With this free online poker games ex-musician, cop, casino security and poker table dealer John S imparts some free online poker coaching. In particular his observations on the dissimilarities between real-world poker and online poker and then between the different forms of online poker games, free and cash should be a required read by every poker play today.

It was 1988, way before free online poker was even dreamed of when I first went on tour with a heavy metal band eventually opening for such acts as Ozzy and Skid Row. Before I knew what happened, I was a police officer. For the next 20 years I would spend my time investigating homicides, sexual assaults and high tech crimes. As a result of a poor, as I'd say now, hand of cards, I ended up in early retirement which in turn led me into the world of casinos.

After surviving a series of heart attacks I needed something low stress to pay the bills. The Trump Taj Mahal hired me for the surveillance department and I spent the next six months observing the poker tables, learnt the game and went to poker dealer school.

The drive proved to be too much, and the job ended almost as soon as it started, but I had a new passion - poker!

For the next few months I was a regular on the live casino poker tables but at the same time started toying with online poker sites. The world of live poker in casinos had taught me some hard lessons and I figured they would be an ideal base for hammering online poker games. That could not have been further from the truth. I have to tell you that between real world poker and online poker, free poker or cash, the same principles do not apply and transfer well at all.

In a casino you have personal interactions with your opponents. You make friends, and if you're lucky, you'll take their money! But online offers a mask of anonymity. A mask that some people use to do and say some crazy things in poker games.

Some of them act like this due to the lack of personal interaction, so it's just boredom. Yet there is a great opportunity to make money with online poker when you know what you're doing.

How you go about making money in online poker comes down very much to what sort of game you play. Freerolls are very different from money tables; single table sit-n-gos are different from large multi-table tournaments. Big money games, as you might expect, are very different to free poker online and micro stakes penny poker.

I have spent an exorbitant amount of time playing freerolls. Not because I have to, but because I like building a bankroll on someone else's dime. Yet while free I promise you they're not an easy option. The prizes vary widely but all need the same core skill if you are to stand any chance - patience.

The early stages of a freeroll will inevitably throw a storm of donks (short for donkey which refers to the worst poker players) at you with an unusually high percentage of pre-flop all-ins. As long as you can weather the storm and resist fighting back and risking your pocket 5s or suited King/Queen then you have a good chance to progress in the tournament.

You also want to avoid, at all costs, chasing down your hand. You either flop a playable hand or you don't. You must not reduce your chip stack by paying for a straight or flush draw when the flop was not really good enough.

If this does not make perfect sense then you should go play free online poker first to learn the games in depth.

The better free sites are truly risk free yet still let you legitimately build a bankroll from nothing at all, and you can always find a game to play. You won't have to wait for ages for tourneys to begin.

So go ahead and give it a shot, there is literally nothing to lose and they also offer loads of free online poker coaching for all levels from beginner up.