How To Win Online Poker
- I play a $33 poker tournament on America’s Cardroom that has a $12,000 guaranteed prize pool. I streamed the action on Twitch. Listen to me discuss some key.
- If you want to win at an online poker game, you should start by playing with a smaller bankroll, and strive to understand the game and become a successful online poker player. Play a single table at first.
- Online poker isn’t quite as easy to beat anymore. These days in order to succeed at online poker you have to be dedicated to putting in the work both at the tables and away from them.
- Instead play carefully with your real money and bluff in a small way. Only bluff when there are two or fewer players in the hand, and win at online poker more frequently by taking small pots.
Although playing poker online in a poker site reduces the chances of the playing mental game, it still applies. To be able to win in a live casino Malaysia poker game, you first have to possess a strong mind.
Are you tired of having to hand over your chips and hard-earned cash after every poker game with friends? Is your wife yelling at you to quit wasting time and money on online poker games?
Well, that all comes to an end right now.
The poker experts at CoolCat Casino have put together this foolproof list of video poker tips and tricks so you can take your game (and your bankroll) to the next level.
No matter if you’re playing classic video poker, Deuces Wild, Texas Hold’em, Omaha, or even live dealer poker, these strategies, and practice methods will help you achieve sweet victory.
1. Take a Tutorial
There are so many variations of online poker, especially here at Cool Cat Casino.
Before you start wagering money of your own, we recommend playing a tutorial so you can get a feel for the rules and dynamics of the gameplay.
If you don’t have time for a full tutorial, we offer quick guides on all variations you can think of! At least take a few minutes to check them out before playing for real money.
How To Win Mtt Online Poker
2. Know the Odds
First thing’s first: poker is not simply a game of luck. A lot of what it takes to win any variation of poker is to know the odds, hand rankings, and anticipating what card will be dealt next.
While we are not suggesting card counting, it is still possible for even the most amateur players to do a little research and know the best hand to play and which cards to seek out.
3. Practice
Obviously, you can’t win unless you play. A lot of practice can equal a lot of wins. CoolCat Casino offers players the chance to practice any variation entirely for free before they are comfortable enough with the game to wager their own money.
Test out different variations and see which one works best for your playing style. Once you’re really comfortable, you can play with your bankroll with a higher chance of winning big!
4. Know When to Fold
Knowing when to fold is one of the most important skills all new poker players should learn. This is the key when it comes to keeping money (chips) and being able to continue to play winning hands. Since you cannot see the cards that your opponents are holding, becoming familiar with the deck and how other players play is a good strategy.
Betting too aggressively can backfire and lead to huge losses. As the late Kenny Rogers once said, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em. Know when to fold ‘em.”
5. Understand Bluffing
Sometimes you’re dealt a bad hand, and sometimes you can win a lot of money with that very hand. Bluffing is a well-known strategy that even beginners can practice. The point of a good bluff is to convince your opponents that your hand is better than it actually is, causing them to fold. Not every bluff has to be a high stake, an all-in game changer.
One example of a way to add a few chips to your stack without too much risk is known as blind-stealing. To use this technique, you’ll need to make it to the final three of a poker game. In other words, there’ll be only you and the two blinds when you’re in the dealer’s position. Following the initial deal, it can be advantageous to do a small raise from this position. If the blinds don’t have playable cards, they’ll fold instead of simply checking to the flop. This can add a buck or two to your pot without incurring too much risk. It won’t make you rich, but every dollar counts, right?
It is also easy to bluff when you are in the last position. The last position at the table gives you the ability to make more successful bluffs because you can get an idea of what hands the players before you have. If you are the last to play, and everyone before you has checked, this shows their weakness. This scenario is the perfect opportunity to practice your bluffing skills and hopefully win the pot.
6. Value Betting
Value betting could be considered logical, yet optimistic betting. With this strategy, you’re betting on what you think will be the best hand. Look at your cards and the cards in the river. Analyze what you think your opponents have been dealt and what card will be dealt next. Play your hand as if you have the strongest hand possible given the circumstances.
The trick is to bet an amount that will net you a significant win without scaring off the other players. Luring your opponents against your strong cards is the best way to make some serious money playing poker.
Learn to read your opponents and push them to their limits. If your intuition about the value bet is correct, these mistakes will result in huge boosts to your chip stack.
