Poker tips and tricks: best strategy

History of Online poker

While poker has always been one popular game, the popularity of the exploded Card game with the invention of online poker in Live Casinos literally. The first poker sites started operating at the end of the 1990s and for the first time offered players the opportunity to play poker against other human players directly from home.

At the same time, more and more poker tournaments were being televised. Above all, the tournaments of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) from Las Vegas became extremely popular due to the coverage of the American sports broadcaster ESPN. With the invention of the "Hole Card Camera" Players can see live which cards the respective players had. This is a camera that is attached to each player's seat and films the cards dealt.

Then in 2003 an American with the incredible name of Chris Moneymaker won the main event of the WSOP. He had qualified for the tournament for 86 US dollars through the Pokerstars site and turned this investment into a profit of 2.5 million dollars.

This event sparked an unbelievable poker boom. All over the world, millions of poker players opened accounts on various poker sites in order to become the next Chris Moneymaker themselves. To this day, online poker is a very popular pastime in many countries around the world. In Germany, too, thousands of players will be playing against each other every day in 2021 via the Internet or in land-based casinos.

The different poker variants

The WSOP Main Event will traditionally be in the variant Texas Hold'Em. For this reason, this variant was also by far on the most commonly played form of poker. However, there are a few other popular variants that we would like to briefly discuss.

Texas Hold'Em

Texas Hold'Em is the most popular form of poker in the world and is often referred to as the " Cadillac of Poker ”. With this variant, each player receives two cards at the beginning. In the course of the game, up to 5 additional cards are dealt in the middle of the table, which are shared by all players (the so-called "community cards"). Each player then forms the best possible 5-card hand from the 7 cards available.

Pot Limit Omaha (PLO)

Pot Limit Omaha is the second most popular form of poker. Here each player receives four cards instead of two at the beginning. Just like in Texas Hold'Em, up to 5 community cards are then distributed. In PLO, each player has to use exactly 2 of his cards and 3 of the community cards to create the best possible 5-card hand.

5 Card Draw

The classic 5 Card Draw is best known for various scenes in films. This form of poker was widespread in the saloons of the Wild West, but is rarely played today. In 5 card draw, each player receives 5 cards face down. He can then exchange up to 5 of them. There are no community cards with this variant.

7 Card Stud

No community cards are used in 7 Card Stud either. Instead, each player receives three cards at the beginning, two of which are face down and one face up. The player then receives three more face-up cards and one face-down card. From these 7 cards, each player forms his best possible hand with 5 cards.

Tips How to choose the best variant

If you are a beginner at poker, you should use the Stick to Texas Hold'Em as a rule. Since the game is so extremely popular, you can always find a larger number of games for this variant on all poker sites and also in the Online Casinos. The other variants are more interesting for advanced players who find Texas Hold'Em too boring in the long run.

Tips and Tricksbeim Pokern

How do you win at poker? This is the burning question every new poker player asks. Even if the game is primarily supposed to be fun, you obviously want to win rather than lose. For this reason, every poker fan should take the time to learn good poker strategy. In contrast to pure games of chance like real money roulette or baccarat, only those who have better tactics than their opponents win in the long run.

Before As we come to the actual poker strategy, we would like to present a few general tips on how beginners can get started as easily as possible. The following poker tips will ensure that every player starts their career on the right foot.

1. First play money, then real bets. Without a doubt, one of the most important poker tips for new players is not to play too high at the beginning. Those who are just starting out with poker have a lot to learn and will almost always have a bad chance of being profitable in the games at the beginning. For this reason, it makes sense to start playing for play money or for very small stakes. The right money will wait later when you have more experience.
2. A reasonable budget is essential. Once a player is playing for real money, it is important to set a budget for their games. A good rule of thumb is that you should always have at least 30 buy-ins for each limit in the cash game. Those who prefer to play tournaments should always have a budget of 100 times the individual tournament fee. Bad luck is part of poker, so a good budget is essential in order not to go bust at some point.
3. Better to specialize in one variant. Even if it can be fun to try a different poker variant every day, a player will never become an expert in one of the variants in the long run. Because of this, the better strategy is to pick one variant and stick with it. Since the majority of players prefer Texas Hold'Em, we recommend all newbies to specialize in this variant.
4. If you want to play poker well, you have to work hard. This point may not appeal to some players, but it is unfortunately true. Poker is an incredibly complex game, and if you want to become a good player, you have to do your homework. The pros have all put a lot of work into figuring out the best tactics for the game. Fortunately, we've put the best poker strategies together in this guide.

