Have you ever been sitting at a table either free poker online or in a real tournament or perhaps watching a tournament on television and hearing the announcers or players using terms you have never heard of?

This guide is to help decipher some of the more complex terms and hopefully introduce you to some new ones in hopes that they will help not only improve your game but can make poker more enjoyable.

We are all used to the common terms, such as flop, turn, river, raise, etc. but some of those terms also have their own lingo attached. Such as…

4th street – aka the turn

5th street – also more commonly called the River

But that is not the limit of the terms you can keep in mind while you’re contemplating your next moves. Keep these in mind when you are watching the bets come around to you.

Plays tight – generally means that a player does not play lots of hands

Plays loose – term meaning that the player plays a lot of hands

Plays “ATC”- this means that the player will play anything he has, (any two cards).

On tilt- the player has probably lost a hand earlier in the game and is now playing erratically.

Now that you have an idea on pre-flop situations now let take a look at board activity terms.

Over pair – A pair in your hand that beats what is on the board.

Top pair – means that you have paired the highest card on the board with one in your hand. Next down is middle pair and bottom pair respectively.

If you manage to survive the flop but have 4th and 5th St. left to endure. Then you have three more terms to keep in mind as you go.

Outs – the amount of cards that can give you a winning hand.

Drawing dead- Term meaning that you there is no possible way to win the hand. Some players if they are drawing dead may bluff or go on tilt at the last second to try and steal the pot.

Having the “nuts”- Having the nuts means you have the best possible hand available from the cards on the board and in your hand.

Some tricks on betting

Granted, in all free poker play and pay poker, everyone can bet, check, and raise but even those three options can lead to some interesting possibilities.

Even terms like check and raise can lead to some pretty interesting scenarios and put players in a frenzy.

One example is to check-raise. That term means to check when the bet comes to you but then raise if a bet comes up. This tactic can hide the strength of your hand and can lure a player into losing a lot chips if he is not careful on how he plays it.

Value bet – Is a bet that is not a large bet but is considered small enough to call. Some players may call a value bet in hopes of gauging a player’s game play or to see their hand.

Semi-bluff bet – Is similar to a bluff bet but is enough of a bet to make a player think very carefully about what their next move is.

[b]Pot odds -[b] This term I would say is the most useful term to keep in mind. Pot odds is the ratio of your chips in the pot versus the whole pot. For example if you have $1500 in a $6000 pot your pot odds would be 4:1. Keep this in mind if you are in a tight hand and not sure if you should risk more or not.

Pot committed – Term meaning that a player has a majority of their chips in the pot. This is a very useful term as it can decide to back off on a hand or force them all in if you have the nuts.

These terms can all be used in free poker games as well as other poker situations, but if it’s at your table that you see and hear them, then you will know what is going on and that vital knowledge can give you the edge on your next game and hopefully put more chips on your side of the table.

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Playing free online poker does not mean you cannot earn real dollars while doing it. There are many forums and blogs online that will tell you the sites with the most and the best freerolls. The work in finding them has already been done for you all you have to do is try them and get to the business of playing real money poker for free.

While searching for the lists of freerolls, read several of the articles and/or forums, the reason for doing this is many will list the same poker sites and this will help you in making a decision on which ones to try. If you see the same sites listed over and over you can assume these are the ones you should try first but don’t limit yourself to just these, many smaller sites will offer more frequent freerolls to build their clientele.

There are numerous free poker sites available so once you get started you should have no problem finding one at all.

Once you have made the decision as to what site you want to try first and have registered for your first game, play it tightly and watch the game carefully, besides trying to win you want to stay on the table so you can get a feel of the games and how the players play on that site. do this each time you try a new site.

There will be “donkeys” and “chip slingers” on every game you play but the trick is let them either win and settle down or to lose and go out, your object, especially in these first few games is to make it to the money, even if its just a very small amount.

You cannot cash out what you win in a freeroll on many sites, they have requirements that you must meet before you are allowed to cash out so read the requirements prior to playing so you know where you stand. This said, you can use your winnings from the freerolls to buy in to other games/tournaments and then you can take out the cash from those winnings.

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t win at first, be patient and keep in mind that you are playing real genuine free online poker AND winning real money with no investment on your part except your time so why not try to actually earn money while you play the game you love.

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