7. Bet Sizing
Simply knowing when to bet isn’t enough to win at the poker tables. You’ll also need to understand how to effectively size your bet. Consider, for example, that your goal is to force your opponent to fold. You don’t want to push all-in and hope for the best. On the contrary, you want to bet as little as possible to get the job done. Most opponents will fold to a smaller bet just as often as they will to a full-pot-size bet, so there’s no reason for excess risk.
On the other side of the coin, sometimes, you’ll want your opponent to call. When you’re making a value bet, you’ll want to make the highest bet that you think your opponent will call. Knowing your opponents is key to success at the poker tables.
Making a $20 bet when a $10 bet will achieve the same result may not seem like that big of a deal, but bets occur on every single hand that you play. Over the long run, shifting your strategy by a few dollars can add up to some serious cash in your pocket. Knowing how and when to bet in poker can depend on a wide variety of factors. Your opponents are the key to your success, so study their actions and take note of any potential weaknesses.
8. Study Body Language
This tactic is specifically for those playing live poker at a table with human opponents. As humans, it is often hard for us to hold back what we are thinking and feeling. Even if you consider yourself to be a “closed-book” type of person, there are still so many giveaways that we are not even conscious of.
Professional poker players have kept these cues under lock, but when you are playing against intermediate players, you can closely study their faces and determine whether or not they have a good hand.
Some players might look away from the table briefly, off into the distance, if they have a band hand. They are mentally checking out of the game. Their jaws might clench briefly or they might give an intense stare if they are happy with the hand they’ve been dealt. Learning to pick up on these very subtle clues will help you determine when to fold, check, or raise.
9. Switch up Your Tricks
Using the same trick every time will let others know what to look for and will ultimately cause the player to lose. The tricks can include betting high/low when a good hand is involved, folding early, checking instead of betting, raising, or just sitting back and going with the flow.
Switching up these tricks can confuse others and show that the player knows what he/she is doing. One trick that some people choose to use is playing all-in even when they do not have a good hand. Most people will not be scared by this and the one who does it will run out of chips sooner. The only situation in which this trick helps is when there aren’t many chips left and it is a last-resort option.
Switch up your playing style and try out new moves to keep your opponents in the dark. You can try these strategies online before playing with your friends.
10. Play According to Your Opponents
One of the best ways to improve your poker skills is to watch others play. When you observe others, you can get a much better feel of the intricacies and basic guidelines of the game. Learn by example, do as others do — especially if they are much better poker players than you are.
You can be a brilliant poker player, but it does require some work. No one is born knowing how to play, so if they can learn and win big, so can you.
11. Have Patience
Whether the game is being played online or in a parlor or casino, the best strategy overall is to be patient.
Don’t expect to win your first time at the table, and don’t get disappointed when you lose. All of the best poker players in the world have lost at some point. The trick is to not let it get you down.
When you lose a hand and become frustrated, your opponents can see that and will play off your weakness. Keep a cool level head at all times, and don’t go chasing your losses! Continue to practice and your skills will come.
Get to Playing!
Now that you know these 11 expert tips to win online poker, why not take a test drive? Head on over to our casino room and practice your skills. Don’t be afraid to mix things up, and don’t be afraid to lose.
Experience is the key to success. With a little persistence, you can be on your way to huge wins in no time!
Good luck!
You might also like:
Every poker player wants one thing; to become a winning player! However, poker is a very complex game, and learning it may seem intimidating at first.
In poker, numerous factors affect every choice you make. It is virtually impossible to conceive an algorithmic strategy, a set of instructions on what to do at any given situation. Even if poker is intrinsically very complicated, comprehending how some of the fundamental factors affect your decision making can guide you to produce correct choices. Your position, your opponent’s playing style, your image at the table, the number of players in the pot, board texture, relative stack sizes, and of course, your hand, are the most significant elements to consider in any situation.
So, what does making correct choices mean?
Davis Sklansky, a renowned poker theorist, answered this question with the fundamental theorem of poker: “Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents’ cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose. Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.”
Sklansky’s theorem is a formal way of stating that if all cards were apparent, so with complete information, players would know how to bet. As the opponents’ cards are face-down, players don’t know what the optimal betting is. When someone deviates from the optimal way of playing, he loses some of his equity!
