Nerdistan

Last week, I found that sometimes if you wait, your online poker opponents will knock themselves out for you. I was playing with some pretty cold cards, and was sitting as the low stack for the majority of the poker online tournament. Through some pretty tight play and a few well-timed bluffs, I found myself in the top twenty. Unfortunately, I looked around and realized that I had the lowest stack at the table. As I folded the series of bad cards that came my way, I saw opponent after opponent go all in and get knocked out. After few rounds of this, I found myself at the final poker online table, where yet again, I was the short stack. I won a few hands, folding mostly and checking at the big blind, and after doubling up once or twice, I found myself on the bubble. I was getting ready to go all in with A-8 suited. I was actually hoping to buy up some more blinds and sit out for a while. As I was pondering the move, I noticed that one of my smaller-stacked opponents was counting his chips, so I checked. He went all in and someone else called, so I folded. He lost, and I was in the money! Sometimes it pays to just sit back and let everyone else do the work for you.

Jack seven is a great example of what is known in online poker as a garbage hand, a junk hand, a hand not worth a dime of your money or your time. Junk hands are junk because there are very few kinds of textures of flops that you can hope for to make a hand worth putting money in. The jack seven does not very often make a straight (you’d have to hit exactly 8 9 10) and even then it is not the nut straight.

You might get lucky enough to flop two pair, but your two pair will always be vulnerable to better two pairs, or to three of a kind, which will end up costing you a lot of money. Really all you can hope for in the way of the nuts with the jack seven is to flop a full house of J J 7, or 7 7 J, which is pretty much like playing the lottery over and over again just hoping that any day now you’ll be able to pay your rent.

The rarity of these online poker cards hitting the proper flop, when meshed with this questionable ability to actually be the best hand when they do hit it, make them no better than a hunk of junk you’d find on the road. You’d be better off playing with a joker and a deuce, because at least then they’d call it a misdeal. Remember this when you play poker online.

We’ve all seen that guy-he’s all in without so much as a pair, but he’s one Spade away from winning the online poker hand. He’s pulling out his hair as the river comes, while his caller with two pair leans back in (relative) comfort. Chasing an online poker hand is a mistake that every player makes every now and then. The difference is that the best players do it rarely and when they do, they do it a cheaply as possible. The players who tend to lose are the ones who make it a habit of investing chips in hands that they probably won’t hit. If you’ve got 9-10 and the flop comes out 8-6-King, your heart’s going to skip a beat. You’re one card away from an almost certain victory, and you still have two chances to get it, but there are only four cards in the deck that can help your poker online hand. It’s rough to be so close, yet so far from a winning hand, but it’s important to not let yourself get sucked into the pot, especially if you’ve got a bunch of aggressive opponents at your table. If you find yourself chasing a hand, try to see it without investing any chips.

Your first buy in at any table is the most important, mainly because it gives the first impression of how you play. This is a kind of metalevel concept in poker that you can use if you have a buy in to spare. You start off your game playing super tight, only the top four casino hands. About an hour in, you add some more cards to the mix and start playing other good cards. Remember, this isn’t about winning yet. Eventually, you’ll start evolving your play to the extent that you’re playing every other hand, regardless of the cards, essentially you become a calling station. This will get the astute players attention and the tourist won’t notice, but they’re not the ones you’re having to outplay anyway. Finally, you become the maniac, when you’re about half stacked from your initial buy in. You raise with nearly any two and you call down a lot of online poker hands with much worse. On your final hand of the table, and hopefully you’ve gained some chips by now to make it look great, you take the worst hand you can get, 2-7 or something similar and raise with it under the gun. Now before you do this, you go back to your tight folding strategy. When you get that raise UTG, since you’ve loosened your image, you reraise all in. Whatever the outcome, you show your cards. And talk about confusion. From tight, to calling station, to maniac, to insane duck hook raiser. Then you buy in again, and you play your TAG game, and you take their money.

You’re at a sit n go and you have your stat tracker running. After about 50 hands, two players have dropped out and you see the big stack is playing 60 vpip 30 pfr with an aggression factor of 80.

This is a prime example of an overcaller. He plays too many hands, bluffs too much, and generally gets in with bad hands and catches cards against players who are playing “standard” poker.

The point is, there is no standard poker. The rules we give you guys, the play your hands based on this starting hand chart. Open in this position with this range. All of these are just tips. None of them are magic bullets that will put you in the winner’s circle automatically. Instead, you have to adapt. Maybe you wouldn’t play KQ offsuit against an UTG raiser normally, but if you’re tracking his stats, and you see that he’s a maniac donk betting luckbox, then by all means, call his minraise when you have position and a playable hand.

More often than not, these players have one critical flaw. Even if they don’t hit anything on the flop, they condemn themselves to keep up their bluff. It’s an ego thing. So let’s say you hit KQ on a rainbow flop of K-Q-8. And your opponent keeps betting at you. You can either call and let him hang himself or raise minimally to string him along and move his chips to your stack.

The most important thing to take from this is that you have to adapt from the norms sometimes. Sure a tight aggressive strategy will work against other TAGs or Rocks, but against this overcalling maniacal bully, you’ll have to switch it up. They are after all the easiest players in poker to trap. Keep this in mind when you play poker online.

