Winning at Online
Poker
My first suggestion is to test out
the free tables. There is not a lot
of competition on them and they are
a good
place to learn the speed of
the game and the overall basic play
of the site. Once you are familiar
with the site
and the navigation you
are ready to begin playing for real
money.
There are many different types of
tables to play
here along with types
of games. PartyPoker offers
No
Limit Texas Holdem, Omaha, Omaha
Hi/Lo and 7 Card Stud.
We will
focus on No Limit or Pot Limit Texas
Holdem. There are many different
types of tables also to play.
You
can play tournaments or real money
tables.
Tournements are good when
you are begining because you can
only lose your entrance fee. They
start at $5 a
tournament and you can
play for an hour. Those usually
have
10 players so you get good
experience. There
are also multi
table tournaments. Those have more
than 10
people , usually 100 to 1000
players. The entrance
fee is
similar, starting at $10 going up to
$1000, but you can
win a lot more
money. However, if looking to make
money, I would stay away from
these. They are hard to place
in
the money and also take a real long
time to play.
They can be fun to
play if you have the time and are
interested
in learning, but they
wont make you the big money
unless
you happen to get lucky and win or
place in the top few
positions.
While Texas Holdem is based on
skill,
there is a LOT of luck
involved. Especially in large
tournaments.
You can be the best
player in the wolrd, and that
doesn't guarantee you a top spot if
you get unlucky on a draw.
We are going to focus on Real Money
tables. This is where you can make
the most money if you play
conservatively and are patient. The
best tables to play are the $25 No
limit or Pot limit tables.
The
Regular limit tables keep you from
making the big win, which is where
you will make you money.
Also, try
to avoid larger than a $25 table.
They have tables up to $200, but the
better players play on the $50
and
up tables. You will make your money
off of the less experienced players
on the low limit players.
Everyone
these days is learning to play Holdem and there are a lot of
inexperienced players out there and
this is
where they start to play.
The name of the game is
conservative. You will not make
money bluffing people. You will not
make money
playing 3-8 offsuit in
the long run. Sure, you might make
a quick few dollars here and there,
but remember,
you are playing for
the long run. What you want to do
is play only the best 10 to 15
hands. Pretty much,
if your lowest
card is a 9 or a 10, then you want
to play it, as long as the blinds
are not raised. When you have
one
of the top 3 hands (AA, AK or KK) we
suggest raising slightly. Most of
our wins come from getting say KK
on
the flop, raising to $1.50 and then
someone re raising to $3 or $4
dollars. They feel their hand is
strong but
odds are, its not as good
as yours. Then you go on top of his
raise and bet $10 or $15. That will
either take him
out or get him to go
all in. You will make your money on
the big wins. You might lose 40
hands in a row and
only be down $5,
when you get a pair of Kings and you
can double you money on one hand.
Slow Play
Most people bet big when they have a
good hand. A trick I use sometimes
is to slow play a good hand.
Say
you are on the blind and you have
5-9 and the flop is 5-7-5. You have
3 of a kind and probably the best
hand. I usually check in this
position. People might think you
have nothing and bet to try to bluff
you out or they
might have a 7 and
think they have the best hand out
there. There always is the
possibility someone will catch
something later on and pick up a
flush or straight to beat you, but
in the long run, this will win.
Don't chase
If you have something decent, like
A-Q and the flop is J-J-10, I do not
suggest chasing this,looking for a
King.
When you are looking for one
card, this will not get you money in
the long run. The odds are about 9%
of hitting
this. That means 91% of
the time you will lose. If no one
bets, you can place a small bluff to
possibly knock
people out, but small
is the key word. If someone bets
strong, then fold. There will be
many more hands.
Don't get suckered
into betting with A-K, even if you
have nothing.
Study your Opponents
Another thing we suggest is to watch
the players you are playing
against. Do they bet high off the
flop and you
later find out they
have nothing. Do they only bet once
every 15 hands, showing they only
play the best hands?
