Guide to Playing Poker Online – Part 2
Welcome to part 2 of EasyPlay.Vegas’s guide to playing poker online. I hope the information contained in these two pages will benefit you at the poker tables and make you a better all round Online Poker Player. Click here to access Part 1.
Don’t Become Pot Committed
Treat every round of betting as if it were your first. Forget the previous betting rounds and the money you have contributed towards the pot. The aim is to hopefully avoid becoming ‘pot committed’ and throwing good money after bad.
It is better to sacrifice your small early bets then to rope yourself into a betting war with a seasoned pro.
Raise in The Last Round
When you hold a cinch hand, wait until the last round to raise.
Don’t Always Suspect Bluffs
A bad ( or tilting ) players always thinks his opponent is bluffing. Call your opponent or opponents when you believe your hand is good enough to win, not merely because you expect a bluff.
Don’t Bluff Poor Players
You can’t really bluff somebody who doesn’t know what they are doing – so make it a rule not to try to steal a pot unless you know the player is quite experienced. It might sound like a topsy turvey rule, but it does make sense.
Quit When You Are Losing
Should you find yourself on a losing streak, stop and think about how you’re playing. The more reckless you feel, the wiser it is to stop playing. A player trying to recoup losses is a poker player at his worst!
Believe in Your Hands!
You must expect to lose the pot unless you believe you have the best hand going in.
Dump Drawing Hands
Do you always stay in a pot hoping to make a straight or a flush? Most poker players who consistently draw like this would win instead of lose if they never tried to outdraw their opener.
Bet Big With Good Hands
When you’ve got cracking cards, bet them to the sky and make other players pay to see your hand.
Vary Your Style
If your game is always the same, you quickly become a sitting duck for smart poker players.
Play Your Best
When you play poker, always give the game your best. Don’t play soft because you’re with your chums – there’s no fun to be had unless everyone tried their hardest. This should especially be applied when playing in the EasyPlay.Vegas Freeroll Tourneys!
Remember Position
Where you sit in relation to your turn to bet has a huge impact on your results. Being forced to be an early bettor in a hand is much less advantageous than being able to bet later in the round. In early position you have to play fairly tightly, even in loose games, since you don’t know how many raises there will be, and you will be out of position for the whole hand. You don’t want to put money into a pot on a so-so hand only to find you have two or three reraises to call.
Get to Heads Up
When you’re opening the betting in a tight game – i.e. you’re first to act – your aim should be to get to heads up with a blind, or outright stealing the blinds. Why? Against one player your odds of winning are greater.
Beware Booze!
When it comes to betting, alcohol can your enemy. While beer and cigars tend to go hand in hand with poker nights, alcohol is certainly not recommended if you’re going to play in casino, especially if the stakes are higher.
Don’t Fill Your Tank
Never bring your entire bankroll with you to one gambling session. You need to have a daily gambling budget. Start by dividing your bankroll by the number of days you’ll be gambling. Then divide your daily bankroll into the number of sessions you will be playing each day. Don’t bet tomorrow’s money until tomorrow!
Set Goals
Set a goal of winning between 50% – 100% of a single session bankroll. Then set aside your original bankroll plus half your winnings. Now play with the remainder and continue to set aside additional winnings. Discipline is not only a significant part of being a successful poker player but probably the most important element of money management. You must set loss limits and win goals. Example: When losing half your session bankroll you walk, and when doubling your money, consider doing the same.
Spot The Best hand
Whenever you’re involved in a hand, look at the cards on the board and try to work out what the best hand could be. This helps you avoid putting money into a pot until you know where you stand. For example, if the board shows three cards, Ad-Kd-Td, and you hold Qs-Jc for a straight, somebody else could be holding 4d-7d and have you beat with a flush. You can’t be certain that they have the flush, but you have to realise that the hand you hold is not necessarily the best at the table. Taking a moment to look at the board gets you in the habit of guessing your oppenent’s hand.
Be A Good Winner
Nobody likes having a show-off take their money. If you win a pot simply by catching a lucky card, be gracious and admit it.
It’s Better To Win Small Than Lose Big
If you’re involved in a big pot and you think you have the best hand, raise big and try to get others to fold. You might make less than you could have if you had allowed other players to stay in the hand with weak bets, but there is a good possibility you could have ‘sucked out’ on you and caught a lucky card on the Turn of the River.
Know Your Aim
When you play poker, your aim is to simply make the correct decisions every hand you play. You shouldn’t be afraid of committing yourself to a pot when you’re likely to have the best hand. Sometimes you’ll lose, but if you make the correct decisions over time probability will work for you – not against.