The flop in Texas Hold ‘Em poker can produce any variety of cards. Sometimes there are power cards out there, and presumably some players who paid to see the flop are holding good starter poker onlinehands with Aces or royal faces. Sometimes the flop brings nothing but rags - low ranked, big gapped and unsuited. The board has nothing to play. A loose poker onlineplayer may bet out to steal the pot, and if the pots odds are against you, let the pot go. But in a tight game, the players may check around allowing a free turn and even a river card to appear. This situation can result in a “scare” card materializing. Perhaps the turn pairs a card on the board, or the river card suit matches the turn for three to the flush. Now there is a scare card out there - one that could complete a “suck out” hand because no one bet out aggressively after the flop. The way to play it depends as always on your position and other players’ betting style. This is where reading your opponents and being able to put other people on a hand is a critical skill. If the scare card makes your hand, you should bet. If it’s the nuts, slow play it. A scare card tends to chase tight players away - unless of course, it or the river makes another player a hand too. If this type of player calls or raises, and your hand is not the absolute nuts, then you are probably beat. The loose aggressive player is harder to read. If a maniac calls or raises, carefully consider the hands played previously. Does this player lose, rather than win, a higher percentage of showdowns? If you’ve got a decent hand, most likely the maniac is bluffing. You have to examine whatever telltale betting patterns you’ve identified for this player and basically trust your own instincts before making a call.

A online poker player who is winning generally acts happy and cheerful while playing the game. And that’s how it should be. Mirth and good times are easily shared, and a winning casino online player will want to make the game fun for everyone.

No one likes losing pots, but if you maintain a happy disposition, being able to laugh off a bad beat, then the other players won’t mind losing to you as much either. When you’re seen as congenial, pleasant presence at the table, people will want to play with you and make them more willing to enter pots with weaker hands than they would play against less friendly foes.

When you criticize and chastise weak play, such as drawing to the long-shot bad beat, you are chasing away the fish. Don’t belittle the online poker player who puts a bad beat on you. Instead, offer congratulations on the hand, even offer compliments on the play.

When you are at a table with some fun seekers, then be cordial. Aggressive play will scare them off. Put out value bets, make a few jokes, and talk about sports, the weather, whatever. A friendly foe gets more action from those who want to have fun with their money. You will be the one who is grinning when that money goes into your pocket.

In a online poker game, the casino player who bets first after the big blind is “under the gun” - meaning first out of the gate in the race. This player must decide to fold the hand, call the blind or raise.

Playing under the gun is literally a tough call. Being in the position to bet first after the poker online blinds is a big disadvantage because there is absolutely no information to base a decision on other than your cards and whatever you may know about your opponents’ different playing styles.

When under the gun, it is foolish to play anything but the most premium starter hands, like high pocket pairs, and perhaps suited faces.

Making a call just to see a flop from under the gun is probably a waste chips. Before calling, think first about whether you are willing to call any ensuing raises from players behind you. If you don’t want to call a raise to see the flop, then fold. Don’t risk your chips.

There is only one advantageous move when you’re under the gun, and that is to raise right away. It’s possible you’ll scare all the players and only have the blinds to contend with - if they make the call. If you’re hand is worth playing from under the gun, then bet out with a raise.

Getting a big pair when playing poker online is a great way to start a hand at the casino, but just like anything else, the flop can turn it into garbage. I have lost a good amount with pocket Aces, simply because I didn’t know how to play them correctly. Getting the right cards is only the beginning-it’s your job as a poker player to play them in a way that gets you the most bang for your buck.

When you get a big online poker pocket pair, your first job is to chase all the small hands out of the pot. If you’ve got pocket Kings, you don’t want some joker with a 9-10 to draw two pair or a straight, so put in a big raise before the flop.

Also, a big enough raise will get all the chasers out of the hand and give you an idea of what everyone has. You know that anyone who decides to stay in the hand with you has something decent, so you’ll have a pretty good idea whether or not the flop helped anyone else, and you’ll be able to act accordingly. Big pocket pairs don’t come along very often, so make sure that you take advantage every time you get one.

Poker games would not be complete without some bluffing. Sometimes it wins a pot, but it can make a player go bust. Why do poker players bluff? And what are the best scenarios for deploying this tactic?

Remember - bluffing is a double-side weapon. It can backfire and wind up costing you lots of chips. How can you use it to advantage and minimize losses? The semi-bluff is the best way to use this strategy. That means you’ve actually got a chance at making the best hand. Perhaps you’re hold four to the flush or an open-ended straight. Bluffing might win the pot right there, and if called, you could win a big pot if your hand improves. Limiting bluffs to situations when you might actually win the pot is a better risk than bluffing with nothing.

When you don’t win, you can still get leverage from the bluff because other poker players will see that you only bet when the odds are good. It can serve to advertise your skill and make the other players wary of making a call later on in the game. If you are going to bluff, then be sure it conveys the right image you are seeking to establish. Bluffing a small amount at a small pot will costs you little, and can make you successful with a bigger bluff as the game progresses.

Bluffing should be used sparingly. Don’t waste it on worthless hands. Only bluff with the intention to win because your hand might improve.