| Learning poker - Guide to poker |
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Welcome to read the Learning Poker – Guide to poker e-book. Or actually I guess technically this isn’t even an e-book but more just a guide that the readers will find helpful. The purpose of this guide is to teach you the basics about poker including for an example the rules of the most popular poker games and basic strategy to the most popular poker games. As most of the poker happens online these days it will also be our main focus and I will for an example explain certain things that apply only to online poker and which you probably wont find useful if you play only live poker. However the strategy guides should be helpful and other information should be helpful also for the live poker, from the last part of the book you will also find some information about the live poker tells. About the author: You have never seen me on ESPN, you also have never read about me from the poker magazines. My lifetime live poker tournament winnings are less than $50,000. With all that said you might be wondering how I would be qualified for writing this type of guide. And yes some might argue that I’m not qualified for writing this e-book, however the fact is that I was an online poker pro for over 5 years and made good enough living to never consider finding a “real job”. Last year I decided I wanted to do something bit more worthwhile with my life and left the online poker pro life behind. However I have no regrets of playing poker and in fact this book is sort of my good bye message to the poker world. My goal with the book is that at least one person who reads this book loses less or wins more in online poker than they would have without reading it. I could have tried to sell this book on one of these 1 page websites that would say things like “win millions with expert advice, these tips made me millions” however I felt like I owed the poker community a free quality poker strategy advice book. After all majority of the poker advice you will find online is sub-par and should have never been published. However, I hop e you find this book valuable and enjoy reading it! Disclaimer: Even though the goal with the book is to give the best possible information for the reader and help the reader on his/her online poker journey, I’m not in any way responsible for the readers financial or other losses. The reader accepts that he/she is fully responsible for all the actions he/she takes. What you will find from this book: Part 1 getting started:
- Online poker & recommended sites - Freerolls and free poker games online - Real money poker tables and tournaments online - Making deposit to online poker account - Account safety, gambling law and other issues - Skill against luck - Playing too much? & Gambling problem
Part 2 - Rules - Ring game, 3 to 10 players NL texas holdem strategy - Headsup 1-on-1 NL texas holdem strategy - Ring game, 3 to 10 players FL texas holdem strategy - Headsup 1-on-1 FL texas holdem strategy - PL Texas holdem -
Part 3 Pot limit - Rules - Headusp PL - Ring game PL - Pot limit
Part 4 Other poker games - Omaha hi/lo: Information & Strategy - 7 card stud: Information & Strategy - 7 Card stud hi/lo: Information
Part 5 Expert advice - Rakeback deals and other promotions - Poker books, tools and poker coaching - Takings notes - Game selection - Confusing and tilting your opponents - Tells and timing tells - Watching the high stakes online poker games - Dealing with the support - Quick poker glossary Part 6 Final words
Part 1 getting started: From this chapter of the book you can find some basic information about online poker. Online poker & recommended online poker sites By far the easiest way to play poker these days is on the internet. Now some sites are even offering the customers to play directly on their site without having to download any type of software to their computer. However all the major online poker sites require you to register an account. From below you can find our top 3 recommended online poker rooms with a short description about what in our opinion makes it worth the recommendation. 1) BetUS Poker – Good choice for poker players from the If you are from the 2) EverestPoker – Quality poker room This is our second recommended poker room for the players from outside
