101 Poker Tips the Pros use to Win 5/5

These easy 101 poker tips helps you to make sure you're one of the few players that make money at the world's greatest game.

81-101 poker tips:

81.Don't Be Afraid Of Monsters In The Closet

I know I said to be careful of playing overpairs too fast, but you can't be afraid of monsters in the closet either. When someone goes all- in on a flop like 8-7-2, it doesn't always mean they have a set. They might have JJ, QQ or KK and your aces could be good. You have to weigh the situation carefully to make the right decision.

82.Don't Bluff Calling Stations

Calling stations call. That's their defining characteristic. There's no sense trying to get someone to fold if it's not in them to lay anything down. When you face a calling station, stop all forms of bluffing and bet all hands for value. Let the calling station feed you their stack when you have a hand.

83.Get A Mentor

There's no substitute for a skilled player by your side helping you improve. Some people may be fortunate enough to know someone who will mentor them, others might meet someone in forums or in poker leagues; but even people who don't have any poker contacts can hire a mentor. It won't be cheap, but a good mentor will be worth many times their price.

84.Know The Difference Between A Value Raise And A Stealing Raise

This knowledge is especially important in tournament play where stealing and re-stealing blinds drives the final stages. Raises from early position are usually value raises. It's hard to steal from an early position. Late position raises are more likely to be a steal. However beware of small raises from late position. The raiser might be trying to price you in the hand.

85.Let The Money Come Naturally

You can't force profits. If you try, you'll hemorrhage money. Accept the fact that you're not going to earn $30 an hour playing $0.50/$1 No-Limit. You'll have to grind it out and roll up in limits until you can play a game big enough to make the money you want. Poker is a game of skill and patience. Disciplined players profit and impulsive players go broke.

86.Use Your Betting Patterns To Disguise Your Hand

Astute players will pick up on how you play certain hands. If you want to get paid, you have to change your usual betting pattern. I once got a player to give me 30% of their stack with air when I had trips because I played them the exact same way I played a pure bluff five hands earlier. My opponent recognized the line and thought I was on a bluff when I had a powerful hand.

87.Don't Berate Donkeys

Don't insult bad players at your table even if they draw out on you. If anything you should go out of your way to praise their poor play and make them feel comfortable. You want bad players to stay at your table for as long as possible and they won't do that if you keep telling them what a moron they are.

88.Watch Out For The Squeeze Play

Let's say there are three limpers in early position. You're in middle position with 66, so you call hoping to see a cheap flop. Someone behind you raises and everyone folds to the big blind who re-raises. Now you're caught in a squeeze play. You can't call because you don't know if the original raiser is going re-raise the big blind and you don't want to commit too many chips with a pair of sixes. Fold and make a mental note of the situation. If this play is common at your table it might be a good opportunity to trap with a big hand.

101 Poker Tips the Pros use to Win 4/5

These easy 101 poker tips helps you to make sure you're one of the few players that make money at the world's greatest game.

61-80 poker tips: 

61.Leave Your Ego At Home

You know what I'm talking about. You've felt that tinge of anger when someone raises your bluff. You start thinking things like "That donkey isn't going to push me out of the pot" and you start to make stupid moves (the donkey raised you because he's trying to let you know has trips). Make moves based on logic, not ego.

62.They're Not Playing Back At You

I used to have that sentence on a post-it on the corner of my computer screen. Whenever someone raised me my first thought was, "they're playing back at me." I should have thought that they have a hand and then tried to figure out what that hand was. If I couldn't put them on a hand, then I should start to wonder if they are playing back at me. My post-it always reminded me of that fact and I started to make better lay downs and well-timed moves.

63.Play In Medium Sized Card Rooms

Medium sized card rooms are my preferred stalking grounds. These rooms are usually too small to attract the online pros and these rooms advertise like crazy and offer great bonuses to attract new players. It's a highly profitable situation.

64.Stop Saying You're Sorry

I can't stand it when I see a player apologize for drawing out on someone. First of all, you're not sorry. You're glad you won the hand. You probably even had a mini celebration in front of your computer before typing your apology. Second, everyone deserves to draw out occasionally. We've all had our fair share of bad beats so don't be sorry when the poker gods balance the scales.

