Regardless of whether you play entry level free online poker or high stakes Vegas A-A and K-K are the top two hands preflop that will get your heart thumping with excitement every (rare) time they appear. When you have AA or KK the chances of a lesser pair winning pre-river are only about 20% with unpaired hands being even lower. With your KK an A-x (Ace plus any card) the chances are only 25-30% and then usually only if they hit the Ace on the flop.

With A-A or K-K the voice we always hear is ‘raise, raise, raise’. Yes, raise heavily it tells you, after all the only hands who are willing to call us will be ones like AK and AQ, plus a heavy raise will scare off the suited connectors that might be able to crack us later if they hit straights or flushes. So raise, especially if you're in late position, then reraise and raises. The, you hope, when you reraise is that they will reraise too with a weaker hand (not that they know it) like AK or AQ, then you can set them to go all in or go all in yourself. Party time.

But there are times when there are more subtle plays than ‘raise, raise, raise’. An example is this: Suppose you have A-A in early position, and you raise. Everyone else folds. How many times have you been frustrated when you raise or move all-in with those big Pairs preflop only to bait no customers?

So in early position, if that’s what you intend to do – if you want to catch them spilling many of their chips into your stack preflop, then just call, then wish – wish! - that ones of them raises so you can reraise. If they fold, well you'll at least get a few more chips than if you went for it right away and scared them off. If they call, then already we're past preflop play...

But this “beyond preflop play” is very significant, in that there is a big difference between A-A or K-K. Usually you should be willing to move all-in preflop more often with K-K than A-A. Why?

Because if you have A-A and the flop comes, say, Q-7-3 or K-9-5, those willing to square off with you are those with, like, A-Q, K-Q or K-J. They are willing to feed their chips to you with these hands, and you can call their big bets or all-ins. Your A-A is still the best hand, while they think their large (big but not big enough) Pair is strong, and that hand’s already a significant underdog. A-A is good for trapping as well as for speeding. You can move all-in with it preflop, of course, but as above you can trap with it if you feel like it.

But if you have K-K, the flop might fall A-7-2, and…your K-K, no matter how golden, is now drawing almost dead. There are two Kings left, and anyone who might be there with you may bet large because he has an Ace. (Is he likely to bet with a single Seven?) So you have to fold your K-K, no matter how hard it is for you to get so good a hand and then banish it a few moments later. Or just call, call, call.

So, preflop, you may have to play K-K more strongly than you would play your A-A. It’s not as good as trapping as A-A. Ideally, if you move all-in with K-K, an A-X will call you, or a small pocket Pair and you’ll be an approximately 75-25 favorite. (You’re not likely to be called with K-X or Q-X because they’re not so strong enough for calling all-ins.) If you get called with A-X, they still have to catch the Ace. They're the ones taking the risk, and not you. If you play K-K slowly, and they ride their A-X with you on the Flop, and they caught the Ace, it's a thousandfold different from having to catch it. They have no risks to take.

There might be times where there is A-A versus K-K, but these times are rare. And if you're the one with the K-K, you might even fold it. Say two of you in a preflop hand are the chip leaders in a tournament, and you reraise his early-position raise, then all of a sudden he pushes you all-in! You might put him on A-A, and you fold, very, very smartly and sickly. Or he's a player whom you know who will not raise that LARGE an amount unless he has A-A. But these times are rare, remember.

So, excepting some special considerations that must be remembered with the K-K, playing A-A and K-K preflop is just almost identical.

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It's a common sight on free poker site and, oddly even in some higher stake poker tournaments to see players go all-in preflop when they could (should) call and hope to see the flop. Why do they do it?

Well in cash games they do it to steal of course. In free texas hold em sadly it's more just for the hell of it! However, if called, what positive factors does going all-in grant? Let us examine two hands to analyze why:

HAND #1

Blinds: 6k/12k

A has Q-Q raises to 36k

B has 10-10 calls 36k

C has K-K reraises to 140k

A reraises all-in (Pot 989k)

B folds

C calls 643k (Pot 1.632m)

Board ended Jc-Jd-6c-Qd-3d

A moved all-in because by three-betting, he could push one of B and C from the pot, and if C (the likely caller) calls, A hoped that it will be A-K or A-x, where he has still an edge. But it turns out, C had K-K, so A was the underdog. Yet A won the hand with a Full House (Queens over Jacks).

