Good Online Gambler 2819197196929486
Sure there's a whole lot of luck involved playing poker. I saw my ace-queen lose to a queen-three at Texas Hold'em when the board came up with a queen on the flop as well as a three on the river. Talk about bad beats, I'm certain you have your stories too. Luck plays a part within your success but developing skill at poker can only benefit you within the long term.
You may read and study but you need to practice many hands (I am talking thousands!) in order to better your chances of winning consistently. So that is tip number one, practice and even more practice. I recommend you use poker software and play at least two or three hundred hands a day which should take you about a half hour. In a professional casino online setting you will play about forty hands an hour, so you may find out how much time you can save. You can also practice directly with the internet casinos. Many offer no-bet and low-bet games for practice. Bear in mind that these games are for novices and those looking for entertainment and might not exactly duplicate the games you will play in an online casino.
Tip number two builds on tip number one. Work your way up. Do not jump in to a high stakes game without having to be successful at the low level games. A twenty or forty dollar minimum bet game plays a whole lot differently than playing for little if any money. The pros call the low stakes Texas Hold'em games "no fold'em, hold'em." After all if it only costs a little or nothing to stay in, players shall stay in hoping for a miracle like that draw to an inside straight. While you work your way up you will notice the players have much more skill and also will make fewer mistakes than those at the low limit games. You must also learn to handle the different subtleties within the higher stakes games. In general you'll find tougher as well as more conservative opponents within the higher stakes games and less bluffing.
Third tip: Fold early and fold often. Learning when to fold is absolutely important to winning poker. In Texas Hold'em the best play is to fold after the very first two cards should you not have super-strong hand. Fold after the flop if you don't have top pair or better, or possibly a straight or perhaps a draw to an outside straight, or a flush or perhaps a draw to a four-card flush. Sometimes you are going to have to fold with a robust hand if others are raising and also you do not feel they may be bluffing. On the additional side of the coin, among the worst plays you may make is folding a winning hand and watching someone else scoop up the pot. If there is the remotest chance of you having the top hand when it's the final round of betting, you are better off in the long term calling and not folding.
Luck is a factor to winning at poker but winning is also reliant on you developing skills and capitalizing on other players' mistakes.