65.Avoid Names Like JacknJill27

When I see a handle like that, I know I'm dealing with someone who plays for fun. Jack and Jill are a young couple in their mid/late twenties that thought it would be fun to open a poker account together so they could play. Cute. Serious players don't do this. Serious players don't let anyone else play under their name so their stats aren't tainted. JacknJill27 might as well use the handle iSpew4u.

66.Establish An Image And Act To The Contrary

Are you a loose player? Spend some time folding to establish a tight image before loosening up. Your speculative hands will get paid because no one will suspect your hand and your bluffs will get more respect. Are you a tight player? Do all the things that loose players do when you first sit at a table. Post your blind out of turn and raise your first three hands regardless of what they are. Get caught with trash once or twice and then tighten up. Players will start playing top pair/weak kicker to the felt against you.

67.Change Gears When Needed

Acting contrary to your image shouldn't be a one-time thing. Change gears frequently. Start playing loose when it's obvious that you have a tight image and vice-versa. After a couple of gear shifts your opponents won't know what to think. And keeping your opponents off balanced is a very good thing.

68.Play In A Poker Room With A VIP Store

Lots of poker rooms give you points for playing that can be redeemed for books, clothes, poker chips, and even cars and tournament tickets. It's just another way to maximize your poker profits.

101 Poker Tips the Pros use to Win 3/5

These easy 101 poker tips helps you to make sure you're one of the few players that make money at the world's greatest game.

41-60 poker tips: 

 

41.Test The Waters Before You Dive In

The best way to break into new limits is to take an occasional shot at the higher limit. When I plan on moving up in Sit 'N Goes, I'll open one game at the new limit and several at my current limit. That way I can gain confidence and get a feel for the new players before I dive in and put my bankroll at risk.

42.Take Notes On Your Opponents

I don't mean writing "donkey" in their notes. I mean write down any move your opponent makes that's unusual like "raised with 10-8 suited from middle position in an unopened pot" or "re-raised with pocket tens from the small blind." These notes will help you put your opponents on a hand when you're playing against them.

43.Buddy List The Fish

I have dozens of buddies in each of my poker accounts but none of them are actually friends of mine. All of them, however, are very poor poker players. This practice is often called "fish stalking" and it can be very profitable. If you find a couple of your fish buddies at a table, sit down and clean up.

44.Use Proper Table Selection

Poker is a predatory game. You make money when you play against players worse than you and you lose money when you play against players better than you so it only makes sense to seek out worse players. Don't just sit down at the first table with an open chair. Do a little research to see which table has the loosest and most passive players. Loose-passive players are ATM machines. They'll feed you cash all day long.

45.Use The Right Statistics When Selecting Tables

The two most important statistics to use when selecting a table are the "% to the flop" and the "average pot size." A high percentage of players seeing the flop means the table is loose and a higher than average pot size means that the players give a lot of action. You need both of these statistics to be favorable for the game to be good. Just be careful when players leave and new ones join. Fish splashing around tend to attract sharks.

46.Don't Drink And Play

I know it's fun. I've done it more times than I care to admit and I almost always end up losing money. Your judgment will be impaired after a couple of drinks and you'll start making the wrong moves and missing out on opportunities. If you're playing to win, play sober.

47.Know Your Game

Are you playing a freezeout, a shootout, a rebuy or a bounty? Different tournaments require different strategies. For example, freezeouts reward tight play and giving up a hand in marginal situations early on, however if you're in a bounty tournament it might be advantageous to try to take out the player if you think you have a reasonable chance of winning.

101 Poker Tips the Pros use to Win 2/5

These easy 101 poker tips helps you to make sure you're one of the few players that make money at the world's greatest game.

21-40 poker tips:

21.Estimate Implied Odds

Pot odds aren't the only odds you need to consider. A good player has to be able to estimate how much more they'll win if they hit their hand. Different draws have different levels of profitability. For example, flush draws are easy to spot and tend to slow players down but if you're holding 8-10 and the board is J-9-2, your draw will well disguised and your implied odds will be better.

