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Somebody once said that playing poker without money isn't really playing poker
at all. In most cases that's true, but the poker boom has led to the emergence
of "free poker." From the .net "poker schools" set up by major online gaming
sites like
Party Poker or
PokerStars, to local bar poker nights and charity
poker tournaments, the amount of action to be had without risking a dollar is
certainly greater than it used to be. When it comes to quality, though, some
kinds of free poker are better than others. Here's a guide to flinging chips
and showing your hand down on someone else's dime.
Online Poker Schools
If you've ever seen an American television ad for a poker site ending in
".net", you're familiar with the so-called "poker schools" on the internet.
These sites are set up by online gaming companies to get around laws aimed at
stopping them from advertising on television. By providing a place to play
gambling games without actually spending money, the sites are technically
obeying the law and can advertise. As you might expect from something that
exists solely to skirt a law, there's little real poker value to these sites
beyond new players using them as a means of learning the
basic rules of the
game and the mastering the mechanics of playing the game online. If you know
how to play you'll want the chance to win something, and you can't get that
here.
Online Freerolls
One of the best ways for an online card room to attract players is to host a
freeroll. On the larger
internet poker sites these
tournaments regularly draw
crowds numbering in the thousands. The fields are much more manageable on
smaller sites, usually only reaching several hundred. You'll be playing
against a diverse cross-section of players in these tournaments -
beginning
players learning to play tournaments, regular players blowing off some steam,
and sometimes even people practicing a different style than they usually play.
They're all there for one reason: they can win something without risking their
own money. Freerolls play differently than tournaments where players have paid
an entry fee, but skilled players can still win them. Anyone who can learn to
successfully outlast the large fields in freerolls can
build a bankroll with
scores in just a handful of these tournaments and earn valuable experience in
playing tournaments.
The ultimate freeroll tournament was recently hosted by
Paradise Poker. Lee Biddulph,
a chef from Blackpool, England, won $1 million after fending off more than
3,900 opponents who also entered the Million Dollar Freeroll at no cost. If
that sounds like a lot of money for a free tournament, it should: it's the
largest prize ever given for any online tournament, free or not. The final
table of the tournament was played out on a tropical island, and the other
players there who came up short all received $10,000 for their efforts. The
tournament was heavily advertised by
Paradise Poker, and given its success
there will probably be more free tournaments like it in the future.
Poker Night At The Local Bar
In a growing number of areas, sports bars and other such venues have begun to
hire promotion companies to bring in all the supplies to run free poker
tournaments for their patrons. If the players are lucky enough to live in an
area where gambling is not completely illegal there may be cash prizes for
tournament winners. For poker fans in in cities and states where gambling is
not allowed by law, there are still ways to win without becoming a criminal.
If you don't mind not winning money for playing poker, promotion companies
staging bar tournaments in these areas often give away merchandise such as
poker chips sets to winners. Then there are the leagues like the
National Pub Poker League
which let you earn points through your finishes in sanctioned weekly
tournaments at local bars - points that can qualify you for satellite
tournaments with prizes like a buy-in to a large tournament such as the
WSOP
Main Event or a WPT event.
A great number of people out there today want to play poker after seeing it on
television but don't want to risk their own money doing so - and luckily for
them, there are entrepreneurs who have found a way to bring them free poker.
Whoever said you can't get something for nothing didn't experience the poker
boom.
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