Frequently asked quastions(FAQ) about online poker - most quastions about this game.

Q:What skills do I need to brush up on in order to become a better poker player?
A: In order for a person to become a good poker player there are several issues he/she needs to have a thorough understanding of, issues which we'll try to detail here;
First of all, before even beginning to play one needs to be able to take that very first step that is going to maximize his/her chances for a win, from the very start. Table selection is the magic word here. Being a little fish in a big pond, a novice player should do everything possible to stay out of the way of bigger, more dangerous predators. Do not get sucked into a game where some player is humbling everyone. You won't stand a chance. If you do happen to stumble over such a table, leave in a hurry. Remember, whenever you win you win from the fish.
Hand selection is what comes next.
Hand selection is the art of being able to correctly choose the hands you shall win on, and managing to avoid losses whenever such hands avoid you. In texas holdem most of your wins shall come off AA KK and AK. BE careful which hands you decide to take all the way down the stretch, as you need to win an overwhelming majority of these hands in order to be succesful in the longrun.
Estimating the opponent's hand.
A good poker player needs to be on a constant lookout as to what his opponents may hold in their pockets. A a good ( and just about the only) way to get an idea about what someone may have is to pay keen attention to every move they make. Suppose someone lims along the preflop betting then, as soon as the flop hits he starts raising like there's no tomorrow. That probably means he has something consistent in the pocket, or that he decided to pull off a solid bluff.
In the same time be careful what signals you send out to your opposition by means of your actions. If there are three Qs out on the board, and you suddenly start raising what you're really saying to the others is" I have the third Q right here" Being able to read opponents.
Reading opponents is probably one of the most important things in poker. Once you have a guy read, you'll be able to figure out what his actions really mean and that'll help you not only to stay out of trouble, but also to start relieving him of his stack.
You will also have to be able to calculate pot odds and know when it makes sense to bluff and when it doesn't. The read you have on your opponents will also play a large role here. When going heads up against someone you need to be able to switch strategies. The tight aggressive approach no longer works here as you need to constantly keep up the pressure.
Seat selection is of big importance in poker as well. If there are players in the game you intend to join that you know, you will want to have a certain oplayer on your left or on your right according to the amount and type of threat he represents.

Q:How should I play it before the flop?
A: You need to be aware that poker is a game of domination.
Dominated hands are the ones that have several other card-combinations with the potential to be slightly better und thus beat them. These are the hands most of the money is made on, in poker and online poker. While you need to milk them to the max, you also have to focus on avoiding getting stuck on a dominated hand. Not only can you win big on such hands, you can also lose big on them.
All your preflop strategy should reflect this viewpoint. Do not get dragged into the action on easily dominated hands, the ones that you do get dragged in on make sure you win.

Q: Do I have to play any different if I play a tournament?
A: Yes you do.
Regular ring-game poker strategy is completely different from tournament startegy. Why is that? Simple. The object of a ring game has nothing to do with the object of a tournament. In a ring game what you're after is instant gratification, money on the spot. In a torunament the objective is far more complicated. There, you need to outlast players. If you manage to outlast enough of them, you may just end up on one of the money-positions at the end of the tournament.
In order to achieve this you need to play extremely tight in the early stages of the tournament, this is when most of the other players will bust out. As the tournament progresses the startegy changes accordingly. Since the blinds get bigger you need to adopt a more aggressive attitude.
The late stages of the tournament – if you manage to last that long – once again call for a tight approach. This is the time when the blinds get so big, every little mistake will lead to someone busting out.
Q: Is position really that important in poker? Why?
A: It sure is. Poker is a positional game, so once you get somebody on your right, you'll act after him all the time from then on. If you have a person on your left you'll constantly be forced to act before him. There are types of players that you want to have on your left, and those that you're bette off having on your right. It all depends on the type of player you're up against. Having the right type of player on the right side will quite possibly make or break the game for you.

Q: Can I beat the rake in a low limit game?
A: Every poker game has its implicit expenses. The question that you should really be asking here is whether you can beat the other players at the table at a fast enough rate to actually generate enough money to overcome the costs.
What it really boils down to, in the end, is table selection. Get a good table with plenty of fish, and you'll beat the rake. Get stuck on a table full of good players and you won't.

Q: Is it safe and legal to play online poker for real money?
A: Lately it is, but frankly put, it all depends on the online poker room you decide to play at. Most big poker rooms enjoy world-wide recognition and they're trustworthy beyond doubt. That's where you should play. There are smaller poker rooms that have no ( or very little) history to look back on, but they do offer some incredibly enticing bonuses. Always check with a watchdog site, one that presents detailed reviews of the poker room you intend to play in highlighting both its pros as well as it's shortcomings.
Scammer poker rooms do not stay online long in today's highly competititive online poker world. There are way too many eyes ears and noses on them to be able to get away unpunished. They're usually treated to bitter reviews on the pages of many online poker review sites, and fade away ast enough, so that they're unable to cause much havoc.
If a poker site has been around for a good while and wherever you lok it receives good points on credibilty and trustworthyness, chances are it's a room which is perfectly safe to play at.