22.Don't Pay Too Much To Draw

If someone prices you out of a draw, curse your luck and let the hand go unless you think your opponent will pay you off if you hit.

23.Consider The Turn And The River When You Draw

How much is your opponent betting on the flop? Do you think you'll see one card or do you think you'll get a free card on the turn? Remember that someone who bets heavy on the flop is likely to bet heavy on the turn if it's a blank. Your odds of making a draw on one card are significantly less than on two cards and chances are you're only going to see one card if your opponent is making serious bets.

24.Hidden Draws Are Better Than Obvious Ones

I alluded to this tip earlier. I'll pay more for a draw when I have 8-10 on a board of J-9-2 than I will with Ax of spades when there are two spades on the flop. The reason is that my opponents will notice the spade draw and shut down if it hits, but they're less likely to notice the straight draw when I have a single gapper - especially if I raised preflop.

25.Don't Defend A Second Best Hand

I see this happen all the time. Most of the time it's because someone entered the pot with ace-rag and an ace hit the flop. They continue to bet and raise the hand never considering that they're probably out kicked. Have the good sense to fold if you think your hand may be second best.

26.Stop Completing The Small Blind With Trash

"But I'm getting a discount" is the cry of the poker loser. Playing too loose in the small blind is a huge leak in most players' games. The problem with completing the small blind is that you'll either win a small pot or lose a big one. It's hard to get paid off when your trash hits but it's easy to donk off your stack when your hand is second best.

27.Raise From The Small Blind When You Have A Big Hand Verses The Big Blind

Many players just complete the small blind when it's folded to them when they have a big hand. Not me. One of my favorite moves is to raise from the small blind when it's folded to me and I have a big hand. The big blind thinks you're stealing and calls to defend. Then they proceed to play their Q7 to the felt when they hit top pair. Every time you raise they think you're trying to steal. They never consider that you might have kings or aces.

101 Poker Tips the Pros use to Win 1/5

These easy 101 poker tips helps you to make sure you're one of the few players that make money at the world's greatest game.

1-20 poker tips:

1.Be Selective With Your Starting Hands

Profitable poker begins with selecting profitable hands. A player who only plays the top 10% to 20% of the possible starting hands will generally make more money than a player who plays the top 30% to 40% of starting hands. Loose players can still be profitable players, but it requires considerably more skill to play a loose style profitably. Tighten up and watch your profits soar.

2.Practice Effective Bankroll Management

Everyone goes broke at one point or another and it's usually because of poor bankroll management. Generally speaking, you should have 30 to 50 buy-ins for whatever game you're playing. So if you buy into a $1/$2 No-Limit Hold'em game for $200, you should have a bankroll of $6k to $10k. The looser you play, the more buy-ins you should have to make sure your bankroll can withstand the swings.

3.Take A Study Day Each Week

Become a student of the game. Read all the poker books you can get your hands on. In fact, read these books multiple times. I have some poker books that I've read 5 times over and I find something new every time I read them. A few good books to have are The Theory of Poker, Sit 'N Go Strategy, Super System and the Harrington on Hold'em series. There are several other good books as well. Take some time and browse your local bookstore to see which authors you like to read.

4.Be Prepared For Downswings

If you practice effective bankroll management you'll be financially prepared for downswings, but you need to be mentally prepared as well. Poker may be a game of skill, but there is a dash of luck involved too. You need to stay focused when the poker gods see fit to squash you like a bug. Even the best players will face downswings. The trick is to work your way through it as best you can. You can analyze your game to make sure your downswing isn't due to your play or take a break. Just make sure you don't go on tilt and make the downswing worse.

5.Vary Your Play

After a while, even good players fall into a rhythm. They raise with one hand and limp with another. They only play a certain range from late position and a tighter range from early position. If their opponent checks for a second time on the turn, they always bet 2/3 pot. After a while, your opponents will pick up on these patterns and they'll start outplaying you. Change up your play every once in a while to keep your opponents guessing.

