Are you struggling to turn a decent profit at the poker tables on a consistent basis? Are your results best described as “somewhere around break-even”?
First off, don’t worry because you are not alone. This describes the results of the majority of poker players.
Often, however, it is just a few small poker strategy adjustments that can take your game from mediocre to amazing — from break-even to crushing it.
In this article, I am going to provide you with seven subtle but highly effective poker tips to help you get better at poker.
#1 – Think about ranges, not hands
#2 – Ditch your favorite hand
#3 – Adopt a consistent strategy
Poker Tip #1 – Think About Ranges, Not Hands
It doesn’t matter what type of casino poker you play: one of the easiest ways to spot average and beginner poker players is to look at how they think about what their opponent has.
Beginner poker players try and put somebody on a specific poker hand.
Advanced poker players think in terms of ranges. This type of thinking that can be extremely important when calculating pot odds.
A range is the entire spectrum of poker hands somebody can have in a specific situation. For example, player X can have a flush, top pair, middle pair, bottom pair, a draw, ace-high or a complete air-ball bluff.
Good players who have already gone through a few poker strategy articles understand that player X will show up with this entire range of hands with various frequencies. They don’t focus on identifying a single winning hand, but they try and figure out those frequencies and then make the best play.
Average players try to put an opponent on exactly A
♥
J
♥
(or some other specific hand) because that’s “what their gut tells them.”
If there’s one thing you need to know when you learn the game, this is that poker strategy tips and ‘gut feeling’ don’t go well together. Basing your tournament strategy or cash game play on what you ‘feel’ is never a good idea.
In the first video of this beginner’s guide to poker tips for beginners, poker pro Jason Wheeler explains how uses every possible information available to understand his opponent’s cards and choose his play.
Poker Tip #2 – Ditch Your Favorite Hand
A lot of people have a favorite hand. I know that every time I get dealt the old 9
X
7
X
-suited my eyes light up and I want to play it so bad!
However, in reality, I know that 9
X
7
X
-suited is a mediocre hand. Definitely not one of the best starting hands you can hey in a game of Texas hold’em.
It makes sense to play it in some spots — late position, for instance, in an unopened pot. But it should almost always be folded in early position.
If you currently have some favorite starting hands, that’s fine — most people do. But don’t give them preferential treatment and make bad plays with it.
Poker Tip #3 – Adopt a Consistent Strategy
Another big key to becoming a great poker player (and perhaps one of the most important poker tips on this strategy guide) is to consistently apply a winning strategy.
It is not okay suddenly to change things up (e.g. to open with 9
X
7
X
-suited from early position or turn yourself into a calling station) just because you are bored or tilted.
All of your learning, experience and study over the years has given you a body of knowledge telling you how to play Texas Hold ‘Em.
But your poker strategy only actually matters if you apply it at the poker tables all the time. Every hand counts and every session counts.
The best poker players, those ones who know how to win at poker, apply the same winning strategy over and over again, no matter how they feel or what their recent results have been.