing Online Poker on a laptop. If you become worried that your unmentionables are beginning to cook, ask your partner if they would kneel in front of you and gently blow between your thighs. They will also make a handy footrest.
Alternately wrap yourself up in Tin Foil to reflect the heat. This will also stop any evil aliens sending you messages.
3. In the unfortunate even of finger pain, you may wish to give this little piggy a rest. To kill two birds with one stone it would be an idea to rest your finger in an ice cream, which you can then eat afterwards.
4. During the long games with a full table you might feel like you are going to nod off. Bang a nail in the wall behind your playing chair and attach a length of string to it. Sellotape the string to your ear. That way if you do nod off, you will rip your ear off. Waking you up ready to make a bet.
5. After a long period of time sitting down and playing you will eventually have back pain- a good solution is to pinch your checks several times which will not only give you a nice blush effect it will also give you something else to think about!
I have developed these methods myself, and I assure you they work. Remember: Tea Cosy. Blowing. Tin Foil. Yoghurt. Sellotape. Pinch.
Always remember free poker is always a laugh but when you get online exhaustion you need to take some serious action.
When you start a game of free poker online all of your experienced opponents will be looking out for as many signs and vibes as they can pick up. As the only thing you know for sure when the dealer passes the cards out face down is your own hand and the community cards. The difference in strategies between free online poker games and live in the flesh games is the signs and signals that you need to look out for are obviously very different. That doesn’t by any stretch of the imagination mean there are no signs that I can’t teach you to look out for in the free online poker games; but for now I will give my attention to the live in the flesh games. From my experiences of playing in various small venues and also the glitzy casinos, the signs that players give away are very common and many can be pigeon holed.
I guess the only place to start is with the eyes. Nearly all beginners believe, mainly due to the explosion of poker on the TV, that they should be looking at everyone’s eyes. If I sit down at a ten man table I am expecting six or seven of them to be wearing sunglasses. Personally even without sunglasses, I find it difficult to read tells from player’s eyes, apart from the obvious where a player will raise their eyebrows directly after looking at their cards. My point here is that you should probably forget the eyes as they are likely to be hidden anyway.
Ok assuming like me you don’t concentrate on your opponent’s eyes as the main source of intellect. You will need to find more assuring ways of spotting the tell tale signs of what cards your opponents holds. The best signs I would look out for are all based on body language such as posture- slumped normally suggests bad cards and if you happen to notice a player suddenly sit up straight after viewing their cards this would be due to their increased interest at the excitement of what they might win!
Only good and experienced free poker players can remain motionless and you may be surprised at the amount of body language signs you give away without even realising it. You may notice an experienced / decent player readjust themselves, this is done vigilantly due to the fact their self conscious has remind them to remain neutral.
Quite often body language is accompanied by table chat. Chat at the table and the signs you give away as a result are easier to hide as you can simply remain silent throughout- which is not a bad idea during the big games. You would be shocked at the level of skill some players have at recognising distinctive changes in tone and rhythm and knowing what this means to your play. There are other fundamental parts which can also explain loosing at the cost of general chit chat. You could genuinely become distracted taking your concentration away from the game. This is the difference between the regulars and the pros. The pros are masters at using all their ability to fish for signs: by playing while talking to you they’re actually finding your weaknesses while only showing you strength. Most of the time you don’t realise what’s going on till you inevitably remind yourself at the end of the game of the friendly chatty guy who ‘lucked in’ and took home the pot.
Other classic signs consist of: sweaty hands, viewing your hand and then straight after viewing your stack, licking your lips, or even for some a pulsating vein in the neck. The art of free poker is noticing trends and playing numbers and for the best part of this article is only relevant to in life games. There are certain signs you can still look out for at the online tables such as if you notice an irregular trend in gambling amounts. Many new players play the game by the book- pocket aces bring a bet id 4x the big blind, KJ is 2x the big blind and suited connectors bring a flat call. The more you play the more you will notice that the majority of players stick to their beliefs. Once you cotton on to these beliefs you can use them and manipulate them to your advantage.
Just remember to be sure that the sign the opposing player is giving you is an actual sign. As with most things in life if something seems to obvious and too good to be true- it might be. As one art of poker is knowing how to spot players signs and another is spotting players faking their signs.
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”.
You want to people to gamble. You even want fish to get lucky a few times so that they’ll keep gambling. That is why you should try to treat fish with respect. You want them to enjoy themselves and have a good time.
