Poker is one of the most-loved skill-based casino games out there. In fact, it’s a game so different from others that it’s often separate from online casino verticals and roped off from the casino floor in land-based casinos. 

Poker is different from other games in that there’s no casino edge or advantage, as players compete against each other, not the house. Poker rooms, online and live, make money from raked hands and aren’t reliant on whether a player wins or loses.

Just as important, poker differs from other casino games because it has a strong skill component. Study after study has shown that poker players who use strategy and game theory can improve their chances of winning and become better players over time. Skill can outperform luck in many circumstances, which is why strategy matters in poker. That’s why most top players have spent years studying hand histories, game theory, and range charts. 

With that in mind, the best way to improve your chances of winning at online poker (or poker at a traditional brick-and-mortar casino) is to settle on a strategy that suits your unique playing style. This strategy will likely adapt to both cash games and tournaments. 

However, there will be times when you’ll need to deviate from your usual modus operandi and try something new. But how will you know when the time is right? Read on for some helpful insights on sticking to a basic poker strategy and when to improvise. 

Poker Strategy Mindset

Elite poker players will tell you that the quickest way to up your game and improve your win rate is to maintain control of yourself at all times. You’ll need to approach the table or log on to your chosen online poker room with as little emotion as possible while doing your best to remain mathematical and logical at all times. With that in mind, let’s get going on live poker strategy.

Even when studying the basics of beginner Texas Hold’em strategy, it’s important to study the role that mindset plays in your game. No matter the strategy you implement with your cards, such as GTO poker strategy, reading opponents, and implied odds calculations, you’re unlikely to achieve long-term success without working on your poker mindset. This includes how you think about the game, how you act and react while playing, and how you stay focused.

Starting Hand Selection

When you’re new to the game, the starting hand selection means proceeding only with the top starting hands in poker, also called premium hands, and folding the bad ones when you get them. The logic goes that when you enter the pot with a good hand more often than your opponents, you’re likely to win more than your opponents.

As you improve your game over time, you shift focus from the best and worst Texas Hold’em starting hands and think more about position, opponents’ actions, and bluffing opportunities. Through every stage, starting hand selection matters, just with more components to indicate how to select those hands.

Post-Flop Strategies

The next poker tip from elite players is that even though starting hand decision-making is important, it’s often how you play the rest of the hand (and especially the end) that determines whether you win or lose.

While preflop decisions set the stage for the hand, the way you follow through on the turn and river could matter more, as there’s money on the table. Every decision requires more consideration. Your post-flop strategy will generally include honing in on betting patterns, reading opponents, timing bets and raises, and analyzing pot odds, implied odds, and the poker math that can dictate the best moves. Keep in mind that it takes many years to master these skills, but it’s worth it if you want to know how to win poker tournaments.

Middle and End Game Strategy

Middle- and end-game strategy refers specifically to poker tournaments, but it’s an important part of overall poker strategy. New players are often surprised to learn that their style and decisions must adapt as a tournament moves through the levels. Mid-stage tournament strategy focuses on playing your stack before and after the bubble, while late-stage poker strategy hones in on what it takes to win. The latter considers everything from opponents’ stacks and how their actions change around pay jumps to taking calculated risks at the right time to make the final table. Tournaments are all about adapting poker strategies as you progress.

Poker Playing Style

The appeal of poker for die-hards who keep playing through the years is the many different ways that you can play, although game styles typically fall into four categories. See if any of these describe you because your style will impact your poker strategy.

• Tight: When you “play tight,” you’re taking a cautious approach to a game, so you play fewer hands and reduce risks.
• Loose: “Playing loose” means you play many hands and are more willing to gamble.
• Aggressive: An aggressive poker player tends to place lots of big bets and open more pots to put opponents under pressure.
• Passive: Passive players tend to call more than raise, letting opponents dominate the action.

As a novice, focus on one or two styles while you learn the ropes: tight/aggressive (TAG) is the best combination to start with. An aggressive or loose aggressive (LAG) style eases you into a long-term essential of poker: aggressive betting. Meanwhile, a tight style of play conditions you to play mostly good hands before the flop so that you stay out of bad situations with negligible hands. 

Once you’re more comfortable with your game, you’ll want to switch up your style to avoid being predictable, and there are different considerations for choosing TAG and LAG poker styles. Ultimately, only you can determine whether to opt for an aggressive vs defensive poker strategy.

Importance of Position

The importance of poker table position is no secret to anyone utilizing any poker strategy. Of course, it’s vital to master the basics first.  Whether you play online poker or live poker, positions remain the same. The button is the last to act in a betting round after the flop. The blinds are great positions preflop, but you’ll be playing out of position postflop. Strategies exist for every position, whether in the cutoff or under the gun. But the general rule of thumb is to play more hands when you’re in late position than in early position.

