Online Poker Strategy

Arm yourself with effective online poker strategies

As a student about to play online poker, you need to have a sound online poker strategy. It's like going out to play a game of football in the park or a way of haggling to get a cheaper laptop, you'll always do better when you have a strategy. And so to be winning poker (online or offline), you need the best poker tactics at hand.

And so listed below are a few sound guiding principals to help in your mission for winning at poker.

The Basics of Attitude

Stay Cool

Yes, iIve written about this a few times across the site. Maybe I'm an unusually bad tempered individual, but man do I lose out when I let a bad beat ruin my game. My tactics go out the window and I start to curse fate. Which means I lose faith in the simple principles of statistics, solid gameplay and listening to my own advice!

It's a genuine piece of advice here – if things just aren't going you're way DO NOT CHASE THE LOSSES it will only get you into worse trouble. Take a deep breath, quit not just the table you're at but the whole game and make a cup of tea. Don't play the rest of the evening, and then by tomorrow you'll remember you do have good online poker tactics – it's why you were winning at poker the last couple of nights. And you should be good to go again.

Bet Within Set Limits

Always have an absolute limit of how much you're willing to bet in one session. That's obvious right? Don't lose more than you can afford, set a budget etc. but what people often don't do is operate this sound poker tactic the other way around. That is, decide how much you'd like to win, and when you reach the amount, quit. And make yourself a tea again, or pour champagne. Whatever. Just stop playing. You've not only won, you've won the specific amount you wanted too. Don't be greedy and over time you'll accumulate way more poker winnings that chasing that extra couple of pounds.

Don't play drunk!

It doesn't give you an advantage. Believe me ;-) You want to be winning poker, not paying for another guys' night out. Don't play drunk.

Be Flexible

Your online poker strategies have to be flexible, just like offline poker tactics. If a football manager were to find a formation and team he liked and play it every game he'd start getting beat pretty regularly by all the other managers mixing things up and 'getting' his tactics. So it is with poker. If you're sat at a table with a lot of rich aggressive players, likelihood they're going to call you more often than in another table. So don't bluff as much, or you'll lose out. But, it's also more likely they'll bluff too, so wait to trap them when you're seeing the Nuts. And if it's a beginners table or one with timid players, bluff you're way out of trouble more often than you usually would. I can't go through every scenario, but the point is you have to mix up your game plan every now and then.

Concentrate

No point having an online poker strategy if you don't concentrate on putting it into action. Don't try watching Mighty Boosh and playing 3 tables all at the same time. Concentrate on playing one table and cleaning up. Winning at poker takes skill and effort, not just luck, so you'll have to put some energy and concentration into it to reap the rewards.

More advanced/specific poker tactics

Bet Early – push people out

A really common mistake from beginners is to get great hole cards and then want to maximise how much they win by keeping as many players betting as they can. Big mistake! What you're really doing is maximising the number of players still in the hand that can catch a lucky card and beat you. It's the equivalent of asking to fight four big blokes instead of one – sure, the glory of winning would be greater – but the chances of you coming out on top are a lot slimmer!

If you find yourself with good hole cards bet confidently, and you won't push everyone out most of the time. Instead you'll keep in a couple of hopefuls, and then push them out again in the next round (maybe). The beauty of poker isn't in going right to the point of everyone revealing their cards and the best hand winning, it's in winning the hand before you have to reveal anything. Do this consistently with smaller amounts and you'll start earning your poker winnings, instead of getting lucky.

I'll write more about this particular tactic in my blog at some point.

Don't chase a filler card

Human optimism never fails to surprise me! When you have (for example) a 6 and 7, and the flop is dealt a 9 and 10, the immediate reaction is to think great, I'll hand in there for the 8. If there's a few people in the hand with out, my advice is don't. Unless they're betting really small amounts you can afford to lose. The ratio of times it will work out in your favour to those that it won't is just stacked against you. Winning poker is about playing the shorter odds, not the Hail Mary's. So you're online poker strategy should match.

Ignore it when it turns up after you folded

So you've just taken my advice and folder, when there it is – the god damned 8 – dealt as the next card. Chill. Don't send me hate mail! I said it's unlikely to turn up, not that it's impossible. But now you need your super human self-control to keep to your sound principles of poker tactics. Don't go for it the next hand and the next hand, you'll only lose out in the end.

Watch for the big bet and poor flop (occasionally)

Enough being overly conservative! My favourite way to try and sneak a big pot early is to match a confident early raise, even when I have a poor(ish) hand, or especially a low pair. Because of the consistency principle the original big raiser will have to continue betting quite big unless he just wants to give in the hand, so often this turns out to be a bluff. If you've managed to catch something on the flop because of the poor numbers then you can just reel him in. There are still a load of circumstances when this won't work...I'll try to write more extensively about them soon in my blog. But it can be a great way of sneaking a big pot from someone trying to buy their way out of trouble.

Try not to limp in, you're asking for your money to be taken

As far as online poker strategies go, this one is pretty uncontroversial (I think!). To 'Limp In' means you are just after the blind, and meet it without raising in any way. You're basically saying, with big puppy dog eyes, please let me have a chance to see the flop without paying much money. And how often do you think you're fellow competitors want to give you this chance to see a better hand than they have? Exactly. If you want to see the flop and think you're in a position to match a good hand, say so with your betting. Otherwise you're asking for somebody to raise, and you lose your bet. Not the best tactic for winning at online poker or any other poker for that matter!

I'll write more substantial pieces on online poker strategies in my blog over the coming weeks and months. Check back for more, but even better, get playing yourself and develope your own winning poker tactics, at these top poker sites!