There's no way to guarantee a win at video poker. By playing an online video poker strategy designed to help you get the best out of a variant, you can however improve your chances. Some of the best internet poker software (for use while studying) is actually free. PokerStove, and other such programs, allow a user to calculate their equity versus a range. Universal Replayer is.
- Best Way To Get Good At Online Poker Tournaments
- Best Way To Get Good At Online Poker Real Money
- How To Get Better At Online Poker
- How To Get Good At Online Poker
- Best Way To Get Good At Online Poker Gambling
Online poker is a game that takes time to get used to, but it is hardly impossible to get comfortable. There are some finer dynamics that you will learn in time, usually strategy oriented, while the basics of online poker are easy to adapt to.
Basic fundamentals like finding the top poker bonus can increase your bankroll and improve your overall poker experience, and the best part is that it takes little to no effort whatsoever. New online players might neglect some of the 'pre-game' steps for online poker, but there is no doubt that they are critical to your success.
General Tips
1. Have a Bankroll
Having a bankroll is a necessary step to take whether you are playing live poker or online poker. If you do not maintain and control your bankroll, you can not realistically consider yourself a serious player. Playing without a bankroll is like driving a car without insurance or a license, and on the opposite side of the road. You might be able to get away with it for a little while, but eventually you will end up crashing and burning.
The proper bankroll that you need will vary from game to game. Micro stakes players need 20+ buy-ins, while small stakes heads up players often times carry closer to 100 buy-ins. Your exact bankroll is going to ultimately be decided by you. There are guidelines that you can, and should, follow, but there is nothing that is set in stone.
2. Get the Maximum Bonus
Earning the maximum deposit bonus is one of the easiest ways to ensure that you are making the most 'free money' as possible. There is nothing involved with earning a top deposit bonus other than shopping around. Depending on where you live (US vs. non-US), you will have different options available to you. As a general rule of thumb, however, the poker sites that accept US players tend to offer the biggest bonuses. Read the bonus terms carefully before you sign up and deposit, though, because some bonuses are more difficult to clear than others.
3. Choose a Good Site
There is no shortage of shady poker sites out there. If you don't shop around for a reputable site there is a shot that you will wind up losing your money in the end, which can be a problem with some poker sites. No, there isn't a major risk that you will be swindled out of your deposits, but it always remains a possibility. Some networks have a better overall reputation than others, and this will make it safer to play at these select sites. In the end, the best plan of action is to simply join a site that you have already heard of. You can't really go wrong if you join a site that has tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of players. The smaller and newer the poker room, the bigger the inherent risk is of getting cheated.
4. Buy Poker Software
Poker software is a foreign concept to even some of the most experienced online players. I guess if you want to say the 'main' software people know is Poker Tracker because it has the most stats on other players. What poker software does is allow you to track your progress on the tables. These programs will tell you everything from how frequently you get involved in pots, to how often you raise, to your tendency to re-raise and fold pre-flop. In short, there isn't a whole lot that these programs can't do. The benefit to poker software is not only that you can analyze your own play, but you can also gauge how your opponents play. Using other players' statistics, a HUD (heads up display) will tell you exactly how a certain player tends to approach the game. These HUDs are shown as boxes over a players name at the table, and it will give you a quick snapshot of how they play. The quick stats will tell you how aggressive the player is, how many hands they like to play, and how many hands of data you have on them. You also have the ability to expand the data and find out even more information. For an investment of less than $100, this software will make a world of difference.
5. Join Poker Forums
Joining poker forums is one of the best ways to get familiar with the online poker scene. Not only will forums allow you to quickly adapt to the online world, but it is also a great way to improve your strategy at the tables. Many of today's top poker players learned a lot at popular poker forums like TwoPlusTwo.com. It costs nothing to join almost any of the major poker forums, and they will teach you infinite valuable tips, tricks, and strategy. Getting serious about online poker means that you should start participating at the forums, whether it means reading, posting, or a combination of the two.
Strategy Tips
6. Never Open Limp
Never open limp is quite the basic piece of strategical advice. The basis for this guideline is that weak play is almost always bad play. If a hand was worth limping with, it was probably also worth raising with. Instead of tipping the advantage in your opponents' favor, make a raise pre-flop and take the initiative. It will win you a number of pots pre-flop, and it will allow you to push the action post-flop. Limp folding and even limp calling pre-flop is a fantastic way to burn through your money.
