Top 5 reasons you are losing at poker

freerolls    Poker Strategy    

Have you been wondering why you are on a losing streak in your poker game? Chances are it is one of five reasons that your game is a bit off. Have no fear; every poker player has experienced at least one of these problems, if not all of them.

The top 5 reasons you are losing at poker are:

5. You are just unlucky… right now
Everyone goes through this streak but the good news is that this will eventually change. If you continue to play a solid game of poker this reason will go away, so just ride it out and wait for your luck to change. Always look long term and stick with your game.

4. You may be lacking the fundamentals of poker.
Playing only premium hands will only get you so far in any poker game. In general, if this is your style you will likely be blinded out in tournament play. That is the reason that you will need to understand the fundamentals of poker. Fundamentals including reading your opponents, playing position, implied odds, and poker math to name a few. Do your homework here and success will come much easier.

3. Your opponents can read you like a book.
You are way too predictable in your play. If you play against the same people day after day or week after week then odds are that these people know exactly how you play. It is time to mix it up a bit and change your play style. Do you slow play big pocket pairs? Do you protect your big blind with any hand? Are you always raising 3x the blinds on the button? All of those ‘tells’ can lead to a losing poker game. Mix it up!

2. Is the game too rich for your blood?
Are you playing a game that is within your comfort zone? If you play at a ring table and only have enough cash for one buy in then you probably can’t focus on getting the best value from your hands. Playing scared and being successful cannot be done at the same time. Don’t let your ego or pride determine your play level. It is best to play at a level where you have no less than 30 big buy ins in your bankroll.

1. You have let your emotions control your game.

This lovely event is commonly referred to as being on Tilt. And it has happened to most likely everyone who has played poker. Any time you take a bad beat it can affect your ability to play a solid game. When this happens, take a break from your game, even for a minute. Get up and walk around or stretch. The most important thing is to acknowledge that bad beats will always be in poker. Even though poker is a game of skill there is always a bit of luck involved also. Never focus on one session but how your overall play is. Track several hundred hands and see how you react to bad beats. Remember bad beats happen at every poker table, whether in Vegas, online or in your home!

The Difference Between Your Home Game And Online Poker.

freerolls    Poker Strategy    

Home Poker games are their own unique breed of Poker.

The fact that you are in control of the rules means that the game can be bent and twisted into a completely new form, without any regard for the basic rules that have already been set in place.

The less experience you and your friends have in playing Poker, the more unrecognisable the game will become. Here are a few pointers to highlight why the first home game you play may be slightly different to the poker game that you will be playing online.

I’m sure that you can relate to a few of them – we’ve all been there at some point.

It doesn’t matter when players act, just as long as they do.

Do you like your hand? Don’t wait about, get your bet or raise into the middle as quickly as you can.

When you are playing online, the action moves from player to player in clockwise direction. However, at your first home game everyone realises that this is just a useless formality that takes up valuable playing time. This isn’t some sort of high limit Baccarat game with strict rules, so it’s all okay to set a few of the minor details to the side.

As long as you are sure that everyone has made a bet or something along those lines, you can carry on with the flop, turn or river. Job done.

No betting on the river.

People that bet on the river are really annoying. Let’s face it, you’ve paid a ridiculous amount of money on the turn in the hope that your hand will improve, and so now you just want to turn the cards over to see if your hand has held up.

For some unknown reason, online poker rooms have placed an annoying betting round after the river card. Do away with this rule at your home game and just turn the cards over. Nobody is going to share any beers with the guy that moves all-in on the river, especially if you aren’t sure whether your bottom pair might still be ahead.

No raising before the flop (well, you can, but nobody is going to like you).

Just as nobody likes the guy that bets on the river, people are going to hate the guy that raises before the flop. You haven’t even seen the first 3 community cards yet, so how the hell can you be raising so early on?

Everyone wants to see a flop for as cheaply as possible, so there’s no need to try and push them out of the hand before it even gets going. There is nothing worse than calling the big blind and finding some idiot making a 4 big blind raise after you… that’s not real poker.

In your home game you can bully that sort of player into submission, but online it seems to happen on every hand. It’s just no fun that way.

You raise it to $10? I raise it to $12.

It’s micro bets galore in your first home game. At the online tables, you have to make re-raises that are equal to or greater than the initial raise, but that can get pretty costly pretty quickly.

We all know that you are better off throwing the rules behind betting and raising out of the window for your home game, otherwise the pots are just going to get far too big and you are going to end up losing all of your money on one hand. Nobody wants to see that happen, so allow yourselves to bet small amounts of money – it’s the way forward.

Reading Opponents in Poker

freerolls    Poker Strategy    

It doesn’t matter which poker game you’re playing, the most important concept to master in every single poker game is the ability to read other players. Why is this so important? It’s because it dictates how you’ll play your hand. Think of it as your “spidey sense”, your personal radar that signals opportunity or trouble. For the purposes of this article, I will focus on reading online opponents and not face to face opponents. The only difference between the two is the lack of body language that can’t be present in online poker.

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