There is a good chance that if you are reading this article – on this site – that you not only watch the top poker players in the world’s biggest tournaments, but that you like to play the game yourself. But online poker can be a different kind of game from what you are used to.
There are more opportunities to play poker online these days and the rise in sports betting apps with casino sections will only make it easier. But how can you be sure that you can compete with the best online? We’ve come up with five tips to help with your online poker game.
Start With Small Stakes
Now, you may not be a complete novice when it comes to playing poker. But it is still probably a good idea to start off small when you play online. One of the reasons for this is that games online tend to get wrapped up much quicker than those in ‘real life’. You need to make sure that you have the funds for a longer session.But you will also need to get used to the way poker is played online. This can mean the software used, or the slightly different skills required. By starting off playing with small buy-ins you will give yourself a chance to improve your game online and progress to the higher stakes tables.
Play One Table at a Time
When you have been playing poker offline you have obviously not been able to move around tables and spread your games. But with the online versions there is the possibility to play more than one table. This sounds like an excellent idea – and a simple way to increase the chance of winning.But it doesn’t tend to work like that. The temptation will be to play as many tables as you can but if you are new to the online game you might start to find this a little confusing. Our advice is to stick to just one table when you start out until you get the feel of it. Then, when you have a little more experience, you can consider multi-tabling.
Be Careful Bluffing
Bluffing is considered an art and is one of the tenets of poker. You should absolutely master the art of bluffing to improve your chances of winning when it comes to playing poker anywhere. But you should be careful of overdoing it – especially on the small stakes tables online.You will find that there is much more players calling online. So, bluffing is obviously not going to be the most successful strategy here. It will mean that you have to be prepared to beat these kinds of players by getting good hands. Work on your bluffing technique, by all means – but don’t rely on it.
Figure 2 You will need to master new techniques to play online
Consider Investing in Software
One obvious advantage of playing poker online is that you are free to use whatever you like to improve your game in the privacy of your own home. There is plenty of software to help you – and you should consider investing if you are looking to improve your game.
One of the most popular types of software available for online poker players enables you to track the history of the hands played against individual opponents. Having this type of information at your fingertips could be invaluable to predict how a game might go. There is also software to help you multi-table and solve the problems we pointed out earlier.
Shop Around and Have Fun
This last tip is really just to make sure that you look at your poker playing as a fun pastime. You may well move up the ranks and tournaments to consider making it a more important part of your life. But we all started playing poker to enjoy ourselves – and the online version should make that even easier.There is a very wide range of poker sites available online and that means that you can compare the games, players – and bonuses attached – before you start playing. Give yourself the best head start to your playing and make sure you enjoy yourself.