Poker Strategy

Why am I losing money?
All players lose from time to time. Poker is a game of skill but also of luck. You can only make the best plays with the cards you are dealt and hope that the probabilities hold up!

Of course you can do a lot to help Lady Luck along and I'm going to tell you the Top Ten Sins of new players online. Avoid these mistakes and your game (and account balance!) should improve noticeably!

1. Playing too many hands. Poker isn't about the hands you play, it's about the hands you fold. You should be playing no more then 1 hand in 3 (1 in 4 if you are playing tight!) over any reasonable length of time. Check your stats after a decent session and see if you are playing too many hands preflop.

2. Calling too often. One sign of a weak player is someone who checks and then calls repeatedly. More often you should be raising or folding.

3. Playing at the wrong stakes. You should comfortably be able to bring 50-100 times the big blind to the table. Hence if 100 dollars is a reasonable stake for you, you should be playing the 50c/$1 or $1/$2 cash tables.

4. Chasing unlikely draws. It is almost never right to chase an inside straight draw or a 3-card flush draw (i.e.: where you require the turn and the river to be of your suit). The odds on these are very high (roughly one in twenty five for the flush draw and one in seven for the inside straight draw).

5. Playing Big-and-Small. A6 is a terrible hand. Repeat this to yourself 10 times before firing up the software. The sooner you eliminate hands like K4, A6, Q7 from your play list the better. They are NEVER going to win you big pots, but over-played they will cost you a small fortune. In a 9 player table, it's all about the kicker.

6. Not betting draws. No player in the world is going to fold to a check. You have to give them a reason to fold. This isn't the same as bluffing, this is called "folding equity" and it is an important concept to grasp. Suppose you have 4 to a flush on the flop. You really have nothing but 1 time in 3 you will hit your flush by the end of the hand. If you bet you might find you win the hand there and then. If not you still have a one in three shot and now you will win a bigger pot. it's important to weight your bets correctly but anywhere from half the pot to all of the pot would be a reasonable bet in general.

7. Playing on a short time frame. You should plan your sessions carefully, far too many players sit down at a cash game with too little stake and too little time. This is a recipe for disaster. If you know you only have 30 minutes you will play more hands and push bad situations more simply because you want action before you head out. The last thing anyone wants to do is spend that 30 minutes correctly folding a cold wave of bad hands. Make sure when you sit down to play you don't put yourself under time pressure.

8. Playing without limit's. You should set a time limit and a cash limit for getting out of the game. So, for example you should say "I'm going to play for no less then 2 hours and no more then 4, cash permitting. I'll leave if I turn my stake of 100 into 300 or if I lose 200." Then stick to them. You can vary the numbers in that example to suit yourself but you should have *some* form of structure to your session.

9. Playing with scared money. "Scared Money" is money you can't afford to lose. You should never ever play like that as it will drastically affect your play whether you know it or not. If you are afraid to lose you will NEVER win.

10. Letting a sucker keep his money. That's a cardinal sin!