6.Pay Attention To Your Bets

Do your betting patterns betray your hand? Do you only re-raise with aces or kings? Do you raise 5 times the big blind to protect small pairs? Do you make a continuation bet every time you show aggression before the flop and check the turn if your opponent floats you when you have air? Some players have betting patterns so consistent that they might as well announce their hand. What are your betting patterns telling your opponents?

7.Control The Pot

There's an old poker saying that says "Small hand, small pot. Big hand, big pot." You need to control the pot to match your hand. It's tricky controlling the pot without alerting your opponents to your hand, but it's a necessary skill if you want to win more money.

8.Keep An Eye On The Nuts

Always know what the best possible hand is on every street and determine how likely it is that your opponent holds the cards necessary to make that hand. For example, if you're playing a re-raised pot and have JJ on a board of Q-J-10, there's a decent chance that your trips are up against a straight if your opponent is raising and re-raising. However if you're playing a re-raised pot and have 99 on a board of 9-7-5, it's much less likely your opponent is holding the 68 necessary for the straight.

9.Be Aware Of Your Position

Too many new players are oblivious to the advantages of playing in position. It's easier to trap your opponents and it's easier to make moves on your opponent when you're in position.

Things You Need To Know About Poker

1. Poker is a long-term game

The true measuring stick of a poker player is what type of decisions they make. If they make good decisions they will win in the long-run; if they make poor decisions they will lose in the long-run: It’s that simple!

So, why do so many players make poor decisions? The reason for poor decisions is quite simple, most people view poker in the short-term. These players do not hit the tables enough to think beyond a single hand or session. Even if they have heard the term ‘long-term’, it has never been explained properly, and is too abstract a concept to fully sink in.

In poker: Winning is the result of good decisions, not the other way around.

This is an extremely difficult concept for many players to wrap their heads around. It’s hard to explain to someone who just won a huge pot that they made a blunder at some point in the hand, and were merely lucky. Generally you’ll be told, “gotta get lucky sometimes.”

The truth is, just because you win a pot doesn’t mean you made good decisions during it; and just because you lose a pot doesn’t mean you made bad decisions!

You will find most of your opponents have this concept completely backwards. They feel if they win the pot they did something right; they don’t realize that for every 1 in 10 miracle they hit, there will be nine other times they miss. And, it’s these 9 other times that cause them to lose money. They remember the $150 win, and forget about the nine $20 losses.

2. Your money comes from your opponent’s mistakes

It’s extremely important you understand this concept. Poker is a battle of mistakes; the player making the fewest, and least costly mistakes, is the player who will be taking home the money in the long-run (it’s not the player who knows the most, or pulls off the best bluff). If you play in a game where your opponents make more mistakes than you do, you will come out on top regardless of your skill level. All you have to do to be a winning player is look for players that are worse than you!

This holds true for any game or stakes. If the five best players in the world are sitting at a particular table, and the 6th best player pulls up a chair, guess who is going to be the fish in the game?

3. You don’t have to be the best to make money

Another problem even the best players have is they try to beat everyone. Instead of focusing on the weaker players, they are out to prove their superiority over everyone at the table.  In a typical poker game there will be one or two players who are feeding chips to the rest of the table (at the lower limits you may find three or four players feeding the table). These are the guys playing 75% of the hands they are dealt, and calling to the river.

Good players will attempt to exploit these ‘feeders’ by isolating them in pots, while avoiding the locksmiths with all but their best hands. There is no point in continually battling skilled players, even if you feel you have a slight edge over them, when you have people who are practically throwing their money at you.

I'm not condoning total avoidance of decent players; just contemplate the risks and the reward before you get involved. Sure you can push a locksmith off a hand when he bricks, but if you're constantly playing pots against players who make few mistakes, you're fighting an uphill battle. Remember, most of your profits are coming from your opponent’s mistakes, not from your good plays. And, the worse an opponent is, the more mistakes he will make.

