One of the classic mistakes that poker players make is to concentrate too much on the here and now.

Some players simply have the belief that the game of poker is about winning every single hand. They are same players who are drawn in by attractive looking poker bonuses without considering the game they are getting into or the experience of the other players *and therefore the likelihood of them taking money off you).

The game is top heavy with male combatants so maybe it is a testosterone thing? Either way wanting to win every hand is a major leak in your game of poker.

Despite poker being a very long drawn out game there is a tendency for players to want immediacy. They want to be successful now and do not seem to have much time for the future. This wish to gain immediate results is why so many players try to win every single hand.

When learning how to play Poker one of the first things to remember is that it is a game of strategy and the strategies are formed over a period of time. The players with the patience are the players who come out on top more often than most.

There are times when you simply have to just pass your hand. The reason is simply because it is very likely that there will be a much better spot just around the corner. How many times have you lost chips in a marginal spot only to get dealt aces the following hand along with an opponent willing to spew their chips to you?

So next time you feel that need, that urgency, try to stop and think. Ask yourself, “Do I really need to win this hand right now?” Think about the longer term and think about your strategy.

The stadium clock had just struck 90-minutes in the Nou Camp stadium, Barcelona. It was the 26th May 1999 and Bayern Munich was playing Manchester United in the Champions League Final. Bayern Munich were leading one goal to nil and the UEFA officials had already placed ribbons on the trophy in the colours of the team from Germany.

The German fans were singing and dancing in jubilation and the united fans were in floods of tears and a stony silence. The fourth official signified three minutes of injury time and during those three minutes Manchester United managed to score twice to become the most unlikely of European Champions. It might not seem like it has much in common with online poker, but it does.

As Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunner Solksjaer scored those two vital goals every single spectator went through a range of extreme emotions. It didn’t matter if you were a united fan, Munich fan or just a fan of football, those three-minutes of football will be etched in your memory forever. Those same spectators will remember a boring and drab 90-minutes of football leading up to those explosive three minutes.

90-minutes of boredom followed by 3 minutes of excitement!

The game of poker is a lot like that 1999 clash of champions. Poker has to be viewed in the long term and the long-term strategy of winning poker is boring. Just like that 1999 final, poker has its explosive moments, but for every Manchester United there is a Bayern Munich. On that day the United faithful had to endure 90-minutes of torture in order to gratefully receive 3-minutes of pleasure. In the Betfair poker world the ideology is exactly the same.

Poker consists of boring periods of time with a few flashes of memorable excitement, so be prepared.

There are so many poker articles out there online that explain the rules behind online and offline poker. There are many resources that also aim to simplify the complex jargon that haunts many online casino and poker games, while you can also spend literally hours on end reading tips and strategy from professional players paid to help you improve your game.

However, there aren’t so many articles that try to explain why poker games hold such an appeal for players in the modern world. Not many people stop to think about the reasons behind the game’s attraction.

The reasons, though, are as fascinating as they are complex, so let’s take a look at a few of them.

Many people play offline poker because it hands them a good excuse to bond with their friends or to meet new people. Great friendships have started over the poker table while playing cards. If this is your main motivation behind wanting to try offline (or online) poker, it is important that you stick to low stakes games, since the social side of the event will probably distract you to a certain extent!

Meanwhile, other players play purely for the fun and entertainment side of things. Poker is a complex game that requires competitors to use their skills and experience to dictate how the game goes. In this respect, poker on sites like Unibet is comparable to a sport. Again, it’s probably wise to stick with low stakes games if having fun is your main motivating factor.

If you want to make money from playing poker, you’re not alone! Many people become involved in online gaming because they believe it’ll set them along the path to their first million pounds! Sadly it doesn’t always work out this way, but the desire to make money is a powerful one and does drive many people to become top poker players.

If you want to play online poker and you choose the most popular game in the world, you will be playing No Limit Texas Hold’em (NLHE). There are three different types of NLHE games that you can play. They are heads up, six-max and full ring. In this article we are going to be discussing some of the nuances between full ring and six-max. Anyone learning how to play poker should take these into account.