Freerolls and free poker games online If you are new to poker, or have never before played it on the internet it is most likely a good idea to play the free games for a while. All the poker sites offer free tables in which you play with so called “play chips”. You can’t win any real money when playing in those tables, but on the good side you cant lose any money either. On top of these free poker games the sites also offer freerolls. Freerolls are free poker tournaments from which you can win real money. The prize pool in these tournaments is usually between $50 and $1,000 and around the top 10% of the players will usually walk away with some cash. The level of play in these freerolls is slightly tougher than in the free games from which you cant win real money. Real money poker tables and tournaments online After you have played free poker for a while it might be a good idea to try the real money games. The players in real money games tend to be quite a bit better than in the free games and thus I recommend that you start from the smallest possible real money games and climb to bigger games as your skills improve. Making deposit to online poker account Naturally the online poker rooms want to offer their customer as many ways as possible for funding their online poker account. Thus everybody should be able to find a way to deposit to the major online poker rooms. Some of the most common deposit methods accepted by them are for an example: credit cards, debit cards, bank transfers, prepaid cards and online wallets. Account safety, gambling law and other issues When you open your online poker account it is important that you choose a quality password (at least 8 charters and mix of numbers and letter), there have been cases where online poker accounts have been hacked by hackers and the moneys have been stolen. Never give your password to anyone and never go to any suspicious websites / open suspicious emails on the same computer you are playing poker on. The gambling laws and laws considering online poker are significantly different in majority of the countries. For that reason we are not able to tell you if you are allowed to play poker for money online and what is the required age limit in your country for gambling. If you are unsure about the gambling law please consult with the poker site you plan on registering at before opening your account. Skill against luck Over the long term poker 100% skill game. However in the short run the world’s worst poker player can win against the world’s best poker player. You should never get mad if you get unlucky or lose a big pot due to a setup, just remember that in the end the best players always end with the money. Playing too much? & Gambling problem Unfortunately some people cant keep the gambling under the control. There is nothing to be ashamed in it, however if you have gambling problem it is extremely important that you search help before it is too late. You can start by visiting the Gamblers Anonymous website. It is estimated that 95% of the online poker players lose money over the long term, so you should really view poker as a hobby that will cost some money instead of a way to pay your bills.
Part 2
1. It starts with the blinds being posted. The player directly to the left of the dealer posts the small blind, followed by the player to the small blinds left posting the big blind. This happens before any player is dealt any cards. 2. The Dealer starts dealing. The dealer deals every player at the table two cards face down. These cards are known as the hole cards. 3. Betting starts The player directly to the left of the big blind starts the action. He has the choice to either Raise, Call, or Fold. After he has made his decision it is then passed to the next player who then also has the option to Raise, Call, or Fold. This continues all the way round the table until it reaches the Big Blind who is the last player to act before the flop. 4. The Flop Once the betting has finished and all players have had the option to Raise, Call, or Fold. The dealer then deals out three community cards face up, which is known as the flop. 5. Betting after the Flop After the flop has been dealt, betting continues again. This time the betting starts with the player still in closest to the dealers left. This time this player has the option to check or bet. This is then continued round the table again until every player has had the option to bet. If one of the player previously bets, the other players then have the option to Raise, Call, or Fold. 6. The Turn The fourth card is then dealt out face up. This is know as the turn. This is the forth community card available to the players still left in. 7. Another round of betting After the turn is dealt another round betting takes place between the players still left in. 8. The River The fifth and final community card is the dealt face up. This is known as the river.
