Playing poker can be a great relaxing pastime if you are smart about your play and do not play beyond your financial limits. Of course, losing any amount of money can reduce the fun of a game, especially if you are not sure about the basic modes of play. One great way to learn how to play poker without depleting your funds unnecessarily is to play free online poker.

VIPpoker.com actually offers free play to its poker customers. The site essentially doles out "play" chips to players, who then can simply go to a free poker room and play as if the chips were real. When you play free online poker at VIPpoker.com, you will be playing against other real live players, so this will be more instructive than playing against a computer program.

At VIPpoker.com, playing free poker is actually completely free. Some sites offer what they call "free" poker, but in lieu of money they might pass out your e-mail address to spammers. After a week of playing "free" at a site, you might find your e-mail box full of offers for "poker tournaments" and the like.

Of course, it should be understood that free poker is going to necessarily look a little different than money games--even low-limit money games. People just play differently when there is real money at stake, and although free poker can be a great way to learn, those who are really interested in mastering the game will want to ultimately move up to real money tables. To get started playing free online poker, sign up at VIPpoker.com.