Poker Pro Tips and Strategy

Introduction

Playing poker online is different from real world play, the speed is far greater, the tells are fewer.  Your goal is to play poker make money and have fun.  Of course its always more fun when you win and win lots.  Online poker has huge potential payoffs if you know how to play correctly.  At lower limits there are so many fish that solid play can rack up a large bankroll relatively quickly.  The key is to make small (2.5-3.5X the blind) raises when you are in good positions with makeable hands (6h 7h) your hand is weak but you can flop a monster if you can get in cheap enough.

Internet Poker

Beginners

If you are just starting out you need to know the basics of Texas Hold' em, hand rankings, pot odds (the easy math) and how to play pocket pairs, big cards and suited connecting hands. No Limit is the big game but to start do what one of the most successful online players did - Play Limit Holdem. You want to start with the the top 10 holdem starting hands (AA>88) and AK suited and offsuit and  AQs. The biggest mistakes most beginners make:

•   Play to many hands from the wrong positions.

• Bet too big or small - 3.5X - 4.5X is a good raise in No Limit Holdem

• Play weak draws too strongly and call way too much after the flop.  A draw can be bet but only small bets should be called unless the odds are overwhelmingly in your favour.

• Play the 20% of hands that you should never call a raise with.

• Afraid of being bluffed - you want to keep them bluffing so they bluff you when you have the nuts and you get all their chips.  If you lose a few setting up this trap - that's the cost of your bait.

• Bluffing.  Small Bluffs are ok even profitable but a big bluff - leave it alone until you have thousands of hands of experience then only use it rarely (like once in a tournament) and in a very well picked spot.

• Moving to intermediate play too fast.  Simple beginner strategy allows you to win and build your stack, adding more hands gets you into more trouble unless you have some experience and a good understanding of pot odds)

Intermediate Play

By now you should have several thousand hands under your belt and a solid understanding of pot odds. You will also have picked up some tells based on betting patterns that help you decide where a small bluff can pick you up a pot. The key is to make small (2.5-3.5X the blind) raises when you are in good positions with makeable hands (6h 7h) your hand is weak but you can flop a monster if you can get in cheap enough.  Stealing blinds and making small bluff or semi bluffs can improve your game at this stage.  Going from the top 10 pairs to add a few hands in late position (big cards suited and unsuited (AJ, KQ, KJ, QJ, A10, K10, Q10, J10), smaller medium pairs (77, 66, 55) Axs and suited connectors (10s 9s, 9s 8s, 8s 7s, 7s 6s).  Even though you now should start to play these hands its still better to muck them a good percentage of the time. As your play and win rate improves you should be moving into higher limits but moving down if your win rate decreases.  You should also make sure that you get some real world poker experience playing in casinos or with friends picking up on some poker tells can help your win rate significantly.

Advanced Play

Advanced Texas Holdem involves plays such as Daniel Negreanu's Small Ball Strategy and Gus Hansen's super aggressive maniac style.  At this stage you would be putting in 20 hours or more a week into poker have read at least dozen poker books and have experienced tens of thousands of hands. You have been keeping records of your play and have been profitable for some time. You know your strengths and analyse your losses to help you turn them into strengths. At this level you will have some good money finishes in tournaments or many good cash game wins. This is the point where you have taken all you have learned and make your own style and strategies - separate yourself from the pack.  This is where you want to be to go pro maybe trying to win an entry into a major tournament like the WSOP and maybe to get some Las Vegas experience.

Poker Pro Tips - Videos

A good way to get a head start on your competition is to know what they don't.  Most online players don't have and understanding of what is explained on these clips. The key is getting you the right information fast so all of these clips are less than 10 minutes and arranged around key strategies that will improve your game far faster than your opponents.