I want to emphasize the importance of watching the cards that make up the flop - especially when you first start playing holdem free poker games or pay poker. There are some good reasons for this.

Since the community cards are played by everyone in the game, it’s possible for somebody to hold the same card as you do-but with a higher kicker. Take this situation, for instance: Two pair is a very common hold in hold’em. Let’s suppose that player A has two sixes in the hole. That’s a turning hand, because there’s a damn good chance he’ll get one more to make trips, and he’s going to get three cards in the flop instead of one at a time to see if he can get that other six.

The turn comes an eight, eight, and deuce. Now Player A has sixes and eights. Player A is now looking good to win the game over Player B, who is holding an ace, king as there are still 2 more cards on their way and this player will need to catch one of these in order to beat Player A.

The next off is a ten. Player A still holds the best hand. Player B has tens and eights with an ace kicker. Since only five of the seven cards are played to make a hand, Player A has eights and tens with a six kicker. He now has a three pair, which are useless now. If the final community card hadn’t been a ten, then Player A would have won, but Player B has now won the pot because of his ‘ace kicker’.

If you are new to hold’em, have a go at playing free poker games and see how you get on before betting any real money on the cash tables.