You can learn
a lot from watching how your
opponents bet. When someone takes a
long time, they usually don't
have
the best hand. If you just bet
something and they are real slow in
calling but then eventually do call,
then
the next time, you raise your
bet. They probably are chasing
something. If a player bets a lot
real quickly,
get out. They
probably are not bluffing. The
bluffing I have seen has players
taking a while to bet, then thinking
they will bluff and then eventually
bluffing. That isn't always the
case, but in the long run, it is.
Watch the big stack when he bets.
When someone wins a big hand and
they get a lot of money in their
account,
they get cocky. They will
more likely try to place a larger
bet to bluff because they have the
money. Never try
to bluff the big
stack. They will almost always
call.
Pay attention also to the little
stack. If someone is down to $3 or
4 left on the table, the will go all
in when they
get a real good hand.
They will probably fold all their
marginal hands, just trying to
double or triple up.
Multiple Tables
We suggest also playing 2 or 3
tables at once. One table can get
real slow if you are only playing
the top hands.
You might only play
1 in 10 hands, so if you play 2 or 3
tables at once, you can double your
profit potential.
however, do not
do this if it is too confusing to
you. This will take some time to
work up to but the rewards can
be
great when you do this.
Final Words
Finally, we'd like to say, good luck
and stay conservative in your play.
When you are the little blind, we
suggest
almost always calling the
$.25. If there is a raise though,
drop. Poker is a game of ups and
downs.
Some days you will
lose. But remember, you are playing
for the long run. Stay
conservative, never chase
anything
and stay within your limits and we
guarantee this approach WILL make
you money.
The Second Round of Texas Hold
em:
After the flop and in each
subsequent betting round, the first
active player left of the
button is first to act. The second
betting round also limits the value
of bets and raises to
the lower limit of the stake
structure. So in a $10/$20 value of
each bet is $10 for the
second round. When we say the bets
are limited to $10, it refers to: a
Bet (single bet) of
the value of $10, so when a user
places "BET" then it is $10, "RAISE"
would be $20
includes one additional bet and a
call on the previous bet placed by a
player. Bets can
be placed, by playing any of the
following options Bet, Call and
Raise. These options
are available to each player
depending on the action taken by the
previous player. The
first player placing the bet would
get the Bet option (the player left
to the Button).
Other players will get the Call and
Raise options only.
After this the fourth community card
is dealt out this is known as the
Turn.
The Third Round of Texas Hold
em:
The third betting round starts again
with the player left to the button,
and bets and
raises are limited to the upper
limit of the stake structure
($10/$20 game, $20 would be
the upper stake). When we say the
bets are limited to $20, it refers
to: a Bet (single bet)
of the value of $20, so when a user
places "BET" then it is $20, "RAISE"
would be
$40 includes one additional bet
and a call on the previous bet
placed by a player.
Bets can be placed by playing any of
the following options Bet, Call
and Raise.
Combinations of these options are
available to the player depending on
the action
taken by the previous player. The
first player placing the bet would
get the Bet option
(the player left to the Button).
After this the fifth community card
is dealt out this is known as the
River.
The Fourth Round of Texas Hold
em:
The fourth (and final) betting round
starts again with the player left to
the button, and
bets and raises are limited to the
upper limit of the stake structure
($10/$20 game, $20
would be the upper stake). When we
say the bets are limited to $20, it
refers to: a Bet
(single bet) of the value of $20, so
when a user places "BET" then it is
$20, "RAISE"
would be $40 includes one
additional bet and a call on the
previous bet placed by a
player. Bets can be placed by
playing any of the following options
Bet, Call and
Raise. Combinations of these options
are available to the player
depending on the
action taken by the previous player.
The first player placing the bet
would get the Bet
ption (the
player left to the Button).
Some standard rules
A maximum of four bets, which
includes one bet, and three raises
are usually allowed
for each betting round per player.
The term cap is used to describe the
final raise in a
round since betting is then capped
and no one can make another raise.
