Getting Started with online poker

Online poker used to be a very easy way to make some money. 3 years ago, I had a good friend who starting playing online poker. At first, he was a weak player and lost his bankroll, then a friend of his gave him a little paper with something like that written on it "AA KK QQ JJ TT AK AQ AJ" (maybe with a few more hands). He told him to play these hands and my friend because a winning player! It was that easy, but many people learned to play well and now it's much harder to be a winning player. But... it can be done and for those of you who want to learn, I have 2 good news:

You come to the right place!
You want to learn? Well served you are because there is a lot to learn!

You have come to the right place because even though most of the information on this site is available elsewhere, here, it’s easier to understand and you will find almost everything you need at the same place. Before, you had to go to one website for an odds calculator, another for information on the different networks, another for bonuses information, another for information on software that could help you out, another for full ring strategy, another for shorthanded no limit strategy and again another for shorthanded limit strategy. Now, you get it all right here!

Since there is so much to learn, let’s cut the small talk and start right away! First of all, when playing online poker, no matter which site you play, most of the games will be holdem, Omaha and 7 card stud. This site will help you with holdem, which is by far the most played form of poker online. There are 3 different ways to play holdem, fixed limit, pot limit and no limit. There will be strategy discussed for each game type on this site, but this particular page will give you general strategy which applies to any holdem game.

Those of you who tough this game was all about bluffing, lying and reading faces, well, you will finally get to know what it’s all about, and that is:

Preflop hand selection: You have to know what hands are profitable to play depending on the game (limit, pot limit, no limit), the number of people at the table, your position, the action before you, your table image, etc. (I’ll tell you right now, the more people at the table, the more preflop hand selection is a test of patience, you’ll understand later).

Position: Ohhhh yeah, it changes everything! At the same table, being on the dealer button might make J9 suit a good hand while AT is shit when you are first to act!

Agression: It’s harder than it sounds, believe me! The art of aggression is what makes the good players so hard to beat. The art of mostly folding or raising and controlling the pot size according to your hand while taking down many small pots with nothing!

Knowing the odds: Yeah, it might sound boring, but if you have no clue that a flush draw on the flop has 35% chances to hit… you definitely can’t play it well! The most stats you know, the better you will be.

Why don’t you see slowplaying and bluffing in there??? Because it’s part of the aggression! Many people feel they need to slowplay because people fold too often when they bet, but the real problem is they only bet when they have something strong!

The first step toward solid and profitable play: Preflop hand selection

I am not going to give you charts in this selection telling exactly which cards you should play, there are other sections of this site for that. I will instead help you think like a real poker player!

Why can’t you play every hand?

The technical answer would be because you and your opponents mostly have 100 big blinds or lower. Now, let me explain this to you! Suppose you play at a 1$-2$ no limit game, which means the small blind is 1$, the big blind is 2$ and a normal starting stack is 200$. You are dealt 58o (which means a 5 and an 8 offsuit, 58s would means 5 and 8 of the same suit). There are 10 people at the table and you are first to play. The most important problem with playing this hand is that in order to have a reasonable chance of winning, you need to get at least 2 pairs, which does not happened often enough. Now if everyone would have 20 000$ to start with, now even though getting something strong with 58o does not happen often, you would have the potential of winning a lot compared to what you invested to see the flop and would be right to play it! This leads us to our principle #1:

The more a hand needs to get lucky to be strong, the more the investment to see a flop has to be small compared to what you can win.

It if cost you 6$ to see the flop and the other guy has 20$ left, you better have a hand which is already strong to go for it (like a pair of Jacks for example), but you should fold a hand like 9Ts which might give you something strong, but just not often enough...

Why do you say you need to be more patient if there is more people at the table?

Simple, because there is more people who can have a better hand than you. Lets say you have AT, you really don’t want anyone to have AK, AQ or AJ because it can get expensive if you hit your Ace on the board. If the table has 10 players, there is MUCH MORE chances somebody has AK, AQ or AJ than if the table has 4 players. Because of this, you have to be more careful if there is more people at the table. That, bring us to our principle #2:

The more players are seated at the table, the tighter you need to play.

Tight is a term you will hear all the time, it means playing only strong starting hands. If I say I play tighter than you, it means I play less weak hands than you. Loose is the opposite of tight.

Why would J9s be good on the button and not elsewhere?

That is the beauty of holdem poker! Lets say you are at a full ring poker table, you are first to act with J9. If you decide to play it, you sure hope nobody has AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AJ, KJ, A9 or 99 because it can get expensive and you don’t have much chances to win. Since there are 8-9 players yet to act, there are good chances somebody does have one of those hands. But if you are on the dealer and everyone folded to you, then you only have to worry about the 2 blinds.

