Poker is no cake walk; it sounds, feels and looks relatively easy, but trust it when we say it is not. If you wish to play poker and become a pro, you will have to do a lot of hard work. However, there are a few tips to make this learning process a bit faster, which are compiled in a list below.
- Play Fewer Hands and play them aggressively:
While playing Poker, you need to get in with a game plan in mind. There will always be a limit, before you try to play more than needed hands, you will not be successful, that’s for sure. A solid preflop poker strategy for POKER369 is perhaps the easiest and fastest way to improve your game.
- Don’t be the first player to limp:
If you are the first player to enter the pot, then limping is absolutely not recommended. Why? Here are the reasons –
- You can’t win the pot before the flop like you could if you raised.
- You give the players behind very enticing pot odds, making it more likely you face multiple players and thus less likely you win the pot.
If the other player has limped, then you can – it is one acceptable situation.
- Semi-Bluff Aggressively with your draws:
Bluffing is perhaps one of the important parts of poker. If you are not at all good at bluffing, then let the cards decide that for you, i.e. you will have your cards as a backup plan, in case of your cards getting called. This kind of bluff is called ‘semi-bluffs’. If you are new player, then bluffing with total nothing hands, before the river, is extremely unadvisable.
- Fast-Play your strong hands to build the pot and make more money:
Slow playing is perhaps the most absurd mistake, and certainly not the one you should do if you have just started playing.It is a common-mistake among players who get afraid of chasing their opponents out of the game, in case of a strong poker hand.
- Defend your big blind:
The big blind is a unique place, and you need to defend it with all you have got. Look out for –
- Position of the raiser (play tighter against the early positions and looser against the late positions).
- Number of players in the hand (when 1 or more players has already called the raise, play tighter and only call with hands that do well in multiway pots).
- The size of the raise (the larger the bet sizing, the tighter you should play and vice versa).
- Stack sizes (when short stacked, play fewer speculative hands and prioritize high card strength).
There are other important factors too, but these are perhaps the primary ones.
- Fold when you are unsure:
Whenever you are unsure, don’t think much about folding. It is perhaps the biggest difference between a bad player and a professional player. However, it is easier said than done – you will need lot and lots of practice.
- Attack when your opponent shows weakness:
More often than not, many players don’t double check their hands before calling bets after bets. They will, most of the time, usually have a weak hand, if they are checking their cards again and again. If there is a lot of weak play on the opponents’ part, it’s time you call off their bluff
- Play solid poker early in tournaments and don’t worry about survival:
The start of the poker game is not the time of stack preservation, regardless of the perceived belief. There are a lot of strategies that you can implement, for example, play solid poker earlier – just keep in mind that its not life and death, you don’t have to worry about survival.
- Only play if you feel like it:
Poker is a game of fun, and not where you are to be in constant tension. If you play it as a hobby or are a professional player, then it wouldn’t matter when you play it or not – but make sure you play it whenever you want it. Don’t play under frustration or fatigue.
- Only play in good games:
Make sure that you play with those players who are weaker as compared to you, because you won’t stand a chance against better players than you. This is not meant to discourage you, but this is the hard truth for the first-time player.
This list of tips given here will help a lot in Poker, whether it is a physical game or an online one.
