So how is it possible to start playing free poker with not much or no money and generate a real cash bank roll and become profitable to the point where your poker play can provide you with an extra of even full-time 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. However it is possible, people do it and in this free poker guide I am going to go through the basics that you need to know in order to begin your mission.

Working out your poker profit – The Formulas
The most profitable poker is that which generates the most money in the shortest time and lowest cost. For this we will use some very basic calculations to figure out your poker profitability.

Profit is basically the difference between your start-up bankroll and your end bankroll over the period of time in question, be it a day, week, month, year etc. So Final bankroll minus Starting bankroll = Profit for period.

You also need to calculate your income. For this divide the profit by the hours dedicated to play 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.

In order to make ring game poker profitable from the start and never lose money you need a sponsor for your initial bankroll. Most cash poker sites will match a deposit but of course that means you need to put your personal money down too.

If you are willing to risk a small amount of money and know how to play poker quite well already then the risk might be worth it, but if not or you cannot play well you should first find a good free online poker that offers a start up play money bank-roll. The better free poker sites offer options to cash your free money in for actual cash bankrolls on partner cash poker sites once you have won enough. Check the free site out first to make sure they have this sort of cash up swap deal in place with cash sites who 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 you can convert to real cash on cash poker online sites. As you become better and win more you step up entry cost and risk-reward levels and make your online poker income.

Critical – Keep the risk in line with your bankroll and winning consistency

Only step-up levels when you’re certain that your poker skill is good enough to win at the next level up on a regular basis. A straightforward 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 poker tournaments sites. Here you can learn how to play poker for beginners 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.

The two most common examples of the casino bonus and the ones used by many an avid gamer are firstly the no-deposit bonuses, offered to players as they sign on with new establishments, and secondly, the deposit bonus, with slightly more required of the gamer when taking part, but with values that reach exceedingly high levels.

Each bonus offers the gamer a variety of reward for taking part in the various games, be it table or slot, and each has its own set of pros and cons.

The Deposit Bonus

Different casinos will have different bonuses but most will have, as staple, a quantity of deposit bonuses which exist in any number of forms. The deposit bonus is one that requires the player deposit a certain amount, before being allowed to take part. These games will then have jackpots that are wagered against a certain percentage of the deposit amounts and, because of this, said jackpots may reach into impressively high numbers. Deposit bonus games may also be attached to a progressive jackpot. Progressive jackpots are ones which grow exponentially as more and more people join to play. As more join and deposit, the jackpot takes a percentage of those deposits and may grow into the thousands of Rands.

A very large pro to the deposit bonus is the fact that a player has a chance in claiming these often pleasingly high bonus jackpots. However, there is also the very real con that before the gamer can take part, he or she must contribute and bet and most likely lose, a certain amount.

The No-Deposit Bonus

As players trawl the different casinos available online, and peruse what they have on offer, the establishment will most likely have an option whereby they give the potential gamer a certain amount, free and with no strings attached, with which to try the games and hopefully stay. This no-deposit bonus is offered purely as incentive to entice potential gamers and is a promotional technique used by casinos to gain extra clientele. The bonus, however, can also be very beneficial to the online player just starting out as he or she does not have to contribute anything and can use the credit to try any game without having to use his or her own money.

A significant con to this type of bonus, however, is the fact that casinos keep them very modest. If there is to be no contribution from the gamer, a casino cannot very well offer a large bonus for fear of the player claiming that bonus and leaving. It is then, reality, that no-deposit bonuses are not very high at all.

Each of these casino bonus offerings has both strong points, and weak. The fact of the matter is that both fulfil a role and both are important milestones to online gaming success; in pursuit of that ever elusive and taunting jackpot.

Absent are the sickly-sweet smells of sweat mixed with perfumes and colognes, or the medicinal pang of the whiskey in the tumbler on the table, golden and shimmering in the casino floor lights. There are no bustling crowds, no cheering onlookers. There are no tell-tale give-aways from the opponent opposite; no raised eyebrow, no slight twitch at the mouth, no wiping of the nose, or clearing of the throat; at least not that can be seen, anyway.

But for many more, the human element is merely noise. And, especially for fans of online Hold ‘Em poker, the magic is not in the reading of one’s opponent, but in the besting of one’s enemy based on pure forethought, knowledge and game playing prowess.

