In this poker free online games lesson we are looking at one of the areas of poker that most players want to learn about most. Namely pocket cards, what ones to play and from which position on the table.

Fact - To win good money in lower stakes poker you don't need to be a professional. Free, micro and lower stakes tables have a constant inflow of new players who are very bad at playing poker and lose their cash fast. They lose their money to players lying in wait who have a solid grasp of core 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. Overall, statistics prove that when you play only certain pocket cards from certain table positions you win over the 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 statistically defined pocket cards with both Positive Expected Value (+EV) that win in the long haul and Negative Expected Value (-EV) that lose.

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

Table Position is critical
Early, Middle, Late are the 3 areas on a poker table. You seat position is fundamentally important to card EV as you will see.

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) Middle. Count left from the UTG player; Middle 1, Middle 2, Middle 3, and Middle 4.

3) Late are Late 1, 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.

The thing to know is that pockets become playable or not depending on where you are sat.

Early Position. Pockets with +EV are:

AA
KK
QQ
AK suited
AQ suited
AK unsuited
Low pockets: 22 through to 99

All other pockets in Early are -EV, fold.

Middle Position: M1, M2, M3, and M4

Pockets with +EV are:

The same as in Early plus:

AJ suited
AT suited
JJ
TT
AQ unsuited
AJ unsuited
AT unsuited
And any 2 suited paint cards (picture cards; any combination of K, Q, J, and T).

All other combinations are negative, fold them.

Late Position

Pockets with +EV are:

Late is early plus middle plus:

A5 suited
A4 suited
A3 suited
A2 suited
A9 suited
And any 2 unsuited paint cards.

All others are negative, fold them

Other considerations
With the exception of AA and KK, only play them if the cost to get to the flop is not over 3x the Big Blind bet. Low pocket pairs; 22 though to 99 have some important blind cost rules but they need a lesson in their own right so look out for that later (not complex, don"t worry!).

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

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