94 There are plenty of soft games online, you just have to do a little searching! Stay Extra Cool When Playing Tournaments Because of the nature of tournaments and the escalating betting limits, your Bankroll is the key to your ability to win. If you become short-Stacked, try to stay calm and play as tight as possible. Only bet on high-Ranking pairs (the Fish 40), and only continue playing the hand if the flop has improved your hand.
Example: You are dealt Q, Q as your hole cards.
The flop comes with A, K, 3.
If some one bets I would fold the hand immediately.
Why? Because you have not built on your pair and the betting is going to get expensive.
Some players make it a habit of playing loose during the first couple of rounds hoping that they can catch up later. There is no 95 logic for this kind of play in a tournament and can reduce your Stack and push you into panic mode. An example would be to go all-in on a hand like J9 suited. Even if you see that you will likely be short on coming blinds, this is a bad move. Wait.
Play Like A Rock As long as you have chips in front of you, you have a chance of winning. Wait, wait and wait longer if need be, but never panic.
You have time. In limit games, patience is supremely important.
You may go an hour or two before you get a playable hand. This is normal. This will set up two things for you. Credibility and more playing time. Why do you want credibility? One word, Bluffing.
The more you fold or take pots with an extremely strong hand the better you lay the groundwork for a Bluffing situation. You will become known as a rock (A rock is an extremely tight player). The tighter the player, the harder it is to win against that player. In poker perception is everything. Be patient, It Will Pay Off! Turn Down The Music But Turn Up Your Sound Researchers now that we learn faster and engage our brains better when we use more of our senses. The online casinos supply plenty of color but make sure you take advantage of the sound as well.
Turn up the sound effects. Sure, it may get annoying sometimes listening to all those clinks, shuffles and chip sounds but they help us tune into the game and out of those things going on around us.
You are much less prone to make mistakes when you can hear and see what people are doing, as opposed to just seeing it.
Click between game tabs to refresh your table listings. This trick is useful mainly for tournaments, which are notoriously quick to fill up. Many times, you'll see ?Wtng for 5 players? as the table status, 96 but when you click on the game, it will have already started. This is due to the table status not updating quickly, which you can force by clicking between tabs. Of note however, is that Party Poker has recently upped the refresh rate of the tables substantially, so this isn't a major issue like it used to be.
How To Get Hand Histories Your opponent didn�t show don't show their cards? Here�s a great Party Poker trick. Click on the hand number at the top right of the screen and request the Hand History for that game via email.
Depending on how busy Party Poker is at the moment, you should get an email with the history in a matter of minutes.
Scroll to the bottom of the history and you can instantly find out what the other player was holding. You can do this in conjunction with player notes to get a good idea of what a player is willing to play with on a river. Showdown information is always the most critical, as you can analyze their decision making process from the ground up.
Get Caught Bluffing Once In A While Once in a while this is not a bad idea. It is a way to vary your play and not be too predictable. You win pots that you don't deserve when your Bluff works. You lose a few chips when it doesn't work but it will get you calls from weaker hands down the line when you have a strong hand and need the action.
Bluff With Caution In Low Limit Games One should be extremely careful in efforts to Bluff playing low limit online poker. You will find many players will call you just to ?keep you honest? even if their hand doesn't warrant a call. For the most 97 part, you should forget about it until you are already a very successful low limit online player. When you do Bluff it should be done with careful attention to pot/implied odds: ?I estimate I have a 1 in 10 chance of winning this Bluff, do I get better than 10-1 return?? Since these estimations can be even harder to make online since there are few tells to go by, it's a difficult play.
Never Let Them See You Sweat I think this is a significant tip because when you lose a big pot, it�s easy to let your emotions show � even online. Don�t let the cards defeat you. And never boost the confidence of the other players by letting it get to you.
If you want to keep your psychological edge; it helps to take away theirs. Never give them a reason to be able to feed off of you, even if you are losing (by the way everyone loses and has Bad Beats. No one can win 100% of the time; never give them the edge, even if you are fuming.) Get Up And Stretch Taking a small break will help you to focus. While you are on break don�t think about the game. it will only hurt your Session as time goes on.
Stay Away From Alcohol Do we need to even say this? Nothing can alter your thinking more than alcohol. You need to be aware and focused at all times. I have no idea how many online players are drinking or doing something else while they are playing but I can tell you that focus is everything. There is a lot going on in a game of online poker and it�s happening at warp speed. You really need to stay clear.
98 Keep Accurate Player Records If you don't keep records of your Texas Hold'em Poker playing, start now. Make a form in MS Word or MS Excel that you are comfortable with. Develop something you can use to track and update notes while you play online. If you have the software, even better, set up a database that you can search on and create reports.
If none of this works for you, at least get a fold-flat notebook that you can use while you play. Accurate play records will tell you a lot about yourself, your strategy and your opponents.
Everyone falls into a losing streak, it�s normal. What you want to avoid is having this negatively affect your play and attitude. You�ll be asking yourself - am I playing too tight? Should I change my strategy? Am I playing too loose? Will I ever win again? Look over your play records. You'll find the answers there. A good set of records is the best thing I know for a poker player's peace of mind and a good night's sleep.
