Posted in Poker June 9th, 2007
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Well, it is possible. They are call Freeroll tournaments. They’re exactly the same as any other kind of poker tournament except you don’t pay a fee to join them.
They are big business on the web. Anything that’s free tends to attract people. Attract enough freebie seekers and you’ll likely also get some money, especially when there’s a game like poker involved where people stand to win cash.
There is some prize money on offer, although it’s not in the same league as a paid-for game. But the cost of entry is zero, you get a chance to hone your poker skills and maybe even win the prize. So the low prize money isn’t necessarily an issue.
The prize may even be entry into the next level of the competition, where there are higher prizes at stake or even an entry into a real-world poker tournament.
A lot of poker players use free poker tournaments so that they can gain free entry into more major tournaments with the aim of winning larger sums of money without it costing them a cent.
Sometimes the prize is in the form of points that can be used towards entry fees in other tournaments. So you can see there are more ways to skin this cat and you can use free-roll tournaments to help your poker game progress rather than merely using them to learn how to play the game.
Make money and crush the competition in Sit’n'Go tournaments.
Posted in Poker June 8th, 2007
The first thing that you need to know when you are learning how to play Texas Hold’em Poker is what a poker hand is. There are 8 different types of poker hands that you could have. Ranked in order, starting with the best and working downwards these include:
1. Straight flush. This occurs when you have five cards in sequence, all of the same suit.
2. Royal flush.ÂThis occurs when you have the Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10 cards in sequence.ÂA royal flush is the highest-ranking standard poker hand, excluding 5 of a kind.
3. A 5-high straight flush, a.k.a. a steel wheel. This occurs whenever you have a 5, 4, 3, 2 and Ace.
4. Four of a kind a.k.a. quads. This occurs whenever you have a hand, which contains four cards of one rank, and an unmatched card. It ranks above a full house and below a straight flush. If you have a higher-ranking quad it will defeat a lower-ranking quad.
5. Full house a.k.a. a boat or a full boat. This occurs when you have 3 of what card and 2 of another. It ranks below a 4 of a kind but above a flush.
6. Flush. This occurs when you have a hand that contains five cards of the same suit, but they are not in sequence. This ranks above a straight but below a full house.
7. Straight. This occurs when you have 5 cards of sequential rank, but of varying suits. This ranks above a three of a kind but below a flush.
8. Three of a kind a.k.a. trips. This occurs when three cards of the same rank, plus two unmatched cards. It ranks above two pair and below a straight.
9. Two pair. This occurs when you have two cards of the same rank, plus two cards of a different rank, which match each other but do not match the first pair, and one unmatched card. This ranks above one pair and below three of a kind.
10. One pair. This occurs when you have a hand that contains two cards of the same rank, plus three unmatched cards. It ranks above any high card hand, but below all other poker hands.
11. High-card or no-pair. This occurs when you do not have two cards of the same rank, the five cards are not in sequence, and the five cards are not all the same suit. It ranks below all other poker hands.
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Posted in Poker June 8th, 2007
When you’re just starting out, nearly every poker site you join will offer you some free “money” to play with. This probably won’t be real money, it will be pretend money.
The idea is that you can play some online games without risking real cash. So you can find out how the particular poker site works and generally get a feel for playing Texas Hold’Em online.
Playing online is different from playing against someone on a poker table. For a start, you won’t be able to see their face or any physical reactions, so you won’t have as good a handle on whether or not they are bluffing.
Online poker also tends to move faster than face to face poker games. Whilst there is often a chat window, the online software imposes a time limit which you have to keep to in playing your hand.
Additionally, online games don’t lose track of who the dealer is or what the big and small blinds are.
All this takes a bit of getting used to, so if this is your first attempt at either online poker or a new site that you haven’t used before, take time out to play a few free hands before putting your own cash on the table.
Check out the Texas Hold’em Survival Kit here.