The World of Freerolls

A good way to learn how to play poker online is to… well play poker online. Every poker site has play money that you can use to play against people from around the world



The best way to pick up online poker is to play freeroll tournaments. For those of you unfamiliar with the term, a freeroll event is a huge online poker tournament where people use play money to play in the event. There is usually a cash prize that winners receive at the end, usually the cash prizes are kind of small, but there are some bigger ones, besides it’s free.

There are a lot of advantages to participating in these type of tournaments if you’re a beginner, you get the excitement of a large poker tournament without the financial investment.

Some sites require you to have played a certain amount of hands on their site before you enter a freeroll and some may ask that you have a specified amount of play money on your account.

Hollywood Home Game added a new section, it lists all of the freeroll tournaments happening during the day. This is a good way to find out what freerolls are happening and information about them including the prize amounts, start times, registration times and requirements,

It doesn’t matter if you’re an on-the-verge poker professional, or if your just starting to take an interest in the poker, a freeroll is a great way to spend a night.

The Irony of Poker

I hate having good cards, at least if you have bad cards you know what you are dealing with and can play or not play accordingly. When you have good cards you get tunnel vision and start to think that there is nothing or no one who can stop you.

Last night I was playing poker and I was doing fairly well. My luck seemed to be going fairly well when I won an all-in match up against someone with my pocket kings against their pocket jacks, but it would not take long before irony to kick in.

The next few hands were decent hands and I played them until the flop revealed that my okay cards were actually junk. Then I got a great hand, pocket jacks and I started to bet hard on them.

I was surprised by how effortlessly my opponent was calling my betting and I finally went all-in and was immediately called. I laid down my pocket jacks and then saw his cards, you guessed it, pocket aces.

Nothing even resembling a jack came out on the table, in fact I believe there was an ace that came out. I know there is a certain amount of irony that comes out in a game of poker and all you can do sometimes is hope that it comes for your favor and not your opponents.

Like I was saying before, I think I would be much more successful if I kept getting marginal hands, the type of hand that really makes you question your ability to win the pot and will make you bid accordingly. Poker would be so easier if you could all the table cards ahead of time.

The Sport of Poker

With activities like fishing and bowling being classified as sports, many including myself would consider poker to be worthy of the title of sport.

I know there are few poker-related injuries and there is no televised draft for poker, but it is just as competitive and can take just as much training as baseball or football. With the money and fame that poker now involves a good player can earn as much or more as some pro athletes and some poker events are getting higher ratings than many traditional sporting events. It’s kind of hard to make sports picks with poker, but I kind of like the irony of betting of poker.

Poker is now a big part of any sports show and probably gets more coverage than sports like hockey and tennis.

Poker has an element of skill and chance and a good player seems to be able to persuade Lady Luck to work in their favor, despite a bad draw. People like Phil Ivey are regarded in the same light as athletes like Alex Rodriguez and Tom Brady in some circles. There are no trades, injuries, or drug testing to take away from the game.

When I was a kid I always wanted to be a professional baseball star and I think I would have if I could have got over the obstacle of having absolutely no skill at the game whatsoever. Poker is a different story, with enough practice and the guts to play the big events anyone could potentially reach the top levels of the poker elite.

The internet is one of the reasons why popular is so popular right now. If poker is a professional sport than I think it would be fair to say that online poker would be comparable to the minor league system in other sports. The difference is that literally anyone can play and eventually make it to the big leagues.

Anyways, I am sure that there are a lot of people who think that I am wrong about poker being a sport. Regardless of what your opinion is, poker is a game that will be around for awhile.

Checking Your Way To The Win

The most beautiful thing in the game of poker is the check, when used wisely it can be as deadly as a full house.

Too many people only check when they have nothing in their hands and they really don’t use poker’s best feature to their advantage. Any good poker player can tell early on if you are one of these players and they will quickly raise you after you knock on the table.

When you have a good hand sometimes it is best to stand back and let your opponent make the first move, let them think that the ball is in their court and let them dribble to the basket. Eventually they will become extremely invested in the pot without realizing it and you can make a lot of money if you have the nuts.

On the other hand checking is a good way to see cards for free or cheap. I have won a lot of hands by seeing the river card for free and having a straight turn up on the table. Usually these pots are easy to bluff, no one will probably have anything better than a medium pair and a bluff will probably make them fold. You won’t win a big pot, but it will add up, plus you’re setting the tone at the table.

The only bad thing about checking in poker is when your opponent knows how to do it better than you and makes you the sucker.