When playing poker online, one of the biggest "online poker tells" you can observe are your opponents betting patterns.  This article will discuss a very small specific "accidental tell" that you may observe online, and hopefully use it to your advantage. 

In online poker rooms, you have the ability to pre-select your planned action through a checkbox, before it is actually your turn to act.  This on its own can be a "tell" on your opponent, because their "pre-selected" action happens instantly when it is their turn to act.  The "accidental tell" happens when their action is not a pre-selected action, suggesting that maybe they performed an action by mistake, giving you a little information on if this person even wants to be in the hand.  This is hard to describe with words, so let me go into an example:

On Full Tilt Poker, before the action gets to you, you can click a checkbox indicating that you want to "Check/Fold" or just "Call" (or "check" if they're in the BB).  Obviously since online poker is software technology running on blazing broadband networks, the "actions" can happen quickly and catch people off-guard. 

Say an opponent wants to just limp in and "call" the blind.  They can pre-select the "call" checkbox, and when the action gets to him, the software automatically limps him in.  But, just as he's about to select the checkbox, you put in a good size raise, and now that checkbox he was about to select turns into a "Call" button that he accidentally (instantly) clicks.  You can recognize this betting pattern based on the speed of his response.  The action is typically fast in online poker, but when almost an instant "call" happens, this can suggest he hit that button by accident.  Especially if you put in a good size raise, typically someone would give it at least a full second of thought before calling.

If you happen to be heads-up with this person, you can potentially have a "tell" suggesting he may have a marginal hand that he originally just wanted to play with a cheap flop.  Use that to your advantage.  A typical continuation bet here may easily pick up the pot uncontested.

Likewise, you yourself should be careful using those "pre-action" checkboxes.  You may accidentally call an ALL-IN SHOVE with your 9-3 offsuit!  Good luck on the felt.

This article "Poker Betting Patterns - The Accidental Call or Raise" was originally published on Ezinearticles.com by J. Vito.

If you're pretty new to the game of poker, here are three things you should do right now to start your poker journey: 1) watch TV, 2) play online with Play Money chips and 3) buy a book. 

You have probably watched poker on TV already, which for many, is how you became interested in poker.  Today, there are many great TV shows that broadcast the game, and with the help of entertaining commentators, you can learn a lot of poker just from watching it on TV. 

The second thing you should do is actually play some poker.  Find an online poker site, download their free software and create an account.  Once you log in, you'll have a "Play Money" bankroll you will use to get into "play money" games.  Particularly if you are new to poker, I highly recommend only "Play Money" games, and to not even think about making real money deposits.  Get your feet wet comfortably and safely first.

There are many benefits to playing poker online, and for those that are still learning the rules and basics of the game, playing online is so much easier than playing at a live game.  You can clearly see your two hole cards, the community cards, and how much play money is in your stack versus your opponents' chip stacks.  The poker site tells you when it's your turn to act and what possible actions you can take.  Playing poker online will ensure the structure and rules of the game are being played correctly, helping you rapidly and accurately learn the game after your first few sessions. 

Lastly, you should buy a book on poker to help you better understand the rules of the game and the basic strategies of poker.  A great first book for a new poker player to read is Phil Gordon's:  Poker: The Real Deal.  Phil does a nice job in making this book easy and fun to read, while packing in a great amount of poker education. 

This article "Beginner's Poker Guide - Three Things To Get You Started Playing And Learning Poker" was originally published on Ezinearticles.com by J. Vito.

Here's a quick assumption why you're reading this article:  you're interested in playing poker online and you want to win real money!  However, there are two main reasons why you are not playing online, let alone making any deposits with your hard-earned money: 

1)      TRUST - Whether online poker is safe and trustworthy is a huge debate.  But clearly, there are stories out there giving the world of online poker a negative reputation of being crooks and scams. 

2)      RISK - There's still a big question of legality, especially in the United States.  And also while poker is a game of skill, there is variance, and you will always have ups and downs.  Depositing real money into online poker rooms is just plain risky.

These two concerns together will keep many eager poker players from depositing money to a virtual poker site.  However, there are two ways to build an online poker bankroll with no deposit of real money: Freerolls and Promotions.

