How To Become Good At Online Poker

• How To Become A Great Online Poker Player
• How To Become Good At Online Poker Real Money
• How To Become Good At Online Poker Deuces Wild

So you want to become a professional poker player?

Texas Hold 'Em Poker is a game that rewards good play. There's some luck involved, but a good player will beat bad players the vast majority of the time. Make sure you know the rules to increase your chances of winning. Tip #7: Play poker about twice as often as you study poker, but make sure to study! Studying is essential to becoming the best poker player you can be, but at the same time, poker is a game that requires practice. Without practice, we can’t apply what we’ve learned off the felt, and we’ll begin to lose our innate sense of the game. In the era of online poker, this is more valid than ever. If you want to be a successful poker player, you must keep learning. It is as simple as that. Fortunately, there are many ways to improve — and that being said, we can jump into a list of top 10 ways to become a better poker player. Read a few good poker books. As a professional poker player myself for over 10 years now, these are my top 21 Texas Holdem tips that most pros don't want you to know about! Play Good Cards and You Will Win My #1 Texas Holdem tip is one of the very first lessons in poker that any beginner needs to learn. And that is, you need to play good poker hands in order to win.

It’s hard, but it’s possible.

Probably the number one mistake beginning poker players make is that they play far too many hands. When you're just starting out playing poker, you want to play poker, and that means staying in hands that aren't very good just to be part of the action. But playing more doesn't mean winning more, it usually means losing more.

You just need to put in your number of hours (and reasonable amounts of cash) to become more adept with the game you love.

A fair warning though: accordingly to poker experts, only an estimated 10 percent of poker players are considered long-term earners of the game.

That means there’s a load of poker players who think they’re good, but they’re not.

They often overrate their skill and once faced with sleek opponents, they often get up from their seats empty-handed.

It’s a tough and grueling sport and lifestyle.

So, are you still up to it?

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Do you win consistently?

Are you a winner?

The first thing you need to consider before you turn professional is your skill level.

While it’s true you could kill every home game in your backyard, the big league – the casinos, the professional card rooms, the office that is open 24/7 – is a different ball game.

Objectively assessing your skill level is crucial to ensure that your chosen path is worth pursuing.

Going professional means being able to pay for bills relaying only on the money you make from playing poker.

So if your skill level isn’t high enough you might run into some financial problems if playing poker is your only income stream.

So in here lies a much needed reality check: How good are you at poker?

I mean really. There’s a difference in “knowing” if you’re really good at poker and “believing” you’re good at it. I used to “believe” that I look better than Brad Pitt, but my friends “know” it isn’t true.

You need to know in your heart of hearts that you’re not kidding yourself because the mind is a prison and it’s quite an expert in deception to make us believe what we want to believe

Keep a record book

What you should do is to keep tabs of your poker performance on a regular basis.

If you want to become a No-Limit Hold’em professional poker player, you need to treat it just like any other job – professionally.

In your day job, your employer keeps score of your performance and you get that (dreaded) monthly employment appraisal.

Why not do the same with your game?

You need to have a baseline of data to compare the number of your wins to the number of your losses. According to poker experts, you need a minimum of two thousand hours to play poker and use the results of those games, win or lose, in order to make a sound case

Target Monetary Gains

Money, money, money…

Picture this: you’ve had enough professional work experience and you’re vying for a position in a new company.

You aced the qualifying exam, the interview went well, and it seems that you blew your competition away.

The CEO of the company was pretty impressed with your answers and he’s dying to have you on board.

But there’s one problem.

The salary range is not what you expect.

Sure there are benefits, but you feel the monetary offer won’t cut it.

Do you think the offer is an insult to your capabilities and sense of worth?

If your answer is “no” then you should treat your decision to turn poker pro the same way.

Of course, you’d say “poker is different.”

How To Become A Great Online Poker Player

Yes, poker is different. As opposed to your regular job that pays you a regular monthly wage, winning at poker on a regular basis is not easy as you think.

You need to consider the target amount of cash that you need to pay your mortgage, your tuition, your credit card, etc. (and if you’re like Joey Knish in Rounders, alimony).

Get your record book that we’ve suggested above.

Go to the page of your wins and losses, and compute how much you’ve won and lost each given night, each week, and each month as per the number of hours you played.

You’ll be your own manager and employee, founder and accountant.

It’s a tall order if you ask me.

Poker is fun if you’re winning when you’re losing a little bit during your spare time.

The story takes on a new face when it becomes the main source of your survival and lifestyle.

What separates men from boys: Pros versus Newbies and your bankroll

The harsh reality is that poker is not easy.

Growing up, we’ve heard old folks say you have to grind and work really hard, day-in, day-out.

You subject yourself to harsh boredom of doing repetitive and monotonous things in life.

How to become a No-Limit Hold’em professional poker player is no easy task and requires commitment more than you can possibly imagine and the most important thing you need to consider is your poker bankroll.

Your bankroll

Poker bankroll management.

How much money do you have or need to support your playing time and your life away from the tables?

