In any type of poker game, be it free poker online or cash games you will come across 4 basic types of player in terms of psychology and related playing style and philosophy. The groups are loose-passive, loose-aggressive, tight-passive and tight-aggressive.

Within each type there are gradations, for instance, the most extreme loose-aggressive is termed the “maniac”, this is the player who plays most hands and raises all the time, almost no matter the cards he’s got.

Every poker player falls into one of these groups as a result of their baseline natural playing tendency. In most cases our natural playing tendency results in lost money as we will either play too few or too many hands and act too passive or aggressive at certain times. Every style has a time and place and being able to switch to suit game situations is the mark if a strong poker player who wins consistently.

Firstly you must identify your natural tendency; this is the first step in stopping being a victim of your own psychology. It is also important to learn to recognize the style of the players who sit at your table so you can counter them in the most effective manner and exploit their shortcomings if they are weak.

Loose-passive
The loose-passive player calls many hands pre and post flop. He wants to lay in as many hands as possible, and will generally attempt to hold on to the bitter end without having the least chance of winning. Loose-passive players are also referred to as “calling stations”.

Loose-aggressive
The loose-aggressive player will play many hands aggressively with a lot of betting and re-raises. Although these players lose long term they’re dangerous sometimes as if their luck in no-limit Hold’em tournaments is good they will get a lot of chips quickly and become the chip leader.

Tight-passive
Generally known as rocks, they play a few hands and play passively. They just bet when they’re sure to have the best hand, making their earnings small when they do win. One of many disadvantages the rock has is when you identify them as a rock and they play a hand you know to fold. As a result on any table with players who have some skill the tight-passive player is basically sidelined.

Tight-aggressive
His game is selective, will bet hard once they have the upper hand. Most players who follow this style will be more skilled and have learned to play well and considers things like pot odds and implied odds. Not all players with this style are good but many are and overall it is the best singular style to adopt while adding loose and passive elements as game demands and situations change.

The best way to find your style and learn to vary it is in quality but low risk free games. It’s a fact that we learn by mistakes in poker so let’s keep those mistakes cheap! Small stakes and free poker games are the ideal way to get experience in the early stages, plus be sure to play poker online for free and take as many free poker lessons as you can and learn about things such as pot odds, playable pockets and table position tactics.

This free poker online strategy is based on a simple money management strategy used in roulette, it works very well when applied correctly! Roulette is not a game that is winnable on a turn by turn math basis, it’s just a coin flip for red-black or straight % for numbers, but some of the very simple formulas hardcore roulette players use can be applied to poker with potentially great consistent profit results. Read on and give it a try in free poker games first to see if it works for you.

When first considering this idea I was surprised how much math and strategy roulette fans are prepared to try in order to win a casino game which is fundamentally not winnable on mathematic basis!

Then I considered that as poker is a game where math and profit can work why not try to apply some roulette investment basics to poker and find out if it works.

Initially I looked at trying incremental bet size progression, in roulette this ensures you profit even after losing several bets in a row…as long as your bankroll can survive the sequence until the win! For example: You bet 1 piece on red and lose. Then you bet 2 pieces on red and lose again. Now you put 4 pieces on black and it wins. Your result is an 8 chip return from 7 chips invested, you’ve made a profit on a 33% win rate.

How to include this in poker strategy
For example you could play sit and go tournaments. Starting with a short buy in, advancing to higher buy-ins, if you lose. As you can’t only play heads up, but 6-max, full-ring or even multi-table SNGs, you may not need to raise buy in after each loss.

For example: You play a 6 player SnG for $1 and lose. You play again and if you place 1st get $3.90 or 2nd $2.10 and so have gained win or at least broke even and can go back and play again at £1. If you lose, play again for $2 and so forth.

This approach works best where you have a poker site with a range of simple stepped buy in level games that are played by players at a skill level you can play against with no great problems and win or place as long as you get decent cards. Once you reach the profit level then depending on level of profit you can start over at the low level again or start at a higher buy in and return step.

I think this is a simple and profitable concept. If you are interested in playing this method make sure you check the payout you will get at your favourite poker site and take into account the effect of rake back. Then map out which tables and games will fit the program and where you can break even or win by placing 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so forth. Remember, you don’t have to play games end on end, there is absolutely no time rule here, and games can be hours or perhaps days apart to suit your schedule and that of suitable games.

One key point is to try it out safe first, play poker online for free with play money on one of the good free poker online first. Do this to get accustomed to table and game selection and to prove it to yourself in order to get self confidence in the technique.

Whether you play free online poker or casino tables there’s no denying the buzz you get when you get a great starting hand like a 2 kings. But what if you go All In hoping to win big and all the other players fold?

