Playing texas holdem via the internet can be very fun, but the online holdem strategy is very different to that of playing in person around a real poker table. Here are some online tips to help you win more hands and develop an online holdem strategy:
• Take the necessary time to practice and learn the skills necessary to be a successful player while playing with play money.
• Learn and develop your skill of patience. Successful players will fold the majority of starting hands, especially in the early stages of a tournament. A bad hand is a bad hand. Folding poor starting hands will help to conserve your chip stack and leave you with more ammunition when you have the winning hand.
• Have a keen sense of your table position at all times and play it appropriately. If you are a later player, you have more time to work on trying to figure out what the other players have in their hand. A player in early position must act in the blind and should be much more careful which hands they decide to play. A small pair, for example, is worth keeping in pre-flop if you’re in an early position, but might not be worth holding on to if you’re in a late position and the betting is heavy.
• Take the time to familiarize yourself with pot odds. They will help you make your decision whether to stay in a hand or not. Knowing the odds of completing your hand can save you a lot of money when the pot is big. This is only one piece of the overall pie but an important one to your online holdem strategy.
• If you’re an inexperienced player, don’t try to learn bluffing skills in a big money game. That’s what free online poker is for. If you are in a tournament or game with players you have not profiled, and you try to bluff with a poor hand, you may get burned bad.
• Learn all you can about your opponents. Keep notes and refer to them so you can build up player profiles for the players you encounter frequently. Uncover their tells as well as whether they play loose or tight. Utilize this knowledge of your opponents to prey upon their weaknesses. Watch how every player plays each and very hand and you will soon start to see patterns in their betting. By determining who the loose and weak players are you can focus your energy and time on defeating them first and use their stacks to help defend the better players.
• And here’s a sneaky trick I learned from another pro online player. Use a woman’s screen name even if you are a guy. Strangely enough, many male players won’t play as aggressively against someone they think is a female player. It’s a male flaw – take advantage of it.
Building a good online poker strategy can be time consuming and won’t happen overnight. You will need to see a lot of hands to fully master the game. So play when you can and add these tips to your online texas holdem strategy.