The rules of Texas Hold'Em

As we are talking about Texas Hold in this guide Concentrating on a strategy, let us now briefly discuss the rules of this variant. Anyone who has never played Texas Hold'Em themselves, but has only seen it on television before, will appreciate this section.

Here is the course of the game in Texas Hold'Em:

1. In jeder Hand bekommt ein Spieler den sogenannten „Dealer Button“. Falls die Spieler selbst die Karten verteilen, muss der Spieler mit dem Button diese Funktion ausführen. Bei Spielen im Casino ist der Button symbolisch, um die Reihenfolge der Aktionen festzulegen. Der Button wandert nach jeder Hand im Uhrzeigersinn um eine Position weiter.
2. Before the cards are dealt, two players must place the so-called "blinds". The player to the left of the button posts the “small blind” and the player to the left of it posts the “big blind”, which is usually twice the value. The blinds are blind bets that cannot be withdrawn. These ensure that more players get into the pot with weaker hands.
3. After the button and the blinds have been placed, the dealer distributes two cards to each player.
4. Now you have to the player to the left of the big blind decides whether to pay, raise or throw away his cards. When raising, he must post at least twice the value of the big blind.
5. This will continue with each player until all players have made the same bets or thrown their cards away. If only one player has cards left, he wins the pot.
6. If all players make the same bets, three cards face up are dealt in the middle of the table. These cards are called the “flop”.
7. The first player to the left of the dealer button who still has cards must now decide whether to “check” or “bet”. If he chooses the second option, he must post at least the value of the big blind.
8. Next, all other players must decide again whether they want to call, raise or throw away.
9. When all actions have been taken, another open card is revealed (the “turn”). Another betting round follows.
10. Now the last community card, known as the "river", is turned over. The final betting round of the game follows.
11. After players have placed their bets, the cards are revealed. The player with the strongest 5-card hand wins the pot.

Order of the poker hands

The same hand strengths count in all poker variants. These are as follows:

1. High Card - if no player has at least one pair, the player with the highest card wins.
2. A pair - two identical cards, e.g. B. AA.
3. Two pairs - e.g. B. AA and QQ.
4. Three of a Kind - three of a kind, e.g. E.g. 555.
5. Street - five consecutive cards, e.g. E.g. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9.
6. Flush - five cards with the same symbol, e.g. E.g. 2, 7, J, Q, K in hearts.
7. Full House - a pair and three of a kind, e.g. E.g. 555AA.
8. Quads - four of a kind, e.g. B. AAAA.
9. Straight Flush - a straight of the same characters, e.g. B. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 in spades.
10. Royal Flush - the highest possible straight in the same symbols, e.g. B. 10, J, Q, K, A in diamonds.

Texas Hold'Em Strategy for beginners

Well Let's get to the part of this guide that most poker players have been waiting for. For all new poker players, we now present the best online poker strategy. Those who follow the following online poker tricks can usually expect a profit in the games for play money or small stakes on most poker sites. The best players in the world know these poker tips and tricks by heart.

Tight is right

One of the oldest and most important rules in poker is the phrase "Tight is right". And in fact, this is one of the best poker tips for beginners.

