Ten Things to Do to Win at On-line Poker Now

Barry Tanenbaum made a list and Faldo added and subtracted from it. So this list is from two guys who consistently win on-line.

1. Pay more attention. – Having the television on or reading the latest edition of HUSTLER magazine during an internet session will tend to distract you from the game at hand.

2. Select the best games. – Barry means weak games. But that means you have to be able to determine if you are in a weak game or not. The old adage is true: If you can’t spot the pigeon in two laps around the table – start cooing.

3. Change betting patterns. – Mix up your bets and study your opponent’s patterns. They may not be as clever as you are now.

4. Think about every decision. – Good advice in life too. Just don’t play on auto-pilot. You are missing half the fun if you are.

5. Plan in advance. – Think about what will happen if you make a certain decision and think about what you will ‘probably’ do if your opponent does something.

6. Count the pot. – A very much under-used decision maker by a lot of players. Knowing what you can win versus what it is costing you to stay is a key to winning.

7. Compute the odds. – There is ZERO excuse for not knowing what the odds are of you hitting your hand is when playing on-line. There are cheat sheets galore available for free and since you are not in public (usually) playing on-line, this sheet should be right there for you to reference. The odds will become second nature to you after a while and then you won’t need it.

8. Think about what your opponent thinks YOU have in addition to what you think he has.

9. Be sufficiently bankrolled. – You cannot play in a .50 - $1 ring game with only $20 in your account. You need $500 in your account to even think about it. You cannot play correctly with scared money. The variance in poker is too great. Let’s say you can win 80 times out of 100 against this table of players. There is no law that says you cannot lose the first 20 sessions before winning the next 80. If you don’t have the funds for a certain level of play, stay away.

10. Try a new technique every time you play for at least 2 laps or so. And it doesn’t have to be back to back laps either. Let’s say you decide you will raise the minimum every single hand this lap. Forget about the money. Watch the reaction of the table to your strategy. What you learn will be worth the money. The point of this statement is not to get you to raise every hand for a lap. It is to get you to try SOMETHING NEW every time you play. Add arrows to your quiver of weapons.

PS: Faldo’s contribution was bigger than Barry’s.