Becoming a Better Online Poker Player

Online poker has taken poker to a whole new extreme. There are millions of players taking part in the action 24/7 from all around the world. Technology now allows for players to see more hands than ever through multi-tabling, a feature that has allowed more players than ever before, the realistic opportunity of playing poker at home for a living. The key to being a successful online poker player requires understanding some elementary strategic concepts, exercising proper hand selection, playing position and having the discipline to manage a bankroll properly. Most poker players that are new to the game typically fail to do at least one of these things and most of them struggle with all of them in the beginning.

Hand Selection

One of the first strategic concepts players must learn to improve at in online poker is proper hand selection. Hand selection greatly differs based upon position and in order to fully understand hand selection, players must know how hands rank. For example, a Queen - Ten suited hand is a decent hand in late/middle to late position. However, in early position this is a dangerous call or bet. This is an example of how a decently ranked hand changes based on position.

Hand selection should be tighter in a full-ring game in comparison to shorthanded games. Hand selection should also be significantly tighter during the early stages of a multi-table tournament. As the field narrows down and the blinds get high, players can play the chip count and their opponents much more directly and hand selection tends to lighten up a bit as a result. The most common mistake for novice poker players is playing hands out of position because they simply cannot let them go.

Position

Position is one of the most important aspects of poker. Hand selection completely changes based on position and players in a better position have a significant advantage. That being said, the cards still need to be played to a degree. Just because you have the best position on the table does not mean you are destined to win the hand. Position poker is a concept that defines the person that is last to act as having the best position and the person first to act as having the worst position. The person acting later has the advantage of reacting to earlier actions or the lack of action. However, players with positional advantage should be cautious when being checked and then raised after they decided to place a position bet.

For flop, turn, river games, the person sitting to the left of the dealer has the worst position and the dealer (the button) has the best position. However, pre-flop the person to the left of the big blind (under the gun) has the worst position because they are first to act. The big blind is actually the best position pre-flop but in actuality this is an illusion. If a player aside from the small blind calls a raise from the player in the big blind, the calling player will have the better position for the remainder of the hand.

Bankroll Management

Becoming a better online poker player is a collective process but also is gradual. Players don't become professionals overnight. It takes practice and discipline. Proper bankroll management will help players advance in skill as they progress in stake levels according to their bankroll. Even the best poker players in the world lose from time to time. In fact, they lose quite often and this is called variance. Consistent poker players are players that can manage their money effectively. Every player has taken a bad beat or ran into their series of bad cards where they couldn't win a round to save their life. This is the natural order of poker variance.

Bankroll management keeps players from depleting their entire bankroll. It manages the ups and downs (variance) to survive the downs with minimal damage and stick around to take down another big win. Players should have at least 300 times the big blind in their bankroll to be playing fixed-limit or pot-limit poker. For a $1/$2 limit Holdem game, players should have at least $600 in their bankroll. No-limit players should have a bit more than that. Players that plan to play sit n go's or tournaments should have at least 40 times the buy-in of the level they plan to play at. For example, a $10 sit n go player should have at least $400 in their bankroll. When players drop down to below 30 times the buy-in, they should drop down a level in the sit n go's being played to ensure they have the full 40 buy-ins.

Don't make the common mistake of going big trying to pull off that big win that never happens and in doing so, deplete your entire bankroll. Play tight when needed and only loosen up based on position and the situation. Patience is the key in online poker. Multi-tabling helps increase the action and keep players from getting bored and going on tilt. If players select their hands carefully, utilize positional advantage and properly manage their bankroll they will see drastic improvements in their game. These concepts are absolutely necessary in becoming a good online poker player.