7. Be Aggressive
Aggressive play builds upon the sixth tip of never open limping. Generally aggressive play has been adapted by almost all of the best players in the world. In fact, all of the top players know how to effectively navigate an aggressive style of play. One of the few big name cash game players who doesn't play aggressively is Phil Hellmuth, and everyone knows how much he struggles. Scared money seldom makes money, and this is absolutely true in poker.
8. Make Folds
A tendency of online players is to see way too many showdowns. Sometimes it is best to just let go of your hand. There is a natural inclination to call off bets to see if maybe, just maybe you happen to have the best hand, but it is just not worth it in the long run. Players who call down with super weak hands are usually holding what are known as bluff catchers. A bluff catcher is the type of hand that will only be able to beat a complete bluff. There will be occasional spots where a bluff makes a lot of sense, but your opponent is going to have it more often than not. It feels great to pick off a big bluff but it feels a lot worse to make a bad call.
9. Pick Bluffs Selectively
Just as making a lot of folds is pertinent, so to is attempting well placed bluffs. Calling off light and making tons of bluffs is the perfect recipe for failure. Picking good spots for a bluff is dependent on a handful of variables. For example, bluffing a super tight player on the river after they called two streets is probably not a good idea. By contrast, bluffing a calling station is even worse. If you are going to run a bluff, you should have a feel for how your opponent plays and what types of hands they are likely to be holding. If you can't figure these two things out, passing up on bluffing is generally your best plan.
10. Play Pots in Position
Playing pots in position is one of the easiest ways to win the most with your big hands and lose the least with your weak hands. If you think about it, this is the general premise behind all of poker. Position allows you to play hands comfortably, no matter what you have pre-flop or post-flop. Out of position pots can certainly be profitable as well, but you should be calling with weaker hands in position, and stronger hands out of position. For every bit of position that you have, your overall hand strength is equally improved.
Chapter 9
Tip 1. Do a table search for fish and high pot tables
Before you sit down at a table online you can search to see what kind of players you will be up against.A good habit to get into before you sit down is to click on the 'Average Pot' tab located in most lobbies under the list of tables to choose from.
The tab will tell you how much the players are betting per pot and will let you know if they are aggressive or tight. If you are an aggressive player you would obviously choose the tight table and vice versa for a tight player. You will also find that the high 'average pot' tables are full of fish. You can expect large swings at the higher 'pot average' tables but expect to win big pots as well.
Tip 2. Learn from the online pros
A big majority of internet poker pros hang out online as well. All the big guns play online because they can play so many tables at once and make so much money. Watch how they play and you will be amazed at how they win at online poker. You will notice that they mix up there play a lot but in actuality they play much tighter than you would expect.
Almost all the pros you will watch have a much tighter style when playing the fish online. One exception to this might be John Dagostino who plays aggressive no matter when and where he is at. Watch and learn by how much they bet in certain situations. Learn how they play online because it's not the same as you see on TV. Most of these guys used to hang out at Fulltiltpoker.com before 'Black Friday'.
Tip 3. Know your odds of winning
A great aspect about online poker is that even if you don't know your odds of winning you can use software that tells you the odds. Some poker rooms have even added odds calculators to their poker software. We've also added a poker odds calculator tool so that you can choose your preflop hands to see what the outcome odds would be.
Best Way To Get Good At Online Poker Tournaments
For pros the odds come instinctively but why not use the software if you're not a pro? It's a huge advantage in online play that you can't use in live play. Imagine sitting at a brick and mortar casino with a hand held poker odds calculator.
Tip 4. Understand your opponents online
I once read a study that said 95% of poker players online are losing players. This percentage is astounding but it's true. There are so many fish playing online poker that even if they do have solid fundamentals they don't follow the basic rules of online poker. They play too long hours, play when they shouldn't be, and go on tilt with a blink of an eye. Why else would so many pros choose to play online if there wasn't so much money to be made?
The one huge factor that separates the pros from the rest of the losing players is they have discipline in their game. As we stated over and over losing players play too many hands and get stuck in bad positions leaving you to take their money. Anytime you feel like going on tilt, playing marginal hands, or playing when you shouldn't just remind yourself that not doing those things is what makes you part of the elite 5%.