These small gaffes you commit trying to ‘prove’ something, can end up being the difference between winning and losing in the long-run. There is such a small margin for error in poker that a single mistake can put you in the red (Barry Greenstein guessed this edge to be around 3% for the best players, so imagine what it is for you).

Winning tips

Be courageous.  What distinguishes best poker players? Their courage. Its one of the characteristics you need to be the best. Doyle Brunson once said: Timid players dont win in high-stakes Poker. Courage means: everything youve put in the pot belongs to the pot. Its not yours. Forget about that money. But never dare to make a bit bet if you feel that its the best action at that time. But if you have already put much money in the pot and now you see that its impossible to win then dont hesitate to fold. Dont think about the money, think about the game. What else does courage mean? It means that you cant see the profit but still take risks. You may say that courage is not that important, but have you ever seen a player without it?Be patient.  Patience means that every time you see clearly that you will lose, you should fold even if it is the 31st hand you fold. You have to be very patient, waiting for the best hand.Be vigilant.Even if youre tied. Even if youve spent more than 12 hours at the table be vigilant! Dont say its impossible. Think about Johnny Moss and Nick the Greek Dandolos, who spent 5 months at the poker table in 1949. Nobody could repeat it. And you dont have to. But when staying at the table be vigilant. Always.Control your emotions.  Remember: if you have hard times, dont take a seat at the poker table. For example, if youve just parted with you girl-(or boy-)friend dont play poker. Because you will not be able to concentrate. Its very simple. When playing poker you should think only about poker. When making love with a girl, you should think only about a girl. Dont confuse girls with poker. Also if you feel upset about the money youve lost leave the table go and play something else (darts, tic-tac-toe).

21 Tips and Secrets

Here are tips and pointers to help you make the most of poker tells. It covers observation (watching other players), how to use tells, hiding tells, bluffing, reliability of tells, how to resolve conflicting tells and more.

Observation

- Don't be in a hurry to look the cards. Watch the other players first.

- When it's not your turn or when you fold, keep an eye on the action. Be as interested as when you are in the hand.

What to Do with Tells

- If a player is tight, bluff often and bet seldom.

- If a player is loose, bluff seldom and bet often.

- When the tells suggest a player has a strong hand, you have these choices: a) if your hand is weak or marginal, fold; b) if you have the nuts, let him bet so you win more; c) if you were thinking of bluffing, don't.

- When faced with a player bluffing with a weak hand, you should call their bluff even with a marginal hand. Play a wider range of hands.

Disguise

- Wear sunglasses to hide your eyes.

- Memorize your cards so you don't have to double-check.

- If you are tight, do not arrange your chips so neatly.

- If you are playing loosely, stack your chips nicely.

Bluffing Tells

- Bluffers act unnaturally. They try to get attention when they bet and want to be invisible the rest of the time.

- Non-bluffers act naturally. They try to be innocuous when betting and are at ease the rest of the time.

Reliability of Tells

- Generally, poker tells are more reliable among novice players than experts. The latter may try to conceal them.

- However if a player is very unskilled, they can be unreliable as a tell is only as good as a player's understanding of their hand. If they do not know how good (or bad) their hand really is, the tell will mislead you.

Natural and Fake Tells

- When a poker tell is genuine, it only takes a moment, then it's gone. The player is not trying to draw attention to the tell.

- If a poker tell is an act, it is usually overdone and prolonged in order to get your attention.

Good Players

- Don't make it obvious to a good player that you read their tells. If you do, they will disguise their tells more next time.

- Good players like to play dumb when they have a good hand.

Bad Players

- Bad players are where the money is. Go to them.

Profitability of Poker Tells

- It is more profitable to identify a weak hand than a strong one. Recognizing a strong hand lets you save a bet. But identifying a weak one can let you win the whole pot. You get to play a wider range of hands that you might otherwise not play.

Conflicting Tells

- When tells seem to contradict one another, the one that is harder to fake is the more reliable one. For example, sweating cannot be faked, but the tone of voice can be easily changed. The head can be moved, but the eyes don't lie.

