Online poker is great, and not least because of free poker games. Think about it - a chance to learn how to play poker without risking a single dollar. And there are thousands of players in the free poker games at the same time, so you'll always have other players to play with. If you were looking for information on free online poker games, this is the right page for that.
Why to play free online poker games then? The main purpose for these free games is to learn how to play poker and to get used to the online poker room that you're playing at. Online poker is still a weird subject for some old-school live poker players (and, of course, for new players too). It's just good thinking to make sure you know poker rules and can control poker softwares before risking real money - you can avoid losses.
There's not much to be won in free poker games (you can win something by playing freeroll poker tournaments, though) but on the other hand there's not much you can lose either. Playing free online poker is a great way to start your poker career, but it's not good for your game to stick with these games forever.
Free poker games can only help you to a certain point (not exactly a highly skilled point) and then you just have to figure out other ways to develop your poker game (for instance, playing real money poker games and reading through my poker strategy section). There just isn't anything at risk so your opponents don't really care about what they're doing and you can't possibly develop yourself as much as needed (to win money). Games on $0.05/$0.10 limits are already on a whole different level compared to free poker (I don't mean much tougher to beat, but different), and the sooner you get to know what playing with real money feels like, the better.
Free Texas Holdem
Texas Holdem is the most popular free poker game online (and real money poker game, too, for that matter). I don't know an online poker room without it. You get dealt two hole cards (only you can see them) and there's a betting round. Then dealer deals three cards, "the Flop". These are community cards - everyone can see & use them. After the flop, another betting round occurs. Now the dealer deals "the Turn", which means fourth community card to the table. A betting round, then the last card, "the river". One more betting round left and players go to showdown.
You'll usually get about 1000 play money chips and you can start getting to know all kinds of online poker games. Like I already said above, though, there's no logic in most of your opponent's plays, and that's the downside of play money poker games. You can set yourself so goals though; poker is about adjusting your play against different kind of opponents, so adjust your game to play money poker games and make a certain amount of money before jumping in real money games.
Setting goals is in general quite important in poker, and you could treat these free play money poker games as one level of your progress to being a winning poker player. It's an amazing opportunity to learn how to play poker, so don't waste it by jumping straight to real money games, but rather make sure you know everything and THEN if you feel like doing it, move on to playing for real money.
Just to beat the point home; adjusting is extremely important in poker. Learning to adjust into free online poker games is one thing - maybe even a great start for you. Then when you move on to real money poker, there'll definitely be new adjustments needed again.
I never really played free poker when I started and maybe that was a mistake, maybe I lost from $50 to $100 because of that. It's probably fair to think you wouldn't want to lose the money for nothing, if you can just easily learn how to play poker by playing in those free games. It's a great way of getting started in poker, so be sure to use the chance. While other players might just have fun in those games, you can take it seriously.
Don't be stuck to them forever - move on when there's nothing more to get from free poker games. Good luck!
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