Poker Rules & General Info

Antes and blinds are both forced bets required by players before any cards are dealt.

An ante is contributed by each player before any cards are dealt.

A blind is only required off certain players, eg; in texas holdem there is a small blind and a big blind, the player immediately to the left of the dealer button puts down the small blind which is half the minimum stake and the player immediately left to the small blind posts the big blind which is the minimum stake.

Since 1996 when online gaming came to the internet it has improved tremendously, websites are getting faster with more powerful programs and the encryption technology enables fast and secure transactions with customers able to keep track of transactions and monitor their funds as well as their bets.

All of the gaming sites featured on OnlinePokerFreerolls.co.uk have great security, playability, customer service and RNG algorhythm's (random number generaters) which are monitored by independent companys & have the latest security features to keep every game fair and you and your money safe on-line.  The RNG is a part of the software that assures that the 'events' taking place are truly random.

Online gaming sites offer better odds and bonuses than landbased companys because of there being less overhead costs.

Why do you think the same 5 guys make it to the WSOP (world series of poker) every year? Are they the luckiest guys in the world?

No doubt about it poker is a skill game, a combination of reading your opponents moves and making the right move at the right time and of cause luck does come into the equation but knowing when your opponents are going to bet and fold, vastly improves your chance of winning.  As you start playing poker online you will find if you follow the game close you will start to pick up how much time a player takes to make a decision as well as patterns of the cards and players.  The more you play the better you'll get at reading what your opponents actions will be.

In poker a badbeat can mean; having say A-K pocket cards but getting beat by a worse hand say 7-2.

There are numerous reasons why the deal will sometimes not appear to be random and badbeats seem to be flying round the table left right and centre;

1. Firstly, playing online you will be dealt far more hands than in a casino – (approximately 55 – 75 hands per hour online vs. 25 in a casino),

2. Players online tend to play far more hands, which means that often there are more players seeing the flop and players stay in hands, online longer, this all results in many more bad beats for the favoured hand – because there are more players drawing against the best hand.

3. A concrete example of the above is ... In Holdem, AA against a random hand might be a 65 % favourite, against 2 hands, a 60 % favorite against 3 hands about 50 % and so on. The more hands drawing against you and the longer they stay in the hand, the more likely the best hand will lose.

4. A few hundred hands or even a couple of thousand, do NOT represent a meaningful sampling of hands, at least 30–40 thousand hands are required to begin to form a meaningful sample.

5. Also, we tend to NOTICE strange events far more than normal events, for instance, when we lose two tough hands in a short period with KK or AA, we feel that this is very improbable. However, we tend not to notice when our 67 beats KK and our 44 beats AA – In other words we attribute greater significance to events that are against us and tend not to notice when we are the beneficiaries of the same luck in our favour.