FREEROLLS - Most online poker sites offer "Free Roll" tournament games where the buy-in is $0.00, but the top finishers can win real money.  They typically are very challenging as the fields to those freerolls are huge, some having 30,000 players in one freeroll tournament.  But this is the first place to start, especially if you're new to poker.  It will most likely take a long time to cash in on a freeroll, but you'll also be gaining more experience and inherently improve your poker game.  When I first started this approach, I played approximately 40 freeroll tournaments before I made it in-the-money (ITM).  My first cash payout was a whopping $1.00 (LOL). 

Once you do win some real money from a freeroll tournament, you can start playing at the low-stakes cash games with $0.01/0.02 blinds.  Patiently keep building your little bankroll, while continuing to play the freeroll tournaments. 

PROMOTIONS - Online poker sites like Full Tilt Poker also offer Promotions that give you another opportunity to grow your bankroll.  In the middle of 2009, Full Tilt Poker ran a promotion called "Take 2", where if you earned a certain amount of Full Tilt Points from real money games, they would pay cash bonuses.  The cash bonus increased based on your performance throughout the period.  Once you begin building your bankroll from the Freerolls, definitely keep an eye out for any promotions your site offers.

If you've wanted to play poker online, but the trust and risk factors have kept you away, hopefully these options give you a more comfortable way to fill your poker crave. 

This article "Freeroll Poker - Build Your Online Poker Bankroll With No Deposit" was originally published on Ezinearticles.com by J. Vito.

From beginner to experience poker players, the Full Tilt Poker Academy is another great (and free) educational, yet entertaining resource for you to learn to play poker, fix the leaks in your game and develop additional styles and strategies. 

Full Tilt Poker has the biggest names in poker!  These same professional poker players are essentially your "teachers" at the Academy.  Educational content is delivered through the following methods: Lessons, Sit-n-Learns, Challenges, Sessions and Podcasts. 

"Lessons" are online videos presented by one of the Pros discussing many different topics, which are organized by "Level" of difficulty.  This is the core of the educational content you get out of the FTP Academy.  You are sure to find many topics of interest regarding the games of poker, and the online videos are of high-quality and produced very nicely.

Many of the poker lessons have interactive "Sit-n-Learns", which are essentially quizzes that review the lesson you just took.  These are aimed to help you review and better learn poker concepts in the associated Lesson.  You also earn a "grade" on the quiz, based on not only choosing the correct answer, but how fast you answer them.  High scores may qualify you to play in restricted Freeroll Tournaments available only on Full Tilt Poker. 

"Challenges" are aimed to make youapplycertain skills you learned in the Lessons.  They give you objectives to accomplish on actual real money tables, and as you accomplish those objectives, you get credit for them in your "My Academy" account.  As you earn more Academy Credits, you move up in "Membership Levels" within the Academy, giving you access to higher level Lessons.  You can also spend these credits at the FTPA Store for a variety of poker related products and big prizes. 

Finally, the "Sessions" and "Podcasts" channels allow the FTP Pros to share actual game experiences and real hands, commenting on their thoughts as the hands play out.  These areas of the Academy is another nice way for you to learn how to "think and play like a pro". 

In order to access the Full Tilt Poker Academy (FTPA), you need to have a Player ID with Full Tilt, which means you would need to download and install the Full Tilt Poker software application.  But if you are reading this because you're interested in learning and improving your poker game, chances are you already have a Full Tilt Poker account or you would want one anyways.  And it's free!  So get your poker education on, have fun and good luck on the felt!

This article "Learn to Play Poker Online - Learn from the Pros at Full Tilt Poker Academy" was originally published on Ezinearticles.com by J. Vito.

With Texas Hold 'Em Poker's growing popularity and the myriad of books and resources available on the game it can be difficult for new poker players to know where to start their poker education.  If you're a new poker player, I highly recommend reading these books to start learning and improving your game.


