There are poker freerolls and there are poker freerolls.

I’ve never been one to pass up on online freerolls. And I’m not alone. Another proof of how huge online poker has become is the popularity of tournaments held in many Internet poker rooms.

People are willing to sign-up and deposit money into their online poker accounts so they could play real games, with real payouts. Plus if you’re that good (or lucky) you may even find yourself seated in a major poker tournament.

Let’s go back to freerolls. I learn about many freeroll happenings through this poker forum that I’m subscribed to. Nice folks just keep sending me tips on where to play poker for free and try my hand at winning some, so I’m always more than happy to oblige.

PokerLessons, an online poker tutorial site for players relatively new to the game, has its own ongoing $100 Weekly Freeroll tourneys hosted at Bodog. I was lucky to play in the first freeroll and was mighty glad to get invited on the second week.

The Freerolls will run for six weeks, then top 5 finishers go on to get free entries for their final $500 Guaranteed Tournament, which has a $5 buy-in if you failed to win your free seats. Uhm, like moi…

Well, anyway since the freerolls were at Bodog the tourney gathered a lot of attention from online pros and semi-pros. The players significantly doubled the second week. Because poker players today don’t only play for fun, they also want to get a shot at that fame and fortune a la Chris Moneymaker or Greg Raymer.

In fact this is a good advice to all poker newbies, if you want to practice your poker playing without having to spend so much cash, look for freerolls. A lot of poker sites offer freerolls. Doesn’t matter if you lose in your first few tries, just keep on playing and learn.

If after that you start winning some cash, you can begin playing in real money tournaments. Start small of course, $1/$2 games then elevate to $5/$10 games. Practice makes perfect, dude.

It may take you a while but, hey, poker’s not going anywhere. Despite people over at the Hill threatening us with this Anti-Online Gambling Bill, I genuinely don’t believe they can shut down a multi-billion industry.

So just look for those freerolls and win yourself some cool cash in the process. Remember, many of today’s poker champions started small.

[The $100 Weekly Freerolls at Bodog is still on! Get your FREE SEATS by Registering for free -- no strings attached!]