Applauding or praising a poor move may encourage an opponent to continuingly make the same mistakes. However, this may be outside of a players moral standing and would be considered a hustle or “setting the fishes bait”.
You don’t have to set bait to keep the fish nibbling and putting money down. By simply ensuring there is a good feeling at the free online poker tables you will help bring down the opposing players self guard and they will gradually let free and play adventurous. While your opponent is having a good time playing carefree you can continue to play conservative poker and watch your money pile up.
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.
The main goal of playing good poker is to make as many correct decisions as you can, while forcing your opponents to make as many incorrect decisions as you can. It’s much easier to encourage bad players to make bad decisions, so you shouldn’t scare them away. In the long run, you’ll profit from their bad plays.
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?
It’s hard enough to win at poker nowadays with all the information that’s available to improve your game. There are a lot of decent players out there. The games simply aren’t as soft as they were when I started playing online seven years ago.
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!
Whether playing online playing for money or free poker can be a rewarding, but a tiring addiction. So here are a few simple (tongue in cheek!) tips to keep you playing for as long as possible.
1. As anxiety has maximised due to an overload of hope on the river, run to the fridge freezer grab an ice pack and wrap this round your head. This will dissolve the anxiety around your head, but may make you cold.
2. After spending half the night on the laptop you may notice and become concerned that the meat and two vegetables are slightly over cooked- I suggest asking your other half to get on their knees and blow on the affected area. As an added bonus you can also put your feet up.
For the sci-fi fans out there, I suggest wrapping yourself head to toe in tin-foil as this will also stop opponents and uso’s intercepting your thoughts.
3. In the unfortunate even of finger pain, you may wish to give this little piggy a rest. To kill two birds with one stone it would be an idea to rest your finger in an ice cream, which you can then eat afterwards.
4. A late night game or after a good few hours you may start to drift off and hear the land of nod calling. The best method of staying awake is to smash a six inch heavy duty nail into the wall directly behind you. You then need to wedge a few stacks of cards below the front of your front two chair legs to make the chair unsteady. You can now rest assured that if you do nod off you will fall back straight into the nail and probably never wake up again- now there’s an incentive!
5. If after a couple of days playing non stop you begin to experience back pains, repeatedly pinch both your cheeks, this will take the focus off you back, as well as give you a rosy glow.
These methods have been invented by myself and I can assure you no women, child or animal has been harmed in making these!
Always remember free poker is always a laugh but when you get online exhaustion you need to take some serious action.
Here are some pay poker and free poker stories I hope you will enjoy.
In 2008 I came across Noble Poker’s $12 no deposit sign up bonus (now expired). I tried it out and played at the penny 0.01/0.02 tables earning chump change. Slowly the bankroll built to $20 with some hiccups along the way. After a week, I got bored of winning small profits and moved up to the .25/.50 tables. The bankroll fluctuated yet again, but went to $60 when I placed 3rd for $36 at their $300 50+raked hands freeroll in which only 50 people played.
My strategy was to buy in at the nominal amount at each play and consequently get the chance for decent pot odds when I was drawing. I found my opposition felt inclined to call my all in when I had strong cards due to it not being a lot more to them so my wallet climbed to one hundred and fifty dollars by middle of February.
I decided to pull out at one hundred dollars and built the fifty dollars up- My strategy for accumulating losses was to jump up to the next table and win my money back quickly i.e. if I lost at the twenty five cent table I would jump to the fifty cent table. Now moving to the start of March I pulled my dollars out at with a further one hundred and fifty dollars which left one hundred and twenty five dollars to play with. My total was now a flattering two hundred and fifty dollars without spending a cent. I thought about throwing the one hundred and twenty five dollars at the five or ten dollar tables so I could at least have the bragging rights to my pals that I gave it a go.
Of course it was stupid to only bring $125 to a table with people stacked with 10-30X my amount, but I was lucky to succeed. Down to $80 quickly, I all-in with A 10 overcards on a raggity flop. I take a $230 pot on Ace high since someone called with A 5 and another folded the winning hand. I cashed out another $100 and played the $130. Not to mention, I also earned about $250 from clearing their 25% up to $100 deposit bonus and winning the afore mentioned $300 50+raked hands freerolls.
Luck seemed to be running short when my one hundred and thirty dollars fell to seventy dollars- but then out of no where I smashed it by taking three hundred and ten dollars with an Ace / Queen high- these miracles are a reason why I love poker so much. Pulled out with around two hundred dollars- my hot run finally ended late March when the two hundred dollars went down with a King / Queen to an Ace / King pairing the Kings.
