Texas Holdem Strategy - A Few Tips To Get You Started

Playing texas holdem via the internet can be very fun, but the online holdem strategy is very different to that of playing in person around a real poker table. Here are some online tips to help you win more hands and develop an online holdem strategy: • Invest time playing free holdem games online. That way you can sharpen your skills without losing your bank and develop your holdem strategy. • Learn and develop your skill of patience. Top players fold a lot more often than they stay in until the showdown. A poor hand will most likely only get worse and more costly as it develops. Get out while it’s still cheap to do so. • Play your position carefully. If you are a later player, you have more time to work on trying to figure out what the other players have in their hand. A player in early position must act in the blind and should be much more careful which hands they decide to play. A small pocket pair may appear to be a good hand to play while in early position but those in late position may have the ability to fold them in the face of heavy betting from early position players. • Keep a chart of the pot odds handy so you can refer to it throughout the game. Having knowledge of the odds of you completing your hand can save you a lot of money in the long run. This is only one piece of the overall pie but an important one to your online holdem strategy. • Bluffing is an important part of your game but if you are beginner, don't try to hone your skills of bluffing in big stakes games or tournaments. That’s what free online poker is for. If you are in a tournament or game with players you have not profiled, and you try to bluff with a poor hand, you may get burned bad. • Take the time to understand your opponents and how they play. Keep notes on all of the opponents you face and develop their player profiles so you can use these notes in the future when facing them again and again. Uncover their tells as well as whether they play loose or tight. Utilize this knowledge of your opponents to prey upon their weaknesses. Pay attention to how frequently each player stays in the game to the River. By determining who the loose and weak players are you can focus your energy and time on defeating them first and use their stacks to help defend the better players. • And here’s a sneaky trick I learned from another pro online player. Make up a screen name that makes you appear as a woman even if you are not. Strangely enough, many male players won’t play as aggressively against someone they think is a female player. It’s a male flaw – take advantage of it. Building a good online poker strategy can be time consuming and won't happen overnight. You will need to see a lot of hands to fully master the game. So play when you can and add these tips to your online texas holdem strategy.