Free Poker Games Online

December 29, 2009 by lesley
Filed under Poker Articles

Even professional poker players were new to the game once. Some of the older professional poker players got started in the days before the internet, when poker rooms and casinos were the only real options for getting a good game against experienced players.

Today, that has changed. It’s easier than ever to improve your poker game and get a large number of played hands under your belt, thanks to the meteoric rise of online poker.

You can play free poker games online, or you can play cash games. The choice depends on your budget, confidence, and motivation for playing. Most of the commercial online poker rooms offer an option to play free poker games online - often you can start playing immediately after creating an account, with a shorter registration process than for the cash games.

Even strong players sometimes play free poker games online, in the form of freerolls that offer entry to satellites. You should be aware, however, that free rooms are often full of fish, and even the strong players who sit down at free rooms often have a more relaxed outlook than they would in a cash game, and are willing to take bigger risks than they would with real money. This means that some of the psychology you pick up in free rooms may not translate very well to tournaments at higher limits.

There’s still a lot of value to playing free poker online, though. You can learn hand values and probabilities, practice quick thinking and keeping track of the size of the pot, and develop confidence which will help you when you move to cash games.

Even if you’re not looking to play tournament poker, the free rooms are ideal for those nights when your bankroll is running low, or if you’re tired (or perhaps ill or feeling a little merry after a night out), and don’t want to risk real money. It’s never a good idea to play with real cash if you’re not 100% on the ball, but free games are ideal.