Top Online Poker Tips and Strategies Used by the Pros

• Playing regular poker games, such as Texas Hold'em or Omaha, gives you the opportunity to tilt the odds in your favour by developing strategies.
• Follow these online poker tips to take better actions more frequently and help avoid unnecessary losses.

Top 6 Poker Strategies to Use in Every Game

If you're playing poker games against other players, rather than the house, you can use some or all of these online poker tips to play better games. While some strategies work best in particular variants, such as Hold'em, others are suitable for any regular poker game.

Tip 1: Play Less and Focus More

It's a common newbie mistake to play every hand in the hope that it'll turn out to be a winner by the end of the game. Unfortunately, doing this will deplete your bankroll and give you more losses than wins. Statistically, you're more likely to get a bad starting hand, and when this happens, you should recognise it and fold.

As a general principle, if you don't have a strong starting hand you'd be better off folding immediately, even if you've placed the small or big blind. The strongest starting hands in poker are:

• Pair of As
• Pair of Ks
• Pair of Qs
• Pair of Js
• Suited A and K, Q, or J
• Suited K and Q

Other starting hands, such as any other pair, can still be valuable, even if they're not the strongest. Deciding whether to play in these circumstances is not as clear and will depend on your table position and other factors outlined in the following online poker tips.

Tip 2: Keep Them Guessing

Be careful not to become predictable, such as always raising pre-flop with a strong starting hand and folding with a weak one. There's no guaranteed formula to decide how often to bluff, so you'll need to decide on the spot. By keeping them guessing, you'll help reduce the risk that other players play you rather than the cards.

Tip 3: Play the Players

If all the players at the table reach the showdown, your chances of having the strongest hand will be slim. A lot can happen between the pre-flop and the river, such as a weak but suited hand of two cards with no sequence becoming a flush. Using aggressive raises, well-timed bluffs, and other hard-to-predict actions can dissuade other players at the table to raise, or even continue playing.

Tip 4: Take Any Advantage

Conserving your bankroll allows you to take full advantage when the time is right. If you're holding a premium hand, you need the courage to play aggressively by raising consistently. However, on the flip side, if you've got a particularly strong hand, you must be careful not to raise so much as to discourage other players from folding as this will limit the value of the pot.

As with most things in life, finding the right balance is best, but is also challenging.

Tip 5: Weigh the Likely Risks and Potential Rewards

The strength of your hand is mostly based on the ones held by the other players. An A high can be extremely valuable if no other player has a higher hand ranking. However, you'll never know what other players are holding till the showdown, so you need to understand what you might be up against.

Imagine that you're holding a 10 and an A and the flop is made up of a 10, Q, and 3. Right there, you've got a pair and an A high, not a bad hand. However, other players may beat you with a pair of Qs or possibly, even a three-of-a-kind. There are many possibilities, but they are finite, which means, they can be calculated.

Understanding the number of cards left in the deck that can improve your hand, known as the outs, can help you determine if a hand is worth pursuing. Then compare the odds of winning to the amount of money that you need to bet to stay in the game. Free online cheat sheets can help you calculate both odds to determine if the potential payout is well worth the risk.

Tip 6: Stay in Control

Successful poker players may have won lots of money, but they've also lost significant sums. The secret, if you wish to call it that, is that they stay within their bankroll and don't chase losses or expect a win. Responsible bankroll management may be practised by casual players, but it's been mastered by the pros.

To carry out any of the featured online poker tips, you need a bankroll, but you also need to keep emotions out of the game. It's impossible to do this if you're risking money that you can't afford to lose. You're also unlikely to act on logic, rather than emotion, if you've squandered your budget in just a handful of rounds.

No matter how much or how well you practice, you can never guarantee a win. Luck will always play a part in any poker result, so you must be ready to accept defeats when they happen.

If you've had enough, it's better to walk away with what's left of your bankroll than to soldier on and risk even more frustration. The same is also true during a winning streak, as it's easy to become overconfident and make brazen decisions based on emotions, rather than logic.

Key Takeaways

• Using online poker tips, you can improve your overall performance, but you cannot guarantee a win.
• These poker tips are suited for Texas Hold'em, Omaha, and other games that feature players playing against each other. Some of them won't work on casino-style poker games where you're playing against the house.
• Successful poker players are able to find a good balance between bluffing, playing aggressively, and folding.
• You should manage your poker bankroll responsibly and never wager funds that you cannot afford to lose.