To be honest I can’t see me having another run as good as that again- at the moment I’m having great joy with the free online poker competitions.
I opened an account at one of the free online poker sites and enjoyed playing the freerolls building around fifteen dollars. I had thought long and hard and believed to have had a methodical plan which was working for me. I was playing some quality poker and put five dollars into a sit and go game and won. A few decent plays later I had managed to put about one hundred and ninety dollars together all form free online poker games.
Pretty proud of myself, I purchased a large bottle of Crown Royal with pipe dreams of turning that 190$ into my future bankroll.
I woke up the next day in bed with my girlfriend. “Last night you asked me to marry you.” she says giggling. With a dry mouth and foggy mind I reply “Did you say yes?” (knowing very well that neither one of us have any plans of marriage for a long time). She says “No, I was too busy laughing at you when you told me we had a future selling farm equipment after you fell into the bathtub!” I groaned and went to get a glass of water, then sat down at my PC. Fuzzy visions of kamikaze plays started to resurface in my mind as I logged in to my account….Current Balance: $1.93 available.
My method, strategy and graft had been wasted- on the plus side I’m not being forced down the aisle and the farm equipment is defiantly not parked on my front lawn! The moral of the story is simple- play sober! The more drunk you are the rasher uncalculated plays you will make and your ability of reading people will dramatically slip. I guess a lesson learnt would have been to play the free online poker sites when drunk- this certainly would have helped with the hangover in the morning.
Excitement runs through your veins as your eyes lighten up to the possibility of what your hand shows: a 2, 8, and yes you guessed it a fabulous King. You mildly lean over giving the slightest touch to the 2 old boys that lay in front of you. All the practice on the free poker games sites has paid off. The cards you hold have finally come in rainbow and the 2 lows are a fair distance apart. Flushes and str8′s are pretty much finished- and the kings reign supreme.
Awaiting your move you glance across the table hoping all while your not revealing the monster you hold at bay. Of course there sits the fish. They have grown your stack and you thank them for it. There poor calls and lousy bets have been most profitable. Just outstack you after there latest Hail Mary and you send a prayer towards the heavens and call them to push.
Your heart stops as fishy gets his go and as if it was Christmas he throws more money at the pot. This is it, its time to take the pot home; it’s the moment you dreamed of while learning your trade on the free poker games, and you want to take this opportunity. Inevitably it’s time to push your stack and show them all the Kings.
The fish reveals and there lay pocket 7′s. The table gasps and all wonder what they were thinking. Your heart pounds then calms as you realise only two more sevens can save him. Now off to the turn. And as if on call appears the first of those magic sevens. Surely not you heart screams as the dealer speeds forward and delivers that dreaded fourth Seven.
You fall to you knees- how can this be possible, this seems more than a bad case of lady luck as you contemplate quitting poker till your dying day. You want to shout at fishy, but you still manage to keep some dignity and you simply say “well done” before leaving.
In hindsight you start pondering with what had just happened- is there anything you could have played different; probably not. I guess there’s no point holding on to this and you decide to let it go remembering how fishy played his hand.
I guess the moral of this article is just to remember all players have different strategies and all come with the belief there strategy will take them to the end. You must not discard the bad beats or reprimand the opponents who give you them, as these are money making people. Keep them in your mind but don’t divulge this to others- smile and believe their cash will soon be yours.
And remember, there are always free poker games to practice on before you have to take a serious bad beat for real!
Winning any type of poker be in high stakes Vegas or free poker comes down to being able to extract profit from marginal situations. The object is not (it’s impossible anyway) to win every hand played, but every hand YOU play – OK also impossible but that has to be your aim. The best way to do this is to out bet your opponents and one way to do this is the slow play.
The Art of the Slow-play
The slow-play is when you deliberately under bet so as to disguise the strength of your hand and trap your opponent with a weaker hand.
Unlike the bluff bet, the slow-play is effective against strong and weak opponents. Bad opponents simply bet their hand, so if they have something or they are simply on a draw, they are going to pay you off.
When not to Slow-Play
You shouldn’t slow play when there is a flush or straight draw on the board. You should only slow play when your opponent has a hand that is not likely to improve enough to beat yours. Suppose the flop is AD-7H-KC and you hold 7D-7C, and you put your opponent on an A or K. It’s usually more profitable to bet the hand aggressively on the turn.
