Poker is among the oldest and most popular games in online casino and land-based casinos. It is also among the social games that you may have played with friends and colleagues at one time in your life. As a result, you must have come across tons of valuable advice on how to win in the game. While some strategies might have come in handy in helping you win, you should not always follow the advice blindly.
Unsurprisingly, the internet and poker enthusiasts have always had differing opinions on the best poker strategies. While some of the poker strategies are useful, most of them might not always be right and could lead you to losing immensely when you’re playing poker. Moreover, some strategies can only work in social and land-based poker than at real online poker in online casinos. Below are some of the misconceptions and bad strategies that have been passed as useful but are actually useless in the poker online gaming activity.
Basics of How to Play Poker
Poker is a mind-game where the winning hand is determined by the player whose hand has the highest value. Your aim is to get the highest valued hand in the specific rank and beat your opponents. The card game payouts are based on the ranking of the various hands and their value. For instance, as a beginner, the best hand would be the royal flush which is made up of the cards A, K, Q, J and 10 in the same suit.
When playing poker, players try to form the best hand with 5 cards (or according to the rules of the specific poker variation) and the player with the best card combination gets the highest rank and is termed as the best hand. The winning hand is determined by the game variation as in some games, the hand with the highest rank wins, while in some, the hand with the lowest rank wins. In other poker variations, the highest and lowest ranking hands win.
10 Bad Strategies that do not Improve your Online Poker Wins
Poker players who have just joined the fascinating world of poker gaming are always looking for resources to help them win. However, as a beginner, the worst mistake you can make when playing poker is playing without understanding the rules. It is also not advisable to use a poker strategy blindly without first testing its credibility. Some of the worst poker strategies that have led beginners to lose their funds include:
Believing that bluffing is easy and always profitable in online poker
Bluffing makes poker gaming exciting in a poker table setting in live poker and in land-based casinos. However, it is not easy in online poker since you are playing against virtual players whom you cannot observe their reactions and whom you cannot rightly tell of their experience. To use it effectively, you must play a few hands to gauge your opponents’ skills, note them down and try to have them reveal their hands. Depending on the poker players at the other end of the screen, it may require you to spend some funds as you analyze your poker opponents before it can bear you real returns.
The 4th Raise is always Aces
In the Little Green Book by Phil Gordon, he alleges that the 4th raise means aces. With online poker and the mechanics behind the automatic playing of the poker game, there is no guarantee that the fourth raise or any specific instance would bring out an ace bet.
You can win as a beginner by been a passive player
A passive player will not often raise and tries to always play it safe. However, you do not necessarily win by being passive. This is because placing less bets limits the amount of chances that you may have if you had been an active player.
You should be a loose poker player
A loose poker player is a player who has a high raise frequency and plays lots of hands. Been a loose aggressive player in poker means that you stand more chances to make wins in poker. The downside to this approach is that you must have a big budget to see you through the many hands you need to play as an aggressive player. You are also at a risk of losing more and in the end instead of a profit you may only end up winning back what you have lost in the previous hands. While most games of poker may take a lengthy session and get boring when you are not active, it pays to wait until the right moment for a profitable hand.
As long as you are good in poker, you can win in any poker Variation
Once you have learnt the basic rules in poker, do not bet real money under the misconception that all poker strategies can be used on all game varieties. It is advisable to take your time perfecting one variation of poker before trying a new variation. Unlike some games, when playing poker, once you have placed your bet, there is no chance of backtracking on your decision and a mistake leads you to losing your funds. There is no harm in trying out the games with free chips as you learn new strategies and gain the experience on the poker variations. Gaining prior experience before you play poker online for real makes you identify which variant suits your skills and budget. It is also wise to start out in the beginner tables before progressing to play against other experienced players in big satellites and poker tournaments.
You should vary your bet amount 2 to 4 Times when starting
There are strategists who advise that when starting out, you should vary your starting amounts 2 to 4 times. However, this is not always a profitable approach as you are likely to drain and exhaust your bankroll earlier on with the starting hands with funds that you can spend when you have a better chance of beating your opponent’s hand. Moreover it is not advisable to make it easy for your opponent to study you. Varying the bet with a regular amount lets them predict about your gameplay. Betting the same amount on consecutive hands gives the game away and keen opponents may use this against you as they can predict your next bet and trick you to get an advantage over you.
Bet Maximally to get the maximum returns
It is not always correct to expect to get the maximum returns when you bet maximally. You need to have a hold on your finances and avoid playing above your limits. Just like most games, even the most professional poker players cannot successfully predict the amount they will end up with at a poker table. To bet safely, you should set your spending limit and plan how to spread it throughout the entire game session. A common misconception is that high limit bet tables will translate to a big pot and in turn get you big returns. The truth is that your returns on the game round will be determined by your skills, the other players at the table and the decisions that you make while at the table.
Trying to recoup losses
Most beginners in poker believe that it is possible to recoup losses by betting higher. However, the trick to containing your losses is not in increasing your stakes, but rather learning about all the scenarios in poker. Additionally, utilizing the skills that you have learnt and improving the next game that you play makes you avoid losing in the first place.
Raise for Information
The trick in poker is trying to get your opponents to reveal their hands. New players are often misguided in thinking that raising a hand will draw out the opponents into revealing their hands. However, this is not often beneficial as sometimes clever opponents will read into your intention and fold and the end result is less money going into building up the pot. Your opponents may also re-raise and bluff and in this case you will have lost money and not gained any valuable information.
Conclusion of bad strategies of winning poker
Most beginners make losses as a result of simple poker mistakes such as not studying their opponents well and being overconfident about their gaming skills. Following the wrong poker strategies that you have not tested beforehand at the many online poker sites could also be disastrous. It is best to carry further research on the poker strategies and implement the tried and tested ones. It is also advisable to understand the rules of the various poker variations before settling on one variant.
