We often talk of strategies, against whom people we have to play, which tournament we have to play … but the most important thing is where we have to play poker games and tournaments and do we play paid or free online poker.

If you want to play real life opponents in the flesh, then my preference is to play people I know rather than hitting a casino. Casino's get a large chunk of the pot which leaves less for the players, plus, I know that people I am playing against wont cheat.

Internet online poker is another option, and my option of choice. There is an infinite number of players and many choices of poker room.

I will divide rooms between free and paid, not including those that play purely for fun and are 100% non profit. We want to win some money after all!

Here are some things to check to make sure the room is good:

The payment: the vast majority of these rooms have quality certificates and security certificates. Be sure your choice does. Read the small print too to understand what is involved with deposit and how and what is involved in withdrawing money.

Are the games played enough for you to win? In real money games the room must run a rake and take a small part of the pot. Tournaments take a commission and there is a minimum number of participants to do them profitable. Does the room have enough members playing at once in the games and tourneys you want tom play to make it worthwhile? You should be able to see this easily by keeping an eye on their poker games software where numbers of players are shown.

Most sites will offer an attractive sign up bonus. Obviously this is paid with money from other players and there will be many conditions for the use and withdrawal of money . Make sure you read and fully understand this. Some rooms are better than others. Do not forget that the bank always wins but some do it more nastily than others!.

I've found that Titan Poker is one of the best paid rooms for European players. They also have an extra deal with NoPayPOKER.com for a handy free money start up. Literally you can join free and get $25 US real to play with; no strings apart from you have to play with it there. Go join NoPayPOKER.com to find this offer.

If poker is a whole new world to you, then I would advise that you start by playing on free online poker sites, such as NoPayPOKER, where they get their money from advertising and not from players. Only go for sites which are 100% free and do not ask for any initial payment up front.

The only problem in these rooms is an acceptable limit of withdraw the money, which is entirely logical for the costs of proceeding that involves a payment. That's the price you pay I guess.

Having spent time on over 30 online poker sites, I fully believe that NoPayPOKER.com is the free online poker tournaments site to play at, and Titan Poker if you want to play cash games.

If you are interested in making some extra money by playing poker then here are a few tips on where to start. I'm not saying you'll win that much or anything at all to be honest but if you would like to give it a try here is how to do it. Most people when starting out in poker are starting with no money, so the first thing to do is to find a free online poker site where you don't have to stump up any of your own cash, and play some freerolls.

My first tip would be to avoid the huge sites where the freerolls can take as many twenty thousand players at one time. Mind you the prize at the end of the road is always something huge, your odds of getting it are far from it. Place top 1% to win a ticket to this, for a shot at that. After placement in top 1% two or even 3 times in a row is how you make money.

Hitting the big tables is where many players fail. Search for a site which is smaller and doesn't have more than 200 people in the freerolls. You may not win a trip to Vegas but this will start you on your way. Winning anywhere from 10c to $5 or $10 is not uncommon and a few placements like this is all you need to be on your way. Now you have made the first steps and have a some money to play with, the trick is to know how to manage your bankroll to avoid losing everything you have won so far in a single game.

The common way to do this is said to be using 1/20th of your bankroll for NL cash games. You want to have at least 300 big blinds in limit cash games so if the big blind is 5c you should have at least $15 before you sit. If you prefer SnG tournaments with 6-10 people you should use only 1/40th of your bankroll and about 1/100th for large tournaments.

The reason for playing with so little of your bankroll is because it doesn't matter who you are we all go on hot and cold streaks. By managing your bankroll correctly you will be able to take a beat and still have some chips left to continue betting without being down and out. If you have your own cash to play with then your bankroll can be restocked at any given time, so these rules really don't apply to you unless you want to put yourself on a budget. When I started playing, I found that free online poker were the way forward and I managed to get some cash behind me to occasionally take my play to real cash games.