Poker: The Real Deal - by Phil Gordon

This is an awesome book for beginner players new to Texas Hold 'Em poker.  Phil Gordon does an excellent job in making this book fun and easy to read, providing entertaining content as well as an introduction to strategy and analysis of the game without using too much technical terminology.  He takes you through the history, rules and basics of Texas Hold 'Em Poker, in addition to sample hands and math percentages, helping you quickly improve your game.  I highly recommend this as a first book for a new poker player.

Harrington on Hold 'em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play - by Dan Harrington

For the ambitious beginner (and quite frankly for advanced experience players too) this is probably one of the best books in learning more about different styles (conservative to aggressive) and strategies of tournament poker.  As the title suggests, this book is focused on No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em Tournament Poker play.  The book is packed with not only great educational content, but also provides example "problems and challenges" to make you think and work through the content of each chapter. I have gone through this book 3 times in the 18 months, and as I gain more experience and see more hands, the content of this book continues to provide value and education. Beginners new to the game will have a great jump start on learning and improving their game. 

Some people say the play and the suck outs are unbelievable on Full Tilt Poker. (It's funny to hear people bitch about Full Tilt, while playing on Full Tilt!)  


Well here's a little more wood for that fire!  Last night, playing two Rush Poker ring game tables ($0.02/0.05) and near the VERY beginning of my session, not even a hundred between both tables, I get pocket aces, twice.  
First time, I raise it 3 times the BB in early position.  I get one caller in late position.  Flop comes whatever...  I bet the pot, and he shoves.  I should know to fold these aces, but it's so hard to right?  Yup, he flopped a straight with his QJ.  

Second time, about 10 hands later, I get Aces again only this time in the BB.  First raise to 3xBB, the SB calls, I pop it to $1.00!  First raiser, folds, SB calls.  Flop comes K-10-2.  I bet, she calls.  Turn comes and Ace.  Nice I have a set.  She checks, I bet the pot, she shoves.  OMG, again?!  She's got the nutz with QJ?  Of course I call!  And of course I lose!

You won't believe this, but towards the end of my session, I get those Aces again (it's really a love / hate relationship with them isn't it?  

Actions comes around, and again, I pop it to $1.00, and get called.  The flop comes K-10-A.  And immediately I'm thinking, WTF!?  I'm up against QJ again (LOL)!  I bet, she raises.  Turn comes a 3.  I bet, she raises!  (We are both pretty big stacked here!)  And I comment to her, "Really?!  QJ".  

I call her re-raise, and we are BOTH committed!  There's like, $18 in the pot, and we both have about $3.00 left!  That beautiful lovely river pops up another 3!!!  She hesitates of course, but shoves all her chips in.  I chat to her "Sorry to river your QJ", and I call.  Nice $25 pot, huh?  Third time's a charm I guess!


Please share your Aces Cracked stories!  Can never get enough of them!

I've folded Aces before, but not often and certainly not easily!  Enjoy this video below from Poker After Dark.  I mean, watch how FAST Chan lays down his Aces!  You see exactly why the professionals are PROS, and why Chan is one of the greatest!

Another annoying night on the felt.  You know when you flop top set, you feel pretty good!  You of course need to be cautious of straights and flushes, especially when there are more people in the hand.  Paying attention to the play's betting patterns can help you get a gut feel if you're beat.  With no flush or straight draws on the flop and turn, I'm getting it all in with my top set.  

But my play from last night will remind you that your flopped nutz can be dead after the turn!  Running into QUADS!  This happened TWICE, and unfortunately in both cases, it busted my fairly hefty chip stack!  
The problem with this is you've got the nutz FULL HOUSE when this situation happens.  With the strong full house, you're HOPING the flush and straight draws catch up.  Let them catch up, right!?

Those two hands alone busted me badly, even though the rest of the night was solid.  I left the tables losing about 2.5% of my bankroll.  It's so HARD to walk away with those beats on your mind.  That's one of my major faults (and I believe for most players) is to cut your losses and leave the tables.  

Anyone have tips on how to get up and leave a losing session?  I'd love to hear them!

Anyways, this won't affect my play much on top sets, and big full houses. Statistically, it just won't happen that often.  I'll continue to get all my chips in there, and I'll more likely be profitable over the long run busting straights and flushes.  I think the one thing I'll take from this though is stack size.  If I'm up against "well-badged" players with a heavy chip stack, I'll be a little more aware of the rare Quads Crash play.