Ring game, 3 to 10 players NL texas holdem strategy Ring game NL texas holdem is the most common online poker game at the moment. You will find thousands of ring games from all the major sites and the action in those games simply never stops or even really slows down. Preflop play: When it comes to preflop play the first thing you need to understand is that the hands that you can play quite a bit less hands from the early position and even from the middle position than you can play from the late position. For an example I recommend that you play only top 10% of your hands from the under the gun in 10 person table, however from the button (if no one else has entered the pot) you can play profitably over 50% of your hands. I recommend that when you decided to play a hand and you are the first to enter the pot you always raise. In my opinion a good open raise amount is 3.5 big blinds so if you are playing $1/$2 nl your open raise should be $7. If there are limpers before you should add one big blind for each player that has limped, so if there are 3 limpers your preflop raise should be to $13. If you decide to re-raise your opponent before the flop I recommend that you raise 3 times his raise + the possible amount put into the put by the callers. So if your opponent has raised to $7 and there are no callers you should raise to $21, if there is one caller before you I recommend that your raise to $28. Your re-raising hands depend entirely on who you are playing against. If your opponent is folding to virtually every re-raise or at the latest giving up on the flop if he doesn’t hit super premium hand you can obviously re-raise him a lot and simply pick up the free money (as long as you ready to let your hand go if it appears that he has this time around the rare super premium hand and has you crushed). On the other hand if you are playing against the type of player who always goes all in with high frequency after your re-raise you obviously need to tighten your re-raising standards and simply re-raise with premium hands so that when he goes all in you can confidently call him and assume to have the best hand majority of the time. Before the flop from the blinds you need to play quite tight, simply because the positional advantage is so huge in ring game NL texas holdem and calling loosely from the blinds will simply get you in lot of trouble after the flop. Flop play: As they say, the flop will either make you or break you. After the flop you have seen majority of the cards dealt during the hand and thus you often need to decide already on the flop not only how you will play the flop but how you will play the turn and river if you decide to continue in the hand. For an example if you hit a premium hand on the flop which you want to get all your chips in with you need to plan on the flop how much bet on it and how you bet on turn and river so that you do indeed get your chips in. If were the raiser or re-raises before the flop I suggest that you bet the flop almost always no matter what you have. Big percentage of the time your opponent(s) will simply give up their hand on the flop and you will take the pot home. Turn play: In my experience turn is the worst street to bluff in texas holdem. For that reason on turn you should most of the time either get a free card if you suspect you have the worst hand or if you have the best hand you should bet for value. River play After the final card has been dealt you need to decide if you have the best hand and want to get value with it, or if you have the worst hand and want to bluff your opponents out of the pot. When trying to figure it out you should look at how the hand has played out so far and what your opponents most likely have and what they think that most likely have. River is a great place for making overbet all-in value bets. For an example lets say the board reads AA378 and you already bet the flop and turn with three of a kind aces and good kicker on river you can often go all in for value even if it better than the pot bet. This is simply because people rarely want to let their made hands go on river and they are likely to think that you are betting all in simply because you are desperate. Headsup 1-on-1 NL texas holdem strategy From personal point of view I have to say that headsup NL texas holdem is the funniest poker game you can play on the internet. It also has the potential to be the most profitable poker game you can find online. The most important thing in 1on1 NL holdem is game selection: never play against anyone who you think is better player than you are. Don’t let your ego get involved, simply play against the worst players you can find and take the maximum advantage of their leaks. In headsup NL your game plan depends almost entirely on who you are playing against and thus I won’t give starting hand recommendation for it and instead will reveal you ways to take advantage of the most common leaks. If your opponent is calling too much: This should be obvious but if your opponent is calling too much simply value bet aggressively all your good made hands. Against that type of player you should play your draws passively and you can often draw to hands that you wouldn’t against better players. For an example quite often you are getting good enough odds and implied odds (= you will loads of money if you hit your draw) on the flop to draw to a gutsthot straight. It can be quite frustrating to play against the calling station type players wh you can’t hit quality hands, however during those times simply stay calm and remind yourself that when you start hitting the premium hands you will take your opponent’s moneys. If your opponent is folding too much: First thing you need to do is figure out if your opponent is folding too often in all the situation or only in certain specific situations, for an example there are opponents who fold too often on the flop but then on the other hand call too often on river. Once you have figured that the spots in which your opponent is folding too often don’t be afraid of taking advantage of that leak and simply keep bluffing him in those spots. However once in a while you should pass on a bluffing