Why not playing those cards the big blind then, you would be last to act there? Because you are last to act only preflop. The guy on the dealer button will act after you on the flop, on the turn and on the river. Playing last gives you an enormous advantage in holdem poker, so strong that many winning players will just play anything when they are on the dealer button unless there is a raise.

What does the game type (fixed/pot/no limit) change to the starting hand selection?

Not much, just a little. When you play fixed limit, you have to remember that what you can get into the pot is limited, so hands like 34s on the dealer button is much better at no limit than at fixed limit. That is because you will very rarely hit something strong, but in no limit, you have to potential to get much more money into the pot when this happens.

The second step: Position

Why is it so important to act last?

This brings us to our principle #3:

When you act last, you lose less with your losing hands and win more on winning hands.

Suppose you are heads up on the flop (heads up means 2 players still in the hand, the flop are the first 3 cards on the board), you have AK, the other guy has AJ and the flop is J-9-3. If you act first, you might bet and get reraised but if you act 2nd, the other guy bets and you fold right away, you saved your flop bet. Here are 4 typical heads up scenarios where acting first cost you money, we will call the other guy Joe:

Joe raise preflop, you call with 88 and the flop comes 89A. You act first, you check planning to check-raise since Joe raised preflop, but Joe has TJ, so he checks trying to get his straight. You lost money because you only have 2 good chances of getting money and you just lost one (since he won't pay you much on the river if he doesn’t get his straight and you lost the chance to get paid on the flop). Plus, on the turn, he will not pay you much since he knows he only has 1 cards to save him now, unless he got his straight for free and now beats you. If you would have act last, you could have charged him on the flop.

You raise preflop with 99, Joe calls you with 88 and the flop comes AK4. You check because this board is so dangerous and Joe calls often with Ace-something. Joe bets because you checked the Ace and you fold. If you would have act last, Joe would have checked, you would have made a small bet and win the pot.

You have 33, Joe raise with AT and the flop comes T73. You check, Joe makes a good bet, you decide not to scare him right away and only call (warning, this play has to be exceptional, don’t do it all the time like many players). Turn comes 2 and Joe makes another good bet, you call deciding to check-raise on the river. River comes J, you check, Joe check. You just lost a river bet.

You have 9Ts and Joe has KQo and the flop comes 778. You check, he checks, turn comes Q. You check, Joe bets, you call. River J, you plan to check raise, but Joe is scared that you might have the 7 and he checks.

I hoped you did not get bored with those examples. The thing you need to understand in all this is that acting last brings more money. Because of that, you need to be playing more hands on the dealer button and the cut-off (the cut-off is the position that act just before the dealer button).

The 3rd Step, where the fun being: Aggression

Aggression is the key to no limit and pot limit holdem. It is still important in limit holdem, but not as much. In this section, consider that everything I say unless specified otherwise is about pot limit and no limit holdem.

The very first step toward good aggression (and that is valid for limit holdem) is to learn to “raise or fold” most of the time. You want to be raising much more often than calling. Now, the tricky part is that this does not mean you should be bluffing all the time.

What’s so bad about calling?

First of all, you have to understand that often, calling is not so bad preflop and on the river. But on the flop and the turn, calling is usually bad. Players mostly call because they consider their hand is not strong enough to raise but good enough to call. The problem with this is that there are other betting rounds where the other player will often bet again. Most successful players usually raise about 3-4 times more often then they call.

What’s so good about raising?

Raising is the key to no limit holdem for a few reasons:

First and foremost, because it gives you 2 ways to win the pot, either having the best hand or because everybody folds.

Second, because it makes a bigger pot when you have good cards.

Third, raising often makes you win lots of small pots and makes other players “not believe you” when you have a strong hand.

You finally know enough for me to tell you the basic of how to play a hand in no limit or pot limit holdem, and that is:

Once you have a good preflop hand, you raise preflop. On the flop, most of the time, no matter what the flop is, you bet. If you get called, then you usually will want to play more “honest” on the turn and river. That almost automatic bet on the flop is called a continuation bet. This is one of the most important thing to master to have a good aggression.

Why do I need to do a continuation bet when I don’t have anything?

First of all, if you bet only when you have something strong, people will steal a lot of pots from you and will learn to get out of there when you have a good hand. Also, you make this bet because it’s usually worth it because of how often you will win the pot right there. Lets say the pot is 5$ on the flop, if you bet 3$ and win the pot right there half of the time, you have no reason not to bet like this all the time no matter what you have! Even if you would lose every time you get called (and you will of course win at least sometimes), you lose 3$ half the time and win 5$ the other half, so you win on average 1$ every time you do this bet!

Does this continuation bet thing start to sound interesting? It gets better, since you bet almost all the time, do you really think they will believe you when you have a strong hand? Of course not, you just have to hope they got something good, but not as good as you. How could they know, you bet 3$ on a 5$ no matter if you have AJ and hit nothing or if you just got a straight.