If you are new to poker, you should only play very strong hands at the beginning for several reasons:

• If you are mainly strong Playing starting hands automatically creates a mathematical advantage over his opponents, who most likely also play weaker starting hands. When the hand comes to a showdown, the player with the stronger hands will often win.
• In addition, there are often situations in which the player "dominates" the opponent's hand. An example is this: our hand is AK and our opponent's hand is AJ. If the flop reads A27, the chances are very good that we will win a big pot. Strong aces like AK and AQ are the best candidates to dominate weaker hands like AJ or AT.
• By only playing stronger hands, a player automatically avoids many tricky situations. The strong hands are pretty easy to play in most cases. Either you hit something on the flop and see a showdown, or you miss the flop and throw away. With weaker hands, on the other hand, there is always the possibility that you will have the second best hand even if you hit something on the flop.

As you can see, there are many advantages to simply throwing away weaker hands at the beginning. Of course, this tip is very vague. What exactly are "weaker" and "stronger" hands? In order to give new players an exact idea of ​​which hands they should play at the beginning, we have created a list:

• Very strong aces: AK and AQ. We recommend that you only play these two hands with aces at the beginning (as long as the two cards have different symbols). If the cards are "suited", you can also play AJ and AT, as in this case you have a chance of a flush.
• Very strong "Broadway" hands: KQ, QJ and JT. While these hands can sometimes be dominated by the strong aces, they are still very strong starting hands. In addition, all of these hands can form streets.
• Pairs higher than 77. Those who regularly play pairs often give themselves the opportunity to hit three of a kind. These are the best hands to win a huge pot against an overpair (a higher pair than the community cards).

This range of starting hands may seem very small to some players. Still, these are proven hands that give even a complete beginner the best chance of being profitable at poker.

Position is everything

At least as important is the next rule. In poker, position is the difference between winning and losing. The reason for this is simple: If you are last in each betting round, you can always see first what your opponents are doing before you have to make a decision yourself. With more information, every player can make better decisions, even a complete beginner.

The best position at the table is therefore that of the dealer button. The button is in everyone Last betting round after the flop.

The position of the button is so strong that legendary poker player Doyle Brunson once said: "If I get the button in every hand could, I would beat my opponents even if I didn't see my cards ”.

The importance of the position can only be learned through personal experience. For this reason, we recommend playing slightly weaker starting hands on the dealer button on a regular basis. In this way you develop a faster feeling for how helpful it can be to be the last to decide in as many situations as possible like A9 and A8 as well as the so-called "suited connectors" like 67, 78 and 89. Smaller pairs like 22 to 77 can also be played from the button.

Zusätzlich zu der oben beschriebenen Auswahl an Starthänden könnte man zum Beispiel noch mehr „suited“ Asse wie A9 und A8 sowie die sogenannten „suited Connectors“ wie 67, 78 und 89 spielen. Auch kleinere Paare wie 22 bis 77 können vom Button gespielt werden.

Bluff only in exceptional cases

In poker, a "bluff" is a bet made by a player with a weaker hand to get his opponent to throw away his hand. Even if it is one of the most exciting moments in poker, beginners should avoid bluffing as much as possible. The simple reason for this is that a good understanding of the game is necessary to bluff profitably in the long term.

Another reason against bluffing is the following. At the lower limits, most players have a tendency to pay bets to showdown too often. Against these players, bluffing is the worst strategy. Instead, you should form the strongest possible hands at the low limits and then place a bet with them in every betting round. The opponents will sometimes have a stronger hand, but in the long run this tactic will make a profit.

Losing is part of the game

The last sentence The previous point reveals one of the most important wisdoms in poker. Sometimes the opponents just have better hands. For example, we can play AA against KJ and place a bet on a K45 flop that is called by the opponent. The turn is followed by the 7, and again we bet and get called. Now comes a J on the river. We bet again, get called and lose.

It is extremely important not to get frustrated or angry in such situations. We made the right decision in every betting round and our opponent was simply lucky. In the long run, each of these bets will be profitable, as in most cases our opponent will not form a stronger hand.