opportunity just so that your opponent thinks that you are simply running incredibly well instead of bluffing him. If your opponent is bluffing too much: Your first job is to identify your opponents bluffing tendencies. This means that you try to figure out the spots in which he is most likely to bluff, for an example some people love to bluff when there is 3 same suit cards on the board (and thus the possibility for a flush) but rarely bluff in other spots. On the other hand some people simply bluff in every spot without paying much attention to what hand you are likely to hold. Once you have identified your opponents bluffing tendencies you need to figure out how you can play your hands in such a way that your opponent is most likely to bluff away his whole stack against you when you have a quality hand. Against some people this means that you should do small bets (So called teaser bets), some opponents simply cant resist the urge to raise all in against these small bets and then you simply call his bluff and take his chips. On the other hand some super aggressive players get suspicious when they face these teaser bets and simply shut down: against them you should just check-call. Those are three most common leaks people have on in headsup NL texas holdem and being able to take advantage of those leaks is vital in becoming a winning headsup nl player. I recommend that you have at least 50 maximum buyin bankroll for the headsup NL games: meaning that if you play $0.25/$0.5 tables which have the maximum buy in of $50 you should have a $2,500 bankroll. Ring game, 3 to 10 players FL texas holdem strategy The most important thing in rin game FL texas holdem is playing aggressive poker. This is simply because quite often folding after the flop is the biggest mistake one can make – so if you can force your opponent incorrectly to fold his hand it will be a great thing for you. Obviously on the other hand if you yourself fold too often after the flop it will without doubt harm your earnings. In preflop you need to play quite tight, because in fixed limit the actual starting hand values matter quite a bit and the imiplied odds are not that good because the relative cost of seeing flop compared to the possible win is much higher than in no limit. For that reason you should stay away from the speculative starting hands such as 75s, and even 65s from early position. Whenever you play a hand you should raise or re-raise with it so that you take the initiative and increase your chance of winning the hand by forcing your opponent(s) out. After the flop the correct play is quite frequently to simply bet each street no matter what cards game and no matter what you are holding. Obviously against the biggest maniacs and calling stations you need to change your play a bit – but as rule of thumb “if you play a hand play it very aggressively” Headsup 1-on-1 FL texas holdem strategy The strategy for headsup FL texas holdem is actually pretty simple. To put it in few words: play aggressive and loose. The biggest mistake you can make in this game is folding too many hands, and the other big mistake is not betting loose enough with your winning hands. For an example you can often value bet hand like bottom pair on every single street and expect to get value from ace high, and sometimes even from king and queen high. In preflop play you can pretty much open 100% of the hands from the small blind, just do small adjustments based on who you are playing against. If you are playing against the type of player who folds too much preflop or after the flop simply open raise 100% of the hands from small blind and bet every single street without even thinking about. If you are playing against a better player you might want to consider folding some of the absolute crap hands such as 62o from the small blind. From the big blind you should play bit tighter, but you still have to play 50%+ of your hands so that you don’t let your opponent run over you. The big blind play depends much more about your opponent then your small blind play. If your opponent is opening loads from the SB but giving up too easy after the flop if you show aggression simply three bet from the big blind liberally and keep pounding after the flop. Post flop the key is to keep aggression your opponent and not to give him any free cards when you have the better hand. Slowplaying and playing tricky is almost always a mistake in 1-on-1 FL holdem. When you keep playing the game you will quite quickly develop a feeling about what is the correct decision in each situation. However one key point I want to make is that avoid folding on river at any cost. Unless you are certain that you have no winning chances you should almost never fold the river. For an example lets say you were drawing to a flush and your opponent bet the flop and turn and now he bets the river when the flush wasn’t completed, in situation like that you are often forced to call even with hand such as king high because your opponents will often read you correctly to have the flush draw. As with all the poker in headusp FL texas holdem the game selection is the key, if you notice that you are playing against a player who is better than you simply leave the game and find a softer opponent to play against. When it comes to bankroll requirements I recommend that have at least 1000 big BET bankroll for the FL headusp games. So if you play $1/$2 headsup you should have a $2,000 poker bankroll. PL The only difference between pot limit (PL) and NL holdem is that in pot limit you can never bet more than the “pot”. For an example if the pot is $50 on river and your stack is $100 you can’t go all in for the $100 instead you can only bet $50. 99.9% of the time you shouldn’t be betting more than the pot anyway and thus the game is pretty much the same as NL and thus the strategy is also the same. The most important thing in PL texas holdem is to plan your hands. Because you cant bet more than the pot you are often forced to bet more on flop and turn to get all your moneys in to the pot when you feel like you have the best hand or you feel like the only way to get your opponent to fold is that you go all in.
