Online Poker: Tricks and Tips
If your results are described as 'somewhere around break-even' and if you find it difficult to turn a decent profit at the online poker table consistently, understand that you are not alone. Unfortunately, most online poker players struggle with the same problems.
However, all it takes are a few minor adjustments that can take your game from ordinary to incredible—from break-even to shattering.
Here, we highlight some subtle yet highly effective online poker tips to take your game to the next level.
Play only good games
In Round (1998), Mike McDermott (played by Matt Damon) rightly says, "If you don't see the sucker within your first half hour at the table, you're the sucker."
Well, it is very true. If you want to play online poker with friends and win, you have to play against weaker players than you.
For example, if you are the 8th best online poker player in the world, you will be the best player at almost every table. However, if you join a table with 7 players who are better than you, you suck.
If you want to play online poker for real money, always try to put yourself in a position where you have the highest chance of winning. This is why it's important to leave your ego at the door when you're playing online poker.
The bottom line is, if you want to have a positive win rate, you need to be better than at least half the players at the table — and if you want to make big profits, find players who aren't as good as you. Here is a simple checklist for a good online poker game:
Reraises are either too frequent or too infrequent
There are many versatile containers out there
At least one player is repeatedly limping
If you're in a game with all these boxes ticked, you're in a great position to make some decent money. However, if none of the boxes are checked, leave the table and find a more profitable one (unless you want to test your online poker strategy against strong players).
If you play this game on a poker website, make sure you take advantage of the table statistics offered by most poker sites. Choose an online poker table pot size with a high percentage of players seeing a flop and a high average. This is an important online poker strategy often overlooked by beginners.
Don't play if you don't like it
Whether you are playing online poker as a professional player or a hobbyist, it should be a fun experience. You are going to do well when you are in a good mood. So, playing this mentally exhausting game when you feel like it makes a lot of sense.
If you feel anger, fatigue or frustration rising, leave the session before wasting time. This will potentially save you a lot of money.
Recommendation: Before playing online poker for real money, first imagine losing your entire stack. If that thought doesn't bother you, you know you're ready to play your A-game for a long session. However, if going all-in and losing one of your buy-ins is intolerable, reconsider playing.
Play hard online poker early in the tournament and don't worry about survival
There is a time and place to save your stack, and it shouldn't be done early in the tournament. This is perhaps the most misunderstood aspect of online tournament poker strategy.
To finish the money, you need to at least double or triple your starting stack (maybe more). Instead of taking a defensive approach, you should play aggressive and hard poker early to build a stack for a deep run.
If you find yourself near a salary jump or money bubble, or if you feel like you're short-stacked, only switch to a more survival-oriented playstyle.
Attack when your opponent shows weakness
Most online poker players don't check hands that can call multiple bets as often as they should. This means, when they check, they usually have a relatively weak hand which will usually fold when faced with multiple bets. This situation is essentially 'bluffing at nothing.'
When your opponent starts to show some softness in a heads-up pot (like if they check the turn and flop), you can integrate some aggression into your bluffing strategy and take advantage of them. You should not only bet with your semi-bluff, but bet as a pure bluff without your hand, preferably with a great blocker effect.
The fastest way to lose online poker is by ineffective bluffing. Do you know what the second fastest way is? Calling too frequently and in the wrong circumstances. Whenever you are not sure whether to fold or call or raise or bet, folding is your best bet.
Tip: When you fold in situations like this, make sure you note down the details of the hand so you can find out if you folded correctly when your session is over. Discussing and understanding hands like this is an effective way to improve your skills consistently and fill gaps in your online poker knowledge.
Use the right hand to protect your big blind
Since you have already invested a big blind in the pot, this is a special position. Because of this, whenever you're faced with a raise sitting in the big blind, you'll have better put odds to call than in other positions — think of it as a discount.
