Becoming a Winning Poker Player – 10 Basic Rules

If you know the basics of poker and want to improve your game, I hope this can give a push down the road.

This article will focus on low and micro-stakes cash games. If you find this article hard to understand, then you need to learn more about the basics of poker. You can learn from reading other articles on this site.

• Bankroll management – What stakes you play shouldn’t only be determined by your skill-level, but also by the size of your bankroll. A rule often used amongst poker players is to have at least 20 – 30 buy-ins on their bankroll to play on a certain level. For example, if you want to play at 20NL, you should have at least $400 on your bankroll. This rule will prepare and protect your bankroll and yourself (mentally) against downswings and getting broke.

If you experience a downswing and your bankroll decreases to less then 20 buy-ins, just move down a level and grind your way back up. Downswings are one of the hardest situations for a poker player. A lot of players gives up or looses confidence, just because of bad luck. Don’t make to big a deal of it, just keep calm and patient, focus on your game and lady luck will smile at you sooner or later!

• Table Selection – Choose wisely which tables to join. Look for the tables with the highest average pot, and the most players per flop. This will lead you to the really profitable games!

• Position – Your position is almost as important as the cards you’re holding. Play carefully out of position, and choose your seating carefully. You don’t want an aggressive player directly to your left, because he or she will put you in very difficult spots time after time. Make sure you’ve got a tight player directly to your left and keep control of the aggressive players!

• Recognizing different player types – Poker is all about playing the player. You can pretty much categorize player types into four categories;

• The loose aggressive player (LA)

• The loose passive player (LP)

• The tight aggressive player (TA)

• The tight passive player (TP).

Loose means you play a lot of hands, and tight of course means the opposite. Passive means you call more often then you raise, and aggressive means you raise more often then you call.

• Getting paid off – You’ll definitely make the most of your money from the loose players. The LA player loves to bluff and will pound on weakness, so wait for a monster and then trap him!

The LP player loves to play drawing hands or call you down with their marginal made hands. Bet thinly for value and be ready to throw your hand away when facing resistance. Bluffing a loose player is very hard, if you want to bluff you’ll do better picking your spots against the tight players.

• Starting hands – Adjust your starting hand-range based on your position and whom you’re up against. Avoid playing hands that are easily dominated (AJ, KJ, KQ, QJ, QT, JT) out of position. But raise with a wider range in position!

Common mistakes amongst many players are overplaying low pocket pairs and suited connectors. With low pocket pairs you basically want to make a set against an over pair. Make sure you know what type of hand your opponent might have and try to “set mine”, turn it into a bluff or just fold it!

Drawing hands like low suited connectors have the same kind of value as low pocket pairs before the flop. You’ll need to get paid off if you hit the flop to make a call pre flop profitable in the long run. I suggest you play them in position against tight players because they’re more likely of playing strong hands, and therefore more likely to pay you off. You can also play suited connectors in multi way pots. But be aware that someone might be drawing to a higher flush or straight!

• Take the right decisions – To be a winning player you have to know when to call and when to fold. For this you need to know about pot odds, implied odds and effective odds. In this article we’ll focus on pot odds.

Pot odds are the ratio of the current size of the pot to the cost of a contemplated call. Let’s give an example!

Let’s say you make a flush draw on the turn, which gives you about 4:1 (20%) to make your flush. To be able to make a correct call here, the pot odds need to be more then 4:1. If there is $4 in the pot and your opponent bets $1, you need to call $1 to win the $5 (4 already in the pot plus your opponents bet). This gives you the pot odds 5:1 and allows you to make a correct call.

• Bonus – Make sure you get a great starting bonus. This will help increasing your bankroll in the beginning.

• Stay off tilt – Everybody knows tilting is nothing to be proud of. Still it happens all the time. Figure out what makes you tilt, how to prevent it from happening and what to do when it happens. Perhaps a 10 minute break will get you back on track, or you need to smash your keyboard and scream some very nasty words. Either way, never play when you’re on tilt!

• Discipline – Last but not least. Discipline is all about knowing yourself and not loosing your head. Whether you’re winning or loosing, always keep your cool, otherwise you’ll stop focusing on all the things I mentioned above and the breakdown is just around the corner.

Popularity: 1% [?]