I’d always liked the idea of playing poker but never had the nerve to actually go to a land-based casino and have a game. I have lived a pretty sheltered life, so I didn’t know of any private games in my neighbourhood, and if I had, I certainly wouldn’t have been confident enough to go and find out if I could join in! I didn’t know the rules, how to play, how to bet. Had I joined a poker game, I would have been easy prey for the poker pros at the table!

But everything changed when I found out that you could play poker online. In my naivety, I thought it was only video poker that you could play online, but I was told about this casino site that hosts poker games where you can play against other players. Of course, I’ve since discovered that lots of casino sites offer these kinds of poker games and that you can play on pure poker sites too.

When you first join a casino site, you get a welcome bonus – usually matching your first deposit, or actually, more often, bettering it. So when you’re learning the rules of poker, and discovering your own poker playing strategy, you’ll have plenty of playing credit with your casino bonus. This is just as well because, if you’re anything like me, you’ll probably be a soft target for other players and lose frequently to begin with!

But by playing just a few games, you’ll develop some knowledge and understanding of how the game works. You can also find lots of poker tutorial videos online, where you can watch games being played out and get to understand where different strategies might lead you.

Online poker is a great place to develop your poker skills, and there is nowhere better to do this than at the poker freeroll tournaments you’ll find on many of the sites. A freeroll is a tournament that you pay nothing to play, but there’s a real cash prize to be won. The pot (the prize) is put up by the casino, so none of the players have anything to lose while playing, but they all want to win as there’s real cash for the taking. This means that players take the game seriously, but not so seriously that the pace of the game is really slow and considered. Players make their decisions pretty quickly, which means the game can be really exciting.

When you first play freerolls, you may find that you’re duped into raising when you’re not ready to, or frightened into folding too soon, by aggressive playing tactics of other players. Gradually though, you’ll develop your knowledge and belief in your skills, so that you can withstand these kind of tactics!

I’ve moved on from freerolls now, as I like playing the sit and play tournaments, but it was a great place to learn some of the basics about playing poker. And when I’ve had a few unlucky games, it’s always good to go back to the freerolls and enjoy a few free games.