Poker Room
Play Free Holdem

Play Texas Holdem Online

Online Poker Tips

You can make a living playing online poker if you’re good. While it is true that in the online poker game the tells that are available in casino games are less prevalent you can still find success. You won’t be able to see that guy reaching for his chips as that flush card hits or the smile on that girl’s face. However, in the online game you can take advantage of current technology and utilize the available tools thereby improving your chances of winning. In fact, we the authors of this site take advantage of this game to such an extent that we make a living playing. Here are a few poker tips related to these concepts.

A tip that only works in online poker is to take notes

In casinos I mentally take a note of every hand a guy plays; how it gets played, how long it takes him to bet, what he pays off with, what he needs to raise preflop, etc. In online poker it’s different. When I play at PokerStars I can’t remember everyone simply by their name, while in a casino I can pretty much remember anyone I’ve ever faced.

There are so many people playing that it’s hard to keep track of who does what, especially since you can’t characterize them by their physical appearance. Luckily PokerStars has a note taking system. If you right click your mouse over the player’s name you can write notes specific to the player. I specifically like to keep track of the following:

• General opinion of the player: “Tight aggressive, Good player, weak player”
• What he needs to raise preflop
• Does the player payoff all or most of the time? If he does then don’t bluff him.
• Can the player be bluffed? How strong of a hand does he need to call.
• What are his starting hand requirements?
• Tricky?
• Does he go on tilt? How does he play when stuck?

Online poker is vastly different from a live game. Imagine being able to whip out your memory from every hand you’ve ever seen a guy play with a few clicks in the middle of the casino. Well, that’s possible with today’s current technology.

A valuable online poker tip is to add pigeons to your buddy list

Pigeons (bad players) are the ones you want to play with in the game. I always have my buddy list up and ready so that once I identify a bad player I can add him to my list. Think about what players put the most money in your pocket and try to play with them. In the option menu, click on search, and then you can click all of your bad players to find what table they are on. Then you can try and play in that game.

A basic tip for online poker is to open the hand history folder on your computer:

Have you ever wanted to see what a guy called a bet with on the end? If not, you really should as this is a key to being successful in poker. Click on the general options and then go to send me an email with hand history. Next, when the option to have the history emailed to you pops up, select “no” and instead you will go to the folder on your computer where the hand history is located. You will then get a folder where all of your hand histories are saved. Keep this folder open, locate the table you’re currently in and then whenever you want to see what a guy called with simply open the text file and scroll down to the bottom. Again, you could never do this in a live game, as it’s rude to ask what a guy called with on the end when he lost. Online it’s different.

The length of time to make a decision is a tell in live poker and online:
I’ve found that this is really one of the only tells you can get on a player in online poker. In general I will say that the tougher players do one of two things, keep their betting time fairly consistent to not give away anything about their hand. Or if they use a certain length of time to play a hand a certain way they later reverse this to keep a player on their toes. For example, if I only take a long time to bet with the nuts then after showing my hand a few times I’m going to take a long time with a bluff. Based on this you should take my notes on the weaker players with a grain of salt.

The online game may be different from live but fortunately for us the weak are still weak. The bad players tend to have particular hands when doing the following:

Wait for an annoying long time before a raise

Usually I find this is the nuts. It’s almost as if they’re trying to tell you they’ve got a really strong hand. I think in their mind it’s “I’m going to wait for a long time to make it seem like I’m unsure” but the raise pretty much changes this.

Raises immediately after you bet

Occasionally I’ll see a player that has the “autobet/raise” option on and I get raised immediately. I feel like this is almost always the nuts. Just like in a casino, the overly anxious guy bets and raises quickly when he’s got a good hand. Unless he’s a pretty smart player trying to fool me into thinking he had a great hand he’s probably just overzealous and can’t wait to get that raise or bet in.

Checks and then calls you very quickly

I feel like this is usually a mediocre hand or a draw. Usually the player has either flopped a pair and if you raised preflop is not going to bet into you. Against these players I usually try and bet thru them all the way once to see if they’re willing to call me (setting precedence). If they will, I’ll then proceed to bet only my made/strong hands so as to avoid giving away bets.

Watch for collusion in online poker

Although I think that in general there is not an overtly amount of collusion in online poker games, I know it does exist. Unfortunately unscrupulous people exist in both the digital and real world. The danger of opponents playing with each other to trap you in for extra bets must not be ignored. I try and watch for players re-raising each other when someone else is involved and then folding once they get the Hero out of the hand.

Additionally, if I start to run bad I get out of a game as well. There’s no need to get stubborn, there are plenty of other tables online. Whether it’s a function of your opponents getting lucky, you playing bad or cheating it really doesn’t matter. if you’re not winning you might as well change the conditions.

Copyright © 2005 PokerCheckRaise.com - Texas Holdem Online
All Rights Reserved.

Poker by Location

USA Poker
California Poker

Site Map

Contact Us