Poker is a very skilled game in many aspects, which nobody could argue with. There are literally hundreds of different variables when it comes to a poker game. Some of the best poker players in the world do not have every skill down to a tee. In fact, a lot of them could use a substantial amount of work. More than likely, there is going to be a couple skills that one of these guys or girls have, that will allow them to do so well in the world of poker.

One of the biggest skills that a great poker player probably has is the ability to read his or her opponents very well. If you know the game inside and out and have this skill; you are going to be successful, hands down. The problem is that many players that want to play online will struggle because it is a completely different game in the aspect of reading opponents and understanding tells.

Online Poker Tells do Exist

Believe it or not, there is such thing as an online poker tell. In fact, there are quite a few of them, and it is possible to read your opponents online. It is not quite as effective and/or skillful than a live poker game but there are a lot of tells to consider. Just like in real life, people have their tendencies and they will mess up somehow. It is your job to figure out what these tendencies are and how to capitalize on the information they are giving out to you.

Common Online Poker Tells

Sometimes it can be extremely difficult to kind ones tell, whether it be online or offline. When you are playing online however, it can be even more difficult. The reason being, is because for one; you are playing over the internet and for two; you can misread things, because there are lots of reasons for your opponents to do things that you may think to be a tell when it was really just nothing. You will understand better as you continue to read about some of the common online poker tells.

Although it may seem rather ridiculous, many players use the chat box. Some may only use it when they have a good hand and others may only use it when they have a weak hand. If you can figure that out about a player, you will have a huge edge. Some players use the auto features to make decisions before it is their turn to act. Many times, players will not do that when they have a strong hand. Once again, this is a tell that could be very valuable.

For the most part, learning your opponents tells online is not a whole lot different than a live game. You will still need to be very observant and figure out for yourself what your opponent’s tells are. It is a skill that is not easy to pick up and takes a lot of time and effort to work at. Once you get good with learning online poker tells, you are going to reap the benefits for the rest of your online poker career.

The game really is as simple as Pre-flop and Post Flop action. Now we will look at individual game types within the loose/passive field. You will encounter three different games if you are looking for loose/passive players.

1. Loose Post-flop

2. Loose Pre and Post flop

The softest games will feature passive players in all situations. Again, those are players that do not regularly make large bets or raises. I advise sticking to those games.

Loose Post-flop:
This game will allow you to make some position bets pre-flop. This game will still be somewhat loose pre-flop, but a $20 bet will narrow down the field to heads up, but that doesn’t mean they are holding QQ or better. The main difference here is that your pre-flop raise will mean more to the competition and they tend to “respect” them more. This game will also allow you to make follow up bets on the flop and take down the pot if your oppenent wildly misses. You will tend to see less rivers on this type of game. You can also make the occasional and well timed bluff (depending on your opponent of course).

Loose Pre-flop and Post flop:
This is my favorite and most lucrative game. This should really read: “looser” since a loose/passive game is always more loose than a typical game, this games is just more loose than the above game. Let me define this game as follows: A raise to $20 will get callers with hands like K2h, 84 off, J10 off. (From personal experience, I’ve seen these hands played) When playing this game it is important to understand that you cannot make position bets like you can with better or tighter players. On a 1/2 loose pre-flop game, raising to$20 can easily entice 4 callers. Now, this bet has gotten you nowhere unless you flop a monster hand. Since these players are loose anyway, it is better to keep the pot smaller so that you do not have to invest a lot of money until you get a great hand (after the flop). This also means that you are really going to have to make a large bet with QQ KK and AA pre-flop to narrow the field pre-flop. This should get you in a great position heads up with some crap hand like KQoff.

DO NOT try to win against this field by bluffing. There may be 1 or 2 players at these tables that will lay down a hand, but you will more than likely get called with any variety of hands on this table.

Notice: there is not a specific game labeled “loose pre-flop”. That is becuase, if they are loose pre-flop, they will be loose post flop. These games typically do not tighten up after the flop on low limit games. If you find this rare game where you find players are calling w/ marginal hands and are eager to fold after the flop. You can take down decent sized pots with follow up bets on the flop, especially when an Ace hits the board. But, these games are boring and still a grind. I advise sticking to the loose post flop action games.

