This approach is just as applicable to free poker games as it is to paid, practice it with the free money and chips and you’ll be doing it naturally when the time comes to play with real green.
Before you even hit the tables, set yourself a couple of ground rules on spending money and time. You DO NOT want to spend an hour losing money over and over again. I tend to set myself three conditions. Upon meeting one of them I quit the table and take a break from poker.
My first rule is to limit the amount I can lose in a game. It may appear that it will cause slow progress in the world of poker, but at the same time it also prevents becoming a worse player and going backwards. A penny saved is a penny earned, and those pennies will build up over time if you restrict your losses and have PATIENCE!
The purpose of this is to prevent a huge blowout of all your money and thus causing you to miss out on a huge win after lots of bad calls. Here are my three rules that I stick to:
1. Quit playing and have a break if I have used up half of the cash flow I started with.
2. If I have doubled the money I have bought in with, and start losing it, quit and come back later. On a side note never risk losing a big hard earned stack by going all in. I made this rule and adhere strictly to it so that I never make a loss on what I have earned.
3. If you don’t seem to be getting anywhere in the game (say, no wins for about half an hour) and there is no major losses or gains then have a break and come back later.
If you have joined a game to win big, then remember, its not the cards you are playing against, it’s the other players. It’s no use going all in with a royal flush knowing you’re bound to win, and watching everyone at the table fold.
A rather general guideline (no more rules!) is that players tend to bet big when bluffing, and small when they have a great hand to try and squeeze as much cash out of everyone as possible.
However, this is not always true. First look at the players at the table, try to guess their playing styles, notice patterns in their behaviour and then apply this guideline to them. It works for me I would say around 80-90% if the time.
A good poker player will try and do this to you, so always vary how you play after you hit the table! If you make yourself seem predictable and easy to read. E.g. start off by folding weak hands and only playing the good ones. When people see that you raise whenever you get a good hand, and fold on weak cards they will write you off as unable to bluff, and you can bluff your way through the next couple of weak hands, with most being too scared to call your bluff.
If the cards aren’t going your way, try making it obvious that you are a bluffer (without losing too much). Then as soon as a good hand does come along (it will eventually, it’s all just about PATIENCE) then you can bet big, people will probably call your bluff, and you can just rake in their cash.
When starting out playing poker, its best to stick with playing free poker games before taking a risk with your own money. You’ll find that many free players don’t do rules very well and play silly but you will get a lot of experience in general game aspects on free poker sites so that you won’t waste too much money when you play for the real thing.
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