Bluffing Basics

Even if you’re just starting to create a poker strategy, you’ll probably know that a good bluff can help you win a pot that you might have lost otherwise. The aim of a successful bluff is to get another player to fold the better hand. Bluffing essentially gives you a chance to convince other players that you hold winning cards when, in fact, you probably do not.

Be warned, though, that if you simply put a last-hope bet out there to win the pot, a savvy player will most likely call your bluff. Poker bluffing for beginners is difficult because you have to tell a complete story. You need to think about how your play looks to your opponent, and think through the entire hand so that your actions are consistent and believable. If you’re new to the game, online poker is a great way to practice your bluffs and even dabble in semi-bluffing in poker.

Odds and Other Poker Math

Odds – or the probability of something happening – is an important part of your strategy. So, for example, the odds of getting a six on a six-sided die are 5:1 because for each time the die lands on a six, it could land on another number five times. You’ll find poker mathematics in working out the odds for making your poker hand. 

For example, a deck holds 52 cards – 13 of each suit. Let’s say your hole cards are both clubs, you hit two clubs on the flop, and you want to know the odds of hitting a club on the river. Of the 46 cards still in the deck, there are 13 minus the four in your flush draw (equals nine). The odds of making the flush are nine out of 46, which is rounded off to 20% or 4:1.

Pot odds in poker calculate the ratio of the money to be won in the pot versus the size of the call you’d have to make to get there. If there is $100 in the pot and your opponent bets $50, the pot is now $150. You would have to call $50 for a chance at that pot. Those are 3:1 odds, and you should call. Obviously, there’s more to pot equity, and implied odds take poker math even further and are usually reserved for advanced players.  

Stay with Your Strategy or Improvise?

Most poker pros suggest that you stay with your successful poker tournament strategies unless you have a very good reason to stray. Never improvise because you’re bored. Avoid improvisation if you’re new to the game because, without a fair amount of experience, it’s going to be hard to assess different situations accurately.

One of the main reasons players abandon their strategy when they shouldn’t is tilting or steaming. This is when you allow your emotions to get the better of you and it almost always harms your game. If you do find yourself getting emotional over your game, walk away, take a breather, and come back when you’re in control again. 

One reason to improvise away from your normal strategy is if you’re adjusting to unpredictable players. There are always surprises, especially when your tablemates can change quite often, so if there’s a player who’s a bit unconventional, you can adapt your strategy in such situations. 

Notice that your poker strategy is no longer yielding the same results as it used to? You might be tempted to throw it out of the window and improvise instead. The best approach is to analyze your results and pinpoint where your strategy has been failing. You can always make adjustments, such as adding an exploitative poker strategy when it’s needed or adjusting your bet sizing to win bigger pots and minimize losses in some situations. Remember that your poker skills will evolve over time – so, too, should your strategy.

When to Balance your Play

If you’re unfamiliar with the term, balanced play is when you bet hands that have no real value in the same way that you’d bet hands that do have value. Let’s say an opponent at your table is quite observant and appears to be trying to put you on a range in certain hands. This indicates that you want to think about how to balance your range and switch things up as your poker reads will dictate.

Keep in mind that less experienced players aren’t likely to be overanalyzing your range or doing so accurately. They’re not thinking about polarized vs linear ranges.  

Switch from Hands to Ranges

Elite poker players think of a game in terms of ranges instead of a specific hand. The strategy behind this is to understand that a particular player will have a range of hands with various frequencies. Once you’re thinking beyond the basics and into advanced hand reading, you can start to work out these frequencies and make the best play based on this.

Play with Different Opponents

If you’re working on the live poker strategies that are going to be successful for you, you’ll want to switch up your opponents often, which is most easily done in cash games. When you play online, however, you can switch cash game tables more easily and play tournaments that move tables faster than in live tournaments. This lets you assess your true abilities at the table with players who are both weaker and stronger than you. 

You may be adept at beating passive poker players, but that’s when you might want to challenge yourself and find more aggressive players. The best players in the game got their start online and honed in on beating a variety of opponents and reading betting patterns online.  

As has been said before, the appeal of poker is in the many different ways that it can be played and a variety of different poker tactics, as well as how the game pushes you to keep making good decisions and meeting new challenges.

Test your Strategy at BetMGM

Whether you’re a novice or simply want to brush up on your poker skills and strategy, BetMGM is full of guides, charts, tips, and the rules of popular poker games, from Texas Hold’em and Omaha variations to Spins and FastForward. Choose from poker hand reading basics to advanced exploitative poker strategy by brushing up on concepts and putting them into practice at BetMGM Poker online.

When you register to play poker online with the new player poker offer, you can start at micro stakes or low-limit games to manage your bankroll as you explore the action. There are online poker tournaments at BetMGM, online cash games, and Sit-&-Gos. And always remember to enjoy the journey.