Free Tips to Play and Win at Online Poker
If you’re new to online poker, it’s important to know a few simple tips and tricks.
Poker can be learned in minutes, but mastery takes years. You can get ahead with this simple poker betting technique.
Understand the gameplay
New Jersey and Pennsylvania now allow online poker. Online poker has reasonable stakes and is convenient. Best sites give bonuses and promotions to improve budgets.
Let’s review poker rules. We’ll use Texas Hold’em as an example because it’s the most popular poker game.
Hold’em players start with two face-down cards. Before the “flop,” players wager. These are three shared community cards.
The “turn” card is added after another betting round. A final “river” card is added after another round of betting.
From your two-hole cards and five community cards, make the finest 5-card poker hand. Standard poker hand rankings (best to worst):
- Royal Flush
- Straight Flush
- Four of a Kind
- Full House
- Flush
- Straight
- Three of a Kind
- Two Pair
- One Pair
- High Card
How can you improve your poker game? Here are some poker basics.
- Start carefully
Starting hands should be chosen carefully. Most of your hands will be behind on the flop, and you’ll waste money.
A good poker strategy involves choosing the appropriate starting hands and pouncing on monster hands. Pick a few premium hands to raise in a late position and fold your weak holdings reflow.
Pocket aces are the best beginning hand in poker.
- A-A
- K-K
- Q-Q
- J-J
- A-K Suited
- A-Q Suited
- A-J Suited
- K-Q Suited
These are all late-position hands you can raise. You can raise A-A and K-K in an early position to be among the first to act post-flop.
Add 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, 7-7, 6-6, and suited aces like A-10, A-9, A-8. Small pairs like 2-2 and 3-3 should only be played for flop value.
- Aggressiveness
Poker cash games and tournaments require aggressive play. It’s useless to play premium hands if you’re not ready to spend big and eliminate opponents.
So, great poker advice is to play a few hands aggressively. You can be aggressive with little pairs and suited connectors versus weaker, fold-prone players. This helps mask your hand’s strength when you only hit part of the flop.
- Bluffing
The best players wouldn’t win many pots without bluffing. Learning to bluff is a wonderful strategy to force players to fold when you miss the flip or turn.
Good players bluff to make better hands fold. Learn continuation betting (c-bet). This is a flop bet after leading preflop.
A c-bet keeps the action continuing whether you hit the flip or not. A c-bet can hide your created hands if you have an aggressive appearance. Your opponent may think you’re buying the pot when you have a good hand.
- Don’t Bluff Too Much
Poker players should learn to bluff. Don’t rely on bluffs too heavily. You don’t want to bleed chips by playing marginal hands if the calling station doesn’t respect them.
Add some semi-bluffs. When you have a drawing hand that could improve, you semi-bluff.
You hold 6-5 diamonds, and 8-9-J shows two diamonds. You can make a straight, flush, or straight flush if your bluff is called.
- Know hand rankings and odds
Starting hand rankings are a stronger online poker strategy than starting hand tips.
You have a pair of eights with an ace kicker if you have A-8 and the flop is K-8-2. You’re losing against kings and potentially 2s or 8s.
What should you change? Another 8 could give you three of a type, but your opponent could have a complete house. An ace gives two pairs and strengthens your hand. Pre-flop raiser might hold A-K.
You should know winning hand odds. This includes
- Odds Outs
- Odds
- Pot odds
Compare this amount to the amount needed to call. Imagine your hand chances are 4/1 and the pot odds are 12/1. 12/1 call pays 4/1. Always an easy call. Hand odds cheat sheets are available online. Keep one handy for online poker.