This poker free online training lesson covers possibly the most popular area of all. Namely pocket cards, what ones to play and from which position on the table.

To win free poker games and low stakes you do not need to be a pro player. Free poker and low stakes games get a constant flow of over-optimistic players many of whom quickly lose all their money. They lose all their cash to players who know this fact and are there waiting to pounce, these players aren’t pros but they do have good poker skills.

True, now and again one of these bad players will beat good players playing an insane hand like 4,7 unsuited but remember, this is the exception not the rule, it’s luck to them or to us, the extreme end of the probability curve. It’s a fact that if you play only certain pocket card combinations when seated in certain positions you will win long term.

Pocket cards – Quick definition
The 2 cards you start the game with that only you see.

The Evidence
UCLA (the University of Chicago) mainframe computers played over 2 trillion hands of 10 handed Texas Hold Em poker games assessing all 2,652 possible combinations of two pocket cards (52 x 51 = 2,652). The results showed that certain pocket cards have a Negative Expected Value (-EV) i.e., they lose long term and others win long term with a Positive Expected Value (+EV)

That’s great you say, just play +EV cards then, ah, sorry, there is a small complication which relates to your Table Position.

The importance of Poker Table position
Poker tables are divided into three areas: Early, Middle, Late. Which area you are seated in has a great effect on whether the pockets you have are +EV or -EV.

1) Early Positions are Small Blind, Big Blind and Under the Gun (UTG), UTG is the player on the left of the Big Blind.

2) The Middle Table Positions come next. Go from left of UTG and are simply Middle 1, 2, 3 and 4.

3) Last, are the Late Table positions: Late 1, Late 2, and the Dealer Button.

For fast reference it is a good idea to code positions by 2 character codes: SB, BB, UG, M1, M2, M3, M4, L1, L2, and DB.

Critically pockets are playable or not in relation to the table position to which they are dealt.

Early Position. Pockets with +EV are:

AA
KK
QQ
AK suited
AQ suited
AK unsuited
Low pairs from 22 to 99

Every other possible pocket in Early position has a Negative EV.

Middle: M1-4

Pockets with +EV are:

The same as early, plus:

AJ suited
AT suited
JJ
TT
AQ unsuited
AJ unsuited
AT unsuited
Any suited picture cards, 10,J,Q,K.

All other combinations are negative, fold them.

Late Position

Pockets with +EV are:

The same as early and middle, plus:

A5 suited
A4 suited
A3 suited
A2 suited
A9 suited
Any unsuited picture cards.

Every other possible pocket in Late position has a Negative EV.

Other factors
All of the playable pockets by table position apart from AA and KK should only be used when the cost to see the flop does not exceed 3 times the big blind. The Low Pockets, 22-99 have some further play rules in this regard but that is another whole article, look for that later.

A good way to remember the playable pockets is to make a simple reference card. Split it into 3 sections. Early Position, middle and late position, with the associated playable pockets.

So create your poker free online reference card now and start practicing hard on some free online poker games at NoPayPOKER.com!