The player of Hold ‘Em poker uses wit to best an opponent and, by establishing a sound bet, coupled with pure knowledge of the game, as well as relying on a tiny bit of luck, the solitary world of online poker can be just as riveting as the real thing.

But the betting is often what separates success and failure in Hold ‘Em poker, and to truly experience the excitement of winning online, one needs to know, firstly, the basic fundamentals of the game, and, secondly, the betting options, therein.

The Ante Bet

After joining or starting a game online, the gamer will be asked to place a bet to begin. This is the opening bet or ante bet, and is essential to the player commencing his or her hand within the game. This is far from being merely a bet to start the game, however, as an ante bet will set the scene as to how competitive the hand will be, and prompt opponents to continue upping the ante to make the hand that much more exciting.

The Call Bet

As the hand commences, two cards are dealt to the player in succession. The object of the game, obviously, is to beat the dealer by obtaining the best hand through a hierarchical system of possibilities. After those first two cards are dealt, the player decides whether to ‘fold’ and end the hand with a loss, or ‘call’. This call bet gives the player another card, and the possibility of a superior hand. The call bet, however, will see the value of the bet doubled or even tripled, lending another riveting dynamic to the game, and increasing the risk.

The Bonus Bet

The purpose of the bonus bet is simply to up the stakes of a given hand. By adding the bonus bet to the original, the hand becomes that much more valuable. The bonus bet if often made by players very confident in their knowledge of the game and current hand. There cannot be a bonus bet without the original ante.

So yes, online casino games are absent of the many tangible effects which make the game what it is. But the masters of the online version often find greater reward in playing the game at its most raw, it’s most stripped.

One common mistake which I see players make is failing to take into account the way the size of their chip stack may dictate how to best play their hand. When I started playing poker more than 5 years ago, I made the same error.

The best way to play a hand depends on lots of factors, one of which is your chip stack size. A good move for someone with a large chip stack could be a dangerous move for someone with a tiny chip stack.

To put it plainly: size matters. That is not to say that bigger is indeed better. Being “deep-stacked” has its advantageous, but small stacks can be equally effective at the poker table.

A Deep Stack Expands Options

With regard to this post, I am going to define deep stacks as stacks which are roughly 125 big blinds or over. Others may define a deep stack as a bit less or more than that number of big blinds, but almost no one would consider a stack of 35 big blinds or less to be a deep stack.

I generally subscribe to the notion that deep-stack play is better than small-stack play. Most professional pokers would agree.

This is because deep stacks give you more room to take advantage of implied odds. In other words, you’re allowed more freedom with regards to starting hand requirements. You are able to play small pocket pairs hoping to flop your set or small suited connectors looking to flop a flush or straight.

If you don’t get the flop result then you can just fold and wait for a better setup. You can be more patient because the blinds aren’t much of a concern; they won’t eat up your chip stack that much.

Another benefit of being deep-stacked is maximizing your profits. If you are the biggest stack is it a lot easier to extract maximum chips from your opponents. This isn’t so for the short-stacks.

Let’s consider an example of this: If you are the biggest stack with $900 chips and one player calls your all-in bet with his $600 in chips and you win, then you take all his cash.

Now let’s consider another example: Should you be a small stack with $five hundred chips and the biggest stack with $800 in chips calls your all-in bet and you win, you cannot take all his money. He’ll be left with $300 chips because you didn’t have enough money to play for all his chips.

That is a shortcoming of being the short stack but there can be benefits.

A Shorts Stack Boosts Tight, Hyper-Aggressive Play

If you don’t have many chips behind you, you’re forced to basically play for all your chips in every hand you play. You are forced to play premium hands such as big face cards and pocket pairs.

You often won’t be getting the right price to play small pocket pairs and suited connectors. Those hands need to see the flop cheaply, and every hand played is expensive for a short stack.

The right move is to get all your chips in the middle with big pairs before the flop or to shove if you hit top pair on the flop. You do not have the opportunity to wait as the blinds will eat you alive.

One obvious benefit of this essentially all-in or fold strategy is that it forces you to play tighter. Another advantage of this type of play is that it’s harder to get outplayed by more skilled post-flop players.

