There are many different poker variations and structures in which to play them. Also, tournaments have exploded in popularity the last three years. Today there are slightly more tournament games than cash games online, at least when counting real-money free rolls. This evolution was not expected just a few years ago.

By far the most popular variation for cash games is fixed limit Texas Hold'em, closely followed by no-limit Texas Hold'em. Much less Texas Hold'em games are played in pot-limit style. Other games with decent volume in cash games are Omaha, mostly limit Omaha High-Low and pot-limit Omaha High. Next in popularity is limit Seven-Card-Stud and its High-Low version. You will also find a few Five-Card-Stud games at certain poker rooms. For more on strategy per each of these games, go to Poker Game Strategies. The classical Five-Card Draw Poker and Lowball (being popular in the eighties) are rarely played today online.

If you are a beginner we recommend that you start out by learning how to play fixed limit Texas Hold'em. This is an easy game in which to learn the basics and as mentioned before it is the most popular form of poker today. Almost all online poker rooms offer plenty micro-stakes limit Texas Hold'em, where you can get a lot of playing time for something like $30.

Lower stakes fixed limit Texas Hold'em fits people with patience, odds counting skills and does not really premier reading player skills and guts. By sticking to the standard starting hands and a basic strategy you will be reasonably well off. To succeed at higher stakes you will need to read opponents more and to be able to play very aggressively.

No-limit Texas Hold'em cash games are not suitable for beginners to play other than at the really low stakes. No-limit Texas Hold'em fits people with guts, aggressive style and good player reading skills. These are treats a beginner rarely displays from the start. Don't take this as advice not to play no-limit Texas Hold'em, but start out carefully and take advantage from playing in some tournaments as well. To succeed at higher stakes you will often need to be patient and cautions, play tricky and take calculated chances to break your opponents (using so called implied odds, for more on odds read Pot Odds).

As mentioned above all short-handed games (6 players or less) have a higher skill factor, as more marginal hands need to be played, more tricks are used and aggression is an even more important element. As a beginner you should avoid these games. Maybe with the exception for players who just have no patience at all and who are real action junkies. Conversely, if you are a winning player who is good at reading opponents and comfortable playing aggressively you could benefit from going down from full ring games to short-handed games.

As no-limit Texas Hold'em is the most popular form of tournament poker, participating in those events is a great way to go from fixed limit to no-limit play. In a tournament you choose before you start playing how much money you want to risk, making this a low risk way of playing no-limit. You can participate in the small $3 or $5 buy-in events to start out with. There are also lots of free roll tournaments offered by most poker rooms. For updated by the hour free rolls you can use our Poker Free Roll page.

In tournaments all players pay a buy-in plus a smaller fee to the poker room. The aggregate value of all buy-ins constitutes the prize pool. Tournaments range from heads-up matches with two players only, to huge multi-table tournaments with several thousand players. The prize pool is distributed to the top finishers in the tournament, where most money paid out for 1st place (often about 25% in big events and 50% in one table events) and so forth in descending order. In larger events, as few as about 10% of entrants finish " in the money" meaning they receive a prize. For more on tournament strategy, read Tournament Strategy. Tournaments enable you to win big on a small investment. For example, Greg Raymer, the winner of the main event at the World Series of Poker in 2004 won $5,000,000 on the $10,000 buy-in, which he in turn won at a cheap online satellite. Satellites are tournaments where you can win an entry into a bigger tournament and is a great way of gaining playing experience with the added value of having a shot at playing in a major tournament.

The skills to win different types of tournaments are very varying. As a beginner you often benefit from playing small single table tournaments. (Playing fixed limit version often makes it easier for you to compete.) At these one table tournaments you will not have to show as much patience or switch gears as the " ebb and flow" of the tournament presents different opportunities. Your accumulated mistakes will also affect you less; as the tournament structure is fast paced meaning you will not play many hands.

If you are looking to play a lot of poker for little money, the big multi-table tournaments with low buy-ins like $5 or $10 are good. You will often be able to play for several hours and the competition is not too strong as good players will often avoid these low limits. Remember to be patient early on, but switch up several gears as the stakes grow bigger.

Overall, tournaments are the easiest form of poker to learn to win at, as so many players do not apply good tournament strategy. Very basic and rigid strategy will make you a winner at the lower limits. Typically players do not adapt enough to the size of the blinds (and antes). This makes the average player play too many hands early on and then being too passive at later stages when aggression will steal valuable blinds and antes. Also, many players are not aggressive enough making the first bet or raise to shut out the competition (as the knock-out structure makes players avoid confrontations much more than in cash games). If you are playing tournaments and have not read a poker book on tournaments strategy - we strongly recommend that you do so. See Editor's Pick.

If you are a great tournament player you could consider going up from single table tournaments to the biggest multi-table events you can get your hands on as your skill factor and patience will pay higher dividends at these events. However, to make a good hourly profit you might need to play many simultaneous events to compensate for the length of these large events.

Great cash game players typically financially outperform great tournament players, as the cash games stakes per time unit are relatively higher. Also the tournament specialists have a lower edge in the one table events. The style of play differs so markedly between cash games and tournaments that tournament specialists often time are losing to cash game players. Several world-class tournament players actually have a terrible cash game track record.