Tip 5. Playing for bonuses
Poker bonuses are more important for players who play mid stake games.< It is always good to have 2 or 3 poker accounts at different poker rooms to make sure you are always receiving free money. Also, try to pick a poker room that has frequent reload bonuses. Reload bonuses are probably the most valuable bonus aspect that a poker room can give. Party Poker is a good site for reload bonuses.
Tip 6. Best time to play online poker
The best time to play online poker is late night for players if you're not too tired yourself. The majority of online poker players come from the US and the UK . In general there is a big time different between the two but if you are from the US the best times to make money are from 10:00pm – 3:00pm especially on Friday and Saturday.
For UK players the best time to play would be early in the morning from 5:00am-8:00pm.
Yes these are really odd hours but we've done the research and calculated the amount of players per hour and factored in the time and exhaustion factors to prove these are the best times to play. A good time to play online is when others are tired and they can't think straight.
US poker players can't really play late at night because they would just be playing against the players who are fresh since the UK is five hours ahead. In order for players to go up against tired opponents they must play early in the morning to catch the players that are tired or frantically trying to win their money back.
Best Way To Get Good At Online Poker Real Money
Tip 7. Over bet rather than slow play
Too many online poker players are fish so the need to slow play goes right out the window. They are willing to call large sums of money so slow playing is really not all that necessary. When you're on the ropes as whether to slow play a hand or to bet big, lean on the side of over-betting. Online poker warrants bigger bets than normal to educe calls.
Tip 8. Best Poker Site to make Money
There are actually poker sites that have more fish than others. Poker rooms like Pacific Poker and Party Poker are full of very bad players. They advertise very heavily on TV and typically to the player who has never played before. If your goal is not to make money but instead to play against top notch online players then you should go the Full Tilt route. The higher staked games have some of the best online players.
Tip 9. Find Guaranteed Tournaments
How To Get Better At Online Poker
A Guaranteed tournament is when the poker room guarantees the prize pool whether 10 people sign up or 2000. The buy-ins are very cheap and you can win a lot of money. The best guaranteed tournaments are $50K-$200K. There is a good chance that the full amount of players will not sign up giving the tournament a bigger prize pool to player percentage all at the expense of the poker room.
Tip 10. Play more than one table
How To Get Good At Online Poker
Multitabling is a tricky subject. Some players are very good at it and some just can't concentrate while playing more than one table. Your best strategy is to test it out and see how many tables you can handle. Just about all online pros like to play 2-4 tables at once letting them win more per hour. We've devoted an entire article to this subject because it is so important if you want to take the next step in online poker.
Having a bankroll is a necessary step to take whether you are playing live poker or online poker. If you do not maintain and control your bankroll, you can not realistically consider yourself a serious player. Playing without a bankroll is like driving a car without insurance or a license, and on the opposite side of the road. You might be able to get away with it for a little while, but eventually you will end up crashing and burning.
The proper bankroll that you need will vary from game to game. Micro stakes players need 20+ buy-ins, while small stakes heads up players often times carry closer to 100 buy-ins. Your exact bankroll is going to ultimately be decided by you. There are guidelines that you can, and should, follow, but there is nothing that is set in stone.
2. Get the Maximum Bonus
Earning the maximum deposit bonus is one of the easiest ways to ensure that you are making the most 'free money' as possible. There is nothing involved with earning a top deposit bonus other than shopping around. Depending on where you live (US vs. non-US), you will have different options available to you. As a general rule of thumb, however, the poker sites that accept US players tend to offer the biggest bonuses. Read the bonus terms carefully before you sign up and deposit, though, because some bonuses are more difficult to clear than others.
3. Choose a Good Site
There is no shortage of shady poker sites out there. If you don't shop around for a reputable site there is a shot that you will wind up losing your money in the end, which can be a problem with some poker sites. No, there isn't a major risk that you will be swindled out of your deposits, but it always remains a possibility. Some networks have a better overall reputation than others, and this will make it safer to play at these select sites. In the end, the best plan of action is to simply join a site that you have already heard of. You can't really go wrong if you join a site that has tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of players. The smaller and newer the poker room, the bigger the inherent risk is of getting cheated.
