Tips & Useful Resources
~David A. Daniel

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PostHeaderIcon Online Poker: If You Think You Can Beat Them, Join Them!

In the early stage, online gambling games constituted quite facile money making means for the advanced level players. While this trend continued for several years, a quick recap of the changes instituted and the increasingly high number of players who honed their skills have complicated things a bit.

You need only look at specialized forums and blogs and you will notice hundred of gamblers complaining that the online world is no longer that viable source of income it used to be. I know, compared to the pre-2006 period, nowadays it is considerably more difficult to prevail in online games like poker. This is exactly the reason why you need to take every advantage, every edge, every gimmick that can maximize your chances to walk away from the table with that winning smile on your face.

However, in this article I’m not going to discuss the best way to play a certain hand or show you tricks that you can use against your opponents. These aspects are without a doubt important, but what I want to share with you today are a few tips that can help you ensure you are playing with the right people, even before you join a table.

Why is it important to choose my opponents?

While this should be rather self explanatory, particularly if you are a seasoned player, let’s take a moment to elaborate. Evidently, it might be fun to play against opponents that can pose a challenge to your poker mastery, but you do want to win right? When you go head to head exclusively against regulars and people with the same or higher experience, the best you can hope for is a headache!

The point is not to ensure that every adversary at the table is a fish. Good luck finding one of those games; you’ll stand a better chance at winning the lottery or taking a close up picture of the Loch Ness monster. No, you will have a few seasoned opponents at the table, but the goal is to ensure that you have one or more fish as well.

To put it simply, imagine that you’re in the woods and your group is being chased by a tiger. Now, unless you are an excellent athlete, you won’t be able to outrun the tiger. However, you don’t need to be faster than the tiger if you can outrun the other people in the group. The same applies in poker, winning is not about being the worlds’ poker champion, but playing better than the other people sitting at your table.

But how will I know which table is good for business?

Assuming that you are new to the poker site and you still have to learn the regulars, the fish and the best players, you don’t have a lot to go on. My suggestion is to start examining the tables and search for the ones with a high percentage of viewed flops. Most websites will even permit you to sort the tables based on this criteria, so utilize this function in your favor.

Furthermore, keep in mind that the viewed flop percentage is essentially useless without the amount of hands played per hour. The tables where the number of hands being played per hour exceeds 100-110 indicate that there is a high chance it was a filled only moments ago. My point is that you should opt solely for the tables with high viewed flop ratings but medium number of hands per hour.

Can’t I create my own table?

Of course you can, in fact I strongly recommend it, particularly if you are proficient in playing heads up. While the first person to join your game is probably going to be one of the regulars, worry not as this is the perfect bait for the fish. Seasoned players rarely enter a game where they spot 2 or more experienced opponents, unlike the fish, so this is your chance!

Start learning the players and tag them accordingly

Even from the first hands you play on that site, pay close attention to the play-styles of the people and utilize the tagging tools provided (where it applies) to add each of your opponents to a certain category. For instance, you can keep a list of fish, seasoned players, aggressive players, etc. The more extensive the list, the easier it will be for you to adjust your gameplay in accordance with your opponents.


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