Poker strategy

A sound poker strategy starts when our would be player begins searching for a place where he can testrun his skills – if he's a beginner – or where he feels comfortable with the whole setup. The very first thing that makes a poker room comfortable is the possibility of a large signup bonus that comes with the first deposit the player makes.
Receiving a thorough bankroll boost at the very beginning, the player will be a lot happier to hit the rooms and start churning out the hands the house needs so much, in order to collect its rake.
Next step in the process is table selection. Now, this part is an often underappreciated part of poker strategy. In online poker rooms, players usually just drop in on a poker room that fits their criteria.This, however should not deter them to move to a different room in case they feel the game is not going their way. While the signup bonus is not exactly a game-deciding factor, table selection can become just that.
In order to be properly able to select tables, one needs to be quite adept at reading the styles of different players. After getting a quick read he/she will be able to establish whether the table is made up predominantly by rocks, maniacs or if there's a fine blend of the two types. In the latter case he already needs to get moving. Nobody wants to play a table that presents a blend of tight and aggressive players.
Another thing one has to be on the lookout for, is sharks. Spotting one is rather easy as he'll be the one bagging the majority of fat pots. He'll sometimes lash out aggresively, other times fold things up early on, and nobody will be able to pinpoint whether he's tight or loose. The best way to treat these sharks is to run away. As I've stated in other articles of mine, the worst thing, a regular player can do to a shark, is to rob him of victims. Standing up to him in poker is not yet within the means of our player.
Having settled in to a nice table, with good company and no sharks, the play itself can commence. A rookie player will almost certainly fall into the mistake of trying to win every single hand. In order to achieve this – unbeknownst to himself – he'll play extra aggresively and will terminate his bankroll in the matter of a few minutes. This will be a problem, as the sudden loss of everything he had will almost certainly have a deep psychological impact on him. He may quit playing poker altogether as a result of it, coming to the conclusion that it is unfair, or he will sit back, relax, consider the money well spent on tuition and then study some more before he sits back to a poker table.
The second stage in the evolution of a rookie poker player is usually the 'folding" stage. Realizing the error of his ways he'll dift far too much off in the opposite direction trying to compensate. He'll start playing his hands too conservatively, folding all dime-a-dozen pockets and acting aggresively on really good hands. This, in the beginning, will satisfy him to a certain extent. The reason is, that he'll notice that – although he's still loosing – the leak in his bankroll has been reduced a lot, and sometimes it even gets pluged up completely by a few good pots he manages to win. Soon though, he'll start noticing that the few pots that he wins are starting to slim down, until they become ridiculously small compared to the ones the other players bag. The reason is, by that time he'll have been read. The other players will notice that he's a newbie and they'll understand he only acts on a hand when it's extremely strong. They'll be happy to take all the blinds he'll give up by folding, and whenever he makes a move they'll be quick to duck out of his way.
He'll soon realize this is not the correct road to follow either. The opposition needs to be confused, and read and in the same time kept from reading the player himself. Once that is achieved, one can start to call him/herself a moderate-to-good player. The other thing he needs to learn is pot odds.
Knowing at any given moment the amount of money in the pot, the amount that he himself contributed, the odds that a certain card combination will pop up matched up against the two previously mentioned pot-money factors, is not a simple thing to keep track of, and besides a quick brain it also requires an outstanding memory as well.
These pot odds will be greatly helpful is aiding out player to achieve the single thing that turns out docile newbie into the shark he's always dreamt of being.
Knowing when to act, on which hands to act, and how to act on them. This coupled with the ability to read and confuse opponents will do wonders to his/her game.
Another thing characteristic of great poker players is a sixth sense type of thing that allows them to sniff out "perfect hand" situation.
A perfect hand is usually a high card combo that will marginally beat other high card combos at the table.
It is not necessarily the best possible hand, it's just a little bit better than the ones the other players have, but which are also rather high and confidence-aspiring. The perfection of this hand is lent to it by the other, marginally weaker hands at the table. Most of these skills look very nice, put down on paper like this, but remember, mastering these situations takes some serious amount of experience, in many cases years of it.

All articles written by (c) James West.