One of the most famous sayings in the world of poker is that the game of Hold’em takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master. Some of our readers may feel there has never been a truer word spoken – especially those who have dipped their toes into the water of playing poker and struggled to win consistently.
If you’ve plauteaued in your gaming skills and are feeling stuck, then we’ve put together a shortlist of ten pointers to reshape your poker strategy and help you become a more rounded player. Check out 10 most important things to consider to elevate your poker game!
10 – Play tighter and more aggressively with your hands
If you are a poker player who enjoys action and playing marginal hands, learn to stop it. Tighten up your playable hand range. If you play too many hands, you’re guaranteed to lose more hands than you win, bleeding away your chip stack. Play fewer, better hands and don’t be afraid to be aggressive when you think you have the nuts.
09 – Stop limping pre-flop
Limping is not a profitable pre-flop strategy, whichever way you do it. Stop open limping and small blind limping. Be more decisive. If you like your hand, bet it and if you don’t fold it, be patient and wait for another opportunity. A player who continually limps is known as a calling station in the poker industry, which is one of the most popular terms in the poker dictionary to describe a weak-passive player.
08 – Start considering your opponents’ hand ranges
Stop trying to correctly predict the specific hands your opponents have. Instead, start trying to think in hand ranges. Using hand ranges is more beneficial to help determine your pot odds for making drawing hands. Having to read opponents perfectly is one of the biggest misconceptions in this classic card game.
07 – Be prepared to defend your big blind more frequently
Too many beginner poker players fail to defend their big blinds often enough. When you consider the big blind position requires you to invest one minimum bet into the spot every orbit, if you’re able to win more hands from this position it will plug a potential leak in your game. From the big blind, play aggressively against late position raisers and tighter against early position raisers.
06 – Learn to throw away your pocket aces and kings
There comes a time in every poker session when you must fold hands which appeared strong pre-flop. If you wake up to pocket aces but you suspect an opponent has flopped a flush or set, don’t blindly carry on betting just because you love aces. At the end of the day pocket aces are only a single pair and will regularly be beaten.
05 – Embrace the “grind”
One of the key characteristics of the most enduring players in poker is their desire to enjoy the grind. The grind is the daily work needed to improve and play poker for lengthy sessions come rain or shine. If you’re serious about playing poker, you’ll regularly play thousands of hands in a session, so you need to be able to maintain your focus, whether it’s playing online at home or in one of the most illustrious poker rooms in Vegas.
04 – Only play poker when you’re in the mood
Another major flaw newbie poker players have is that they carry on playing even when they lack 100% motivation to do so. Whether you’re playing poker for a hobby or as something more serious, it should never be seen as a chore. If it starts to feel that way, stop playing until the hunger returns. You’ll save heaps of money in the long run.
03 – Find a way of avoiding tilt
Tilt is a dangerous state of mind. It’s caused when newbies lose hands they feel they should’ve won. It could be a bad beat or just a bad play, but tilt causes many poker beginners to chase their ‘undeserved’ losses. In doing so, they tend to accrue more losses in the process. Develop coping strategies to curb tilt and think long term. It’s something that Esports players increasingly face too.
02 – Play at tables full of “fish”
Some poker newbies try and play at tables which are above their skill level in search of bigger returns. Be realistic. Start building your bankroll by playing at the weakest possible tables, where your prospects of winning are far greater. As the saying goes in the famous poker movie Rounders, if you “can’t spot the sucker in your first half-hour, you are the sucker”.
01 – Don’t slow-play your strongest hands
Inexperienced poker players may try and get ‘creative’ with their strongest hands both pre and post-flop. If you have a big hand before the flop or you’ve connected with the flop, be sure to bet strongly and build the pot as quickly as you can. This protects your equity in the hand and chases opponents off their marginal drawing hands which can hurt you on the turn or river.
Here are some tips to consider to elevate your poker game!