Poker tips
Whether you are a poker pro or a beginner, the poker tips below should help you perform better. The poker hints offered on this page are not rules of the games, they are sparks of ideas that you can apply in your strategies as you play. The poker hints that are given here can be used directly or they can be used as a guideline to develop your own strategies.
1. Don't play every hand
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. If you find you're staying in half or more the hands you're dealt, you need to upgrade your starting hand requirements.
2. Don't stay in a hand just because you're already in it
Another common mistake beginners make is to think that "Well, I've already put that much in the pot, I have to stay in now." Nope, you can't win a pot just by throwing money at it. There may be cases when pot odds warrant a call, but if you're sure you're beaten, and there's no way your hand can improve to be the best hand, you should fold right away. The money you've already put in the pot isn't yours anymore, and you can't get it back just by playing a hand all the way to the end, you will probably lose more.
3. Pay attention to the other players
As you play, one of the single best things you can do is observe your opponents, even when you're not in a hand. If you know if one player always raises in a certain position, and another has a poker tell when he bluffs, and a 3rd folds to every re-raise, you can use that information to help you decide how to play against them. Once you know that player 3 always folds to a re-raise on a river, that's when you can bluff and steal the pot.
4. Pay attention to the cards on the table
When you first start playing, it's enough just to remember how to play and pay attention to your own hand. But once you've got that down, it's incredibly important to look at what's going on at the table. In Texas Holdem, figure out what the best possible hand would be to fit the flop. Make sure you notice flush and straight possibilities.
5. Learn to leave the table
This is really just a general poker tip, but it still nabs even the poker pros at times. If you find that you are being outplayed, outclassed or just unlucky at the table, it's ok to leave. Don't think about getting your money back or getting revenge on the bastard that rivered you for the 3rd time now. If you are losing money at your table, you do not have a good table image no matter what you might think. Not only are you not in a good mood, which puts you on tilt, but other players will be more likely to make plays against you. This makes your game harder in more ways than you want. The best thing that you can do is get up and leave the table.
6. Don't bluff just for bluffing's sake
A lot of beginner's understand that bluffing is a part of poker, but not exactly how. There's is no rule that one must bluff a certain amount or at all during a poker game, but many players don't feel like they've won unless they've tried a poker bluff. Bluffs only work in certain situations and against certain people, and if you know a player always calls to the showdown, it is literally impossible to bluff that player.
7. Turn on your sound, turn down the music
It's no secret that us humans work better using more of our senses, otherwise we wouldn't have been born the way we are. Yes, it may get annoying to hear the dinks, beeps and chip sounds of the game after a while, but hearing those audible cues are vital to your play. You are much less prone to make mistakes when you can hear and see what people are doing, as opposed to just seeing it. If you are playing mutiple tables at the same time, a beep sound is played when it's your turn on one of the tables. If you don't have turned on your sound you can loose money because you didn't know it was your turn.
8. Be patient
The biggest mistake most players make is to act too quickly. When you're making an important decision pause to think about how the betting has gone and what your opponent might have. Analyze your own hand and decide how much chips your hand is worth. Just take your time.