Once capped,
players will have the option of
calling or folding only. Folding can
be done at any
stage of the game. The player from
then on would not be considered as
part of the
game. He/she would not have any
rights over any pots created on the
table.
Apart from the fold option, a player
could also get the option of
"Check", in which the
player can pass his/her turn without
placing a bet. This option would not
always be
available to the player, and depends
on the actions taken by the previous
player in the
hand. The player HAS TO equal the
amount of bet placed by any other
players for each
round in the hand.
Poker is typically played "table
stakes", meaning only the chips in
play at the
beginning of each hand may be used
throughout the hand. This means that
the player
cannot get additional funds from the
cashier while he is in the midst of
a game. The
table stakes rule has an application
called the "All-In" rule, which
states that a player
cannot be forced to forfeit a hand
because the player does not have
enough chips to call
a bet.
Exceptions to the value of betting
in each round:
A player who does not have enough
chips to call a bet is declared
All-In. The player is
eligible for the portion of the pot
to the point of his final wager. All
further action
involving other players takes place
in a "side pot", which is
unavailable to the player
who has already gone All-In. When a
player goes All-in, the pot
currently at the center
of the table, which has
contributions from him/her as well,
is treated as the main pot,
over which the All-in player has
rights. After the player goes
all-in, all the new bets are
placed in a side pot, over which
only the contributing players have
rights. The All-in
player does not have any rights over
the side pot. The side pot is then
given to the next
winning combination.
After the final round of betting,
it's time for Showdown. This
refers to the action of
deciding who the winner of the pot
is. Five cards of the total of hole
and community
cards are to be used for deciding on
the winning hands. A combination of
the following
may be used -
q
q
q
Both hole cards and three community
cards
On the final
round of betting, the player who
bets first (or checks first if no
one else
bets) is required to show their
cards first at the showdown. If they
have the best hand,
the remaining players may/may not
show their cards as they wish. The
aggressors'
hand is only turned over first if he
was the last to initiate action on
the river.
If two or more hands are the same
ranking, the winner is the one
having the higher
cards. For example, a Flush with an
Ace high beats a Flush with a King
high. If the
poker hands remain tied, then the
highest card not being held in
common (the kicker)
determines the winner. The suit
order of the cards is not taken into
account while
deciding on the winning cards.
Should poker hands be absolutely
identical in ranking,
the rule of poker pot distribution
will be split evenly between the two
or more winning
players.
The game play remains same for both
No-Limit and Pot-Limit Texas Hold'em
game
with a few exceptions to the rules
mentioned above:
In Limit Texas Hold'em Poker a
maximum of four bets is allowed per
player during
any betting round. This includes a
(1) bet, (2) raise, (3) re-raise,
and (4) cap, but in No-
Limit Texas Holdem and Pot-Limit
Texas Hold'em there is no limit to
the number of
raises that a player can make. The
only criteria being that you cannot
raise yourself,
(i.e. if a player bets during a
betting round, then that player
would have to be raised by
another player in order for him/her
to be able to re-raise). If all the
other players in the
hand only call or fold, the player
would not get an option to raise,
because the last raise
was done by him/her.
Betting Structure for No-Limit
Texas Hold'em Poker
Minimum raise: The raise
amount must be at least as much as
the
previous bet or raise in the same
round. As an example, if the first
player to act bets $100 then the
second player must raise a minimum
of $100 (total bet of $200).
Maximum eligible raise: The
size of your stack (your chips on
the
table) .
The Betting Rules for Pot-Limit
Texas Hold'em Poker
Minimum eligible raise: The
raise amount must be at least as
much
as the previous bet or raise in the
same round. As an example, if the
first player to act bets $100 then
the second player must raise a
minimum of $100 (total bet of $200).
Maximum eligible raise: The
size of the pot: The size of the pot
is
defined as the total of the active
Pot (which can be either the main
pot
or the side pot depending on whether
anyone has gone "all-in") plus
all bets on the table plus the
amount the active player must first
call
before raising.
