Are you on a vacation this week? I am, so I thought I would take some time and do a little psychology on the game of online poker. I know, I know. It’s a lotto strategy, not a science. I also know that everyone has their “lucky” day when luck smiles on them.
If you are playing online poker, try to focus on a card you like or several cards you like. This is called card selection. Often, you will see expert players play multiple hands. This is done to increase the odds of a win.
On some sites, the auto-check feature will auto daub the cards for you. This helps you get used to playing online and will save you some time.
First, if you can, play more than one site. The more sites you play, the more you can evaluate each site and increase your winnings. But, you will have to sacrifice the fast action.
Online poker has given many players the opportunity to play in multiple rooms at one time. All you have to do is download more poker software. This game is much faster than most poker games you may play in a casino as the pace is much more aggressive.
Just as some Naga303 players like to grind it out, online poker players can play a lot of poker hands. The odds of winning a particular hand may be against you, but the number of hands you can play in a certain hour should be projected into your poker strategy, not factored into it.
Play more than one table at a time if you can. If you have a laptop with a good internet connection, you can play four games simultaneously. With faster connections, you can play more than two tables. Two sites with slow connections are not a good idea.
You should also play more than one card game at a time if you have to. Most of us are not a multi-table type of player. We like a little break, working, watching TV, etc and we want to be in action when the waitress brings us our drinks.
Pick out a reasonable table – you want to play with a reasonable stack as players go bust with bad luck on the dealer. If everyone is playing the same, you can all still lose. Be picky.
Know your position at the table – you want to play fewer hands from early position, closer to the button, where you are almost guaranteed to have a good hand out of position. Play more hands from later position and less hands from early position.
Play from different positions – you can’t play from early position from late position, but you can play from late and early position. Against opponents who play a lot of hands from different positions, you can’t win at all. Play more hands in general from both positions.
Knowing when to fold – this is actually a very easy concept to understand. The further you get from the button, the more hands you should not be in for practically every card played. The times you fold make the times you stay longer in the tournament. This is especially true for higher stakes games.
Being aggressive – the idea of being aggressive is that you bet to test your opponents, to see if they are prepared for a call, a raise, or a all-in. You should usually lead the betting with some sort of semi-bluff, with the idea of being more than likely to have better cards than your opponents.
These are all simple concepts, which when learned and applied, will make you a far better poker player, at that particular moment in time, but it takes time.