8 Tips for Getting Started in Online Poker

[superjoint]

To be successful in online poker, it is important to understand the fundamentals from the start. Knowing the fundamentals of the game will help in many ways: It will help you avoid losing your initial deposit; instill good habits and help you appreciate the game of poker as a skill game.
Educating yourself with online forums and poker books, as well as taking advantage of sign-up bonuses can go a long way!
If you want to maximize your chances of success in online poker here are 8 tips for getting started.

1. Hit the Books

In order to really understand the core concepts involved in playing poker, I would recommend reading as many poker books as you can get your hands on. There are poker books for all types of poker games and are cash or tournament specific. Here is a collection of books that will get you started:

• The Theory of Poker
  The Theory of Poker

[Craiggers]

Some comments on the above:
I use holdem manager and I like it better than poker tracker
I read the first harrington on holdem and it changed my game
If you want to be serious look into poker forums like 2plus2 and deucescracked, theyre gold mines
speaking of deuces cracked, another good way to take things seriously is to get coaching. It's kinda expensive but coaching can help plug leaks like crazy.
As for sign-up bonuses, the best one i've seen is rakeback. before you sign up with a site look for rakeback, which is where you get a percentage of the rakes of the hands you're in on. Watch the rake percentages though, Full tilt rake back is good only if you're playing above 10NL, otherwise another site with less rake on micro stakes, i.e. PokerStars, is a better choice.

Glad we have a poker subforum btw, now those referpoker people have a place to post!

[d1ng1zx2]

The two books I found the most helpful were "Powerful Profits from internet poker" by Victor H. Royer and "Play poker like the pros" by Phil Hellmuth. Alot of other ones I read are pretty vague and basically say every situation is different and experience is the most important thing, which is true but not worth the 25$ you paid for the book.

[thespecialscent]

NEVER EVER DO ONLINE GAMBALING
ITS A COMPLETE SCAM
THEY ALREADY DETERMINE HOW MUCH THEY WILL LET EACH PLAYER WIN OR LOSE
THEY ALL OPERATE OUTSIDE OF THE US and dont have to follow any of the rules
they dont use a true randomization of the cards
its all in place for them to take your money

[d1ng1zx2]

Originally Posted by thespecialscent

NEVER EVER DO ONLINE GAMBALING
ITS A COMPLETE SCAM
THEY ALREADY DETERMINE HOW MUCH THEY WILL LET EACH PLAYER WIN OR LOSE
THEY ALL OPERATE OUTSIDE OF THE US and dont have to follow any of the rules
they dont use a true randomization of the cards
its all in place for them to take your money

eh, I've been playing on pokerstars for about 2 years along with my brother and we've never noticed them breaking any rules or taking any of our money, in fact we've both cashed out on multiple occasions.

[Yorkiebar]

Originally Posted by thespecialscent

NEVER EVER DO ONLINE GAMBALING
ITS A COMPLETE SCAM
THEY ALREADY DETERMINE HOW MUCH THEY WILL LET EACH PLAYER WIN OR LOSE
THEY ALL OPERATE OUTSIDE OF THE US and dont have to follow any of the rules
they dont use a true randomization of the cards
its all in place for them to take your money

With online BlackJack or Roulette you could be right, but with Poker I believe sites just take a fixed percentage from the Blinds each round - the site doesn't actually play any poker, hence they can't cheat you out of any money.

[Cha0n1x]

Originally Posted by Yorkiebar

With online BlackJack or Roulette you could be right, but with Poker I believe sites just take a fixed percentage from the Blinds each round - the site doesn't actually play any poker, hence they can't cheat you out of any money.

Unless you're Phil Hellmuth and you run UltimateBet, and your employees are dodgy bastards that hacked the site so they could see opponents hole-cards ;-P
But that was cleared up a while back hehe

Most poker sites aren't interested in scamming people, because then they get bad rep, stop gaining customers, and thus make less money from rakes in each pot.

Still, i'm biased - I'm like d1ng1zx2, I play on pokerstars and I've cashed out many times with no problems.
I was on full tilt for a while and had no problems cashing out there either :-D

[Limey777]

After several years of online poker experience I'd like to offer a few fundamentals of online poker of my own.

:- Pick any game, you have the nuts with the river left to come. You bet your hand and another player raises all in behind you.
:- Probability of you losing the hand, 98.7%
:- Probability of suckout being one outer, 74.3%

:- After suffering afore mentioned bad beat, make sure to verbally abuse spouse/kids/parents/dog and then pose bad beat on every poker forum on the net. Let the flaming commence ensuring that the "tilt" period lasts weeks/months as oppose to usual sleep it off period. Don’t forget to use the phrase I quit and I’ll see you same time, same game, same site tomorrow.

:- Don’t confuse Real life poker with online poker. Screaming things like "But I bet first, that card should be the 7 of clubs, y’all a bunch of cheating whores!" will usually result in you getting your ass whooped or if in Texas, shot.

:- When in doubt push all in and holler "BINGO!!!

:- The random card generator is totally unbiased and cannot be influenced by betting strategy. It has been put in place to guarantee fair play and make your online poker experience as close to the real thing as possible…… and I am the pope "bless you my son"

:- You become frustrated by a slow player so you decide to run a player search to find out how many tables player is on so you can deliver your smartass comment to the table. Result comes back, player is on 15 micro Omaha H/L tables. This is NOT a bot! Bots are NOT allowed! It’s an online poker genius, ask anybody at pokerstars support, although they won’t be able to explain the horrible lag and constant disconnects.

:- If on dial-up connection NEVER check raise raise, this will cause instant disconnect and by the time you get back, you’ve been robbed.

:- When playing tournaments/Sit and goes NEVER go against a larger stack than your own especially the chip leader, his 2 3 off suit will stomp a big mudhole in your pocket A’s every time.

:-You get tired of the poker bomb/donk raising every hand and decide to call him down with pure crap. You hit a miracle one outer on the river and take down the pot. You will now receive a barrage of homophobic insults from donk. He is a poker god. You are not allowed to win and have just upset the whole equilibrium of the universe. Shame on you!

:- If playing at the weekend make sure to have a constant supply of pot/beer at the ready. You don’t want to be sober for what’s about to happen.