Whether you are an online poker player, poker bookmarker or poker homes, I believe everyone has a review for poker. In this, our second question: How to become a better poker player? This is a broad question and covers a broad base of related topics. So, allow me to cover the important stuff and leave the rest for you to find your own answers.
When I first started to play online poker, there was very little that I understood about Texas Holdem. So, I played a lot of Texas Holdem online games until I learned the basics. From there, I started to mainly play cash games and realized that I needed to really expand my horizons when playing real money games. I also started to understand game theory and why players shouldn’t just fall back on the every time they get a “bad beat”. At the same time, I started to understand player profiling and why you might want to hire a poker pro to do it.
Once you learn what to do, you can easily apply it to every hand you are dealt. Hands you would normally fold, you end up playing till the river and end up drawing more or less what you invested in the pot. This is a huge mistake to make, especially if you are playing a limit poker. To make a long story short, I learned this the hard way. It’s not the kind of story where you read a book and it pretty much Sets you up to fail pretty soon.
Once you learn what not to do, it’s easy to do the opposite. And, thus, I have learned a lot of bad habits on the fly. When I started to play poker online, I started to use a hand repetition system to help me to do my play a lot faster. At first, I didn’t put much thought into it. I was, what I would say, non-emotional. Then, one day, I came home mad. The last thing I want is a long trip back home after a bad beat! So, I cracked the code and now I use a poker calculator to help me. I have also started to read books like “Harrington on Hold’em” and Dan Harrington’s “Full Tilt Poker”. Dan Harrington is a guy I have learned a lot about poker from and who has a lot of good advice for players.
As I’ve said, I am very emotional and pay close attention to emotions. When I’m on a good streak, I tend to ride it and not think about it. It’s hard to do when you are leaving a tournament after a bad beat. It’s easy to blame it on the a bad beat or the cold deck. But, the poker bug bit back on me and bit away. I can’t get away from it and I’m a better player for it.
One of the other advantages of playing poker online is that it’s much easier to bluff than it is offline. Online, the game is presented differently (for me at least), and the way it is played is a lot different. offline, it’s a lot more controlled. Online, I can have a wet rag over there and no one would even notice. It’s interesting to see how people react differently online. Perhaps online players just inherently think better than people in live games. Well, that might be the reason but I’m sure there are many other factors at play as well.
As good as online MPO777 is, I still love to play offline poker tournaments and special monthly events that have a real buzz to them and a lot of emotion to them. Especially the ones that have a lot of mouthwatering pictures of the players. Some of them can go days without a good hand. Well, unless you have a million to gamble with, it’s just not the same.
Therefore, I advise those of you who like to play offline poker tournaments to keep your heads screwed on the same thing. Stick to the offline tournaments until you at least have a good 3 month run with a profit. Then you can move on from there. Just keep in mind, it takes a lot of skill and knowledge of the game to be able to make it profitable.