How Can I win More Playing Online Poker?
Perhaps I’m one of the few that will admit it, but back many years ago when online poker was new there were at least a couple times I loaded up my favorite search engine and entered queries such as “how to win at poker guaranteed”, “secrets of online poker winning” and even “how to cheat at online poker”. It is not at all uncommon for new players, or even long term losing players, to dream answers to these questions exist, because of course after they’ve decided on their three wishes, a genie should appear (as clearly that’s everyone’s top priority).
Proper Bankroll Management is Key
The reality is that until you let go of the “get rich quick” mentality, your poker career probably isn’t going to go anywhere. Many poker players, even winning poker players, ended up busting their online poker accounts wiping out weeks, months or even years of effort simply because they didn’t know how to manage their bankroll. If you move up in stakes every time you win, and fail to move down in stakes when you lose it is nearly inevitable you’ll eventually go bust. If you’re a winning SNG player, you shouldn’t be playing a game that your bankroll has less than 40 buyins for. In ring games if you’re a fixed limit player, you’ll want to stay at stakes you have a 300-500 big bet bankroll for. When you exceed 500 bets, consider moving up in stakes; when you have less than 300 big bets, don’t consider it, but rather urgently move back down in stakes to rebuild. The same scenario applies for NL and PL ring games, but we base this on having a 30-50 max buy-in bankroll. If you never deviate from this plan, it becomes impossible for you to ever truly go bust, and your chances at a successful career as a poker player will greatly increase.
Winning Players are ones without Tilt Switches
The next most important secret to winning more is avoiding tilt. Even if you follow our recommended bankroll advice, tilt and steam are still major factors and will cause you to move down in limits faster or stay at certain limits longer. To be successful at poker, you need to turn your tilt switch off, or remove the switch altogether. The most winningest players in poker, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan (durrrr), Phil Galfond (JMAN28/OMGPhilAiken), are players who rarely go on tilt, but when they do go on tilt it doesn’t affect them much. Learn to control your emotions, take breaks, relax, keep a healthy diet and sleep regimen, vacation often or do whatever else it takes to play poker emotionless. When you combine turning your tilt switch off with proper bankroll management, you’re now 90% further along than most poker players are, and you now are free to just focus on your game.
Only Play in Game you have an Edge
No matter how good you are at poker there will always be certain games that for whatever reason, and maybe just on that particular day, you can’t beat. Maybe players are cheating; maybe your seat position sucks; maybe an opponent has scouted you in detail and is exploiting a leak in your game that you’re not even aware exists. Whatever the case might be, swallow your pride and leave the table when your struggling to win. Its too often players say, “I know I have a massive edge at the table” and then stay even though they are clearly struggling, or flat out taking a beating. Of course there is a fine line between giving up edge, and recognizing when something isn’t right and quitting, but the one thing that is for sure: if you’re a winning player you’ll always find games you can beat, why sit at one you’re struggling in?
Tips for Winning More at Poker
Now that we’ve covered the fundamentals, here are some other tips for winning more money playing online poker:
#1) Use Poker Software – Tools such a PokerTracker with Heads Up Display (HUD) are critical components to improving your poker game while also getting an edge on your opponents. These are 100% must uses for anyone serious about online poker. If you’re not familiar with these, Google search.
#2) Subscribe to a “Quality” Training Site – Don’t bother with celebrity training sites such as Deep Stack University, etc; you want to subscribe to a quality poker training site such as Deuces Cracked, or CardRunners. Watching videos these sites offer will help you learn new plays, strategies and will also help you to identify with other poker personalities, making it easier to get in your opponent’s head.
#3) Consider Poker Coaching – This is not important during the initial stages of your poker career, but once you find yourself reaching a level you can’t beat, which leaves you perpetually stuck at a certain stake, this is where hiring a poker coach can help you get over the hump.
#4) Listen More than you Talk – If you chat on online poker forums, do so anonymously. Poker can be lonely sometimes and accomplishment is nice, but you’re much better off and more likely to become a massive winner if you don’t out yourself on forums where you discuss poker strategy.
This concludes the tips I have for winning more money playing online poker. I wish you the best of luck and hope this article in some way helps your poker career.