Part 3 Pot limit Omaha Poker Pot limit Pot limit In Pot Limit Omaha, a player’s wager is limited to the amount of money in the pot. Persons can not wager more than that amount. While many of the rules which govern pot limit poker will be similar to those of no limit and limit
First of all you can open raise up to 95% of your starting hands from the button in headsup PLO. Meaning that basically just fold the utter crap such as 6664, K222 and Q842 and even the last one you might be able to open raise profitable against certain type of players. The bottom line is that having position is such as huge advantage in PLO that you can play tons of hands when you have the button on the small blind. When it comes to playing from big blind you must be bit tighter, it is unfortunate but you simply have to allow your opponent playing from the SB to run you over a little when you are on the BB. Even though it hurts to fold so many big blinds you should think it as saving money as you would most likely lose lot more money after the flop with the garbage hands if you choose to play them. When you decide to play hands from BB you really have three options: call 100% of the hands you play, re raise a decent amount of hands or re raise all the hands you decide to play. Don’t make the mistake of only re-raising with pocket aces and calling with all the other hands you are playing. If you do that your opponent will have a significant edge over you after the flop. After the flop your strategy should depend entirely on what type of player your opponent is. This is why in headsup PL Omaha it is vital to pay attention to your opponent’s tendencies and the way they are playing in certain situations. For an example if your opponents is the type to bluff loads but shut down immediately when you show aggression you obviously need to slowplay your premium hands and bluff him with a decent frequency. If on the other hand your opponent is the type to only play his own hand and not pay attention to what you most likely have you should just go ahead and play your quality hands super aggressively, because if he does have a hand himself he will give you action no matter what and if he doesn’t have a premium hand he wont give you action no matter what. When you are playing headsup PLO I recommend that you keep at least 100 buyin bankroll for the level you are playing at. So if are playing $0.5/$1 games which have the $100 maximum buyin you should have a $10,000 bankroll. This might sound like a lot, but after you have played PL Omaha headsup for a while you will understand why you need such a massive bankroll. (hint: it is because the variance is staggering) Ring game PL The most important thing in ring game (3 to 10 players) pot limit First of all in ring game PL From the later positions you can loosen up your starting hand requirements and from the button you can for an example play hands such as AJ97 if no one else has entered the pot before you. I recommend that whenever you are the first person to put money into the pot before the flop you open for a pot sized raise. Remember that you should avoid telling your opponents before the flop that you have aces, so for an example it is bad idea to re-raise exclusively pocket aces before the flop. Thus if you want to re-raise aces you also need to re-raise with other quality hands such as 9876. After the flop has been dealt you need to avoid putting lot of money into the pot with drawing dead hands and worse draws. Lets say the flop is AQQ and you are facing heavy action from two players when you are holding QJT8 in that case I would suggest simply letting the hand go unless you have special reason to suspect that your opponents are bluffing. Because many of the experienced players play by the above strategy you will have countless good bluffing opportunities in PLO. For an example when you are holding the naked ace (you have the ace of the suit that there are at least 3 of on the board, but you don’t have flush because you don’t have other card of that suit besides the ace in your hand) you can often profitable bluff against the weak-tight type players. Because of the frequent set-ups and other big pots the bankroll requirements for PLO are even higher than fro NL holdem. I recommend that when you are playing ring game PLO you have at least 60 buyin bankroll. So if you are playing $0.25/$0.5 games which have the maximum buyin of $50 you should have a $3,000 bankroll. Pot limit The fact is that there really isn’t all that many pot limit Majority of the players playing the PLO tournaments play way too loose at the beginning of the tournaments and end up busting with mediocre hands. And thus at the beginning of the tournament you should play tight and try to hit the nut hands with which you can bust your opponents. When the tournament progresses tighten up your game and start stealing pots from the players that are afraid that you have the nuts. The most important thing to note in the PLO tournaments is that majority of the players playing them aren’t PLO experts and thus you should keep notes about who are the players you can bluff and who are the players who are going to give you too much action with their sub-pair made hands or bad quality drawing hands. Part 4 Other poker games Even though texas holdem and pot limit Omaha Hi/Lo is one of many different types of poker. It follows the basic rules of poker but with a few twists. A person who is interested in becoming a good Omaha Hi/Lo poker game should spend the time and make the effort to learn poker basics. This will give them the foundation that will be necessary to learn other forms of the game. While jumping right in and attempting to learn on the fly is one approach, it generally is not the best one, especially if a person is playing for money. A much better approach is to study the game, practice for free and then start wagering for money.