This happens a lot, especially in higher quality games where people don’t throw chips around wildly, and can be very frustrating when you have such a good hand, in this article I’m going to tell you what you need to do to be able to win in situations like this (and many other situations for that matter). This comes from experience, knowing about things like playable pocket matrices, pot and hand odds and by observation of the other players and the way they bet.

When you get a good pair at the start of a hand you most certainly have an advantage which can, depending on the cards that open up at the flop give you a better chance of winning outright without the need for bluffing and other such mind games! I will explain this with the following example: Your starting cards are a very nice pair, Ks, Kd, this is a great pair and gives you a strong winning opportunity.

Your options at this point are to either go all-in or wait for the flop cards to open. If you wait you must keep in mind that if a Ace opens on the flop then your winning chances are greatly reduced.

In such a case going on and betting more could be a waste and you would be advised to fold, because if someone else is betting then it’s likely they have an Ace in their hand. Or of course they might be bluffing or are maybe just a donk player hence the importance of learning to observe other players.

You might think that it would have been better to have gone all-in but you need to remember that in that case too the person having an Ace might have gone ahead and bet and you would have lost more money. As of now you are down but not out.

Now lets again take the above example of you having Ks,Kd, but this time the flop cards are 6s,6h, Qh. Well now you know that if anyone has a 6, you will face defeat.

The way to go is not to lose hope because it’s a small value card and chances are that the person having a 6 might have already folded. So just raise the stakes and see how the others go about it. If someone goes all-in then he could be having a 6 and the best option is to fold and minimize the damage.

Don’t be disheartened by the examples above, they are meant to give the impression that it’s not possible to play to win! What they are meant to convey is that unpredictable probability (also known as luck) is part of poker so you need to remember, if you are not winning, be smart enough and do not lose too much.

If you keep playing good cards in a solid way then probability is on your side and you will come out on top in the long run and as you have minimised your losses in the bad patches you will have money to bet when things are better.

The best way to learn better poker online is in quality but low risk games,learning by your mistakes is very much the way of things in poker so it is a good idea to keep those mistakes cheap! Micro stakes and play free poker games are the way to go in the early stages and be sure to read up on lots of free poker lessons too in order to learn about things like pot odds and playable pockets.

You might play poker online for free or cash poker but do you really understand what the letters of the word P-O-K-E-R mean? While the truth is that it most likely comes from an old German or French word I’ve thought of a new interpretation based on the letters that is perhaps more suited to modern times and relates to how you should approach poker game play be it a fun free online poker game or WSOP final table stuff! Check it out and maybe add this way of thinking to your poker playing mindset, hopefully you’ll win more if you do.

P – Positive attitude
Having a positive attitude helps a lot in poker. You need to play with the hope that you can win and make things happen. Believe that you have a good hand and bet accordingly.
Just waiting and hoping to get a nice pair of aces hardly helps in poker, and when you do get them you might be defeated by a pair of twos. If you play with the wrong attitude, then other players will know that soon and force you to fold by raising the bet.

O – Opportunity
So you are positive and you have a decent hand, now you must take every opportunity that presents itself. Once all the cards have been dealt and you know that you have a winning hand, bet in a way to maximise your profit.
It’s no good if you win a hand and get pennies. So keep raising the stakes and win big. Strike when the iron is hot.

K – Knowledge
Real knowledge about poker and being able to figure all the different hand combinations that you can make. Truly this can be hard to master and you also need to be able to predict as best as possible what cards other players might have based on what you have and what is on the board and how they are acting.
It’s all about experience and the more you play the more you learn. Once you have played enough hands you will be better at judging your opponents. Not only that, you will also be able to bluff and win (sometimes) even if you have a weak hand.

E – Eliminate
Once in a while you will get a pair of aces and what you need to do is make sure that you win. Your aim is to eliminate other players with weaker cards by raising the bet significantly, and forcing them to fold.
If there are too many players on the table then one of them is sure to have some luck with the cards that open at later stages. If not taken out initially that player could end up with a straight or flush and your aces are no match for that.

R – Realize
The final step is to realize what the other person might have and bail out early. It happens a lot of times that you bet hoping that a card you need to complete your straight or flush will come on the flop, turn or river but it never does. You keep on betting and lose money or lost of chips in free poker games. In these situations only continue if the amounts are small, once the bet is raised its better to fold.

Conclusion – Poker is not like other cards games where the best cards win, as you will know after you’ve played just a short time you can easily lose even with the best possible hand. Another way to describe this, in a sort of math way is: cards + timing + your player skill + opponents skill diced with a large dollop of probability (luck for the uninitiated) mixed in = result.