Watch and Wait
You will notice this type of play is a watch and wait strategy. You will appear very passive to the table until you get a hand, then you will attack. A personal touch I make to this strategy is to “set up” the table early. Some set ups are a little more complicated than what is required here. This is a simple game that requires very little “set up”. It is as simple as this: Make one large bluff early in the game, make sure everyone sees your hand win or lose. I find it is best to bet from start to finish and end with an all in. Best case, you take down pot, worst case…you lose. In either case, these players will now think you bluff EVERY hand. They will continue to think this even after you show winning hand after winning hand thereafter. Since you brought 5-7 more buy-ins, you didn’t just blow your wad on this bluff if you get called. You may want to make weak bluffs every so often just to keep them guessing and continue the charade. By weak bluff I mean a fairly small bet $10-15 (where this is about a pot size bet, it won’t be much of a bluff at a $100 pot) on the river with low pair or nothing and of course SHOW YOUR HAND, WIN OR LOSE. You may think this is a waste of money, but you have a small chance to win the pot, however the main purpose is investing in the idea that you bluff. This is so that when you hit a hand, they will think your $100+ bet is a bluff too. Bad players can’t tell the difference between all ins and regular bets. To them, once you bluff, it doesn’t matter what you bet…you MUST be bluffing. Of course, after this set up, it is a bad idea to try to actually win a pot by bluffing. You will want to only bet when you have it, but bet strong, because to them your always bluffing.

Play the Field
This article is a general plan and is most effective against the bad to average player. You must still play individual players against their nuances. You can’t play a good player and a bad player heads up the same way. But you have to remember, when other bad players are in the hand, you have to dumb your game down to the lowest level first. You may think it is a good pot, flop and position to bluff against the better player, but as long as dumb players are in the hand with you, it is better to stick to the plan. Also, remember your targets are not the good players. Chances are you and your well playing counter part will gather most of the chips on the table. You will find that the good players will stay out of each others way. I’m there for the easy money. If I wanted a real game, I’d play a better field for higher stakes anyway.

Summary:
-Look for true loose/passive games: Players call many bets with many hands, but rarely raise and they tend to bet small.

-Always have an appropriate bank roll: 20 times the max buy-in or 2,000 times the big blind.

-Sit to the left of large stacks

-Open up your pre-flop hand selection, but adjust the rankings

-Call early position with any playable hand, since it is rarely raised, first position is nearly the same as last. If you find yourself getting raised out of this call a lot, find a new table. In that case it is NOT a passive table.

-Always raise BIG with QQ or better pr-flop

-Do not slow play EVER!

-When you make a hand, bet and bet hard

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The best way to break down the game is into betting rounds, pre-flop and post flop. There will be other aspects discussed. But this is the best place to start.

Pre-flop
This is where the biggest mistakes really begin for any player. With softer and often times less experienced competition, you will find many players play loose-passive. This means, they call a lot of bets and even large ones with marginal hands, but rarely raise or re-raise. This is the best competition to have. If you find your table is too tight, try to find a better table. The fact that your competition rarely raises or re-raises allows you to play first position as if you are last to go on a loose passive table. You will want to see as many “cheap” flops as possible with any connectors, suited cards, low pocket pair and Ace rag. You can simply call with any of these hands from early position without much risk that the pot will be raised. In the rare case the pot is raised, it is a very marginal raise; Typically to $6 or $7. If it is raised anymore than $10. Your opponent probably has a monster. I’ll tell you when to call those raises with marginal hands later. With a loose table, implied odds for any hand are very high. In other words, you will get paid if you hit a hand with 4 other people in with you.

Marginal Hands:
Connectors: consist of hands like 56, j10 and even 79; where the two cards are separated by no more than 1 card. Just call.

Suited Cards: consist of ANY two cards that are suited. Lower suited cards, just call. A or K suited or suited connectors raise to $6 or $7 to build the pot.

Low Pocket Pair: 99 and below. Just call. Up to 5% of your stack. Or go all in if you are short stacked 77 and above.

Ace Rag: A3, A7. Just call…unless it’s suited, then raise to $6 or $7 to build the pot.

Good Hands:
Strong Ace: AQ and AK and above. Call or Raise to $10. A10 and AJ should be played as connectors. These hands are good but your kicker may not be any good. You are really looking for straights trips or two pair.

Mid Pocket Pair: 10 10 and JJ. Many people will try to argue this and say JJ is high pocket pair and 77 is mid pocket pair. You are still really looking for trips or a very non threating flop with the hand. The problem is, even if your 10′s or J’s are top pair after the flop. Players still call looking for face cards. It is definitely safe to bet after the flop, but you have to be careful. Call or Raise to $10-$15.