Your decisions are simple: push or fold. You don’t need to worry about the subtleties of the game like betting the right amount or knowing when you should fold the second best hand.

Additionally, there is the strange psychological advantage you’ll have. For some reason, many deep stack players don’t treat short stack players with much respect. They assume that you’re buying in for a small amount as you have a small bankroll or aren’t very proficient.

It’s not unusual for the big stack to pay off a short stack player by calling with weaker than usual hands.

I still believe that deep stack play is best, but I’ve faced some troublesome short stack players and would not undervalue their capabilities.

If you want to learn to play poker free or after reading this realize that your stack play could do with focus then the best way to improve fast is to play internet poker for free . When you play risk free you can test things out but without the pressure of possible money loss and that makes a massive difference! And if you want learn to play poker for beginners courses then the free poker sites have great intro lessons too.

Your basic strategy should be to play big hands very aggressively to try and knock out as many players as you can as fast as possible. The problem appears when a great hand doesn’t come, then it becomes a game of endurance.

Here are 2 examples form my own play of how to play and not to play! One was a 9 players knock out and the other 90 players.

The 9 player game started very well. I played a cautious game initially. My A6 spades got a flush from the flop and after all my opponents raised I went all-in. A pretty simple strategy and knocked out 3 players at once.

I thought I was unbeatable and played a weak hand against a short stack player who went all-in – I lost. This wake up call made me revaluate the situation. I played more safely again and eliminated another player with a 4,4 all-in after the flop showed another 4. The opponent had A,A but the river produced another 4 so he was out.

After that I was into heads up play. My big stack against a short one. I must say as I had knocked the other 7 players and I was pretty confident. All I had to do was wait for a good hand. We played a while but the good hand did not appear so, becoming impatient, I played some less good hands and, maybe because of some luck in addition to a much bigger stack, eventually got the win.

In the 90 players tournament I knew that I needed to be more patient, to wait for the big hand and double up. I got it and hit a straight flush and beyond this concept I started building my stack. After playing for 3 hours I became chip leader with only 13 players left (12 getting in the money).

The 13th player left after another couple of hours yet I felt tired and bored and after hitting the final table with 7 players left my patience ended. I got beat by a 2,2 and went on the tilt, I went all-in with QQ an got smashed by a KK plus 1 K in the flop.

So analysing my game what worked for me was the short game not the long. In the long game I played well through to the most crucial stage and made bad mistakes on the final table. I went tilt and lost with good hands because I was tired, took some small hits and felt that as I had been the big stack much of the time I was somehow owed.

In conclusion, endurance in long poker tournaments is very important. It is important in the short ones too but you don’t need quite the same level of endurance for time on the table. Overall in any game be safe yet aggressive when you get good hands keep calm at all times. If you don’t have the patience endurance for big player number long games stick to shorter ones.

If you are new to poker then learn first and play free poker at one of the best free online poker sites. Here you are able to learn how to play poker for beginners absolutely free with no risk to your own money and start creating a bankroll to cash in for real money when you are all set bigtime and play poker online to win money.

Intermediate connectors aren’t played as strongly if they Pair. For example, should you have 8-7 and the Flop comes K-7-2, you can be justifiably worried about the King and you can fold.

Also, it is likely you can flop Two-Pair. With 8-7 and a Flop of 8-7-A, you can get a person with A-K in trouble.

If you both keep going until the end, and your opponent’s hand does not get better then he will most likely slow it down in order to show it down. If the hand does improve it will be obvious as when he bets and you can just pay him off. He can pair his kicker or not, but either way you’ve still got a decent showdown hand.

The best play (for you) the opponent can make is to call all-in or move all-in on the Flop (in a tournament). However, this is only so if the difference in chips between you and your all-in opponent is great. If you have almost the same amount of chips, your 8-7 may not be good enough because your opponent may be willing only to call you with something like A-8 or, worse, 7-7.

Or he may call you with A-K and suckout when he pairs his Ace, his kicker, or when, say, a Ten hits the Turn, and another Ten hits the river then his Two-Pair is better. If one stack is small and the other large, and you have the small stack then you have a good hand someone holding an A-K may be willing to call. If you’ve got the large stack, your all-in opponent could be desperate for a call with his A-x (without Two-Pair) until they know you have him steamrollered.

