My advice would be to set yourself a play limit of say $25 and get yourself straight into some small entry sit and go tournaments on a site like the Gaming club poker room as mentioned previously on the site.

You will not get a true representation of how to play nor when to call raises , bluff or bet in free games. Take your worst poker player and multiply them by ten and that is the level of play in the free games so even though you risk no money you do not gain any decent experience. It sounds daft but losing teaches you to play much better than winning poor games.

Texas hold em the basics

Every player is dealt two hole cards face down for example :

You then have a round of betting before the flop :

As above the flop consists of any 3 cards. There is then another round of betting , after which a 4th card comes out

A round of betting then

The last card which is commonly called the " river "

One more round of betting happens and then the player with the best 5 card hand out of the seven cards available wins. Thats your two hole cards and the cards on the table. Its important to note that you do not have to include both or any of your hole cards in your final 5 cards but of course if all of your best 5 are on the table then without bluffing your opponent out the best you can hope for is to split the pot.

Texas Hold em the Hands

The hands below are set out in worst to best

High Card

A pair

Two pair

3 of a kind

A straight

A flush

A full house

4 of a kind

A straight flush

A royal flush