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: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880685000?ie=UTF8&tag=daddrock-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1880685000"]The Theory of Poker[/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/188068537X?ie=UTF8&tag=daddrock-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=188068537X"]No Limit Hold ‘em: Theory and Practice[/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580420818?ie=UTF8&tag=daddrock-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1580420818"]Doyle Brunson’s Super System: A Course in Power Poker, 3rd Edition[/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1580421369?ie=UTF8&tag=daddrock-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1580421369"]Doyle Brunson’s Super System II[/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880685337?ie=UTF8&tag=daddrock-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1880685337"]Harrington on Hold ‘em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 1: Strategic Play[/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880685353?ie=UTF8&tag=daddrock-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1880685353"]Harrington on Hold ‘em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 2: Endgame[/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880685361?ie=UTF8&tag=daddrock-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1880685361"]Harrington on Hold ‘em Expert Strategy for No Limit Tournaments, Vol. 3–The Workbook[/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880685426?ie=UTF8&tag=daddrock-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1880685426"]Harrington on Cash Games, Volume I: How to Win at No-Limit Hold’em Money Games[/ame] [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1880685434?ie=UTF8&tag=daddrock-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1880685434"]Harrington on Cash Games, Volume II: How to Play No-Limit Hold ‘em Cash Games[/ame] 2. Learn Basic Strategy Before jumping into online poker, you should have a basic understanding of poker fundamentals. As you gain experience you will learn how and when to deviate from the basic strategy but if you stick to the following you will be off to a good start: Positional Awareness In games like Texas Hold’ Em, where the betting order is set by the movement of the dealer button, your position relative to the button is vital. You should be tight and play less hands when in early position, and be looser and play more hands in late position. Understand the value of starting hands When deciding whether to enter the pot you need to take your starting hands into consideration. As a beginner you will need to make tough decision once the flop hits depending upon what type and how many players are still in the hand at that point. If you play a tight game (by playing less hands) but higher quality hands, then you will have easier decisions to make after the flop. This is beneficial especially when you are playing against looser opponents as you will have a better hand than them more often once you get to the flop. See here for a Starting Hands Chart for No Limit Hold’ Em Bankroll management The essence of bankroll management is to have enough buyins for the table stakes you are playing at in order to limit your chances of going bust. If you are playing $0.10/$0.25 No Limit Hold’ Em with a $100 bankroll, then you could “go broke” with a mere 4 buyin downswing. Here is a more detailed explanation of proper bankroll management. 3. Listen to Poker Podcasts When you are sick of reading, or stuck in traffic, you can fire up your ipod and get your poker fix. Here are a few shows that we listen to here at Complete Poker Rules. Cash Plays (from Poker Road) Big Poker Sundays (from Poker Road) Two Plus Two Pokercast (from 2+2 Publishing. Hosts formerly of Rounders the Poker Show) See here for more info on Poker Podcasts. 4. Take Advantage of Signup bonuses One way to build up your poker bankroll quickly is with poker room bonuses. Full Tilt Poker is offering a 100% deposit bonus (up to $600). See the poker rooms section for more bonus offers and poker room reviews. 5. Use PokerTracker PokerTracker is software that allows you to analyze your play as well as your opponents. It imports your hand history files as you play and updates it’s database in real-time. The PokerTracker HUD (heads up display) will give you key statistics about your opponents at the poker table. PokerTracker Features Track your play as well as your opponents (Cash games and Tournaments) Chart your poker bankroll over time Replay hands to analyze your play Track your Starting Hands selection by table position More statistics than I could begin to list here! 6. Peer Support Especially in the early stages of your poker life you should rely on peer support for advice and leverage the wisdom of crowds. Here are a few poker communities that are a valuable asset to any poker player: Our very own Hand Analysis section. Flop Turn River Poker Forums. Two Plus Two Poker Forums. 7. Watch Poker Videos Reading books and forum posts can be dry at times so there are some great poker video tutorial sites you can turn to in order to help your game. GrinderSchool.com offers a wide variety of poker tutorial videos covering cash games and tournament play. Free videos are available for you to check out before signing up. (If you like the videos, they offer coaching as well!)
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!
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.
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.
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
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.