Taking your poker game to the next level

 

Poker is a highly competitive game with a complex set of rules, it is also an activity that can be extremely fun and, if played well, can even earn you some money. If you are someone who plays poker at a beginner level, there are a number of things you can do to help get your poker game to the next level.

Once you have the basics covered, you can start to develop your own poker strategy and improve your success rate. Whether you enjoy gambling online or playing poker around the table with friends, amongst other various activities, taking note of these rules and best practices will help you to develop into a more competent player:

Make sure that you understand the key rules and terms in poker

Making sure that you understand the poker rules is essential. A beginner may be able to get by with an understanding of a few basic rules, such as a poker hands different odds, their  rankings and game formats, but in order to go pro you will need to research a bit further.

As a beginner player, these are a few key terms that you should have already committed to memory:

Game order

• Flop – The flop is the first three community cards dealt. The players can use these community cards to improve their hand.
• Turn – Once a round of betting on the flop has occurred, another community card is dealt. This is known as the turn.
• The River – After another round of betting the fifth community card is dealt, this is the river. You may hear the turn ‘rivered’ during the game, this refers to losing the pot due to this fifth card being dealt.

Understanding and using key terms such as these will enable you to keep up with the game and make you sound more like a poker pro.

Chip and betting terms

• Coinflip – Getting the chips with 50% of the pot’s total equity.
• Colour Up – Trade low value chips for a higher denomination to make the stack easier to manage. This one is more for poker games played offline.
• Ante – The ante is a small bet that all players must contribute to at the start of the game.
• Check and check-raise – Check is when you pass on a bet, a check-raise when you pass on a bet before raising later on in that round.

Once you have got you read around the basics, it is time to take note of what more experienced players do in order to be successful in their games. These tried and tested techniques have helped some of the most advanced poker players to reach a high level.

Play and watch professional poker players

If you only play poker with people at the same level of skills as you, you will never advance further and develop a more successful strategy.

Ideally, you should play against high-level or even professional poker players. Sure, you are probably going to lose more often, but doing this will enable you to pick up some best practice techniques.

You may be able to find these players in poker clubs or online sites and forums. If you aren’t able to do this then the next best thing is to watch and study some professional poker tournaments.

You will be able to watch some of the biggest international poker events such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour on television. A number of other big events are streamed online for you to view.

Write down every hand a review it afterwards

Every professional poker player spends time reviewing their hands. If you don’t, you are missing out on a really good learning opportunity.

Reviewing your previous games will help you to identify your errors and weaknesses and enable you to improve in your future games. All you need to do this is a notebook and pen.

If you want to take this to the next level in your online poker games, you can utilise a good poker tracking software programme. A tracking programme will not only allow you to review your own hands, but will also record all of your opponents’ hands.

This is a really valuable tool for staying ahead of the competition.

Develop your mental strategy and have the correct mindset

Developing a good mental strategy is something that is overlooked by players of all skill levels. However, good preparation will enable you to make the best decisions during the game.

Firstly, it is important to get your tilt control and focus to a good level. You need to make important decisions with every hand and be confident in doing so, this will naturally develop over time with good amounts of practice.

Techniques such as visualisation, breathing and relaxation strategies will all help you to get into the right mindset. Getting enough sleep is also important, being well-rested will allow you to make better decisions and avoid taking careless chances.

These are just a few ways that you can take your poker game to the next level. Playing regularly and investing time into researching and developing a strategy really is key to success in poker.