Since you are the last person to work preflop and your discount, you can call much more profitably than if you were sitting in other positions. While that's not to say you should call with mediocre hands like 5♦ 9♠ , borderline hands like 6♥ Q♥ and 9♦ K♣ become playable in most situations.
But how wide should you protect? Well, it depends on many factors. The following are the four main ones:
Stack size (when short-stacked, prioritize high card strength and play less speculative hands).
Raise size (if the bet size is bigger, you have to play harder).
Number of players in the hand (if at least one player has already called a raise, play harder and only call with hands that perform well in multiway pots).
Raiser position (play loose against late position and tight against early position).
There are also other significant factors, such as how often your opponent will continuation bet post-flop
Earn more money and build pots by playing your strong hands faster
No player likes to check their flopped nut flush 3 times. This scene is already sad, then when their challenger returns to the river they put their online poker hand on the table. Playing slow is one of the biggest mistakes players make, especially those who are not confident enough to chase their opponent out of the pot when their poker hand is strong.
In most cases, betting your strong hand is your best bet to build the pot and protect your equity. However, we don't mean that you should always raise or bet your strongest hand. You can test your strong hand if:
Your opponent's range is heavily weighted towards the hand, with little to no showdown value.
There aren't many scare cards to keep you from paying down the road.
It is very unlikely that you will be outdrawn.
However, when in doubt, just bet (or if you're not a preflop attacker, check-raise). While it's frustrating when your opponent folds, it's not nearly as frustrating as losing or being stripped of potential value.
Semi-bluff aggressively with your draw
Looking to grind online poker? Effectively bluffing. However, not bluffing effectively is one of the fastest ways to lose your money at the online poker table. So, how do you control your bluffing frequency?
The most effective way to bluff the cards you are dealt is whether you are bluffing or not. This means you should bluff with hands that have outs to improve to the best hand on the next street, overcard board, flush draw, or straight draw.
If your bluff is called, use these draws as your backup plan
Because of their potential outside of bluffs, many online poker players refer to these hands as semi-bluffs.
Don't be the first player to get lazy
If you are the first player who enters a pot, a large number of weak. The following are two reasons why you should avoid this play:
You put the players behind very attractive pot odds, increasing your chances of facing multiple players, which significantly reduces your chances of winning the pot.
You can't win the pot before the flop like you can raise.
But if you're thinking of limping, there's one acceptable scenario: At least one other player has already limped. This is called over-limping and it can be a decent play because you're getting good pot odds to join the action so, hopefully, you can do something great on the flop.
Play low hands and play them strongly
Even the best players in the world have a cap on how many opening hands you can play before the flop. If you try to play too many hands, your chip stack will just bleed (unless you're lucky).
The fastest and easiest way to improve your bottom line is to develop a solid preflop strategy. However, while it's easy to build solid preflop ranges, having the discipline to stick to them is challenging. Don't play hands that aren't playable - no need to be impatient.
The best approach is to play a tight range of playable and/or strong hands, and play those hands while
You should show aggressive intent. Playing all your hands aggressively, including more speculative ones like 5♣ 5♥ or 6♠ 7♠ , enables you to disguise your actual hand strength.
When you raise, your opponents won't know that you have 7-6, AK, or AA, making it very difficult to play against you. Remember, aggressive and tight play helps you win online poker games.
judgment
You don't have to be Daniel Negreanu to understand the poker tips highlighted above. With the right tips and tricks, you can start winning money online poker right away.
Take notes as you play, take shots at big tournaments, and always practice in low-stakes games. The more you play, the better you become.
Best of luck!
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Fold if you're not sure
What is the biggest difference between a professional player and an average player? A good player can hold a hand as good as top pair when they think they've lost.
Although this sounds extremely simple, it is difficult to do in practice because of how our brain works. Naturally, we are curious and want to win. When we fold, we give up the opportunity to win the putt. Thus, we are not able to satisfy our curiosity because we cannot find out what our opponent has.