Free Poker Online Guide To When To Go All-In And When Not To Go All-In

Playing any sort of poker be it free online poker or cash stakes poker is very exciting when you are dealt a nice hand. The challenge is how best to play it, if you move all in there is the danger that the other players, who have figured you as a player who is not a "all-in-all-the time maniac" will 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.

To develop the poker smarts and experience needed to exploit good as well as weaker hands, start by learning poker online in quality yet lower risk games,learn by your mistakes but keep your mistakes cheap! Low stakes and play poker online free games are great ways to learn and also a lot of fun, and make sure you take advantage of the how to play poker for beginners and intermediates free poker lessons you will find on the better free poker sites in order to learn about things like pot odds and playable pockets.