Omaha Hi/Lo is an extremely fun game. It rewards the player who has the highest hand and also the one with the lowest hand. Two players have a chance to win. Each will split the pot. This may not sit well with some people. However, for persons who don’t mind sharing, this can be a really fun game.
Each player is dealt four cards by the dealer. These are known as the hole cards. The dealer will then deal out five cards. These are dealt face up, placed in the middle of the table and are called the community cards. Each person will take two of their hole cards, along with three of the community cards to create the best hand that they can. The person that has the strongest hand wins half of the pot. As stated above, it is shared with the individual who has the lowest hand.
To begin play, the person sitting to the left of the button, makes the small blind. This is a small bet. The person to the left of the small blind, makes the big blind. Next, every player is dealt four hole cards. The first three community cards are dealt and face up on the table. This is known as the Flop. Every player will then have a chance to bet.
After the flop, the turn is dealt. This card is placed face up on the table. Every player will again, have an opportunity to wager. After the turn, is the River. The dealer deals the fifth card which is placed face up on the table. The final rounds starts and then the showdown.
The person that has the strongest five card hand wins half of the total pot. The player that has the lowest hand, wins the remaining amount.
Omaha Hi/Lo is a fairly simple game. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it is easy. In order to be a competitive player, individuals must be willing to study. After the basics are mastered, a person can then concentrate on strategy and finding a successful system.
The good thing about Omaha hi/lo strategy is that it is actually quite easy to learn, the bad thing is that mastering it takes lot of experience and thinking. The strategy tips shared below are aimed for the 4 to 10 player games, beginner players should away 2 and 3 player games as the experienced players have a much bigger edge in them. If you for some reason however want to play 2 or 3 handed tables remember to play 1) more aggressive 2) looser poker 3) pay close attention to your opponent’s tendencies. However now lets get to the actual Basic 1) Play only quality starting hands. This means that your hand should have both ways value, meaning that with your hand you can win both the low pot and the high pot without needing unreal luck. Winning the whole pot should always be your goal in 2) Play aggressive and drive players out of the pot. As said above your goal should be to win the whole pot. Unfortunately in multiway pots you very rarely have the best lo and hi hand. Thus you should be bluffing and raising aggressively to get the players who hold those to fold their hands. Obviously you cant get people who hold the nuts to fold their hands thus you should do majority of the forcing out when you suspect your opponents have decent, but not a premium hand. 3) Avoid getting moneys in dead. As said above scooping the pot is important in 4) Remember the bankroll requirements. If you are playing fixed limit 5) Pay attention to your opponents. This tip is universal with all the poker games, however it is so important that it needs repeating. You should always stay aware of what is your opponent’s style of poker: if they are loose or tight, if they bluff, if you can bluff them, if they play tricky or straightforward with their good hands and so on. 6) Spot the weak players. Maybe even more so than in other poker games in I hope you found the 7 Card stud information: Seven Card Stud is a very popular form of poker. It is available in most land based casinos and also online. The rules are fairly simple and straightforward. Any person who is serious about learning the game will find that with focused study they will be able to learn the rules and nuances of the game fairly easily.