4. Buy Poker Software
Poker software is a foreign concept to even some of the most experienced online players. I guess if you want to say the 'main' software people know is Poker Tracker because it has the most stats on other players. What poker software does is allow you to track your progress on the tables. These programs will tell you everything from how frequently you get involved in pots, to how often you raise, to your tendency to re-raise and fold pre-flop. In short, there isn't a whole lot that these programs can't do. The benefit to poker software is not only that you can analyze your own play, but you can also gauge how your opponents play. Using other players' statistics, a HUD (heads up display) will tell you exactly how a certain player tends to approach the game. These HUDs are shown as boxes over a players name at the table, and it will give you a quick snapshot of how they play. The quick stats will tell you how aggressive the player is, how many hands they like to play, and how many hands of data you have on them. You also have the ability to expand the data and find out even more information. For an investment of less than $100, this software will make a world of difference.
5. Join Poker Forums
Joining poker forums is one of the best ways to get familiar with the online poker scene. Not only will forums allow you to quickly adapt to the online world, but it is also a great way to improve your strategy at the tables. Many of today's top poker players learned a lot at popular poker forums like TwoPlusTwo.com. It costs nothing to join almost any of the major poker forums, and they will teach you infinite valuable tips, tricks, and strategy. Getting serious about online poker means that you should start participating at the forums, whether it means reading, posting, or a combination of the two.
Strategy Tips
6. Never Open Limp
Never open limp is quite the basic piece of strategical advice. The basis for this guideline is that weak play is almost always bad play. If a hand was worth limping with, it was probably also worth raising with. Instead of tipping the advantage in your opponents' favor, make a raise pre-flop and take the initiative. It will win you a number of pots pre-flop, and it will allow you to push the action post-flop. Limp folding and even limp calling pre-flop is a fantastic way to burn through your money.
7. Be Aggressive
Aggressive play builds upon the sixth tip of never open limping. Generally aggressive play has been adapted by almost all of the best players in the world. In fact, all of the top players know how to effectively navigate an aggressive style of play. One of the few big name cash game players who doesn't play aggressively is Phil Hellmuth, and everyone knows how much he struggles. Scared money seldom makes money, and this is absolutely true in poker.
8. Make Folds
A tendency of online players is to see way too many showdowns. Sometimes it is best to just let go of your hand. There is a natural inclination to call off bets to see if maybe, just maybe you happen to have the best hand, but it is just not worth it in the long run. Players who call down with super weak hands are usually holding what are known as bluff catchers. A bluff catcher is the type of hand that will only be able to beat a complete bluff. There will be occasional spots where a bluff makes a lot of sense, but your opponent is going to have it more often than not. It feels great to pick off a big bluff but it feels a lot worse to make a bad call.
9. Pick Bluffs Selectively
Just as making a lot of folds is pertinent, so to is attempting well placed bluffs. Calling off light and making tons of bluffs is the perfect recipe for failure. Picking good spots for a bluff is dependent on a handful of variables. For example, bluffing a super tight player on the river after they called two streets is probably not a good idea. By contrast, bluffing a calling station is even worse. If you are going to run a bluff, you should have a feel for how your opponent plays and what types of hands they are likely to be holding. If you can't figure these two things out, passing up on bluffing is generally your best plan.
10. Play Pots in Position
Playing pots in position is one of the easiest ways to win the most with your big hands and lose the least with your weak hands. If you think about it, this is the general premise behind all of poker. Position allows you to play hands comfortably, no matter what you have pre-flop or post-flop. Out of position pots can certainly be profitable as well, but you should be calling with weaker hands in position, and stronger hands out of position. For every bit of position that you have, your overall hand strength is equally improved.
Chapter 9
Tip 1. Do a table search for fish and high pot tables
Before you sit down at a table online you can search to see what kind of players you will be up against.A good habit to get into before you sit down is to click on the 'Average Pot' tab located in most lobbies under the list of tables to choose from.
The tab will tell you how much the players are betting per pot and will let you know if they are aggressive or tight. If you are an aggressive player you would obviously choose the tight table and vice versa for a tight player. You will also find that the high 'average pot' tables are full of fish. You can expect large swings at the higher 'pot average' tables but expect to win big pots as well.
Tip 2. Learn from the online pros
A big majority of internet poker pros hang out online as well. All the big guns play online because they can play so many tables at once and make so much money. Watch how they play and you will be amazed at how they win at online poker. You will notice that they mix up there play a lot but in actuality they play much tighter than you would expect.
