Online Poker Hold ’Em Strategy

The following tips and suggestions can apply to the game of poker at large, but are particularly useful for new online players at low-stakes Hold ’Em tables, whether in cash games or tournaments. Remember that these tips and observations are generally true. Particular game circumstances can change everything in a heartbeat.

Be Aggressive with Playable Hands

Playing your hand with strength by wagering intelligently and aggressively can help you to both maximize gains and minimize losses. The idea is that you generally want to make your opponents pay up to stay in the hand with you. Very broadly stated, you want to raise rather than call when feasible.

Let’s say, for simplicity’s sake, you’re in a hand with just one other opponent. If you have the best hand and your opponent has the second-best hand, your raise will a) bring additional money into the pot if he calls, or b) scare him out, in which case you win the pot right there. Scaring him out also prevents him from drawing a subsequent card that could put his hand on top. By the same token, if you have the worse hand and your opponent has only a marginally better hand, then your raise may again drive him out of the pot, and you win with the lesser hand.

The trick, of course, is that you can never be sure who has the better hand—that’s poker for you. But generally speaking, playing strong hands aggressively is good strategy in low-stakes Texas Hold ’Em.



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