If players could see their opponent’s cards, determining the correct actions would be somehow trivial. By using simple math, they could find out which action maximizes their equity. For example, if you were facing an all-in bet with a draw and knew your opponent’s cards, you could calculate the probabilities of hitting one of your outs. Then, taking into account the amount you risk and your potential reward, you would calculate the expected value of calling to see if it is positive. Alternatively, you could use pot odds to reach the same conclusion.
Hand ranges
The fundamental theorem of poker points out that there is a theoretical optimal betting strategy. However, poker is a game of incomplete information. Under the scope of the uncertainty about what opponents hold, things become much more complicated. The best track is not to guess what opponents have, which is unrealistic, but to consider the set of all possible hands that they may have. This means analyzing all available information that you possess, like your opponent’s actions, position, and playing style. Then, you must treat these bits of information as parts of the scenario that unfolds and estimate the set of possible hands that fit into the story.
So, you must consider hand ranges and not specific hands. Then you have to conceive an optimal strategy against these ranges, one that maximizes your expected return. Once again, this is not a trivial task, as you must take into account various factors, like your opponents’ playing style, board texture, and even consider what your opponent thinks you have!
The good news is that you do not have to consider every detail and make elaborated calculations to reach perfect decisions. All you have to do is make better decisions than your opponents, and you will be a winning player!
Additional aspects to consider
How To Win Money With Online Poker
As we saw, putting opponents on hand ranges is an essential skill. However, there are additional aspects to consider to become a winning player.
How To Win At Online Poker
As you get to make your first, and perhaps most important decision, based on your hole cards, the first thing is to adopt a winning preflop strategy! Being selective with your starting handsgives you a significant edge over your opponents. Different types of starting hands have different characteristics, and you must understand their quality to be able to play them optimally in different situations. For example, suited connectors can have good implied odds as they can make a straight or flushes and play better in multiway pots. High cards can often make top pair, strong kicker type of hands, so they perform well against fewer opponents.
Another essential aspect that will put you on the right track is to adopt a profitable playing style! Playing tight-aggressive poker is undoubtedly the easiest and quickest way to become a winning player. It implies playing fewer, better hands, but playing them aggressively, so betting and raising more than checking and calling. Aggression is quintessential in poker, as it makes fold equity working on your side! Furthermore, adopting a tight-aggressive style will help you to avoid some challenging situations and will turn the pressure on your opponents, pushing them to make mistakes.
The deception principle
You must keep in mind that if your betting pattern is fixed, even if it is optimal, you risk becoming predictable. If you act the same way every time you are in a similar situation, observant opponents will decipher your betting patterns and exploit the information that your bets betray. So, your betting must be balanced to keep your opponents guessing. This way, they will be more prone to call your value bets, fold to your bluffs, and in general, make mistakes!
For example, if you limp with speculative, drawing hands before the flop, then, to balance your play, you also have to limp occasionally with premium hands! Otherwise, your opponents will read into what your limping suggests and raise you out of the pot.
Understanding betting strategy is also crucial. Bets can serve different purposes, from bluffing or semi-bluffing, to trying to extract a maximum amount of money. When you comprehend the intention of your bets, you will be able to figure out when to bet and how to size up your bets accordingly. Fundamentally, a successful bet must be able to achieve one of the following. Force a better hand to fold, a weeker hand to call, or deny proper pot odds from a drawing hand to outdraw you. Bets can also achieve some secondary objectives, like gaining information, taking control of the hand, controlling the size of the pot, and creating a profitable table image!
Some final points
To become a winning player, adopting a tight-aggressive playing style is crucial. Also, it is imperative to switch the way you try to deal with incomplete information by using hand ranges. Being able to estimate an opponent’s range of hands is, therefore, an essential skill to develop. Then you have to devise an optimal strategy against their range. To do so, you must know what additional factors come into play and comprehend how they affect your strategy. These include position, board texture, the number of remaining players, any previous action, and opponents’ playing style. Own these factors and take them into account in adopting a winning preflop and post-flop strategy. Then evaluate your hand, how strong or vulnerable it is, to play the flop accordingly. One thing is certain, studying the essential factors that affect your decision making and practicing what you learn at the tables will drastically improve your game!
Be sure to leave any thoughts, comments or questions you may have about this topic!