10 steps to improve your game

Every poker player who has read any book or magazine article about poker knows that thinking is a large part of the game. Unfortunately, many well intentioned players don’t know how to think about poker. They know there are many important decisions that will affect whether they will win, but they often don’t know how to get started. This overwhelms them and causes them to retreat to just playing based on their intuition – often an unprofitable result.

For those of you who have found yourself in this sort of quandary, let me start you off in the right direction. This is not meant to be an exhaustive study – but just the bare bones necessary to focus your attention on the beginning steps.

Learn the following in this order to improve your game:

Some basic tips for online play

Sometimes you’re running bad, or maybe you’re just playing bad. Sometimes it’s a combination of both. Running bad can put you on tilt subconsciously, which leads to poor play. But when your poker results start to suffer, particularly in online play where good players will take more than their share of bad beats, sometimes you need to step back and re-assess your play.

I’ve found that, most of the time, simply freeing myself of distractions and other influences that might affect my mind-set is the most effective way to renew my focus and see improved results. Here are a few tips that have worked for me:

Eliminate distractions ahead of time – This means turning off the TV, telephone and keeping the music down to a low volume. If you have children or pets to take care of, make sure their needs are met before you play.

Develop a routine – This means everything from signing up the same time before a tournament to sitting in the same seat position at the table. Every time I play, I click the “sit here” option on the bottom seat exactly in the middle. This helps me focus, as I never have to change my eye level and look for my seat, as I always felt a little awkward if my seat was in a corner position or at the top. Plus, just getting into a routine this way helps me focus on the game at hand.

Be prepared to play – This covers everything from being rested, showered and focused, to making sure you have no time commitments that are going to get in the way. If you are playing a multi-table tournament with 2,000 participants, you should anticipate that you will be playing for the next 5 hours or so. Clear your schedule. Do not play if you have another imminent time commitment. Also, make sure you have eaten and used the bathroom before you start. Just as is in live games, failure to do this will result in you missing potentially valuable hands at the table. The breaks are short; make sure you have snacks or beverages readily prepared so you can re-fuel in a timely fashion.

Eliminate distractions at the table – In addition to sitting in the same spot each time, I recommend turning off all avatar images and avoiding chat at all costs. Many avatar images appear intended to distract you and, let’s face it, some of them do. Whether it’s a picture of a bikini-clad, buxom model that has your attention, or some other sort of violent or semi-graphic image, it’s relatively easy to have your attention drawn to these images. Eliminate that possibility by shutting them off. Also, keep chatting to a minimum. If your opponent chats “nh” or “nice hand” after losing a pot to you and you believe his sentiment is sincere, a “ty” or “thank you” is acceptable, but do not draw out the conversation. If he is clearly being sarcastic, ignore him. Resist the temptation to engage in personal battles, even if someone types an offensive sentiment such as “nice call, donkey.” Engaging in prolonged chats will only distract you from the game and task at hand, and could possibly put you on tilt. Leave tilting to your opponents.

Follow the general rule of HALT – That is, do not play if you are hungry, angry, lonely or tired. As previously stated, make sure you are fed if you intend to play a long tournament. If you are angry, from taking bad beats or for some other personal reasons, it’s never a good idea to play because you will have a compromised mindset. Playing to kill time before you go to bed is usually a bad idea, too, as you will have less-than-optimal focus and be tempted to make plays you normally wouldn’t make.

Play better than your opponents – Isn’t this always the goal when you play? Of course, but this is meant in the most basic sense. Online players notoriously play too many hands, try too many ill-advised bluffs and overvalue and overplay starting hands. They refuse to fold when they clearly are beat, and shove all-in when they clearly are behind. The masses are asses … don’t be one of them. Don’t lose sight of the fact that patience is still a key virtue in poker. Many new players seem to crave instant gratification, and all it leads to is an early bust-out. So let everyone else ram-and-jam in every pot, and put all their chips in the middle on a three-outer. You, meanwhile, sit back and pick your spots. Be selective about your starting hands, and don’t be afraid to fold when you are beat. Don’t make foolish calls or push with marginal hands just because you’ve been running cold. You’d be surprised how huge an advantage a little patience will give you over your opponents