The main generic belief is that you need to play a much tighter style in a full ring game as opposed to six-max. But let’s examine this belief a lot closer. If bad players call you then does it really matter if you are playing one type of poker or the other? Position is key but your lack of position is compensated when you play against players whom you hold a skill advantage over. So if you are involved in a full ring game and the players are bad then tight might not be right. Fans of paypal poker should remember this.

What happens if we find ourselves on a table against good players?

Firstly, what are we doing sat down at this table anyway? Move! If there is a particular reason that you are staying then it is probably better to be sat at a full ring table when playing good players. Good players have more moves than a bowl of jelly. At a six-max table you are likely to be on the end of a series of bluffs because they expect your range to be wider. On a full ring table they are expecting your range to be tighter and are more likely to be playing ABC poker.

A few things to bear in mind when choosing what game to play.

The reason why the check raise works so well in poker is because it is so difficult to read from your opponent’s point of view. Unless you have a reputation of such a strategy, it normally comes as a surprise and difficult to avoid.

When successful, a check raise is a great way of building up the pot when you are confident that you are in first place, it also commits your opponent because they are likely to have invested a good amount into the middle. Anyone with a free poker bonus should remember this.

Anyone who raises post-flop in poker is feared because it takes a good hand to make such a move. The rest of the table expects will be worried that they have flopped the nuts.

The check raise has increasingly become used as deceptive play by individuals who want to steal a pot. They are aware what the tactic denotes to their opponents, therefore they take a risk when they raise the initial bet in the hope of bluffing the pot with a weak hand. People who have made a poker download should bear this in mind.

Like all strategies in poker, the more you use them, the less effect they have in latter stages of a game. In this instance you risk losing out on valuable chips if you check raise too much. Instead of making a bet, your opponent will be happy to just check and wait for you to make the first move before they decide on their action. The problem here is they will get to see a free card which could help them improve their hand. What is more, once you make a bet they could fold leaving you with a minimal profit for your strong cards.

Poker is like any game or sport in that the further you go to gain information that will give you an edge at a table, the better prepared you will be to succeed.

The most important information that is available to you when are part of a table is your opponents. Their every move is clear for all to see, and if you monitor closely, you can pick up a lot about their style and character at the table. It can help you make the most of online poker promotions.

What is a good idea when playing poker online is to keep a writing pad next to you so you can write notes about each player you are up against. It doesn’t have to be too detailed but key details such as if they are loose or tight will be useful. It should aid you as a reference when coming up heads up against a given player, the more you know about them the better.

If you notice any situations where an opponent was weak in a previous game, for example, a certain player always folds after the river when a big bet is placed, this is useful information that can make the difference between winning a hand or not, and should not be underestimated. People who play Betfair poker should remember this.

Minor details in poker are usually picked up by those who concentrate the most. It is critical to stay focussed even when you are not financially left in a pot. If you follow two player’s hand all the way through to the showdown you can see exactly how they played their given hands through each betting round. However, if you allow yourself to switch off, you are your own worst enemy when it comes to preparation.

It was good to see the World Series of Poker (WSOP) try something different in Cannes. The €10,400 NLHE Split-Format event showed that tournament poker can still be as innovative as ever. Day one was a standard nine-handed NLHE tournament and Dennis Bejedal finished the day as the chip leader ahead of 71 other players. Day two saw the start and the end of the six-handed section of the tournament. Brian Powell was the best of the best at the end of the day and he walked into day three as one of the favourites for the event. People with a poker welcome bonus will have known this.

