We’ve had numerous emails with the big question… “How to win at Poker?“
Oh if it were only that easy. We’re gonna side step that question and talk about how to lose at poker and hopefully you’ll grab the jist of it and learn by process of elimination. (Referring to Texas Holdem)
With that being said, the number one way you don’t win at poker is to play too many hands. It’s hard has heck not to wanna jump into every deal, but ya gotta refrain from doing so otherwise you’re sure to lose.
You’re starting hand consists of 2 cards called “hole cards” or “pocket cards.” If your dealt a 2/3 or a weak hand that represents a difficult chance to make a good hand, FOLD. Just do it. Always and we mean ALWAYS keep in mind that there’s ALWAYS another hand! Ya get dealt some crap cards, SIT OUT, that is unless you like to lose. That may bring one to wonder what hands are good to play and what’s good to throw away. We can’t really answer that. That all depends on who your playing with and how good of a player YOU are at the tables.
Moving along, the second way to lose at poker is to let you’re emotions get in the way. Poker is gambling and ANYTHING can happen when your’re gambling. As sickening as it may be to hear, I myself have lost several times while holding a full house! Anything can and will happen. As you can imagine, losing while holding a full house after raising and re-raising until the pot looks something like a plate of pasta one might find in an Italian restaurant is VERY tough to take. In fact, its enough to set you on what poker players call “tilt” which is an expression used when others take notice that a player’s game has been mentally affected by either losing or catching bad cards. Tilting can and will cost you you’re bankroll for that session so try your damndest to avoid going on tilt. If you gamble you know the feeling and what we’re talking about. We can’t explain it, but it’s almost a guarantee that everything you touch will turn to crap when you’re on tilt! Believe it!
Ok, enough negativity. Lets hammer on a couple more tips on how to win at poker.
Play tight. Playing tight means only playing good hole cards. High end suited connectors (Example: KS/QS) or high pairs (Q/Q) etc. are great starting hands and should always be played before the flop. Whether their valuable after the flop is another story, but if your 2 starting cards are solid, by all means, play them! It’s been said that a good tight winning poker player takes action in approximately 1 in 4 hands. There’s nothing etched in stone about this however this is a good rule of thumb and has held true in our experiments with Texas Holdem.
Another way to help you win at poker is to read up on information put out by the pros. We have a great list that you can check out here: Poker Books. Anything put out by Doyle Brunson is HIGHLY recommended. Phil Hellmuth is also a great author as well as a few others on our bookshelf.
Lastly, learn about poker tells. This doesn’t quite apply as much to playing poker online but can be a gold mine if you can learn the art of reading other players at the table. Its imperative that you learn because any astute player at the table will surely be reading you!
We hope you’ve enjoyed our thoughts on how to win while in a poker game. There’s obviously many more tips, many of which you’ll find by reading the 100’s of articles compiled on this website which can be found here: Poker Articles – Poker Tips – Poker Strategy as well as in the lower right margin of all pages of the site. Enjoy and best of luck in your quest to win at poker!
