Playing free online poker

A free bonus infusion of cash is always a good thing for your poker bankroll. Many online poker sites offer this as an incentive to gain new players and increase action at their poker tables. Before you run off and place your newly found free money on the virtual felt, read a few of our tips here to ensure that money doesn’t wind up in the hands of someone else.

Free money for all, but who is the real winner?

Often if a site has just ran a promotion and there are hundreds (or even thousands) of players joining tables with their free money, the action is akin to what you would see at a play money table. The key here is to play tight, solid poker to avoid losing your money to someone who pushes all in on every hand as if it’s the lottery. Using our pre-flop action chart as a reference will help here.

So game selection becomes very important here because of the number of weak players that are bound to be playing with free money. If the bonus amount is $10.00 or say $20.00, you may be better off playing a Sit and Go (SNG). This a great way to have more chips to push around relative to the blinds, because your $10.00 bankroll isn’t going to last long at a .25/.50 No Limit Hold’em table. A good approach would be to buy into four $2.00 SNG games and play them using our multi table SNG strategy guide.

Cash-out requirements

Before playing with your free poker money, make sure that you’ve read the cash-out requirements at the site. Sometimes, there’s a number of real money hands you’ll have to play before cashing out. In most cases, there’s also a minimum to cash out such as $50.00. Again, it becomes important here to understand the concept of building your bankroll so that you can actually spend the money after you win it!

Closing thoughts about free online poker

You have to get your mind out of the free money mindset before sitting at any table. It’s easy to see the money as a gift or a lotto ticket. However, this is a risk-free way to start a bankroll at a new site if you play correctly. So you have to remember to use basic, ABC poker strategy and choose your games carefully. Take a moment to observe the buy in of each player (if it’s a cash game table). If most of the players have a $10 buy in, they likely are playing with their free money.

Based on your skill level, you may or may not want to dive in with these players. You may choose to play a few SNG’s instead. Regardless of where you choose to spend your free bonus, we wish you the best of luck!