Good Online Poker Strategies

By Simon Skinner

Playing poker is something that needs to be learned, not only with the cards but also by the body language of your opponent. However, seeing the body language of your opponents is impossible when you are playing poker online.

Still, “tells” can be seen even if you are playing poker online. This is because tells are just ways that players betray their hands or their decisions. In fact, do you realize that you see more action in a game of poker online than in poker that you play non-virtual? This is because there is bound to be a lot more money and betting involved.

Here are some tells that you can watch out for when playing poker online.

1. The stall – most inexperienced online poker players would do this when they have a strong hand. This is because they are feigning ignorance of what to do to make their opponents call their raise. For experienced players, they take advantage of this to fake having a strong hand. So young players would stall when they have a big hand, expert players would stall to fake it.

2. The rant vs. the gloat– some players take advantage of chat boxes to make it seem as if they are on a losing beat. Sometimes, it is even true. There are players that break down under chat pressure so you can bully them some more to make them lose their games. Gloaters on the other hand are immature players that want to make you think they are stronger and more experienced, aside from always getting good hands. Bluff them and see how far they go, especially if you have a very good hand.

3. The all-knowing player – This is the player that keeps on giving out unsolicited advice on how to play. Do not worry about these players; they normally get out of your way before you even notice them.

There are other tells that you can learn to distinguish as you keep on playing online. The only thing you need to do is to try and not get too much attention on yourself. This is to make sure that you have ample time to observe other people’s tells.

When playing online poker, you may not be able to see your opponents but you can see what they do. Just like playing poker with your buddies, people will reveal their personalities whether or not you actually see them face to face.

Here are some behaviors that you should avoid:

1. Chatting constantly. Whether you are ranting or gloating, other players might be able to read between your lines and make you lose your strategy.

2. Over-reacting. Do not be so foolish as to tell everyone you have a good hand or a bad hand by putting too much raise on the table or by sending “emoticons” on the screen.

3. Rechecking your cards when a flush draw is flopped – write down your cards if you have a bad memory. Rechecking your cards mean that you either have a weak hand, or a very strong hand and you are silently gloating.

4. Telling your opponents you have a strong hand – they are going to know that you probably have the weakest hand imaginable so refrain from this bluff.

For yourself, you can avoid giving away your own tells by not reacting in any way perceivable to other opponents on the online table.