I’ve been playing poker for many years and as far as I am concerned the easiest way to learn to play poker is to play for play money chips on one of the online poker sites which are totally free. I recommend playing on Full Tilt Poker also see poker rules for some of the popular poker games like Texas Holdem, Omaha and 7 card stud.. Once you understand the game then you may want to take advantage of different poker bonuses offered by the poker rooms.

I've only really played a few real life games but very recently have gotten into playing online poker. It's very different than having actual physical opponents to talk to but also a lot of fun because it's possible to just pick up a game at any time.

I guess I would tend to disagree about the "learning to play poker for free" part by playing at the play money tables.

I think the play money tables should only be used to familiarize yourself with the poker software and get comfortable with how the action takes place, where the raise, fold, and call buttons are, etc.

Poker is one of those games that really needs to be played for real money, otherwise there is no real incentive for people to play correctly.

Even if you are playing 5 cents 10 cents poker, it is much more realistic than playing for free.

Just my two cents,

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

That's a good point. For now I only feel comfortable doing free tables but I would like to get into wagering even small amounts just to feel the kind of incentive you mentioned toward playing smart and thinking decisions through at a more in-depth level because there is actual money involved (even if it's a tiny amount).

I agree with you 100%! I feel a lot of times when people are in the play money room, they mess around a lot. I mean yeah, I'm sure there are quite a few people that really play, and really try, and play just like they would in real life. But I mean we have to face it. If I can just go and reload my play chips whenever I want, want not go into one of those rooms and screw around, go all in with 2,3 and wait for some dumb person to call you.

I have tried to take play money seriously but you just get so many random wild calls you wouldn't get if you were playing with real money....so I tend to try and stay away from it unless I'm really really bored and don't have any money to play with.

Yeah I also disagree with the topic creators view on learning the game. Like previous posters have said, the play money tables are either under aged kids who don't have access to a credit card or people just playing around. Playing in play money tables can actually mess up your game.

If you want to get better at playing poker, even the low stake games don't cut it, you will get tired of bad beats.

The best thing to do is to play a good solid amount of sit n go's, don't get discouraged if you don't place for quite some time, you will eventually get the hang of things if you just stick to the poker basics.

That's good advice Naz



I always seem to forget about how great of a learning experience Sit and Go's can be, especially for new players. Sit N Go's teach a player several different important aspects of poker, wich will carry over into both cash games and mult-table tournaments. Some of the things you will learn playing sit n go's are:

1. Patience, it really does pay off to be patient and wait for better starting hands than your opponents play. If you start off with the best hand you are more likely to finish with the best hand
2. Position, the earlier your position, the tighter you must play because of unkown action behind you. In late position, you can play a wider range of hands.
3. Selective Agressiveness, in sit n goes you can often play much more aggressively against players with a small stack of chips because they don't want to get knocked out of the tournament and will be playing extra cautious. This is similar to cash games where players who play extremely tight or are low on chips. Generally speaking these players, also play more cautiously, which means you can take advantage of them by playing more aggressively.

One additional benefit of playing sit n go's as a learning tool, is that you get a lot of play for a fixed amount of money. No matter how many bad beats you take, you know your never going to lose more than the cost of the entry fee.

Hope that helps some, thanks for jogging my memory Naz

Jason

__________________
I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

I have never played online Poker, but I think that the risk is even greater of loosing since you can’t see your opponent. You don’t know when your opponents have a good card or not. In offline poker you can see it sometimes on their reactions.

Hmmm... I have this thing about wasting time, Phil, and I think that if I wouldn't already know how to play (and I do for quite a while now) I'd not want to learn by playing for free. I think I'd tire of it fast and not learn much.

For me to really learn, sometimes I have to lose something and I think I'd rather have that be a very low 5 or 10 bucks than just getting complacent and saying "oh well, it was free, who cares?"

Even if it's a lousy $5 bill, seeing someone else walk away with it would be a better lesson for me.

I agree that they don't cut it if you want to walk away rich... but if you're just learning (or wanting to improve), isn't getting those bad beats a good way to learn the game?

If I'd be learning and a bad beat teaches me something, I'd rather pay a little for the lesson instead of not learning at all. I'll remember better for next time if there's a small loss.

Maybe I'm just strange.