Want another good reason to do this? It hides your flush and straight draws (a flush draw is when you are missing 1 card for the flush and a straight draw is when you are missing 1 card for the straight). If you only check or call with a draw, when the third diamond hits the board and you bet, people will see you coming with your flush. But when you do your usual continuation bet on the flop and bet again on the turn with your flush, they won’t know what’s coming!

So now, picture this, you play against someone who only play good hands, attacks the flop almost all the time and when you bet, he either folds or reraise you. That would be annoying wouldn't it! That’s why we call it aggression.

Do I have to do this continuation bet all the time when I raised preflop?

No!!! The important thing about this is that people will fold often enough to justify your bet. So, if for some reason, the odds that you will one the pot right there are weak, you should not do a continuation bet with nothing. If, for example, you raised preflop and get called by 3 players, then you should consider not doing your continuation bet because with so many players in, you will get called or reraised most of the time.

Another example? Sure! When you play against someone who just doesn’t fold, you have no reason to bluff, just bet when you have a hand which is probably the best.

The boring step: Statistics

Well, it’s not boring for all of us, I personally have a natural interest for statistics, but most people does not like to learn this. But, this is important. Most sites will simply give you a list, I will try to make it more interesting.

The flush draw

Lets say you have A8s and the flop is K72 with 2 cards of the same suit than your A8. If the pot is 12$ and the other guy goes all in for 7$, should you call? Hard to say if you don’t know that you flush draw has 35% chances to hit! That’s a bit more than 1 time out of 3. Now that you know it, let’s assume for a moment that the flush is your only way to win the hand. The pot is 12$ + the other guy’s 7$, so it cost you 7$ to possibly win 19$. 35% chances to win 19$ is worth 19 * 0.35 = 6.65$, so you need to call! And if you consider that the guy might be bluffing (7$ to win 12$, many people will try), you have another reason to help you call. Also, you have to consider that if you hit your Ace, you will most probably win the hand. Now, to complete this part of the statistics, if the turn is out, your chances to get your flush draw is 20% (1 time out of 5).

The Straight draws

The fun begins with straight draws. There are a few types of straight draw, the first one is called the open ended straight draw. You have an open ended straight draw when you have 4 consecutive cards (other than A234 or AKQJ). If you have 789T (lets say 9T on a flop with 278), you can get straight with either a 6 or a J. This particular one has 32% chances of hitting on the turn or the river. That’s a very little bit less than 1 times out of 3. Event though it’s not exactly true, it’s so close consider that for any straight draw, if you do not get it on the turn, you chances are half of what it was on the flop.

The next straight draw is the inside straight draw. You have an inside straight draw when only 1 card can give you the straight (ex: you have 78 and the flop is 259, you need a 6). You probably guessed it, you chances are half of what it is with an open ended straight draw, 16% on the flop and 8% on the turn.

The last type of straight draw is the double gutshot straight draw. This one is the best because you have as many chances of getting it as an open ended straight draw, but it’s harder to see for others players that you just got a straight! Here’s an example, you have 68 and flop comes 47T. You need to focus and think for a second to realize that either a 5 or a 9 will give you the straight, imagine those who do not see your cards. People guess other people's hands all the time, but have you ever heard somebody say “I think you have a double gutshot straight draw”??? On such a flop, people will be much more afraid of the straight if a J comes on the turn than if a 5 comes. For the stats part, it’s simple, it’s just like an open ended!

The full house draw

I bet you have never heard the before? Ok, it’s not really a draw, but still, if you have 77 on a 567 all spades flop, you might have good reasons to think the other guy already has the straight or the flush and you need your full to win. Well, the odds are pretty simple, it’s just like a flush draw, 35% on the flop and 20% on the turn.

Some all in preflop stats

A pair vs 2 overcards is close to 50% / 50%, like AK vs 88 (depending if the overcards are suited or not and if they can make a straight, etc. It varies between 43% / 57% in favor of the pair and 50% / 50%).

Domination, AK vs AQ, K9 vs 95 or AQ vs QQ, when only 1 card can save the lower hand (other than lucky straight or flush): around70%/30%.

Pair vs overpair like AA vs JJ, it’s a 80% / 20%.

Other Stats

When you don’t have a pair preflop, you will hit 1 one the flop 1 time out of 3 (33%, remember that your opponent also will only hit 1 time out of 3, doesn't that continuation bet start sounding even better now? ?)

When you have a pair preflop, you will hit your set 1 time out of 8 (12.5%)

That covers the basics, of course, everything mentioned here is addressed in much more details in other sections of this site. My advice to you is, don’t try to learn everything all at once, you need to practice, then read some more, practice again, etc. Also, remember that making money on hands is one thing, but choosing the best bonuses helps a lot too!