By slow playing the turn you’re potentially loosing cash on the turn- the only sensible motive for slow playing this scenario is if you know the opposition will fold with any gamble you declare.
If you manage to get quads or a full house don’t over play the hand- if the opposition are not strategically sitting right, they don’t seem to gamble often on the river, instead they check or call. By slow playing this turn, this type of opposition wont raise or re raise on the river.
Therefore, just keep betting the turn, despite the improvement. They rarely put you on quads, so try to get some action on the turn.
How to Represent Your Hand
The obvious assumption is that a big gamble stands for decent cards. This is believed even more so when gambling after the flop. If an ace or king comes to surface on the flop you can represent the same by gambling. You will learn that it’s what the opposition believes you have that is almost as important to the cards you are actually holding, especially if you have a relatively poor hand.
So there you have it a fast guide to the slow play. Typically it works better with money games than free poker where you’ll find many beginners who don’t pick up the nuances and throw all in regardless! But of you find yourself in a free online poker freeroll with real money up for grabs then think about how and when you might apply it.
When you start a game of free poker online all of your experienced opponents will be looking out for as many signs and vibes as they can pick up. As the only thing you know for sure when the dealer passes the cards out face down is your own hand and the community cards. The difference in strategies between free online poker games and live in the flesh games is the signs and signals that you need to look out for are obviously very different. That doesn’t by any stretch of the imagination mean there are no signs that I can’t teach you to look out for in the free online poker games; but for now I will give my attention to the live in the flesh games. From my experiences of playing in various small venues and also the glitzy casinos, the signs that players give away are very common and many can be pigeon holed.
I guess the only place to start is with the eyes. Nearly all beginners believe, mainly due to the explosion of poker on the TV, that they should be looking at everyone’s eyes. If I sit down at a ten man table I am expecting six or seven of them to be wearing sunglasses. Personally even without sunglasses, I find it difficult to read tells from player’s eyes, apart from the obvious where a player will raise their eyebrows directly after looking at their cards. My point here is that you should probably forget the eyes as they are likely to be hidden anyway.
Ok assuming like me you don’t concentrate on your opponent’s eyes as the main source of intellect. You will need to find more assuring ways of spotting the tell tale signs of what cards your opponents holds. The best signs I would look out for are all based on body language such as posture- slumped normally suggests bad cards and if you happen to notice a player suddenly sit up straight after viewing their cards this would be due to their increased interest at the excitement of what they might win!
Body language is difficult to control as quite often we are unaware of doing it ourselves. Good free poker players are aware of body language. As good players are aware of body language, this also means they are aware of their own body language. If a good player readjusts himself this has to be upon cautiously because they are aware of what they have just done.
Body language comes hand in hand with table talk. If I’m in a big game I always keep quiet. Good players are able to sense strength and weakness from your voice and tone. I’ve been sat at a table chatting to the person next to me and consequently lost a pot, because I was not paying complete attention on the action. Really good players are able to chat away whilst being 100% aware of what’s going on. They will sometimes be playing a hand whilst casually chatting away to the person next to them. Before you know it they check raise you, then carry on chatting!! I am always wary of a good player playing a pot who doesn’t seem interested in it. I often read this a show of strength.
Other well known tells include sweaty palms, looking at your cards then directly looking at your stack, licking your lips, and even a bulging vein in the neck. Along with body language and table talk another big tell is betting patterns, and this is where I come onto the internet. Everything I have mentioned so far is useless online. Betting patterns are the only pieces of information you can get from players in an online environment. A lot of newish players tend to play free poker by the manual, pocket aces bring a bet of 4x the big blind, KJ is 2x the big blind, and suited connectors bring a flat call. By watching players at your table for a short time you will be amazed at how they stick to these principles. Once you have established players betting to a pattern, clearly you are at a big advantage.
When playing a hand as a result of reading what you believe to be a tell, always be careful as you may have misread the signals, and you may be playing a shark feeding you false information.
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.
There are loads of psychological scenarios to consider which is as significant as knowing your place at the table: the chances and numbers involved in making a hand, pricing the pot and 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.
However, it goes almost without saying that you must know the people you are playing poker with; if you don’t know them, you’d better start studying them, because if you really know and understand your fellow card players, you can decide how to play your hand even before the second turn of the cards. Knowing how the other players play is a fundamental sharp poker strategy.
Remember a persons eyes are the path to their soul, and although appearances deceive the eye it’s knowing how to notice any giveaways which counts for all.
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.