Every online poker room has a ‘free play’ option available for its members.  These are fake money tables, or sometimes called the practice play tables.  When you open a play money account at an online poker room you usually get some free play chips too, usually about one thousand or so.

Don’t confuse these free play chips with the free chips we are talking about here on this site.

When we say ‘free chips’ we mean real free poker chips that can be used on the real money tables, and cashed out if you win.

Back to the free play tables.  This option is really a great way for new or beginner poker players to get to grips with the online poker software and the game in general.  Without having to risk losing your money from making a silly mistake, like clicking the wrong button, you can get used to how the game is played.  You can also get used to what you are expected to do and when you should do it.

Although, unlike in a real poker game, you can not act out of turn online, but you can make the wrong moves, like calling instead of raising, or folding instead of calling. But once you get used to where the buttons are and where you should be looking on the table you won’t have to worry about making mistakes like those any more.

Another good thing about the free play tables is that you can get used to playing against real live people and see how that feels, again all without having to worry about losing your money because you got distracted by chatting or watching the other players.

One thing that you should remember though is that you won’t get much of a grasp on the finer points of poker play through watching or playing at the free play tables. That is because most players at those tables don’t treat the free chips  the same way as they would treat real money.

So by all means use this option to get used to the software and the online version of the great game of poker, but in order to learn how to play poker properly you will have to move on to the cash tables fairly soon.