Tips To Improve Your Poker Skills

Poker has been around for a very long time. Some historians claim it can be traced back to a card game played by a 10th century Chinese Emperor. Others claim it goes back to 16th century Persia. Either way, it’s been part of world culture for hundreds, if not thousands of years. But like all games, it has undergone plenty of evolutions getting us to where we are today.

For this generation, the biggest poker revolution was with the dawn of the internet. Prior to its worldwide accessibility, Poker was generally confined to smoky back rooms and the odd casino table. Now however, you can play it 24 hours a day from the comfort of your sofa. But simply being able to access it doesn’t mean you’re actually any good at it.

So if you are looking for ways to improve your game, there are some pointers that you can take on board. The biggest tip that anybody can give you is to develop your basic Poker skills. This may seem like an obvious suggestion but so many people rush in without ever really doing the groundwork. Then they wonder why they can’t win.

Poker is a game that is largely based in skill. Luck is not as big a factor as it is in other casino games such as Blackjack. So if you can sharpen up your basic understanding of the game, you will see an improvement in your play.

Start With Low-stakes Poker

If you play with small amounts of money you can afford to play more hands. That will give you a much better range from which to hone in on what works. It will allow you to see how your opponents play in more situations and best of all, if you don’t win, you won’t lose too much money. Even then you can still take away some important lessons from how you played and got beaten.

Play On A Single Table

Bouncing from one table to another or trying to play in multiple games or tournaments at the same time is a major distraction. And if you are distracted you could miss out on key plays from your opponents.

Just focus on one thing and do it well. Take your time, watch how the other players at the table play their hands. Try to spot any tells, loose players or tight players and that will help you adjust your style of play.

Play With A Positive Frame Of Mind

This may seem like a daft thing to say, after all, what does your mood have to do with your ability to play a poker hand? It has a lot to do with it. If you log-on and start playing when you are frustrated or in a bad mood, when things don’t go your way, it will only get worse. Your frustration can quickly lead to you making very stupid mistakes that will become more difficult to claw your way back from.

Playing in a better frame of mind helps you maintain a more professional approach and in doing so should lead to making better poker decisions. Those improved decisions will give you a much better chance of taking the pot.

Use The Software

Most online casino sites now offer their poker players software to help them track their play. Not only that but you can also get information on your opponents. This will help you identify the loose players (those who play every hand no matter what cards they hold) and the tight players (those who play few but good hands).

You can also make notes about your hands, other players and over time patterns will emerge about your style of play that you may not even be aware of. Do you use the blind to its maximum advantage? Have you identified the fish and the sharks at the table? Who continually over-estimates their hand? Which players will call just to see the flop?

Once you can get a better handle on how and who you play you can adjust your strategies accordingly. And the more you play the better you will get.