Do you have enough to keep you afloat when you’re game is moving downstream?

Sooner or later you’ll suffer a big loss as is the case of most professional No-Limit players.

No one is exempted.

Some even disappeared from the poker universe radar after going “bust” big time. Others have sunk so deeply in debt they couldn’t get back up.

Determining your bankroll is a continuation of the importance of keeping an honest record of your game’s performance and your financial targets.

How To Become Good At Online Poker Real Money

Your bankroll ultimately determines the stakes you’ll be playing. It will help you identify the blinds you’re most likely to find yourself playing and the maximum buy-ins you’d allow yourself to have.

The bankroll that you will set must be pegged with the persistent probability of you getting badly hit by variance and losses.

Preparing to become a professional poker player is no different from an entrepreneur who’s starting a business – there must be capital involved that you’re willing to risk.

Do you know how and when to walk away?

I remember watching a cash game poker in one of the local clubs and there was one player whose stack was so short and yet would continue to soldier on.

From what I’ve heard, this player asked money from other poker players there.

Seeing this made me question myself,“is this the kind of pro poker player that I want to be?” “How could he allow himself to be put in that situation?” “How could he be so square?”

I know this sounds a bit discriminating, but you have to agree I have a point here. There’s a difference between a professional poker player and a gambling addict.

This is what separates the men from the boys, the pros from the amateurs.

The pros know when to quit, while the amateurs get stuck.

The pros know when to get up from the poker table and leave while they’re on the winning side. The losers will continue playing and sometimes embarrassingly leave the table without any cash left and with their chins down.

Do you know that feeling?

Both are difficult to do. That is, it’s difficult to leave the game when you’re still winning big. I’m sure you’ve experienced the same.

It’ sooooo hard to leave the table when you’re still winning and you continue only to realize you’ve lost more than half of what you’ve earned in the last 8-hour grind. How much more if you’re losing?

If you don’t know how or when, or should I say if you “can’t” walk away from the poker table, then you’re not a No-Limit Hold’em professional poker player yet.

The mindset of a No-Limit Hold’em professional poker player

Holdem wisdom for all player

In “Hold’em Wisdom for All Players“, Daniel Negreanusaid that if you can’t forget and let go of a previous bad play, you’re not yet a professional poker player.

If you’re the type who keeps talking about your bad beats or you can’t believe your made Flush on the Turn got outdrawn by your opponent on the River and kept complaining about it, then you’re not yet a pro.

Trust me. You’re not yet a pro.

Dealing with sharp emotional swings

I’m not saying you can’t feel bad about it.

You should.

But you also need to learn to let go.

Here’s an example. I was in a big local tournament with championship prize money worth US$60,000. It was time for the “In The Money” situation and I was mid-stack at the time. It was a heads-up match between me and a known aggressive player.

My hand was among the last plays and I had J♠,10♠. The board was showing 4♣,9♥,Q♥. I hit my nuts when the Turn came. It was an 8♠. The aggressive player hit his two-pair 9♣,8♣. He was first to act and went all-in.

I called.

The River was 8♦. I was outdrawn. Out of shock, I couldn’t get up from my seat. And I couldn’t sleep for days.

Variance and Psychology

Psychology of poker

However, I got an epiphany from that game.

There are two crucial things in poker: Probability (some call it lady luck) and psychology. If you don’t understand any of the two, then you’re in trouble.

You’re in bad shape if you can’t accept that variance plays a big role in poker.

Time and again you’ll hit a brick wall.

You seem to be capable of fairly calculating the odds and expected value of a hand you’re playing, but you can’t predict what’s going to happen next. That’s right. You can’t predict what the next card will be. All you can do is estimate what will come next.

The other thing is psychology.

“It’s not the cards you’re holding. It’s about the man.”

I bet you’ve heard this. if you’re in the game in a long time. It’s a grain of salt.

You need to learn to read other players’ tell – see their betting patterns, how they played in the previous hours, sessions, or last week.

Most important of all, it’s about controlling your emotions. I’m not sure how you do it, but when I’m in the zone, I could easily change gears and often tell myself not to tilt (which, by the way, still happens).

The Big Picture: Amassing A Lifetime Bankroll

We couldn’t stress further why your bankroll (management) is the be-all and end-all of a professional poker career.

Think of it this way: you should treat your dream of winning millions of dollars at the World Series of Poker a windfall, not a cash flow.

Unless you live off playing tournaments on a regular basis, the true source of professional poker income is in cash games.

The idea is to beat the game fairly and squarely, one big hand at a time. You don’t rush things. You wait for that big hand or play at the right moment and move strong to win enormously.

Your strategy should be to never give up what you’ve worked hard for and to get as much as you can in each game.

You need to build your bankroll, manage it, and protect it at all cost because everything depends on it. It’s your profession – you don’t want to get laid off, right?

Sure you wanna do this?

10 000 hours poker

In summary, you need to show up day-in, day-out. T

hat’s what the grind really means.