Looking for some "free" Texas Holdem tournament poker action online?  Here are two FREE ways to fill your poker crave at many of the popular online poker rooms.


Many of the popular online card rooms today give you the opportunity to play Texas Holdem Tournaments for free:   1) Freerolls and 2) Play Money tournaments, where you can play big field multi-table tournaments (MTT's) down to a small 6-handed Sit-n-Go table.

FREEROLLS

A "free roll" tournament is a regular poker tournament with a $0.00 buy-in, thus the name "freerolls".  The nice thing is they still pay out "real money"!  Throughout every day, online card rooms have freeroll tournaments scheduled, and often times have promotional freeroll Sit-n-Go's every 5-10 minutes. 

Freerolls are a great way for people to establish and build a "real money" bankroll without any real money deposit.  It may take awhile to cash-in, as many freeroll tournaments are huge, some going up to 30,000 players in one tournament.  But it's free, fun, fills your poker crave, gives you a great way to learn and improve your game.  Plus you will eventually get "in-the-money" (ITM) as you become a better tournament player.  When you cash-in at your first freeroll tournament, you'll feel like you just won the WSOP (lol)!

PLAY MONEY

The other option you have is to play in "Play Money" games.  Similar to the freeroll schedule, there are always tournaments and Sit-n-Go games ready for Play Money.  This is a great way to play as much poker as you want, whenever you want, for FREE! 

At the same time, you've got a "play chip" bankroll to manage and try to build up.  While real money is not at stake, you will still have a great poker experience on the Play Money tables.  It's great for beginner's to learn the basics of Texas Hold 'Em and basic poker strategy.  Even for more experienced poker players, Play Money is a nice way to test out different strategies in their game without risking any real money.

WHERE TO PLAY

The big and more popular online poker sites are:  Full Tilt Poker (fulltiltpoker.com), PokerStars (pokerstars.com) and Cake Poker (cakepoker.com).  I personally play at Full Tilt Poker because many of my favorite professional poker players not only endorse the site, but they play there too.  The software is excellent, the user interface is beautiful and they are constantly making improvements to their play and technology. 

To start playing online, simply sign-up at one of the online card rooms, install their free software application, and you'll be in a free tournament in no time.  Good luck and have fun!  See you on the virtual felt of online poker.

This article ("Free Online Texas Holdem Tournaments - Learn and Improve Your Poker Game"was originally published on Ezinearticles.com by J. Vito.

Why should you consider learning and playing virtual poker online?  Here are eleven (11) benefits and reasons to play poker on line. Many beginners new to poker and/or players that have not played online yet will find these points very helpful in getting started with Online Poker.  There are also a few tips and traps to consider when playing poker online.

1. Comfort and Convenience - You can play anywhere, anytime.  As soon as you wake up, right before you fall asleep, whenever it's comfortable and convenient for you!
   
   
2. No Expenses -No plane tickets and no hotel fees to get to Vegas!  No parking fees or gas to go to your closest casino or local charity game.  
   
   
3. Availability and Variety - There's always a game ready for you online!  Literally 24/7, whenever you want to play, other players are ready and waiting online.  You can easily find different formats (ring / cash games, Sit-n-go's and MTT tournaments), different poker games (Texas Hold 'Em, Omaha, Razz, etc.) all at different stake levels (micro 2-cent tables to high-stakes).  
   
   
4. Simultaneous Play - Something you cannot do at live games is play more than one table and/or tournament at the same time!  Online you get more action, more hands and more experience.  Play as many simultaneous games as you can profitably handle.  
   
   
5. Flexibility - With virtual poker online, you can multi-task.  Do whatever else you want to do while you play.  Take care of the laundry, do some homework, pay your bills... whatever!  Of course, you should focus on your play, but online poker gives you that flexibility.
   
