Dont Be a Fish when Playing Online Poker

If you've been playing online poker for any length of time you'll have realized that at any poker site there are the sharks, and then there are the fish. Unless you are making a lot of money from the other players around the table, then chances are you're a poker fish. There are ways in which you can improve your ranking even without being able to calculate pot odds however. It's all in the way you analyse not only your hand, but also the players around the table.


In real life poker playing most people are aware that you need to keep all the poker tells to a minimum. However many online poker players don't realize that the way they play can tell the opponent what kind of hand they have. Here are a few simple ways to increase your online poker winning potential.


When you begin to play a new online poker game with people you have never played before, make sure you play tight. If you are in the big blind and get to see the flop for free, that's great. Other than that, unless you have pocket aces, or a hand your gut tells you to play, fold your cards and observe how other people play. Who around the table is raising every hand? They're usually trying to power play and could be worth calling if you've got a hand that will hold up against most possible hands. If they're constantly folding, like you, then they're playing tight and if they raise, you should probably fold! You need to play your own cards, but you must watch what others are doing to see which players present the biggest challenges if you end up in a heads-up position for a big pot.

If you're at a cash game (not tournament) table, and someone is making over-bets on every hand, you should consider leaving the table. Aggressive poker players make the game frustrating and don't teach you anything about what cards to play or fold. They overplay every hand for the purpose of winning rather than playing. If you're the one doing this, you're the poker shark. If you're not doing this, leave the shark to his table and find one of your own!

To become a shark you need to be able to outplay the other online poker players at the table. This means that you will be better off playing in a less skilled online poker room. The good thing about this is that you can power play the less experienced players and earn chips to use as you learn greater poker skills at a higher level table. Once you're proficient at that level, you can try out your shark skills there and use the money you win there to finance your next level poker skills tuition!


Learn some of these rules and you'll find that you'll stop being a fish and instead transform into a successful poker shark!