Your play records should include the date of each Session, start and stop times, hours played, wins or losses, running totals and an hourly win rate. You'll also want to have totals in terms of big bets.
If you play in Hold'em games of various limits then big bets per hour is a better indicator of how you are doing than dollars per hour. Your play records should have notes about your play, your opponents, tells you've noticed and other information that might be useful. At the very least, your play records should be good reading later.
Texas Hold'em Poker is enjoyable. Winning is great. Keeping play records is unexciting at best, but the information in good play records is essential if you want to win. Without play records you 99 won't know if changes in your strategy have had a positive or a negative effect. You won't know if you're getting better or worse or why. In fact, if you don't keep records, you don't even know if you're winning or losing in the game and you certainly don't know how much.
Learn How To Know When You�re Done This is really just a general poker tip, but it still nabs even the poker pros at times. If you find that you are being outplayed, outclassed or just unlucky at the table, it's ok to leave. Don't think about getting your money back or getting revenge on the bastard that Rivered you for the 3rd time now. If you are losing money at your table, you do NOT have good table image no matter what you might think. Not only are you not in a good mood, which puts you on Tilt (admit it or not), but other players will be more likely to make plays against you. This makes your game harder in more ways than you want. With so many tables at Party Poker, just get up and go, it's that easy.
If the game gets short-handed (6 or less players) and you are not familiar with short-handed play, get out. This is an easy way to lose a lot of cash if you don't know what you are doing. I see this happen all the time, when a table breaks up and players are Stuck with two tight players and three fish who don't realize they are about to get run eaten alive. Don't be �Chum� when all it takes is a single click to safer waters.
When you feel yourself slipping and playing too loose or having trouble focusing on the game, gather your chips and go home.
It should not matter if you are up or down, leave the table. If you are up, why risk your winnings? If you are down, why risk more 100 of your Bankroll? There is not a good reason. Get some sleep.
Playing when you cannot focus is a recipe for losing.
Don�t Let The Rake Beat You Why do online casinos make so much money? Because they make a profit from every single poker pot that is played � often millions of pots per month. The more games you play, the more the casinos make. Their profit from each pot is called the Rake. The Rake is a percentage or a flat fee that the casino charges you to play. No matter how good a poker player you are, the house has an edge on you. The Rake is built in so that the house takes money from you in small, unnoticed amounts. There are a few guidelines you can go by to minimize this.
Some poker rooms will only Rake the pot once it has reached a certain amount, so you want to play opposite the style of the table in these cases.
If the Rake is a set percentage (usually 4% to 10%), the tactics for an aggressive player won't be as successful as if the rate was a flat fee.
Every failed attempt at blind-stealing, for example, is going to be Raked, and all Bluffing is now 4%-10% less worth it.
You have to be a better player to overcome that percentage, and once you get to that point, you shouldn't be too preoccupied with the Rake. If you are a beginner, play tighter than usual.
Most online casinos charge a percentage of the winning pot.
Example: The winning pot is $125. The casino or the �house� takes a minimum of $1 and 5% of the balance.
101 Total Rake is $7 or 5.6%. That leaves 94.4% for the winners.
Compare that to 60% on most lottery games. The less the Rake is the more money you can win and the better your return on your investment.
The size of the pot and the betting limit can have a huge effect on your chances of winning.
Let�s apply the same rules to a game where the maximum bet is only 2$.
Example: The winning pot is $22. The reason for the lower pot is the low betting limit. Now let�s apply the same Rake to the pot.
Minimum of $1 and 5% or $2.10. This doesn�t sound like a lot but it�s actually 9.5%. The amount left to the winners in this game is now 90.5%.
It may not seem like much, but the house can now pull from the table an entire pot every 10 games. That�s a pot you can�t win so your odds of winning are much lower.
The opposite of this effect is to play a very high maximum game � for example a $50 maximum bet. This could create a $1000 pot or more. Sure, the percentage will now be even lower, but can you afford to play these high stakes? A rule of thumb is to have 100 times the maximum bet with you when you start the game. A $50 maximum bet would mean having $5000 with you when you start. A maximum bet of $5 would allow you to play for $500. Quite a difference.
For most players, a $1-2 maximum bet is too low. The Rake just becomes too high as a percentage of each pot.
102 The ideal game range is the $5-10 maximum bet range. This range will give you the best odds at winning and will not require that you mortgage your house to get into a game.
What happens if I start playing a $5-10 maximum bet game with only $100? The problem is you may need several hands before you get the right cards to win. With too small a bank, you may run out of money before you get a betting hand. Years of experience have shown that the 100x rule works. Having more certainly won�t hurt.
The 50x is a minimum requirement to play to win.
Playing Texas Hold�em Money Games For Free Betting in Texas Hold�em is dictated by the big and Small Blinds.
When it becomes your turn to place the blind (the initial bet) you can Pass. This means you can see two cards without any cost unless you are down card from the Dealer.
The only problem is you can�t come back into the game until the deal Passes you again. That mean in a game with 10 players you have to sit out three hands per turn.
In a game with six players, you would only be able to play for free in three out of the six games.
It may not sound like much fun � but you can play for free and it�s totally legal and within the rules.