Usually you stay in the hand Two-Pair until you hit a Full House. With this hand, play it as if you would play a made 5-card hand – value betting, pretending to bluff, slow-playing (pick your option). However, should the Board comes 8-7-5, you might be willing to play it more slowly because if the Board comes 4, 6 or Nine, your Two-Pair could be almost unplayable.

In the Flop, bet substantially to push a Straight draw out. If your opponent calls, it might signify a Straight draw. In case your opponent moves all-in or pushes you all-in, then call – or not call.

You are still the favorite over a Straight draw. You can also hit a Full House later. But in addition you can decide not to call since your opponent might have a made Straight. In an 8,7,5 board, the probability of a Flopped Straight is fairly small as players don’t play 9,6 or 6,4 very much.

But you should be careful in a Board of 8-7-J or 8-7-4, as their connectors are consecutive numbers, i.e. 10-9 and 6-5, and players, especially experienced ones, play these more often.

However, even if the Board comes something like 8-7-4-5-Q, providing you are sure, or even half-sure, that your opponent does not have the 6, bet a small bet on the river. Should your opponent has 9-8 or Q-x, you might be paid off.

If your opponent had the 6, you may be pushed, but you can fold without losing much. The thing is that, you should maintain your aggression most of the time as part of your image, and you will do this by value-betting. If your opponent didn’t have the Six, he may think that you had the Six, and he may fold, too.

And lastly, here is an addendum to our earlier example. If you have 8-7 and the Flop comes K-7-2, you can fold. However, you can also call a bet – you hope that your opponent had A-K – and if an 8 comes and you bet big, how will your opponent know you had another 8 in the hole? So long as you feel your opponent doesn’t have K-8 or K-7 (not likely) both of you can get it all-in on the Turn – and you’ll emerge almost a victor.

This is a fairly complex subject so if you’re not quite getting it then go play poker online free to learn it the only real way you can which is to do it for real but learn how to play poker so that any mistakes you make don’t hit you up for anything  apart from time.

Ups: Feed on the fish – then have some fish – and fish for dessert.
Downs: Much better since new version of software

888.com Pacific Poker Review … Pacific is probably one of if not the loosest poker room on the net. Due mainly to it’s heavy promotion on TV and to casino players from its sister site 888.com Casino on the Net. The % to the flop rates hit as high as 80% up to middle limits. The old software was average at best but since the launch of new sofware the graphics are actually pretty good and a vast improvement on the previous version. The 888.com brand is a very well known in the UK as the site sponsors alot of sports events like snooker which brings in lots of new players. This makes 888.com a good choice for new players to learn and for experienced players to take advantage of the weaker players. Your not playing poker here for the graphics – Playing at Pacific poker is about the massive amounts of fish and weak terrible players. If your looking for easy money then you found it.

Visit 888.com Pacific Poker

Pacific Poker Bonus … 100% up to $400 which includes and INSTANT 25% up to $100 as soon as you deposit then you earn the rest of the bonus based on the amount you play.

Fish … 9/10 More fish than the you can shake your net at.

Software … Much improved new software with a decent table view similar to UltimateBet in style with avatars.

Players … 2,000 You won’t find a more loose bunch of players at just about all limits anywhere else on the net. The tournament side has grown well recently.

Pacific Games … Micro limits from $0.10, heads up tables. Reasonable range of games but most action is in Holdem and concentrated in the limit games & tournies.

Texas Holdem, Omaha Hi & Hi-Lo & 7 Card Stud.

Promotions … Bonus Points – $10 bet on raked hands – 1 Bonus Point – 100 Bonus Points worth $1

888.com Tournaments … Tournaments variety has grown at Pacific as have the number of players in the last year. Bigger promotions with the launch of their biggest ever tournament The World Poker Crown with a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million which you can qualify for via freerolls and low buy-ins.

Help … Email (good) & telephone (OK).

Security … Good, Casino-on-Net/Cassava.

Deposit … Neteller, Firepay, VISA, MasterCard, Citadel, Wire Transfer, bank transfer, PaySafeCard, BBL HomePay, check deposit, PrePaidATM.

Cashout … Neteller, Firepay, Credit card, Debit card, PrePaidATM, Wire transfer, bank draft. Not the fastest in the industry at payouts but they do pay out.

