How much should you spend on your poker education: Free Online Poker resources

For beginning players there is very little need to spend hundreds of dollars on poker resources, this would be like buying your first set of clubs and hiring a swing coach, you should at least take them to the driving range a few times to try them out! More importantly for most new poker players; they simply don’t have the money to invest in their poker game at this point.

But there is a way that you can take yourself out of the novice category and become a competitive poker player, and for the most part this can be done for free. First let me explain what a competitive poker player is: A competitive poker player can hold their own at a table, and beat most low-limit games. They will still make many mistakes, but the mistakes are usually on the smaller side and can be overcome. However, against multiple competent players a competitive player will be chewed up and spit out.

Here are the resources you will need to become a competitive poker player:

• 1. Download PokerStove for free

PokerStove is a great tool to use to determine your equity in a hand, to run hand matchups, and to see how certain hands fare against different ranges. PokerStove is free to download, easy to use, and a tool no poker player should be without.

• 2. Register at the major online poker forums: 2+2, PocketFives, and CardsChat

Poker forums have a lot of whiners and haters, but once you figure out who the good posters are there advice will be invaluable. You’ll also be surprised at some of the big name posters you come across, and Poker Forums are a great place to meet other players who would like to share ideas.

• 3. Sign up at one or all of the following free online poker training sites: PokerStars www.pokerschoolonline.com, Party Poker’s free online poker school, or the Full Tilt Poker Academy.

These training sites will layout the basics for you, and in conjunction with strategy article archives make basic primer books completely unnecessary.

• 4. Peruse the strategy article archives at sites like CardPlayer.com, PokerNews, and other online poker portals.

Not only do these articles go more in-depth than most primer books, you will be able to read 50 really good articles on a specific topic if you know how to use ‘The Google’. You’ll also find some articles pertaining to more advanced topics, but make certain that the author has a good grasp on the concept they are discussing.

By using these free resources you can learn a lot of the basic strategies of the game, and you’ll find that tools like PokerStove, poker forums, and article archives will be a major part of your poker education for years to come.

Stay tuned for part 3 where I outline some of the lower priced resources that are available to poker players.

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