Poker can be really cruel at times so the best thing to do is to play and remember that it is just a game that you cannot always win. As with any sort of gambling do not spend money that you can’t afford to lose and, if you have no money to lose or are new and want need to learn how to play poker for beginners start off by only playing free online poker in order to improve with no risk of loss and also at free sites you can often win bonuses that you can cash in on cash poker sites and use in micro and then mini stakes money games.

We’ve all experienced it, especially in free poker online and in cash games, lost more than we could ever imagine, and shake our heads at how some people play poker; donkey style poker. I’m sure most anyone who plays free poker knows what donkey poker is, but in a nutshell it is a poker player who calls every hand, regardless of what cards they hold, who has no problem going all in with 92 off suit, closing their eyes and praying for a winning board; i.e., donking the hand.

I’ve seen no end of players donking. I’m not sure if it is the fact they are playing free poker, or they get an adrenaline rush from it, or truly have no idea how to play poker. It may well be how they learned to play themselves, and never learned the many concepts of poker play such as outs, pot odds, etc.

I will also say, that trying to play donkey poker will break you faster than any other style of poker. You may win a few hands and build a small bankroll, but nearly every player I have seen play this style of poker goes broke and you will soon see them asking for a loan, or spending endless real cash in order to play again.

It can be quite frustrating to play against donkey style players. You may lose a few hands and be tempted to allow that emotion to affect your style of play, but in the long run, good poker play will only build your bankroll not bankrupt you. Patience is the number one skill you must possess to play a good game of poker and build your bank.

So when you are tempted to change your style of play, and we’ve all done it a time or two, remember in the long run you’re the one who will still have a bankroll to play with while others will be scrambling to find someone to front them some chips!

To get experience playing against donks and to learn how to push through them, play poker online for free where you will find hordes of donks who will be more than happy to test your sanity! Free online poker games sites are also perfect places to learn how to play poker for beginners. On free poker sites you will learn poker basics in a low risk environment as well as learning how to combat donk play and find ways to regularly have the donkeys donate their stacks to your bankroll!

No matter what sort of of poker you play, free online poker or money games you’ll get times when a good strong hand becomes more marginal. When this occurs decisions that would have been good earlier on might become bad.

For example, that Straight might be strong now yet becomes weaker if the Board pairs or there are 3 of the same suit and an opposing player bets big. Bad calls are more linked to bad hands, however. For example.

BLINDS: 40k/80k

PREFLOP:

A has Ad-Jc, raises to 250k
B has 2h-2d calls 250k
C has Ks-Qs, is on big blind, calls 140k (pot 880k)

FLOP: Ah-2c-10c

A and B and the ones to focus on. Now A raises with A-J from early position and B calls with a pocket pair which has evolved into a Set. B has position over A, plus A may make the very bad decision to bet the high pair but QUESTIONABLE kicker at this step. His kicker is questionable because there are two more players in the pot who may have higher kickers (or even Two-Pair with A-10).

C checks

Note that there is also a Straight draw (which C has) and a Flush draw (which everyone thinks everybody else may potentially have). So now A will attempt to protect his strong (but questionable) made hand with an overbet:

A bets 1m
B raises to 2.67m
C folds
A to call all in 1.67m (Pot 4.55m)

First, A staked 250,000 on the hand, now 1 million that is approx. 40% of his total stack, and now he might be on the edge. Should he call? Now he might think that the reraise from Bs all-in doesn’t imply that B is on a draw (B can’t call an overbet with a draw), but it could imply a good hand like A,K or A,10. It also is not an attempt to knock A out of the hand as A has 3-1 on a call, but calling will give him the knock-out.

Is 3-1 a good proposition, however? He has 3 outs to pair his kicker and a small percentage for running outs to get a Straight or a Flush. His chance of winning is just about 14%, and the fair proposition for a 14% should be about 7-to-1. (He is only getting about 2.7-to-1.) And, when it comes to unlikely Set, he is almost drawing dead, while he needs cards for a running Full House. At this stage his A-J has already been a bad hand. So he has all the ingredients for a bad call all-in, which he makes.

A calls all-in (pot 6.22m)

The turn and the river of 5s and 8s, respectively, won B the pot. A’s call will be a good call had it been A-K (you decide if A-Q will be every bit as good). He is able to put B on an Ace with a lower kicker after which make progress with an overbet in which B’s decision will be an all-in (then A can call as a big favorite) or a fold (then A wins the pot). But no; he chose to overplay a marginal hand and that cost him heavily. At the very least, he decided to call all-in when calling all-in would be too dangerous.

Teaching your mind to think like this in poker takes a while to learn. Don’t lose money learning, go practice and play poker online free hard at free poker games sites first, then, and only when you feel very confident in your understanding of the game, should you move into lower stake money poker games.