Poker is one game you can certainly learn to win. There is a degree of luck involved, but it’s no accident that the great players win again and again. The key is to learn the game through experience, and if you’re looking for ideas of how you can improve your game, this article might give a solid starting point.

Know Your Maths

Poker is both a game of both skill and statistics and you need both. You can’t develop the skill without knowing the statistics that can inform you how to play each hand. There are known factors and unknown factors, and understanding the probability of occurrences help you make the right decision. There’s a lot more to it that this, of course, but probabilities are a good foundation for any aspiring player. In short, you need to have a good idea of how strong your hand is relative to other players, and how this changes as more cards are dealt. Make sure you know what it is possible to know, because after that, it depends upon your skill at the psychology of the game.

That’s not to say you need to be amazing at maths to be a great poker player. If that were the case, all the best players would have Mathematics degrees, and this isn’t the case. What you need to know for playing poker to a high level is the kind of maths anyone can learn, so don’t be daunted. What’s more, it’s better to practise by playing, so it’s best to just get stuck in there.

Don’t Play Too Many Hands

There’s only so many starting hands you can play before you flop in No Limit Hold’Em. If you play too many hands, then you’ll find your stack of chips will get depleted more quickly. So instead you should play a certain number of strong hands, or at least ones that are playable, and it’s best to play them aggressively. Playing all your hands in the same way means your opponents won’t have any clues as to what’s in your hand, so this means you have an advantage.

Bluff Effectively and Sparingly

You need to be a good bluffer to be a good Poker player. But that doesn’t mean bluffing all the time, or bluffing without good cause. The trick is to know when to bluff, and the best way to do this is to have a strong rule of thumb over whether to bluff; let the cards decide. Even in these cases, you need to have conditions under which you might bluff. So, for example, if you are in a late position, it folds to you, and players have been happy to check. This is particularly the case if it’s a low pair, as if your opponents have checked, the chances are the other cards for the pairs on the flop are in the pack.

Another good time to bluff is in a tournament when you get near the money bubble. This is when players will tend to tighten their play to make sure they get close to the cash, which gives you an opportunity to bluff when you have shortstacks, which means you have a relatively low amount of chips relative to the stakes.

It might be a good idea to also have a rule when it’s best not to bluff. Try to avoid bluffing from and early or middle position because you don’t know enough about the action at this stage. It’s also a good idea to only bluff no more than one, otherwise the chances of someone connecting with the flop increase much greater. Don’t bluff if you are short-stacked. Don’t call when you are bluffing as this denies you the opportunity to convince your opponent that you have a strong hand. Your opponent might be bluffing too, or they might really have a strong hand, and if it’s the latter, you’ll definitely lose.

Finally, remember, not every bluff will work, but as long as you’re consistent, you stand a good chance to make the bluff work for you.

Avoid Slow-Playing Strong Hands

Fast playing means that you play the hand aggressively, betting as much as you can to get a maximum value or to prevent draws. This is contrasted with slow-playing, in which you bet weakly when you have a strong holding, which is where you can lure your opponents into a situation where they might fold or might bet more strongly than they otherwise would. This is a good tactic in some cases, but the stronger the hand, the more fast-playing you should do. The important thing is not to get outdrawn, even if it means risking your opponent folding.

If You Don’t Know, Fold

You have to play tactically, and if you’re not sure of what to do, it’s best to fold. This takes into account that good hands will clearly be good, and so worth playing. But you have to take into account that you want to win, and this can cloud your judgement with some of the weaker hands you might be given. If you’re stuck between a decision of whether to call or to fold, it’s best to go the safe option and fold. If you want to improve, and who doesn’t – note what happens next, and then you can work out if this was the right decision, moving towards folding would be the best option. Keeping note of what happens next might give you an idea of whether it was the best option, but if you don’t fold, you’ll run out of chips too quickly to learn from your mistake.

Take Advantage of Your Opponent’s Weaknesses

Poker is as much a game of psychology as it is of mathematics. You can learn from your opponent’s behaviour throughout the game, but a good place to start is whether they check. When an opponent checks, it usually means that they have a weak hand, and if you respond aggressively, they will probably not have the potential to withstand multiple bets. So you can use this tip to develop your betting strategy depending on the behaviour of your opponents. It might not work in all cases, but it’s a good rule of thumb.

Don’t Be the Sucker

The argument is that if you can’t spot the sucker in the first few rounds, then you are the sucker. If you want to win, it goes without saying that you don’t want to be the sucker. So play to your level, avoid those tables where you might have a disadvantage or where you might be in over your head. You need an edge to win, and even if you’re the 91^st best  Poker player in the world, you’re still going to find yourself the sucker when you play  a game against the better 90.

Practise, Practise, Practise

You’re not going to get better by reading this article unless you then play. And you’ll only get better by playing if you are able to learn from your mistakes and victories. The best way to practise is online, away from the pressures of live play, and many of the best sites have options for you to have a go without expenditure. Then you can work your way up to more complex play with smaller stakes, working your way through the stages as your skill develops. So don’t stand around waiting for the game to present itself, have a look at some of the great options at Wazamba or check out welcome the deals at Frumzi and make the game your own.