   
6. Excellent Learning Experience - At all levels, especially for new players, playing online is a great way to learn.  In addition to watching poker on TV and reading books and magazines, actually playing poker is the fastest and best way to learn.  
   
   a.       Because online poker is driven by technology and software, and the fact that you can play multiple tables and/or tournaments and sit-n-go's, you easily can play hundreds of hands per hour (versus playing live, you'll probably only get in 30-40 hands an hour).  
   
   b.      Playing online also gives you the ability to review interesting hands, allowing you to analyze betting patterns, and the actions you took.
   
   
7. Poker Analysis Software and Stats - Playing online also gives you the capability to use additional software that displays and records statistical information on you and your opponents.  This type of software application also archives every hand you play, giving you additional ways to review and analyze your hands and how you played them.  
   
   
8. Less Intimidating - This is a big advantage, especially for new beginner poker players.  Physically sitting face-to-face with a table of strangers is intimidating.  There's just too much going on, for example:
   
   a.       organizing and counting your chips
   b.      knowing when to act
   c.       figuring out how much is in the pot
   d.      figuring how much money other players have in front of them
   e.      trying to see exactly what cards are on the board
   f.        trying to read people
   g.       trying to not give any information away yourself
   h.      controlling your heartbeat…  
   
   All these things make a "live" game intimidating, and negatively affects your game.  An online poker's interface is simpler and more comfortable, with all the information clearly in front of you, and your actions executed through the click of a mouse.  
   
   
9. Play Money Options - Online poker has "Play Money" games that not only come in handy to just have fun and learn the game, but offers other benefits too:  
   
   a.       After a session of bad beats, bad luck and just bad playing on your part, put your real money aside and out of danger, and play with "Play Money" to donk off your frustrations!  
   
   b.      Also, as you read and learn about other strategies and tips, you can test them out comfortably at the Play Money tables and build experience with them, before risking new strategies with your real money.  
   
   
10. Small Bankrolls, Low Stakes - Online Poker offers really LOW stakes.  It can help you build-up a small bankroll, even a ZERO bankroll, by playing in online Freeroll tournaments.  This is actually how I started myself.  I built up my bankroll from zero, and after winning a few freeroll tournaments, I hung out at the "shallow stack" $0.01/$0.02 tables for awhile.  At a "live" casino, the "cheapest" games I've seen were $1/$2 tables (yikes)!
    
    
11. Worldwide Poker Community - Technology and the Internet truly have made this world a "small world after all", bringing people from all over together at the same table.  Yes, you will run into some rude negative punks once in awhile, but for the most part, I've really had some great chats with friendly people from many different countries.  

A Few Tips and Traps to Watch Out For

1. Addictive - If you love poker and you've got a real passion for the game, you can easily spend way too much time and risk more than you should playing virtual poker.   Because of the benefits I mentioned like "comfort and convenience", you may end up playing too much.  A few times for me, I was playing online when I really should have spent the time handling some other important responsibilities.  
   
   
2. Quality Internet Connection - Make sure you have a reliable and stable technical environment, primarily your internet connection and your electrical power.  I have lost some big hands and a good chunk of change because my connection went out in the middle of a hand.  When you lose your connection, you have some time to "reconnect", but if you time-out then you're S.O.L. and you are forced to automatically fold your monster hand.  I actually have a small UPC (power backup) for my setup, so in case I do have a brief loss of power, I've got enough juice to finish the hand.  
   
   
3. Positive Environment - Like many other efforts, you want to have a comfortable environment to provide you positive support and energy.  Give yourself good lighting, use a comfortable chair, play on a clean clutter-free desk, and drink water, coffee (just no alcohol!).  Whatever you can do to make your environment better to help you focus on your games will help contribute to successful and profitable poker.  
   
   
4. Bankroll Management - There are many resources on this topic, and it's something you should research and establish for yourself.  If you play at stakes your bankroll cannot handle, you will quickly go broke.  Learn, define and follow proper bankroll management, to allow for variance in the game, giving you a comfortable opportunity to profit and play poker for a very long time!

Good luck and have fun!  See you on the virtual felt of online poker.

This article ("Play Poker On Line - 11 Benefits of Playing Online Poker (And a Few Tips and Traps)"was originally published on Ezinearticles.com by J. Vito.