Poker is one of the most competitive games, which doesn’t come with a surprise since at the table it’s all about money. Everyone can play poker, irrespective of their level. Especially the option of playing in an Online Casino encourages many newcomers to take a seat.
Many players search the internet for important poker tips and poker strategy articles to get started or to improve their gameplay. However, to actually learn real poker strategies you need to distinguish between what you should be learning as a beginner and what poker knowledge is useful for a more advanced or professional poker player.
Just a few clicks through different poker sites and you’ll find the basic game rules, and by working your way through them, you’ll start playing online poker. But to become one of the more successful and long-term poker players, you need more know-how. We have collected some of the most important poker strategy tips for beginners and for the more advanced ones among you for playing Texas Hold’em.
Top Poker Tips for Beginners
If you are in the early stages of your poker journey, it can save you a lot of time and money to get your hands on some quite simple and very valuable tips. Here you can find our top five tips for beginners in online poker.
Tip 1: Know the rules, poker hands and positions
Before joining fellow players at the poker tables, it’s crucial to get familiar with how to play poker. While it’s very easy to read through the basic poker rules, it’s important to really spend some time understanding the ranking of poker hands. Regardless of whether you are a recreational player or seeking a poker career, making it worth playing requires this knowledge. You don’t want to find yourself in the position where you are in the middle of the game and have to hardly think can you beat a flush with your full house or not.
Another very important topic is learning about positions. When looking at different poker strategy websites, you’ll find the advice paying attention to your position at poker tables as you get to know if your opponents bet or check, how long it takes them to make a decision and what sizing they are using. Such poker knowledge can support your own decision making, for example, to have an indication on whether it’s wise to bluff.
When building your poker skills and get more into poker strategy, keep in mind that having a position is crucial in poker games as the hands you are playing are highly affected by your position. A later position allows you to open more hands and to put more pressure on your opponents than being in an early position.
Tip 2: Play poker at low stakes
As a beginner poker player, this poker tip needs to be taken seriously. Most notably in online poker, players show less interest in playing at low stakes. However, when getting into poker strategy and developing poker skills it’s important to play responsibly to avoid wasting money while learning.
When playing at lower stakes you will feel more comfortable as you are in control of your bankroll management. You’ll be able to learn the game more comfortable as you won’t risk losing huge amounts of money.
Pay attention, should you increase your stake you automatically increase your skill level too. This means, when playing at the lowest limits you’ll be also playing against the weakest players and therefore get a real chance to learn playing poker.
Also, while playing at lower stakes, you’ll get a feel for the game and will understand positions, which poker hands you should play and get more and more comfortable with the basic poker rules.
Tip 3: Use position and think about opponent cards
As mentioned earlier, when playing poker hands in Texas Hold’em, your position is one of the most important factors to be considered. You can win more money when finding yourself in later positions as you can play more hands from there.
Keep this simplified poker tip in mind: Play tight from early positions, widen up when coming closer to the button and steal the big pots when you are there.
When sitting in the position with the button, you’ll be able to play much more hands than from any other position. Take your time and pay attention to get used to evaluate your position.
Keeping an eye on your opponents is another advisable move as it will promote more educated decision making. There are many factors that can suggest what hands your opponent could be playing. It will take a more advanced skill level, but you can start with a simple approach. Consider your opponent’s position and what hands could be played from there. Your opponent’s action post-flop can suggest what he is holding as well as the time he is taking to make a decision. And finally, take a look at board texture as it’s less likely for players to have many string hands on a dry board than on a connected one.
It’s totally normal for poker beginners to struggle with reading opponents as it takes a lot of practice. Advanced players benefit from their most likely years of experience and still, these players can underestimate an opponent and therefore could make huge mistakes.
Tip 4: Start playing one table
To ensure concentrating on learning poker strategy, leave multi-tabling for the moment you move into a more advanced skill level. Stick to one table and try to absorb all the information you need. Watch your opponents playing and what hands they present at showdown. Focus on positioning and a tight-aggressive approach to develop your poker skills.
Tip 5: Learn to fold and don’t bluff too much
Another good piece of poker strategy advice when just starting out at poker is, play when you have a hand and fold when you don’t. As you may read in many strategy articles, as soon as you are entering poker tournaments or play at a more profitable table, players are much more aggressive in their gameplay, make use of bluffing way more often, and therefore, playing it save isn’t an option anymore.
It’s important to pay close attention to a passive opponent, who keeps calling and then starts raising out of nowhere. That’s the moment you should consider folding, even if you are holding a strong poker hand. This means, even one pair hands as good as a top pair should be folded.
For beginner poker players, it might be hard to let go of these hands, but it’s something you need to learn if you aim to be a successful poker player. When playing in the lowest games, you won’t be confronted with bluffing much, but in the long run, it will pay off for you to fold one pair hands at the poker table.
However, not all opponents are passive players. You need to observe the table to learn the difference between a passive and a very aggressive opponent. Someone who constantly raises doesn’t require folding your hands at all times. Adapt your gameplay according to the table.
Top Advanced Poker Strategy Tips
Should you already be more advanced in your poker career, there is always a way to improve your poker skills to keep up with other professional poker players and to stay ahead of the game.
We have listed four very useful strategy tips to take your poker game to the next level.
Tip 1: Get the Jesus Seat at your poker game
Should you play online poker and play multi-tables, you ideally want to get as many Jesus Seats as possible. A Jesus Seat refers to the position on the direct left of the fish, which is a player who is not very good at the game. Especially when playing poker games with recreational players, you want to make sure they stay to your right to keep the most profitable opportunities.
Consider this part of your poker strategy well as this is your chance to isolate them should they limp in the pot since they are in the position to act first and allow you to read them better. It also gives you the opportunity to control the size of the pot, get to showdown with the least risk on your weak hands, and reach value bets with your strong hands.
Tip 2: Shove Big Draws
A rule in your poker strategy is ‘the stronger your draws, the faster you should play them’. This means you are better off getting as many chips in the middle as soon as possible. Because should your drawing poker hand doesn’t have showdown value and therefore can’t win the pot with raising, rely on hotting your outs.
Even if you hit your outs, you won’t get the guarantee that your opponent will pay you off. To keep it simple, it’s more likely players are paying you off on the flop than on the river.
Many situations make a draw so obvious that even the fish can recognise them. Therefore, you can give yourself a better chance to win by coming over the top with a bet of your own, which can also lead to additional folds of your opponents.
Tip 3: Think about Poker Players Ranges
Pay attention to your opponents as there is one easy way to recognise beginner poker players. A beginner has this when thinking about what their opponents hold. As an advanced poker player, you should think in terms of ranges, which is an important strategy to calculate the pot odds.
A range refers to an entire spectrum of poker hands opponents could hold in any kind of situation. An advanced player has awareness of the entire range of poker hands a certain player could have. They don’t waste time focusing on that single winning hand but trying to figure out frequencies to get the most out of their gameplay.
As a good player, you need to understand that basing your tournament strategy or gameplay in a cash game won’t succeed by listening to your gut feeling.
Use your skills to get the most out of your poker game than counting on luck.
Tip 4: Ditch your favourite hand
Every poker player has a favourite hand and is secretly hoping for playing this one. In reality though, most of the time your favourite hand isn’t the best hand to start in Texas Hold’em.
If you recognise yourself, make sure not to prioritise your favourite hand and risk a huge mistake. In poker, it’s all about logic and calculation.
