For complete beginners its best to start off on a free play table. This is a great way to get used to the playing poker online and the software. You’ll get to learn where all the buttons are so won’t check when you meant to bet etc.

As far as learning Hold’em strategy goes, free play won’t do you much good. As its all pretend money, people will call hands that they wouldn’t call if there was cold hard cash on the line. The table stakes don’t matter because $1 of pretend money is the same as a $1000 of pretend money. People’s will go all in with 2/7 off suit.

Once you get a hold of the rules and the way internet poker works you need to start playing in games where the outcome is of some importance. The easiest way is to enter free rolls which some poker companies run. Usually the prize money is small but as the entrance fee is zero the house has to put up all the money. As there is cash at the end, players will play more like they will at a real money table.

Other ways to poker time cheaply is to play £1/$1 10 men sit and go tournaments. You still will get a few players calling on stupid hands but there are less of them. Cash tables start from 5 cents/ 10 cents blinds. At that level the players are still likely to call on ridiculous hands but you will get more of a feel for playing cash games.

At higher stakes tables you will get better players and strategy comes in to play. The cut off point is usually about £5/ $10 sit and goes and 50 cents/ dollar blinds. At this level you can bluff and betting patterns can be read. This is a little counter intuitive but its easier to play against a strong player than a weak player. Weak players will call with anything so its more of a lottery than a game of skill.

So what level to play at? The absolute beginner should play freeplay. Once you have more confidence then small stakes poker. After that I’d recommend upping the stakes until you start losing and dropping to a level where you can win consistently.

The golden rule of betting applies. Only bet with what you can afford to lose. Always take the most to a table that you are allowed to. A bigger stack gives you an advantage over other players. So on a 50c/ $1 dollar table do take the maximum allowed $100 to the table but only if you can afford to lose $100.