Top ten tips on winning at online poker

Poker pro, Ben "MilkyBarKid" Grundy gives his top ten tips on helping you to improve your online game.

 

 

 

 

 

 

• Pay attention.
• Don't play too many starting hands.
• Patience, patience, patience.
• Make notes on players.
• Keep learning.
• Realise when you're beat.
• Remember the difficulty of bluffing online.
• Only play if you are in the right mood.
• Calling bets to hit cards that won't help you.
• Have fun.

 

Tip 1 - Pay attention.

It can be very easy to get distracted whilst playing poker on the Internet, but this plays into your opponents' hands. Remember, to win you need to identify your opponents' strategy, and it's crucial that you analyse all the hands on the table, even the ones you are not involved in. Look at which players get involved in a lot of hands and which are the tight players. You don't want to put all your chips in the middle against a player who very rarely gets involved in a hand, as for this player still to be betting it's likely they're holding a premium hand such as AA, KK, QQ and AK. Any edge you can get over your opposition can be the difference between winning and losing a big tournament. So stop talking on the telephone, reading emails or watching TV and try to make sure that the area where you are playing is distraction-free.

Tip 2 - Don't play too many starting hands.

This will always be one of the most fundamental strategies of any successful online player. Yet very few players demonstrate the knowledge and/or patience to play good starting hands. Playing fewer hands will always give you an advantage over your opponents in the long run. Everyone has seen poker on TV and seen professionals throwing their chips in the middle, bluffing, and going all in with relatively weak hands. What you don't see, however, are the hours of hard work and concentration that these players put in to make the final table. Consider this: if your opponents play 50% of their hands, and you only play 25% of yours, you will have an advantage in the majority of the hands that you play. When you hit pairs your kicker is likely to be higher, your straight will beat lower straights etc. Therefore, by playing fewer hands you will put yourself in a better position to win the hand. But, you may ask, what is a good hand to play with? Glad you asked. Here is a handy little application that tells you just this. Click here to access and download the "hole cards" evaluator. Blinds: Before the cards are dealt, the player immediately to the left of the dealer button posts a 'small blind'. The player to his/her left must post a 'big blind' - this is to guarantee that there will be money in every pot. The small blind and big blind amounts are displayed in the top bar. These will be increased at timed increments during an MTT so you can't just hang around and wait for big cards or as they say in poker "the blinds will swallow you up"!

Tip 3 - Patience, patience, patience.

One thing that is clear in big poker tournaments online is that a number of players think that it is crucial to increase their chip stack as soon as possible. What you need to remember is that a big poker tournament is a marathon, not a sprint. With hundreds of players in a tournament you are not going to be able to win it in an hour, but act rashly and you may lose it. So, if you only play a few hands in the first two hours and you manage to double your chip stack then you have made excellent progress. The other players on the table may think you are boring, but if they get overexcited with an average hand and get knocked out early, they'll gladly swap position with you.

Tip 4 - Make notes on players.

With so many players in an online tournament you're not going to be able to remember how your opponents play unless you make notes on them. Any small advantage you can gain in a tournament can be the difference between staying in and getting knocked out. Take a look at the following scenario. You have just been moved to a new table with two players whose poker nicknames are TeddyB and Moneyman. You look and see that you made the following notes about these players from playing with them previously. TeddyB - Extremely careful player. Only ever raises with a high pair. Moneyman - Likes to gamble and bluffs a lot. These kinds of notes are crucial in a tournament. If TeddyB raises, you can assume the player has a strong hand. Whereas if Moneyman raises, there is a good chance that it is a bluff. With hundreds of players in a tournament, your notes will give you an edge over opponents you have encountered before.

Tip 5 - Keep learning Good players are always learning.

They read books, poker articles, and magazines, and constantly watch other players to help them improve their game. Poker requires skill, intellect and dedication, and it's no coincidence that many of the best poker players in the world are degree-educated and often run successful companies. You can search for articles and poker books online that can help you significantly improve your game.

Tip 6 - Realise when you're beat.

Sometimes you have to let go of a good hand. It's not easy, but some of the best play in poker is realising when your opponent has a superior hand. Say, for example, you raise with QQ before the flop, you get three callers and the flop comes down A87. It is highly likely that one of the three callers has an A. Sure, you can make a bet, but if you get re-raised it's almost certain your hand will be beaten so you just have to chuck it away.

Tip 7 - Remember the difficulty of bluffing online.

It's much easier to click a button on a computer screen to call a big bet than it is to reach for your chips in a card room and put in most of them. Bluffs are also more likely. An opponent may be embarrassed to make a bad call in a card room whereas, online, it is faceless, so they're not as scared of looking stupid. So, you should be selective on the hand you try and bluff.

Tip 8 - Only play if you are in the right mood.

This cannot be stressed enough. If you are feeling tired, unhappy or have a headache there is no way you are going to be able to play your best game. To win in the long run at poker you must always play to the top of your abilities. So if your mood isn't right, quite simply wait till another day or take a rest and play later.

Tip 9 - Calling bets to hit cards that won't help you.

One of the most common mistakes in poker is assuming that if you hit your cards you will win. Consider this situation. If you hold AQ and there is a flop of 9T4, you could decide that the odds justify you calling to hit a Q or an A on the next card, which is about 7/1 to improve your hand. The problem with this method of thinking is that your opponent may already have you beat, even if you do hit a Q or an A. You are in major trouble if your opponent has any of the following hands TT, 99, 44, T9, A9, AT, KT, A4, TQ, AK, JK. And these are all fairly typical hands that your opponent will play with. Although many think that 7/1 to improve your hand are good odds, the odds on you actually winning the hand are far worse, especially if you are up against a few opponents who are betting.

Tip 10 - Have fun Poker is meant to be fun.

Remember this is why you started playing the game. Make sure you play with money that you can afford to gamble. Poker is an extremely exciting game. It feels great when all your opponents fold when you were bluffing. There is also nothing more satisfying than knowing you are playing extremely well and outplaying your opponents. Just play your strongest game and enjoy yourself and you never know what may happen. Only one person can win, but plenty of players can make the prize money and enjoy themselves in the process.