Professionals, in all fields of expertise and not only in poker, are those people who show up and carry on with what they do even if sometimes what they do already feels like a drag.

You need to put your heart out in every game and you can’t slack-off because it’s your chosen profession.

Try slacking-off in your work environment and you get a memo. Worst, you can get fired, right?

That’s the same thing with playing poker professionally.

In the non-poker book, Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell posed a theory called 10,000-hour rule.

How To Become Good At Online Poker Deuces Wild

The theory goes that if you keep doing the same thing over and over and amounts to 10,000 hours then you’ll be very good at that chosen activity.

I think that applies to poker as well.

The 10,000 hours is roughly equivalent to three years if you’re playing poker eight hours a day.

That means making sacrifices.

Now let’s see a pro in action in this video. Will this be you one day? Start playing today and find out.

As sports betting continues to expand it’s footprint across the United States with legal, online sports betting opportunities, as does the world of legal, online casino and iGaming. Here, we’ll look at a rather rudimentary guide on how to play online poker and win.

How to play iGaming online poker: Starting out

If you’re just getting your feet wet playing poker online, you’re not alone. Many are dabbling in electronic casino games for the first time.

Texas holdem is widely available online, as well as games like Omaha. The latter doesn’t have nearly the mass appeal or availability, however, so we’ll focus mostly on online Texas holdem.

How to play online poker: Winning

Before we proceed, let’s just clear up a few basics. There are four suits and two colors in a standard 52-card deck. We have two red suits – diamonds and hearts – and two black suits – clubs and spades. Face cards are jacks (J), queens (Q) and kings (K). Aces (A) can be used either as a high or low card, similarly to blackjack.

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Unlike blackjack, you’re not only playing against the dealer, but also the others at the table. In Texas holdem, you will get five ‘community’ cards dealt, and two ‘hole’ cards. Your two hole cards are not shown to anyone else. You must use at least one of your hole cards to make the best possible hand against everyone else at the table.

There will be a round of betting based upon everyone’s hole cards. The order is determined by the ‘button’, which is a round marker rotating around the table each hand. This signifies who is the ‘dealer’. The next two positions are the ‘small blind’ and ‘big blind’ spots. There is a pre-determined amount required to play the hand.

The big blind pays the entire amount, the small blind plays half, and has the option of matching the big blind to remain in the hand. After the big blind, each player around the table has the option of either ‘calling’, or betting the amount of the big blind, raising or folding. The betting goes all around the table until every player matches the highest bet made in a particular round.

After the hole cards are bet upon, the ‘flop’ is dealt. These are the first three community cards. Another round of betting ensues. Then, a fourth card, or ‘Fourth Street’ or ‘The Turn’, is dealt, and another round of betting, etc. Lastly, a fifth card, or ‘Fifth Street’ or ‘The River’, is dealt, and the final bets are made before a winning hand is determined.

How to play online blackjack: Strategies

There are plenty of different strategies for winning at online poker, but the best advice is to be patient. It might seem rather boring to continually fold hands, and Texas holdem can be a grind at times, but impatience is rarely rewarded, and it’s a good idea to wait for ‘Top 10’ hands. Eventually, you’ll learn about suited connectors (cards of the same suit in numerical succession), or just suited cards in general, which can be good starting hole cards.

In addition, sometimes you will hit a set – or three of a kind – on the flop with cards which aren’t necessarily great hole cards initially. You’ll learn the nuances of the game as you gain more experience. For intermediate or advanced players, this is all common knowledge, but for beginners just learning the game, patience is a virtue.

While various tables can have players of very different skill levels, and you do not want to play ‘tight’, or too close to the vest, using less risky play initially will mitigate big losses early on and keep your interest as you continue to learn. Eventually, you’ll also learn how to bluff, which by a series of strong wagers, can trick other players into believing your hand is stronger than it might really be.

This is certainly for more advanced players, but down the road you’ll learn you can win a hand even if you have lesser hole cards than your opponent simply by wagering strategy.

As you start out, you’ll need to know the order of winning hands, and memorize this list:

Royal flush (AKQJ10 of the same suit)Straight flush (Five cards in sequence, same suit)Four of a kind (Same card in all four suits)Full house (Three of a kind and a pair)Flush (Five cards of the same suit, sequence not required)Straight (Five cards in sequence, suit doesn’t matter)Three of a kind (Same card in three different suits)Two pairs (two different matching numbers or face cards)One pair (two matching numbers or face cards)High card (If you do not have any matching cards, it’s simply your highest card)

How to play online poker: Play responsibly

Again, please be careful initially when setting out. Do not play for more than you can afford to lose, try and limit your alcohol intake and other outside distractions, and simply focus on the game.

In fact, some players like to engage in chatter at the table in person, or via ‘chat’ in a room. Block all of that out and just focus on the cards, especially early on. Remember your basic rules and don’t try and get too cute. If so, you’re going to really enjoy playing poker in the comfort of your own home.

Ready to give online poker a try? Head over to BetMGM to sign up and play.

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