Premium Hands:
AK AQ Suited: These are premium hands in the fact that you can call larger raises with them, but I still am looking for 2 pair or greater after the flop.

High Pocket Pair: QQ, KK, AA. Raise to $20 or more. Best situation, try to get all of your money in pre-flop with 1 caller.

Not A Donkey…Maybe a Little
After reading this hand selection breakdown, you may be thinking that I am telling you to play like a donkey…well, I am…kinda. The difference between you and the donkey is your bets when you make a good hand. You will know how to bet and make max profit from made hands. That and their hand selection is even less selective.

You will find these rules differ from “textbook” poker. You will call much more often from early position and refrain from raising with hands like 99. Again, the reason you can call from early position is because, the pot is rarely raised on a passive game, so the risk it will be raised a large amount, even if there are a lot of callers is slim. Raising with 99 will not get you any information since many loose-passive players will play K3 off suite after a raise. If 633 flops and there were 3 to 4 callers, you have no clue if your 9′s are good. A large pot is going to get A6 to call after the flop as well. Does your opponent have K3, A6 or AQ and still coming along? Let me express this important point: You are looking for MONSTER flops and draws. You still need to bet when you think you have the best hand. But don’t get too carried away unless you have a monster. A monster is top two pair or greater, depending on the board.

Ace Crackers: Calling raises with marginal hands
These are literally any of the hands discussed in this section, marginal through premium. (However, you should be careful if you only flop top pair, you are looking for 2 pair or greater.) In fact, the lower the cards, often times the better. If you have suited connectors and raise to $7, only to get re-raised to say $15 or more. You can bet they have a big pocket pair, usually JJ or higher. You should then look at their stack, because if you hit your hand, their chips are as good as yours. In this case, you are not calling because you think you have the best hand pre-flop. They need to have a lot of chips along with you to make these kinds of calls. You are looking at the implied odds of the situation, you want to at least see 2 pair on the flop or a great draw.

Play accordingly. There is really no reason to go all in on the flop when it is heads up in this situation, without a made hand. The reason being, your opponent will more than likely call. Do not go all in if you are behind in this situation. The purpose of going all in on a draw(semi-bluff) should be primarily to win the pot right then and there. Some players might think that is the best chance to win a big pot if they hit their big draw, because their opponent might fold on the turn or river if they hit. You do not have to worry about your opponent folding if you make a hand. They will most likely call off $500 dollars with their pocket pair, whether it improves or not. That is why implied odds are so good in this situation. If you completely miss a flop…bail! Do not try to outplay them, you can pick a better spot. You will find badd players will call with AK down to the river with just Ace high, so it is hard to shake them off any hand. Save that for when you have a made hand.

Let them bet the hand. The main reason implied odds are in your favor is because loose passive tables do not know how to bet. They have a tendency to try to “trap” with over pair. With a $50 pot, you will find them betting $10 on the flop and possibly $10-20 on the turn. You are almost guaranteed pot odds if you flop a good draw. (If you find a player tends to bet larger amounts when checked to, but tend to only call smaller bets if you act first; go ahead and lead bet an amount that will give you favorable pot odds.)

Many players at these low limit games play big pocket pair horribly. You will find many players limp in with 10 10 and better. In this case, these pocket pair will probably be crushed because 4-9 players will be in the hand, reducing the strength of just top pair. I have seen many cases where big pocket pair will hit a set, only to get crushed by a straight or higher. When players limp in with big pocket pair. It can be difficult to put them on say AA, typically you can tell they have a good hand, but that is about it. Just play your monsters and watch the disappointment on their face when they lose and you take down a nice pot.

Ace crackers are what make me appear to be a stupid poker player at these lower limit games. Many players have lost a huge pot to me with big pocket pair after I have called $10-$15 raises to hit hands. The reason being, they have had $200 or more in front of them and I have at least matched their stack. Many times I will take down a huge pot like this and players will say things like, “That’s OK, if you keep playing like that, all those chips are coming back over here.” To which I reply “Yes, $10 at a time” or whatever their raise was.

Only call raises with marginal hands against the poor and average player. The good players will price you out of draws and are more likely to make a great lay down if you hit a good hand, thus lowering your implied odds against them.

Continued: Low Limit Poker Strategy| Part 3

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