3 Step Beginners Guide to Online Poker Progression

Learn to play online poker for profit, from baby steps to professional leaps.

If you’re reading this, I’d venture to guess you dream of becoming one of those famous professional poker players we’ve all seen on ESPN, but you have absolutely no notable experience with the game. You may or may not understand the basic rules, and you have a long way to go before competing against the world’s best players.

Unfortunately, there’s no magic beans or wonder drug that will give you poker super powers. The mathematics and strategies behind the game aren’t just something you read about and suddenly execute to perfection. They take loads of practice at progressive levels. So today, we’re going to detail a simple, 3-step guide to online poker progression just for beginners.

Learn to Play Online Poker One Step at a Time

If you think poker is going to be a big part of your future, you should treat your development like any other form of preliminary educational. You start with basic grade school knowledge, work your way to high school application, then progress to collegiate level execution.

Each of the following steps coincide with these stages of development. Along the way, you’ll want to take advantage of all the knowledgeable material you can. Read poker books, watch training videos, and check out the many poker guide articles available right here on our website.

Step 1: Free Social Online Poker

Social poker networks are insanely popular. One of the largest is Zynga Poker. WSOP hosts a big one, too. These are 100% free online poker networks, open to players of all ages, from all over the world.

Don’t expect to acquire any strategic knowledge playing these free poker games. Since there’s no cash on the line, no one uses superior tactics because no one really cares who wins. It’s all for fun. Thus, trying to employ strategy won’t work against these players.

What you should take away from this experience is a refined knowledge of rules and game play experience. You can learn to play Texas Holdem and Omaha Holdem in Fixed Limit, No Limit and Pot Limit varieties. You may find you enjoy PLO (Pot Limit Omaha) more than NLHE (No Limit Texas Holdem), or vice versa. You’ll also get used to navigating poker lobbies, using the multi-functional interface, and talking in online poker lingo—all important for the proceeding steps.

Step 2: Online Poker Freerolls

Freeroll tournaments are an excellent way to test your skills in a real-money setting. You won’t be risking your own cash, but perform well enough, and you could actually win a little.

For this step, you’ll need to join a real-money online poker room. Unibet Poker offers newly registered players access to four $500 freerolls once per week. That’s a pretty good deal. But for beginners, I recommend taking advantage of the New Player Freerolls at Betsson Poker. You’ll get 28 tickets to $50 freerolls that happen daily. You can then unlock more freeroll tournament tickets as you progress to step 3.

Step 3: Progressive Stakes Online Poker for Real Money

Here’s where all your previous hard work starts to pay off. Or not, depending on how well you picked up strategies along the way. Remember, you’re supposed to be formulating a good poker stratagem as you go!

Start at low stakes; micro-limits of $0.01/$0.02 or $0.02/$0.04 only. Never jump levels too quickly, either. Only move up a single level when you’ve proven you can consistently win at the current level. This slow online poker progression will ensure you don’t get overwhelmed.

You can also dabble in low-stakes sit-n-go (SNG) and multi-table tournament (MTT) formats. Keep a tight lock down on your bankroll. If you’re getting low on cash, head back to the freerolls menu. If you join Betsson Poker, as I recommended in Step 2, you’ll unlock 12 more freeroll tickets for $500 and $1k tourneys once you start playing for real money.