However, if A just called, what would happen then is that B would also call, so next it'll be a three-way pot.? On a FLOP of Jc-Jd-6c, C would have position over A, whose Queens are weakened as the Board is paired, so if one of B or C bluffs, A will have a hard time playing.

Plus if A decides to play on strong he may make B and C believe he is on a J and they may both fold. Or later on the hand, if A, who hit his Full House on the turn, suddenly played strongly, the remaining player/s may fold because their hands are not so strong enough. So A will win less than what he won when he moved all-in and won the hand.

So one reason for moving all-in preflop is: Your chip stack is so low that any decent hand you have will be sufficient for an all-in (on the above, Q-Q should be played cautiously with two more players and a reraise on the Flop), and it pays to win more chips than less if you are to get back in the tournament.

HAND #2 - Following on from hand action

A has 8s-8h moves all-in 387k

B has 7d-7c, calls 307k (Pot 819k)

Both could have played safely. However A decides to take a gamble with what we term a common all in hand. Common all-in hands include Pairs, A-x and any two face cards (preferably suited). So another reason is: If you don’t have A-A or K-K but a common all-in hand, you will be called also with a common all-in hand.

With Pairs vs. two overcards, it doesn't much matter what you have, because you’re both even-money. With Pairs vs. Pairs, you run the risk of being the big underdog, but you can also be a big favorite if you are lucky. With any other cards, you either have two live cards or at worst, say A-K vs A-Q, if you have the A-Q, you still have a 25% possibility.

How did the hand turn out?
It ended with 5s-9s-6h-2c-8d. So A hit a Set, B hit a Straight. B eliminated A. It doesn’t matter; we can also imagine a situation that B was the one who moved all-in and A called. B hit his Straight still. But if B just decided to see a Flop, what could happen? A can push B out by representing a Nine on the Flop and the Turn so that B will fold (unless B has the courage to move all-in).

Also, if B hit the river Straight, A will be reluctant to play the Set he has. B will win a reduced amount of chips than he would (similar to HAND #1). But this example gives us another good reason.

You go all in that your marginal hand can't be pushed away later by a more marginal hand, as a result your marginal hand becomes strong and uncontested.. Here's a clear example, lets say it's 7-7 vs A-10.

The board might finish 10-K-K-Q-5, with overcards there's a Straight chance, and on a paired board the 7-7 can pressure the A-10 at some point. Or it may be 10-K-Q-4-J and the one with the A-10 will be out of the pot before the river if the one with 7-7 plays aggressively.

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This strategy is based on cash and free poker freerolls for upto 1000 players. I will keep it short, since there are too many long and boring free poker strategies that keep coming with the same info in another context.

The first hour

In freerolls you will find the whole spectrum of the poker world, the good, the bad, the annoying donks who go all in all the time.

The all in on every hand donk players are the ones to watch out for early on. Never take a risk in the beginning of even a free poker tournament, because the players that don’t know the game or so will go all in with A 6 (not even suited) and it would be very sad if you have an As Ks and will be beaten by a A 6!

Just call when it's low should you have AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK (suited) KQ (suited) Note: You should never go all in with these cards in the pre-flop (bad beats are incredibly frustrating)

And very important; DO NOT BLUFF at this time.

Following the first hour

This is the time that almost all bad players are gone, apart from the lucky ones!

Here you can play more aggressive and try to steal the blinds (vital since the blinds increase and ante needs to be paid so what you can get by playing cards is too less to keep playing)

You can also introduce some new cards to you playable hands like:

• KQ
• 10 10
• KJ
• AA (all in when in late position and not a lot of people in the pot)
• AQ
• KK (just like AA)
• QQ
• QJ
• AK

When you're in the pot with a few players and they just check or make low bets/calls you can try to bluff.

Be sure that your stack is not less then the average stack, if it does go back to the "first hour strategy" and tighten up! (it is not a shame to pull back and change strategy a couple of times to create some confusion!)

Congratulations If everything went well you are now in the money, but you can't tell me you want to quit now and earn some crappy cents, that’s just waste of your time since the most freerolls will take up to 4-5 hours. So concentrate!

This is the part where the "n00bs" are gone so you play with some pokerfreaks so be cautious!

You'll be able to recognize the good players not at the number of chips they have but at their check, bet, call, raise and fold actions!

They will try to get to see the flop with as less chips as possible and fold most of the time (most common way to spot the good ones).

In order to be in the top 3 (other places won't pay that well) you need to be careful, but take some risks to! The hands you can play are the same as in the second part of the freeroll from the 77,88 and up.

