When I learned to play poker I did it the hard way. I put out my hard-earned money and promptly lost it to more experienced players. Thanks to the internet, there is an easier way today for newcomers to improve their poker skills without depleting their bank account.

Many of the online poker sites offer free games for practice. Although they do teach some poker skills, they still leave a lot to be desired for practicing purposes. In the free games players are much too loose. They play every hand, they never fold, they raise on nothing, and the pots are much larger than any you would ever win in a real game.

The free games are good for teaching you the rules of the game, and giving you a general sense of how the cards can fall. Also they can be good practice in calculating pot odds. If you are not yet familiar with why that is important in poker, I have an article on my website which goes into more detail on how to calculate poker odds.

There are some ways can get some realistic practice on these websites without losing your shirt. Some of these websites offer free tournaments. In a tournament the player is out once he loses his stake and unlike the other free games, he can't just get more chips and keep playing. For this reason, players tend to play these tournaments more like they would play a real money game.

Some of the real money games are at such low stakes, they might as well be free. For example, one site I play with has limit poker for one cent and two cents. You certainly won't go broke playing those stakes, yet surprisingly for that penny or two, the other players will tighten up and play more like they would in real bigger money games. I like to play the penny poker games just to practice for real games when I visit the casinos.

If you really want to improve your game, my suggestion is read plenty of books on poker theory, then try applying what you learn in the free games, tournaments, and if you are so-inclined in the penny-ante real money games. But don't risk money you can't afford to lose. A poker education doesn't have to be expensive.

Ron Coleman is retired and spends his free time as a cartoonist and is an avid poker player. You can enjoy his cartoons and other poker articles on his website: http://www.coleman-cartoons.com

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