Absolute recently added Razz, and they already have a great selection of Hold’em, Stud, Omaha, and the typical no limit, pot limit and limit varieties. Absolute has plenty of tournament action, from large multi-table events to heads up sit n gos.

Absolute offers a generous $500 deposit bonus upto a 100%, deposit $500 and get a sizeable $500 sitting in your bonus account.

Absolute Poker’s bonus system is a gradual release formula. They have one or two reload periods each week, so a player should always have bonus to clear. Absolute’s bonus clears at a good pace when the player is in games with average pot sizes of at least $10.

Competition

Currently at $2/$4 levels and below, you will encounter a large number of tight bonus clearing players. If you play higher limits you will see some of the same loose play that one would expect at a poker room whose prime time population is near 20,000.

No matter what limits you play, a good player can expect to turn a profit here.

Software

The Software has been revamped big time at Absolute Poker, Since there merger with Ultimate Bet they have released a latest version of there software which is amazing, it works on linux, pc and even mac, the software is clean crisp and easy to use. No glitches or slow lag time.

Download the software now at www.AbsolutePoker.com

Here’s the official results of the final table:
1 Tom Marchese $827,648
2 Sam Stein $522,306
3 Daniel Clemente $309,366
4 Yunus Jamal $241,064
5 David Paredes $184,816
6 Thomas Fuller $144,639
7 “Miami” John Cernuto $104,461
8 Eric Blair $60,266
9 Kyle Zartman $44,195

Omaha is classified as a community card game because some of the cards are dealt in the middle of the table and shared by all the players. Each player receives four hidden cards and then combines 2 of his cards with 3 of the five board cards to make the best possible five card poker hand.

Each player has to use 2 cards of his “Hole” cards with 3 of the 5 community cards, you can’t just use 1 of your 4 hole cards, this is the most common mistake when people begin playing Omaha.

Blinds and Dealer

Omaha uses a blinds system instead of antes to get each pot started with a little money. The two players to the left of the dealer pay the small blind and big blind. As the dealer’s position moves each hand, the position of the blinds moves around the table. This way each player must take a turn paying the blinds.

The payer directly to the left of the dealer pays the small blind while the player to the left of the small blind pays the big blind.

It doesn’t matter if you’re playing pot limit or no limit, the stakes of the game are the blinds. So if you are playing a $10/$20 No Limit Omaha, the small blind would be $10 and the big blind would be $20. Omaha is mostly played as Pot Limit though.

In games that employ the use of a full time dealer, a small round disc called the “dealer’s button” is used to represent the position of the dealer each hand. At the beginning of each hand, the dealer’s button moves one seat to the left.

Preflop

After the blinds have been paid, each player is dealt four cards face down, one at a time. The dealers begins with the player to his left and then deals clockwise around the table until each player has four cards.

Next, there is a betting round that begins with the player to the left of the big blind. This player may call the minimum bet to stay in, raise it or fold. After that player acts, the action continues clockwise around the table. If anyone makes a bet or raise, the other players at the table must at least match that bet or fold.

When it comes time for the blinds to act, their forced bets are considered a part of the cost of staying in. So if there is no raise, the big blind may simply check to stay in, since he has already paid one minimum bet.

Flop

Now the flop, or the first three community cards, is dealt face up in the middle of the table. There is another betting round, but this time it starts with the first player to the left of the dealer. This person may check, bet, or fold. The action then continues clockwise.

Turn

One more card is dealt face up next to the flop. This is called the “turn” card. There is another round of betting just like the last round. If it’s a fixed limit game, the upper betting limit would be used from here on out.

River

One final card is dealt face up next to the turn. This is called the “river” card. Now there is a final round of betting. If there is more than one player remaining after this round of betting, the play proceeds to a showdown to determine the winner. If there is only 1 player left after this round, that player may collect the pot without showing his cards.

Showdown

Those still left in the hand turn over their cards and the winner is that with the best poker hand. In making the best five card poker hand available the player must use three of the community cards and two and only two of his four pocket cards. This is often the hardest of the Omaha Poker Rules to grasp. The best thing about Online Poker is that it instantly works out for you what the best hand is and who the winner is.

Omaha Rules Links:

• Poker.Com Omaha Rules
• Wikipedia Omaha Rules
• PokerListings.com Omaha Rules