Ten online tips to help your game:


1. Remember Poker is an investment game when the opponent turns over his hand and you turn over your hand you must have the edge in the hand. If this happens to often you will surely lose your money.

Here are some of the most common match ups:

AA over KK 80% to 20% Big pair verses small pair

AK over lower pair such as 44 48% to 51% for the small pair

AK over AQ 75% to 25% Big kicker over small kicker

AK over JTs 60% to 40% AK over lower flush draw

AK over KQ 75% to 25% AK over lower kicker.

KK over 87s 80% to 20% Big pair verses small suited flush cards

2. Keep notes of players and their tendencies. Most sites allow you to take notes on players usually you can right click their names and notes will come up for players. Most notes should include how tight,loose,passive the opponent plays. How often he raises when he comes into the pot, how aggressive he is after the flop. Many players also keep track of how the opponent players as he goes true the hand in various situations. This will also help you get better but also give you a big edge over the opponent.

3. Watch for timing and bet sizing tells. Timing tells are how long the opponent takes to react to his hand. Like a live game timing tells are important. If for example an opponent always hesitates when he has a big hand make a note of the hand and check behind him or fold. If he is on trying to make some sort of hand he may call really fast when you bet. You can bet again if you
have a weaker hand and profit when he calls to hit his flush or straight.

In no limit hold'em bet sizing tells become very important. Let say for example a guy is betting 20 dollars each time and now he bets 10 dollars in the same spot does he want to you call, raise or is he betting weak. If he has a strong hand he may bet 10 dollars in order to get you to call
and raise. You will just have to disappoint him by folding. If he bets 10 dollars with weak hands and you have a decent hand or are bluffing you may wish to raise and get him out of the pot.

Notes must be kept on players in order to know what you should do.

4. Play back hands on most sites. You can review the history of the hand. Play back the hand and see where you decision went wrong or how the opponent played the hand. You will be able to see how he played if he played the hand good note that he is a good player. If he played it bad note him as a bad player. If he is tricky also note that.

Remember the most important part of playing back hands. Players that play a hand in a certain way give away their logic to the game. They show you where they can be exploited. If they play bad starting hands on the flop you can pound with raises with your good starting hands.

If they fold to much you can bet them with bluffs on the flop and turn with your draws.

If they call to much you can bet 2nd and 3rd pairs for value.

5. Remember to start small when learning how to play. A good place to start is at the 2-4 limit holdem level or the .25-50 cent no limit level. You have to learn the software, the game, and the players. So start small and move up when you have 20 times the buy in for each limit if your bankroll goes down, move down in the limits you play. The goal is to be successful and win but you are only testing it out right now so when you
have some success now you can move to the 1-2, 2-4 and 3-6 no limit game. If you are a limit player you can also move up to the 15-30 game or higher. Remember the old saying you can make a lot more money if you move up but it comes with a 2 edged sword, what about the downside. But for many players money is not a problem and they can move up to higher limits fast. Take your time moving up the levels, its better to play lower limits and win, then play higher limits and lose.

6. Most sites allow you to play multiple games. Just go to the lobby and open another table. Some sites allow up to 20 tables at a time.

Yes it is a great rush to be playing that many games and many players have become millionaires just by opening that many tables and winning. But remember this is not for people just starting to play. I suggest playing no more than two games at a time. This will keep the game fun and
interesting. I suggest you only add games when you feel comfortable and do not make to many mistakes.

7. Decisions are the key to poker. If your opponent is constantly making better decisions then you are as you play you will lose money over the long run. If you make make better decisions then he does you will definitley win the money. So when you first get your cards make a decision. This is what is called a range decision. Try to put a player on a range of hands if your range is better then his you have positive equity in the hand. But remember you have 3 more decisions to make in hold-em poker:

The flop, the turn and river.

You must make a good decision on each of these turns of the card to play any hand profitably. They include a range decision along with odds and implied odds decisions. Remember kickers are important.

8. Most top players enter the pot that they are playing with a raise and you should too. Your opponents starting hands will be worse then
your starting hands, so if you want to make the most investment equity you must raise the hands.

Do not be weak and limp into the pot.

Get in there and pound the opponent with raises and reraises to make him fold. Remember in most games no one hits a hand so the player with the most aggression will often make their opponent fold and win the money in the center of the pot.

9. Odds are the price you are getting in a hand or price you are giving in a hand. When a player says he has 9 outs which is the case when you have a flush draw. He is saying that I will make a flush draw 9 out of the 47 cards remaining in the deck
thus he wins 9 times in every 38 cards remaining. Thus he is approx 4to1 to hit this hand. When their are 2 cards to come he is about 2 to 1 to hit the hand. Remember the rule of 2 and 4 as a rough guide. If there are 2 cards to come you times your outs by 4 and if there is 1 card to come you times your outs by 2. So in the case of a flush draw if on the flop he is 9*4 or about 36 percent on the flop to hit the hand. On the river he is 9*2 or about 18 percent to hit the hand. So if the center pot is 100 and it costs him 35 dollars to draw he can draw for the hand on the flop. If however he got to the river to only find out if he had a flush draw he would be only 18* not enough to draw for the 100 dollar pot.

10. Remember to study and read. There is a lot of information online. For you to become a very good poker player you must study from the greats. You should study and post in forums. I can only give you tips like these that will guide you along the way. Pokeris a life time of fun and learning and many consider it the greatest hobby and money earner of all time.

Thanks for all of the tips and a great intro for people like myself who are still novices in the game. I saved this for future reference and want to keep looking back on it as I get into playing more games.

These are great tips. Thanks for sharing them. One thing I have learned that helps a lot is to watch other player whether it is at a poker hall or on TV. I have learned quite a bit from doing that.

For sure. Even though I'm still new to poker I try to watch games whenever I see one playing on TV because I've noticed I always pick up nuances of the game that I may not have thought of before.

I love to watch them play on tv. I have a poker game for my sons xbox also and cannot pick up tips but am getting pretty good at playing it now.

Where did you get it from? I think that you should consider having a teaching career on poker playing, LOL. These tips are really good and could definitely help some newbie like me.

Watching other people play is good in a lot of ways, but I always had to actually play to learn best. If I see someone *else* make a foolish move, it's not quite as "painful" of a lesson as if I had to learn it myself the hard way.

Thanks for sharing such nice tips. I was looking for tips like these for quite some time.

Yea Qbit definitley posted some high quality tips for everyone. He is a longtime professional who plays Cash Games in Las Vegas.

This is a good example of the quality of members we have here at Poker Strategy Forums.

Jason

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I'm Not Lucky, I Have Good Karma !

I think that it is great to know that we are getting such great tips from someone that plays and loves the game so much. Thanks again.