Almost all the pros you will watch have a much tighter style when playing the fish online. One exception to this might be John Dagostino who plays aggressive no matter when and where he is at. Watch and learn by how much they bet in certain situations. Learn how they play online because it's not the same as you see on TV. Most of these guys used to hang out at Fulltiltpoker.com before 'Black Friday'.
Tip 3. Know your odds of winning
A great aspect about online poker is that even if you don't know your odds of winning you can use software that tells you the odds. Some poker rooms have even added odds calculators to their poker software. We've also added a poker odds calculator tool so that you can choose your preflop hands to see what the outcome odds would be.
Best Way To Get Good At Online Poker Tournaments
For pros the odds come instinctively but why not use the software if you're not a pro? It's a huge advantage in online play that you can't use in live play. Imagine sitting at a brick and mortar casino with a hand held poker odds calculator.
Tip 4. Understand your opponents online
I once read a study that said 95% of poker players online are losing players. This percentage is astounding but it's true. There are so many fish playing online poker that even if they do have solid fundamentals they don't follow the basic rules of online poker. They play too long hours, play when they shouldn't be, and go on tilt with a blink of an eye. Why else would so many pros choose to play online if there wasn't so much money to be made?
The one huge factor that separates the pros from the rest of the losing players is they have discipline in their game. As we stated over and over losing players play too many hands and get stuck in bad positions leaving you to take their money. Anytime you feel like going on tilt, playing marginal hands, or playing when you shouldn't just remind yourself that not doing those things is what makes you part of the elite 5%.
Tip 5. Playing for bonuses
Poker bonuses are more important for players who play mid stake games.< It is always good to have 2 or 3 poker accounts at different poker rooms to make sure you are always receiving free money. Also, try to pick a poker room that has frequent reload bonuses. Reload bonuses are probably the most valuable bonus aspect that a poker room can give. Party Poker is a good site for reload bonuses.
Tip 6. Best time to play online poker
The best time to play online poker is late night for players if you're not too tired yourself. The majority of online poker players come from the US and the UK . In general there is a big time different between the two but if you are from the US the best times to make money are from 10:00pm – 3:00pm especially on Friday and Saturday.
For UK players the best time to play would be early in the morning from 5:00am-8:00pm.
Yes these are really odd hours but we've done the research and calculated the amount of players per hour and factored in the time and exhaustion factors to prove these are the best times to play. A good time to play online is when others are tired and they can't think straight.
US poker players can't really play late at night because they would just be playing against the players who are fresh since the UK is five hours ahead. In order for players to go up against tired opponents they must play early in the morning to catch the players that are tired or frantically trying to win their money back.
Best Way To Get Good At Online Poker Real Money
Tip 7. Over bet rather than slow play
Too many online poker players are fish so the need to slow play goes right out the window. They are willing to call large sums of money so slow playing is really not all that necessary. When you're on the ropes as whether to slow play a hand or to bet big, lean on the side of over-betting. Online poker warrants bigger bets than normal to educe calls.
Tip 8. Best Poker Site to make Money
There are actually poker sites that have more fish than others. Poker rooms like Pacific Poker and Party Poker are full of very bad players. They advertise very heavily on TV and typically to the player who has never played before. If your goal is not to make money but instead to play against top notch online players then you should go the Full Tilt route. The higher staked games have some of the best online players.
Tip 9. Find Guaranteed Tournaments
How To Get Better At Online Poker
A Guaranteed tournament is when the poker room guarantees the prize pool whether 10 people sign up or 2000. The buy-ins are very cheap and you can win a lot of money. The best guaranteed tournaments are $50K-$200K. There is a good chance that the full amount of players will not sign up giving the tournament a bigger prize pool to player percentage all at the expense of the poker room.
Tip 10. Play more than one table
How To Get Good At Online Poker
Multitabling is a tricky subject. Some players are very good at it and some just can't concentrate while playing more than one table. Your best strategy is to test it out and see how many tables you can handle. Just about all online pros like to play 2-4 tables at once letting them win more per hour. We've devoted an entire article to this subject because it is so important if you want to take the next step in online poker.
Best Way To Get Good At Online Poker Gambling
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