So, you want to know all about free online poker tournaments. Well, for a start, the tournaments are held online and not in a casino, so you can play from the comfort of your own surroundings.

A poker tournament is where there are a certain amount of seats from anything between 100 and 500. Many poker tournaments require a 'buy in', but the free poker types do not require a buy in and are free, although you may not have such large cash payouts in the free tournaments due to the fact that they are free to enter.

NoPayPoker for example offers totally free poker tournaments with upto $500 dollars in cash prizes and NO risk of loss as a result of their innovative advertiser supported free poker system.

Poker Tournaments, as opposed to simple single session poker games have placement payouts. So let's say you and 130 other people join a $500 tournament. The prize money is paid on the top 40 places, paid according to the position finish in.

At the start of a free online poker tournaments there will be you plus 9 other players. Each player starts with the same amount of chips which can be anywhere between £$1200 to $3000.

Tips for Free Online Poker Tournaments

1) In a tournament I play more carefully than I would if I were playing a normal poker game, and will even try to bluff a couple of times.

2) In a poker tournament, when you are out, you are out! Blinds increase every few minutes or number of hands. Try to build up a good stack at every opportunity.

3) Some people will only play the blind hands, that means unless they get high pocket pair they will fold until it's there turn to post blinds. Even if you don't have the perfect hand you may want to try and bluff a hand or two to help build your stack.

4) Blinds are constantly going up in a tournament which leads to the pressure of needing to build your stack - Sometimes you have to take a risk. Often the best way is to play by your gut, sometimes going all in and putting another player all in could turn out to be your lucky hand or final hand at the table.

5) Reaching the final table with a big stack of chips is always the poker players dream come true. If I have a large chip stack I will sometimes kick back and let the low stackers take each other out of the game unless I am giving good cards. Putting more pressure on a player is easier in a tournament then in regular poker tables as unless you win you cannot re-buy and come back to the tournament.

Online Poker Tournaments Summary

Tournaments certainly take more patience and time than if playing a normal hold'em game.

Remember, poker is a card game but essentially a numbers game - a game of probability and statistics, you can't win them all but if you play you'll win enough to make consistent profits and have a great time!

free online poker tournaments are a great way to learn how to play poker and stand a chance of winning a bit of extra cash without having to cough up any of your own money.