Top Ten Secrets for Winning at Online Poker

These top ten secrets are the most important rules for winning at online poker. You may know some of them, but the point is that these are the most important techniques, to be followed with an iron will.

Bankroll Management

Manage your bankroll rigorously. Study what stake levels your bankroll let you play. Do not play stakes you cannot afford . If you lose money, go down in stakes and if you make money go up in stakes. Do not be afraid to change limit up and down as often as required. Always play in games that you can afford.

Raise or Fold, no Call

You will read this rule often. Calling is the weakest action. Avoid calling as much as possible. Create pressure by raising. Calling is passive, and the aggressive player is the one who wins in the long run.

Use Software Aids

Modern online poker is too complex, too fast and too competitive to play without some of the software tools available in the market. Poker tracker software, sophisticated head up display, poker videos, datamined hand histories databases, etc. Use what your opponents are using trying to beat you.


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Make Good Decisions

One difficulty in poker is that often the best decision does not lead to the best outcome. This tends to depress some players, who then question the effectiveness of following some good techniques and who may prefer to make some bad plays (with seemingly better results). Focus on making the good decisions and not on looking at the outcome of each hand.

Do not Get Emotional

Your ego and your emotions are your worse enemies at the poker table. Leave your ego at the checkroom when you enter a poker room. The goal is not to please your emotions, but to fill your wallet. Often these will be opposite objectives.

Continuation Bets

Your continuation bets are your fingerprints. Failing to make the correct continuation bets is a big leak that observant players will soon recognize, exploit and use to dominate you. Not enough c-bets is a sign of passivity, too much a sign of bluffing. Find the optimal balance (around 70% flop cbet at full ring NLHE ring games).

Review Hands

All top players and most solid online poker players review their hands and their opponents' hands. This is the only way to uncover your leaks and try fixing them. This is how a poker coach would analyze your game. Unless you play online poker only for the fun, review your hand histories.

Use Position

Position is the ultimate weapon in Texas Hold'em Poker. It is easy to be aggressive in position, and aggression is crucial to win at NLHE. So each time you are in late position, this is an opportunity to put pressure on your competitors. Do not miss it. Avoid playing out of position, because then you are giving your opponents a chance to force you to make difficult decisions.

Value Bets

Correctly value betting is an art that can add tons of money to your bankroll if applied correctly. Value betting means to have the guts to make some apparently ricky bets at late streets. Bets that may seem risky, but that will win you extra chips over the long term. Know when you probably have the best hand and learn how to extract the maximum value from the other players.

Establish Unpredictability

Finally, you must be unpredictable. If you have mastered the first nine secrets, it remains to develop a constant aura of unpredictability in order to dominate the poker tables. Study the predictable patterns in your own game, eradicate them all until you have engineered your own playing style that always leave your competition guessing.


Make sure to memorize the ten secrets of winning at online poker and to start appying these techniques right away. Your results will start improving immediately, this is guaranteed. You can try the largest online poker room pokerstars to practice the top secrets.

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