Ever since you’ve decided to get involved in online poker, you’ve heard the constant refrain of “it’s not the cards, it’s the players” numerous times. Every novice player knows this, and yet they still lose by playing weak hands. Why? Well, this is because they simply do not understand the game, the psychology, the table image, the bets, all of it.
While it is true that a lot of what it takes on the table is skill, slot 138 rtp to be sure, the majority of people don’t have the patience to develop the required patience. In order to be a successful player, you have to be patient.True, it is impossible to win every hand you play, but neither is it necessary to constantly get involved in the game. Generally, for most people, poker is a game of luck. Sure, there are certain times, less than half the time, you will have absolutely no luck at all, yet that should not hinder you from playing or winning a hand.
On the other hand, willpower is something that you need to have a lot of if you want to win at poker. This is because if you bet with a weak hand and have gone out, and somebody calls you, you will probably lose the rest of your money. This is where discipline comes into play.
One of the important first steps to winning at poker is to have a disciplined approach to the game. Do not be one of those players who play 8-9 suited, or other such junk, every other hand. You need to tighten up your starting hand requirements based upon your position at the table. If you are in an early position, you should only play AA-JJ. If you are in middle, playchange hands like QQ-66, and so on.
Those in late position should shift into endless mode and play all manner of hands, including suited connectors. You should never call a raise with junk and it is a good idea to raise when you have a good hand, so that you will not be called by sucker hands. The late position player can free up a bit, and know that they are dominating the table. If you have a small hand, it is best to bet it rather than let it go for free.
When you play, you should be very patient. Dealers and players can be rather short-handed, which opens the door to steal some peoples blinds, and also, as we all know, runner players will tend to be maniacs and run everybody out of pots. However, you want to avoid being a runners so that you can make a nice big pot and maybe eliminate a few players from the game
. You do not want to eliminate a lot of players, because you want your tight image to be a tight image, but eliminate some to meet you at the end of the night.
There is another strategy, which I like to employ, which is the semi-bluff. This is when you have a good hand and you bet it short of the pot in hopes that you will get a call from a worse hand. For example, you have a hand of K-J and the flop comes J-5-7. You make a large bet of 8 times the pot and so that your opponents will call you if they have a real hand. They will see that you are not afraid to bet all of your chips in the one hand. You can then blind off and let them bet, if you are ahead, or continue to bet and try to make them think that you caught the hand you were chasing. You can semi-bluff a hand like this and make sure that you do not scare your opponents out of the game by betting large amounts that are out of place.
In general, you should be looking for hands that you can play from any position and capitalize on your image. You have to create a tight table image and be willing to fight for it against aggressive players. You also have to be mindful of your opponents and pay attention to their betting, their play and their chip stack building.
