Ten Tips To Become A Winning Online Poker Player

Playing online poker can be a great way to improve your game, test out newly learned strategies, and most importantly make a lot of money! Whether you mostly play home games or play at the local casino, here are 10 winning poker tips to consider before considering playing online poker for real money.

1. Don't underestimate players at lower limits.

Just because you are playing at a $10 NL cash game with $.05 and $.10 blinds, don't assume that you are playing against weak players. Generally speaking, the lower stakes games with have more fish at the table but you shouldn't assume this. Have patience when first sitting down at a table to assess how your opponents play, so you can decide whether or not they are agro and throw around their chips without much thought.

2. Understand basic poker odds and probabilities.

Identifying the strength of starting hands helps a lot with this. By knowing the difference between the chances of hitting a gutshot, open ended straight, or flush on the flop will save you money over the long haul. When getting started with online poker, it's always a good idea to start with a narrow range of cards so you are not getting involved in too many hands. This will ensure that you don’t get in too many awkward spots where you will be required to make marginal calls.

3. Know what is the best possible hand.

Flopping a nut flush on the turn is a very strong hand but if the board pairs and your opponent raises your turn bet, then you have to consider they may have a full house. When you know you have the best hand make sure you make your opponent pay for a free card. If you think you have the best hand it is better trying to win a small pot on the flop or turn with a strong bet instead of slow playing your AA and having your opponent hit a two pair or set on the river and losing a much larger pot.

4. Know when you have the worst hand.

The single most important factor to winning at online poker is having the capability to get away from big hands. Although you may be holding a strong hand, you need to be able to identify when your opponent has something better. Let's say you are holding QQ on the button and you have a standard raise and one call before it comes around to you. In this spot it would be a good idea to re-raise to narrow the number of players in the pot, or to even try and when a small pot right there and then, as you think you probably have the best hand. If the player UTG makes a move and comes over the top and goes all in, you would have to think they have either AK, AA, or KK. If they are a passive player I would be more inclined to think they are only holding AA or KK, in which case you are completely dominated and are a 4:1 dog to win. So even though you have one of the best starting hands pre-flop, you could potentially have lost your entire stack if you make the call, so you need to know when to get away from good hands.

5. Read a good poker book.

Preferably a poker book which discusses poker math and psychology. The authors are poker professionals who have years of experience.

6. Start out by playing the low stakes cash games and work your way up.

Play in games your comfortable with don't play above your head. You don't want to move up in stakes too quickly as you will find yourself getting outplayed a lot which can put you on tilt which may effect you're A game. Make a small online poker deposit and follow solid poker bankroll management guidelines.

7. Have patience.

If you want to be a winning online poker player you need to grind out each session. You have to be prepared to have some poker sessions where you are not running into many big starting hands or hitting any flops. Instead of going on tilt it may be a better idea change tables or quitting the poker session.

8. Look for online tells that may give away the strength of opponents hands.

You want to be observing your opponents betting speed, betting amount, player chat (which I will discuss in my next point).

9. Pay attention to what other players are saying at the table.

Observe what is being said in the chatbox from your opponents. Sometimes they can give a lot of information about their hand. If you make a big fold, sometimes it doesn't hurt to ask what your opponent had. If they tell you that you made a good fold, you will be less likely to go on tilt.

10. Practice makes perfect.

The best way to improve your game is to gain experience. When I first got started with playing online poker for real money, I hadn't even read poker literature. I knew the basics of the game but was learning the most from the mistakes I was making with my hard earned money. When you make a costly mistake you are likely not to forget in a hurry. The main advantage playing at top online poker sites is that it allows you to play many more hands per hour than what would be possible in a live game at the casino, so by playing so many more hands you are gaining experience so much faster. The online poker rooms offer all the same games which you would find at a brick and mortar casino, including Texas Holdem, Omaha , Stud and Razz, and many of the online poker sites have freerolls which cost nothing to play and actually offer entry into real money poker tournaments if you are lucky to win or come runner up.