Poker is something that has captured our team’s attention for a long time. Even when we were kids, there were many nights that we spent playing poker with little fake chips, all the while dreaming of the day where we would be able to play in casinos and even online — that is, if there was an Internet, of course. Now that we’re all older, the rise of the Internet has made us even more excited about poker. However, it’s also made the game far more competitive than it’s ever been. This is because the Internet is also a great learning resource. So the people that you’re playing online will all be ready to play you head to head, and that means that you will have a lot of work cut out for you if you’re not careful. You need to be as ready to go toe to toe in a serious way as the competition.
Every poker player knows that hindsight is definitely 20/20. If you’re not sure how to get the ball rolling, there’s always turning towards the well of advice that just about every poker player can give you. For starters, you need to check out this list of the top three things that we wish we would have known before really getting into online poker.
1. The Competition Factor
Competition is one of the first things people don’t really think about when it’s time to join the ranks of online poker players. With all of the great bonuses out there, people think that it will be a cakewalk to play poker, but they find that they are quite mistaken. It’s one thing to play poker with a few friends a few times a week, and it’s a completely different story to play with people that analyze their hands and think in terms of mathematics.
You can beat the competition, but the first step is to acknowledge that you really do have competition that you will need to contend with. Why try to wait till the last minute before you know for a fact that you will have what it takes?
What we really mean is this: don’t rush into playing high stakes poker online. In fact, don’t even rush into playing low stakes poker online. Play a lot of practice games. Get an idea of what the system will be like. Get an idea of who you will be up against. Get some time to study your moves and track your progress. Spend some time in forums asking what went wrong and what went right — you will definitely be glad that you did!
2. The Money Factor
Money is one of the firs things that we overlooked when we were thinking about playing poker online. It’s really easy to do, so it’s not like you should be embarrassed if you’ve made the same mistake. You will need to just learn to move past it by really looking at bankroll management. Do you really want to go all in before you even see what the flop looks like? Do you really wan to go all in just because your gut tells you to? Definitely not. You will need to use poker mathematics and statistics to determine what the best option really is, rather than just assuming that you will have no problem beating each and every hand that you come across.
You also want to make sure that you’re not psychologically getting sucked into the game. One of the members of the team had a really bad problem with online poker — they would spend money from their main household account to fuel their poker playing.
If you really want to last in this game, you will need to make sure that you set boundaries. Create your own little account and have it earmarked only for your gambling. This is the best way to ensure that you will be able to have fun with your online poker, without having it take control of your life.
Don’t forget to take advantage of the fact that you will be getting welcome bonus packages as well. You don’t have to feel like it’s impossible to get a little extra money to enjoy more poker with. Check out a casino review guide before you sign up with a poker place, because it’ll tell you immediately what to expect when you sign up for the casino you like best.
3. The Attention Factor
If you’re not focused 100% in the online poker playing game, you will burn out before you’ve really had a chance to figure out if you really have what it takes for playing poker online. You need to be on your toes because there are really so many different players out there and everyone’s got different skills. If you underestimate your opponent simply because there’s less money at stake on the table, you will end up losing a lot of your bankroll before you’ve really had a chance to make it again. Thankfully, you can get things done in a big way as long as you’re willing to focus.
Does this mean playing a few hands? Only if you mean playing a few hands a day. You will need to play a lot of hands over time before you get good enough to sit down with some of the best players. The reason why this is the case is because you will need to break out of the habit of playing based on your gut or emotion. It’s better to walk away from a potentially large pot than it would be to bet everything you have and lose on a bad beat or another ridiculous poker play.
Overall, these are just three tips that we thought of that would be ultimately useful for you in your quest to be a better poker player. If you really take the tips here to heart, there’s really no reason why you won’t be able to be a great poker player in virtually no time at all!