7 Card stud hi/lo information:
A person who desires to be good at Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo must make a special effort to learn the rules and play as much as possible. Because the Internet makes it possible for individuals to play as much as they like, even for free, all the tools or pieces are available for persons who want to really work on their game. The information age has been largely responsible for the growth of the game and for churning out poker professionals and aces at younger and younger ages. If you are interested in joining their ranks or simply want to understand the game, read below.
Before play begins in a Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, every person who will be participating will ante up a small amount of money. Each person will then be dealt three cards. Two will be face down and one face up. The individual whose face up card has the lowest value will have to place another bet (one-half of the small blind). In cases of a tie, the suite is considered. The person with the lowest card is the ‘bring-in’. Cards are then dealt in a clockwise direction and each person takes their turn going in this direction as well. Each player will need to decide whether or not to match the bring-in. The small bet is required if no pair is showing. If a pair is showing, the big bet must be made.
Each player is then dealt another card that is face up. The person who has the highest valued, face-up card, acts first. This is known as
The dealer deals each player another card,
Part 5 Other topics From the part 5 of this book you can find detailed information about some important poker related matters such as taking notes and using game selection to succeed better in poker. Rakeback deals and other promotions If you play real money poker you will end up paying considerable amounts of money in rake. Rake is the amount the house takes from each pot for organizing the game and from each tournament entry. For an example if the buyin for a tournament is $20+$1 the rake is $1. $1 might not sound like all that much, however all those small amounts add up and even the hobby players easily pay upwards $300 per month in rake. Selected online poker rooms offer these days their customers the chance to get a deal which returns them part of the rake they pay. This is know as “rakeback”. The rakeback is usually around 30% of the rake you pay and is paid either weekly or monthly. Virtually all the serious online poker players have a rakeback deal. You might also want to get one as if you are not getting rakeback you are basically refusing free money. As we want to help you we now reveal you how you can get a 30% rakeback deal paid weekly: 30% rakeback deal at NoiQPoker instructions: 1) Go to NoiQPoker through this link: NoiQPoker. 2) Open an account and make sure it says NOIQ777 in the signup code field which you will find at the end of the registration form. 3) You now have the deal. If you want to verify that it is indeed working simply contact their customer service.
Poker books, tools and poker coaching In all honesty poker books are these days a bit outdated. However if you prefer reading books I suggest that you read at least the books: Theory Of Poker, Ace On The River and Small Stakes Hold’em. Because of the popularity of online poker is evolving faster than ever and thus if you are serious about making money you should sign up at an online poker coaching site such as BlueFirePoker. Sites such as it have videos made by successful online poker players which explain in detail the strategies they use to win money in online poker. Typically being a member at such as poker video community costs around $20 per month. If you are serious about winning money in online poker you should also buy a tracking software such as PokerTracker which gives you information about your own game and the way your opponents are playing. Also you should download a poker odds calculator such as PokerStove. Communicating with other poker players If you are the type of player who wants to bounce ideas with other poker players I recommend registering at a quality poker forum such as twoplustwo. At twoplustwo poker players who are serious about making money in online poker share information strategies with each other in order to become better players themselves. Takings notes Besides using the tracking software mentioned before to track your opponent’s tendencies you should also be keeping notes about how your opponents play. These days all the major online poker rooms allow you to add notes to each player you are playing against and when you play against them in the future you will see what you have written about them before. When taking notes you should write down the interesting hands your opponents played and if you believe they for an example call too many bets on river, or if they tendency to go all in too often as a bluff. Game selection From the previous chapters of this book you have been able to find some strategy tips for specific poker games. However the most important tip I can give you is the