Q: What are the risks involved in playing for real money in an online poker room?
A: There have been cases in the past that the poker rooms failed to grant the money their players had been entitled to. These situations were mostly due to technicalities that have since been eliminated. Another issue is, that although online poker companies guarantee you that your credit card details will be kept absolutely safe, you can never be 100% sure this is the reality indeed.
Player collusion is a very real and absolutely accountable danger in any online poker room. No matter how sophisticated poker software gets, it still doesn't have a way to detect whether two players are communicating with each other by other means or not. This is unfair against the other players as they can easily be robbed by such dishonest 'fellow' players.
Poker bots are another real danger players expose themselves to whenever they take a seat at a real money table. A poker bot is a computer program that plays with optimal settings and that has an absolutely positive expectancy as far as it's win-ratio is concerned. Poker bots are quite impossible to beat in the longrun, and going up against one of these machines will do your bankroll absolutely no good.
There is the possibility of poker software being programmed to deal unfairly, as in not in a random manner. This is cheating and is highly illegal, yet there's always a possibility of this happening, especially in a new, unverified and unreviewed poker room.
Talking about unfair poker rooms: the room itself may have sharps playing in its own rooms going after novice players. An inside person can make a record of any one player's game and sell it to somebody for strategical reasons.

Q: Does online poker present any advantages over the more traditional cardroom version? If yes, what are these advantages?
A: Obviously, there are a few key advantages online poker has on its ancestor, but there are disadvantages as well.
Advantages would be, that it's easily accessible, anybody can play it without going to a real casino. Thus, the number of unskilled players will be much bigger than in a real cardroom. You can wear anything you want and smoke or not smoke, listen to music or whatever else you're normally only able to perform in the comfort of your own home. You don't have to tip the dealer either.
The downside is, that other players can team up against you ( unbeknownst to you) ( aka player collusion), the poker room itself can employ a variety of tools to rob you of your cash ( if it's an unfair one) plus you have no means to find out for sure whether or not the above described things happen.

Q:What is a poker tournament?
A poker tournament is a competition in which players attempt to win a fixed amount of a prize-pool. Depending on the individual rules of the tournament and the amount of the prize-pool, not only the first place finisher wins. Runners up also get a share of the prize, although payout for these guys is exponentially less and less than for those ranked higher. As many as 18 players may end up "in the money" or ITM, but obviously the last of them will barely get a few dollars or cents.
Each of the players gets an equal amount of chips, he starts with after paying the 'buy-in'. The buy in is a set "fee" which everyone needs to pay in order to be allowed into the tournament. As soon as the chips one received for his/her buyin run out, it is said that the player "busts out" and leaves the tournament. Some tournaments allow a 'rebuy' giving the player a second chance to keep on playing.
Q: Is there anything else I should know about poker tournaments?
A: As a matter of fact there is... if you view an online poker tournament right before it commences, you'll notice that in its information panel, besides the number and names of the players, tables ans so on there's a line that says 'level up 8 min'. This means that the blinds will get bigger every 8 minutes, twice or more times as big as they were before. This is a feature that makes sure the tourney won't last forever. By the last stages, the blinds will have gotten so big that they alone can bust out a passive player in a few rounds.

Q: What is the chip race?
A: In real brick and mortar tournaments if often happens that once the play reaches a high-level blind, the smaller denomination chips will be done away with. This happens by the dealer taking all such chips from players and handing out the corresponding value in bigger denomination chips. Some small chips are inevitably left over. The dealer gathers all these chips and gives every player he gathered them from, a single card. The player with the highest card receives all of the chips, in higher denomination chips. This is the "chip race"
Q: What are satellites?
A: Countrary to what their name may suggest, these tournaments are not some kind of out-of this world super high-stakes tournaments...a satellite hands out no money at all. The winner gets to go on to a larger-scale, higher stakes tournament free of charge.
Q: What strategy should I use when playing in a tournament?

A: It is generally accepted that you should use one of three types of strategies for a poker tournament, one suited for every stage of it. In the beginning you should play extra tight. This is when the majority of players leave the tournament donating their chips left and right with great ease. Don't get sucked into this collective suicide thing. Keep cool and only act in one of two situations: when in the big blind do take a peak at the flop if possible, or when you get something really solid in the pocket. (AA, KK, QQ or some combination of these three)
As you reach the middle stages of the tournament you run the risk of beeding away from the increasing blinds, on top of that everyone will have a larger stack than yours so they'll be able to bully you around. You need to make some moves and make them fast. The middle stages of the tournament call for a more aggressive play so you get some stack buildup when you reach the ITM stage.
The last stages call for an exceptionally aggressive approach. From then on it's do or die. Being a short handed game it won't pay to be tight at all as you'll be paying some genuinely insane blind almost every hand you play.
All articles written by (c) James West.