When in late position attempt to steal the blinds, but not too often or you will be recognized as a bluffer!

Good luck with your freerolls! When beginning I suggest starting with true free online poker freeroll events and working up from there as you improve.
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This article brought to you by NoPayPOKER. The world's only FREE poker site where you win real cash on every game. NoPayPOKER is the perfect place for Beginners to learn how to play poker without risking money. Experienced poker players can fine tune their game, test out new techniques or just grind away to accumulate easy free poker cash!

Is Poker - Online Poker, Casino Poker Mostly Luck?

How much of poker is luck, articles we get an NoPayPOKER seem to think it's 95% luck.

We rather think it's not an absolute figure or even close to, much more dependent on player skill - Like top 10 WSOP Pros or top winners at leading free online poker sites will have a much lower belief and dependence  on luck that an all-in donkin fish loony

What do you think? Comments please!

Do you ever ask yourself if your poker play is better than average? Well you should! Here’s what I mean -

• When you’re playing at a poker table, do you have more than the average chip stack?
• Do you have more than the average of the people in the poker tourney?

If you don’t you need to have a plan, because playing below average will make you a net loser in the long run.

The exception would be that some people use a short-stack strategy at cash tables. This can be profitable depending on your strategy, but even those folks will tell you, their goal isn’t to remain small. They’re plan is usually to take a shot (somewhat risky) to double up at the first good opportunity. In poker, chips are power. If you're not specifically planning to play that way, when you sit down at a cash table, you shouldn't be buying in for less than the average. Hopefully you have enough $ to buy in for the most.

In poker tournaments, keeping an idea where you stand as far as average can be very helpful. Sometimes you may lose a big hand and feel the tilt coming on, but what if you looked it up and realized you still had an average stack, or even more than the average player still in the game? The beat might still hurt or you might still be sick that someone called your bluff, but you can get your head back in the game if you realize you still have a great chance to win this game! It can also help you through times when the cards are just not coming. Feel like you’ve been folding all day?

If you’re still close to average, relax, you’ll be fine, chill out and wait for a good hand, it’ll come eventually. But probably the most important is when you’re short. You’ve made some mistakes or someone else has gotten lucky and you’re falling behind. Knowing what the average chip stack is will tell you how hard you need to slam the gas pedal while trying to catch up. If you’re way behind, you’ll know it’s worth risking your tournament life to double up in the next few hands.

At some sites, there’s an option to click on to see what the average chip stack is. Sometimes in live games (especially home games) you won’t have that help, and this site doesn’t currently tell you (at least I haven’t found that option). So do you know how to figure it for yourself? Easy:

• If you’re online, pull up the lobby window for the tourney, it will have a couple numbers you’re going to need.
• Take the number of chips at the beginning of the tourney. (example 1000)
• Take the total number of people that started the tournament. (example 200)
• Multiply those two numbers, that’s the total number of chips in the game. (example 1000X 200=200,000)
• Divide the result by the number of people still in the tournament. (example 56 players left – so 200,000/56=3571)

So then you have a benchmark of where you stand relative to everyone else left in the game. If you were sitting somewhere from 3k to 5k in the example above, you’re doing just fine, keep playing at about the same speed, you’re in great shape to make a deep run.

“But,” you say, I’m WAY too lazy to do that! I’m concentrating on the game, I don’t want to pull out a calculator and do all that!”

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a quick ‘n dirty way to “math it out” without frying your brain? Well there is, sort of. There are certain points at the tourney where even someone with a math-phobia can figure out the average in about 2.18 seconds.

At halfway through the tourney (half the players who started are gone), the average chip stack will be double what you started with. So in the above example, average will be 2000 chips once you’re down to 100 players. That’s easy right? Well here is the list of spots that I find easy to remember. If you happen to be really good with numbers and bored, well, you could use the same principle to get silly with it and figure out more spots.

• ¾ players, average = 1.5X starting chips
• ½ players, average = 2X starting chips
• ¼ players, average = 4X starting chips
• 1/10 players, average = 10X starting chips

So will this concept make you better at poker? NO! But this WILL give you a measuring stick which can be very helpful in gauging your situation. The more you know about where you stand (or sit) at the table, the better decisions you’ll be able to make and that will make you a better poker player...(as long as you have some aptitude anyways), and over time, the more $ you’ll be able to win.

Ideal practice venue? Why NoPayPOKER.com of course Free Online Poker with no risk of real money loss plus the ability to win it, barking mad.