same in every game: use quality game selection. Using game selection simply means that you wont play unless the game you are playing in has lot of value (=worse player than you are). As they say you could be the 10th best poker player in the world but if you are playing against the 9 players who are better than you, you are going to lose your moneys. Confusing and tilting your opponents The advice in this segment goes under the category: follow at your own risk. However even with that said I wont go in to the unethical advices, the tips that you can soon read are completely legal – it’s just that your opponent might not appreciate you for using them. Top 3 ways to confuse your opponent: 1) Use poker nick that indicates you are inexperienced player. Name such as WSOPHero09 is great as it indicates that your just saw WSOP on TV and decided to try online poker. 2) Use fake location. The poker pros assume that players from certain 3) Mini raise. People assume that the players who minimum raise for an example are beginners, thus when you enter the table for the couple first hands that you are going to play you might want to mini raise as it is likely to convince some of your opponents that you are a beginner. Top 3 ways to tilt your opponent: 1) Ignore their insults. The people who are steaming after a bad beat and are calling you with names can often be made even more mad by simply ignoring them. 2) Take time before every decision. Before each decision wait 5-10 seconds. 3) Don’t autopost your blinds. Some people get really annoyed if you have the autopost blinds feature turned off. Tells and timing tells Live poker tells (also known as physical poker tells) are one of the most overrated things in poker. The truth is that most people cant pick up reliable tells and I really recommend that you don’t stress too much about giving out tells when playing live poker, you should always stay aware of the things you do when you are in hand and make sure your opponents don’t have definitive way to figure out what you hold based on how you act – however they most likely don’t even if you don’t care about it. However many of the more experienced live poker players can figure out what you have if you make the mistake of talking with them during the hand. So when you are in hand simply don’t answer their questions and don’t talk with them. Also on the other hand you most likely wont be able to read your opponents, so you really shouldn’t worry too much about trying to figure out what they have based on how they hold their hands or how they touch the chips for an example. When you are playing online poker there obviously isn’t physical poker tells. However there is something known as timing tells: timing tells mean that you for an example always bet instantly when you have premium hand and wait a few seconds before betting if you are bluffing. You should obviously make sure that you are not giving out any timing tells. Figuring out your opponents timing tells takes lot of experience and most likely only the extremely inexperienced players will give out any sort of timing tells. So just as with the live poker tells you really shouldn’t stress too much about the timing tells. Watching the high stakes online poker games One of the quick ways to improve your understanding about poker is to watch the high stakes online poker tables. These tables usually feature the best online poker players on earth and thus if you watch the action long enough you will surely pick up some betting patterns and strategies that they use. Also watching the high stakes game can be loads of fun and surprisingly entertaining. Dealing with the support I was thinking for a while if I really even should add this part to the book. However after reading about the way certain online poker players treat the customer service teams of the online poker sites I decided to add it. To put it simply: always treat the customer service / support with respect. They are not responsible for your losses. So no matter what be polite when communicating them, and if you for an example notice that they have by mistake given you too big bonus amount inform them about it. Quick poker glossary BB = Big Blind SB = Small blind PL = Pot limit NL = No limit EV = Expected value FL = Fixed limit SH = Short handed (at most 6 players at the table) HU = Headsup (1-on-1 poker game) Miniraise = Raising the minimum amount possible Fish = Bad player Meta-game = Psychological mind game played between the players who are playing poker against each other Implied odds = The money you can expect to win later in the hand if you hit your draw Pot odds = For an example if your opponent is betting $10 to a $10 pot you need to win >33.33% of the time the pot to be able to profitable call the $10. Part 6 Final words I hope you enjoyed the Learning poker – guide to poker book. And most of all I hope it makes you some money, or at the very least saves you some money when you are playing poker on the internet. Good luck and remember to always gamble responsibly.
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