Day three was the first of two rounds of heads up encounters. The plan was to reduce the field from 16 players down to the final four. With the decision set to allow each player to continue to keep their accumulated chips the draw saw a strange seesaw effect with all of the chips coming through the side of the draw containing Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Roger Hairabedian. Hairabedian had disposed of Dmitry Motorov and Brian Powell to take his place in the semi final and The Grinder had beaten Kent Lundmark and Brian Hastings. Over in the other side of the draw, with the much smaller stacks, were Shawn Buchanan and Noah Schwartz. Buchanan had beaten Jason Mercier and Anatolii Ozhenilok to get to the semi final and Schwartz had eliminated Bryn Kenney and Dan Fleyshman. Those playing paypal poker will have been impressed.

Mizrachi eliminated Hairabedian and Buchanan eliminated Schwartz to set up a very exciting heads up final. Mizrachi came into the final battle with a dominant chip lead and Buchanan just couldn’t get a foothold in the match. Mizrachi finally pounding the Canadian down to win his 2nd WSOP bracelet and the first prize of €336,008.

One of the best pieces of advice that you will get in the game of poker is when you get a good hand play it strongly. The premise of this idea is to extract maximum value from your hand – after all the strong hands don’t come around that often.

So if we all agree that playing your hands strongly is a very effective way of playing poker then what happens when you start with mediocre holdings? Of course, you get yourself into a pickle because you have to play a bad hand in an aggressive manner and you can never be comfortable playing poker like this. As online poker tips go, this is one you need to pay attention to.

Imagine you have ace-king in a three-bet pot and the flop falls down king-high rainbow. This is a great example of a hand that can be played strongly. Now flip this over and examine the other side. Imagine you are in the big blind and you have to defended king-five suited and the flop is king-high rainbow. Now you have gotten yourself in a position where you simply cannot play this hand strongly. There is no way anyone could be comfortable trying to extract three streets of value out of a marginal holding such as this. You should remember this when learning how to play poker online.

This doesn’t mean that you should never play marginal holdings, just be aware of the consequences if you do, and be prepared to adjust your play accordingly.
Playing a hand strong is reserved for strong hands and not for mediocre holdings.

Recently the great Phil Hellmuth revealed he folded 49 out of 50 hands in the latter stages of a WSOP 2010 Mixed Game Bracelet Event. How difficult is this to accomplish? Well the Poker Brat told us that he would not have been capable of doing that ten years ago.

When you settle for a tight is right approach you have to be extremely patient and disciplined. You will have to come to terms with the fact that you will have to sit there for hours upon hours, doing nothing but folding your hands. You may even get some verbal abuse by your fellow competitors – are you ready to handle that as well? Lots of people waste their poker bonuses by playing too many hands.

So playing tight is difficult but it is certainly is not impossible. If you widen the debate and consider what other people have to do for a living then there is an argument that the toilet attendant finds it more difficult to clean the loos than a professional poker player does folding his hands all day. There are worse ways to make a living. Anyone in poker rooms online should remember this.

When you put things into perspective how hard is it to fold 49 out of 50 hands? It isn’t very hard at all and in fact it is easy. So if you want to play tight and right then go ahead. Just make sure you choose the right games so you can get paid off when you do eventually wake up with a hand.

If you are going to play online poker tournaments for real money then you need good money management skills. Most people call this bankroll management and it is a great place to start for someone wanting to have a go at playing tournaments online.

If you want to play real money tournaments and don’t have any real money then how can you play? It’s this quandary that makes bankroll management so important. Just remember that it is not just the most talented poker players in the world who make it. Many of them fell to the wayside long ago. People with a natural ability to manage money also do extremely well and anyone looking to try Betfair online poker should remember this.

The online poker world offers you games that can be played at any stake, but the level that you start at depends on the money you have. To help you make your decision just follow this simple rule. Never play in a tournament unless you have at least 25 buy-ins at the limit you are going to play.  Anyone playing Betfair GSOP VII Mini should bear this in mind.

As you progress through the stakes you will encounter better players and meet more unstable waves of variance. With this in mind it is advisable to maintain a higher bankroll the higher you progress. If and when you lose some of your money you need to remain focussed on the rules. Moving down is equally – if not more important – than moving up.

Remember money is fuel and without your poker engine won’t be able to move.