Online Poker
Once you’ve mastered the basics of poker by playing poker games online for hours on end, you’re ready to start learning poker strategy.
Believe it or not, poker is basically a strategy game. The key to success in poker is anticipating your opponents’ moves and countering them. You have to learn when to bluff, when not to bluff, and how to read the other players. This means you have to get a good poker strategy.
A good place to start learning poker strategy is with a little reading on a poker blog. Most experts agree that Doyle Brunson’s Super System: A Course in Power Poker is still the best book on poker strategy. Brunson has been playing poker for nearly sixty years and he won the World Series of Poker ten times so he obviously knows the subject. You can probably locate a copy at your public library or used book store or online. There are some other great poker books out there and some of them are written by former champs.
Another great resource is the internet. Most online poker sites offer lessons and tips on play. Several former poker champions, including Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth, have excellent websites where they occasionally post articles on poker strategy. There are also streaming video and DVDs of poker lessons taught by experts that can be helpful.
When you do play, there are a few basic strategies that you can follow to improve your odds. One is don’t be predictable; don’t get into a pattern that other players can easily and quickly spot. When see yourself get into a rut, do something different and see what happens. Don’t become an open book that other players can read. One way to avoid this is do something unpredictable such as play through to the showdown with a bad hand so they’ll be more likely to call your bluffs.
The bad habit you want to avoid can help you when you see it in other players. Watch other players closely and try to deduce their patterns of behavior. Do they do the same thing over and over again such as fold quickly when they have a bad hand or raise a lot when they’ve got a good one? Or do they only play through to the showdown when they have a good hand? If they do, that’s a pattern you can and spot and use against them.
Poker strategy is that easy it’s a matter of learning how to observe how others play and adjust your play accordingly. Unfortunately, poker strategy is also a skill that takes a lifetime of play to perfect.
Comments Off