If you want to play poker really well, you have to learn that losing is part of the game. A very good way of thinking here is that every time an opponent hits a lucky card and beats us, we've made a profit in the long run. Mathematically speaking, our opponent will rarely win. In many situations we win 80% of the time, which is guaranteed to be profitable in the long run.

Learning from mistakes

A good poker player doesn't just understand that he is on "unlucky" hands should remain calm, but also with your own mistakes. Even if it initially appears that we have lost money through a mistake that we would otherwise have won, the reality is often not that simple.

There are many situations in which an avoidable "mistake" in Reality was a profitable move. Correctly analyzing a poker hand is extremely difficult, so beginners should never be too critical of themselves.

Even if a move was a clear mistake, this is not a cause for concern. The only way to get better at poker is to learn from your mistakes. Every well-known poker pro has learned this lesson firsthand. And they have all learned to see mistakes as something natural and even positive that has taken their game to the next level.

Advanced Poker Strategy

Who Has been playing poker for a while but has not yet made the real breakthrough, undoubtedly needs some advanced Texas Hold'Em tips. As mentioned earlier, poker is an incredibly complex game. Even the best players in the world are constantly learning and looking for ways to improve their strategy and tactics.

Here are some advanced strategies and online poker tips that experienced players can use to advance their game and finally win the "real" money.

Read the opponent

Who against Playing other good players, you have to be able to do more than just play your own hand strength. Instead, the key to success in such games is to read the opponent's hand and make the best possible decisions against it.

In practice, this works in such a way that we should assign our opponents a so-called "range" . It's a selection of hands the player is likely to have at any given moment.

Here's a simple example:

• Our opponent opens in early position with a raise. From experience, we think it is very likely that he would only do this with a very strong hand. For example, our range for this player could consist of strong aces (AJ, AQ, AK), strong Broadway hands (KQ, KJ, QJ, JT) and pairs higher than 77.
• Now comes the flop with 85J in different characters. Our opponent bets again. In this case we can eliminate part of his range. It is very likely that he would not bet with hands like 77, 99 or KQ.
• We pay the bet and there is a 10 on the turn. Our opponent bets again. Many opponents would only bet with a strong hand like at least a pair of jacks. His range in this case would be AJ, KJ, QJ, JT, QQ, KK, AA, 55 and 88.

This method is used by all good poker players in order to determine the probable hands of their opponents as accurately as possible to narrow down. Even if it seems very impressive when a player like Daniel Negreanu keeps guessing the exact cards of his opponents, the method of rank is the better one for the majority of poker players.

More bluffing

Auch wenn Anfänger möglichst auf das Bluffen verzichten sollten, gehört es beim Spielen gegen stärkere Gegner dazu. Der Grund dafür ist einfach: stärkere Spieler beobachten uns und merken sich, ob wir ausschließlich starke Hände setzen oder gelegentlich auch Bluffs. Wer zu vorhersehbar spielt, hat gegen stärkere Gegner keine Chance.

The counter-tactic is very simple. We should bet with a balanced mix of strong hands and bluffs to keep our opponents in the dark. In this way, our opponent can never know whether our bet signals a strong or weak hand.

In order to incorporate more bluffs into our game, it is advisable to use the so-called "draws". These are hands in which we can hit a lot of cards that are very likely to win the pot. Good examples are draws to a straight or a flush.

• For example, suppose our hand is AJ in hearts. The flop comes 289 with two hearts and our opponent bets.
• This is a perfect hand for a bluff because there are many cards we are most likely to win with.
• In this one For example, every heart as well as every jack and every ace could lead to us forming a stronger hand than our opponent's.
• The advantage of raising as a bluff in such situations is the following: we give ourselves through it two ways to win the hand. Either our opponent throws his hand straight away, or we hit one of our cards and win the showdown.
• At the same time, we show the opponent that we are not only increasing his bets with strong hands like two pairs or three of a kind . The next time we increase one of his stakes, he will have a very difficult decision.