Playing live poker takes a lot of guts, skill, and luck. And it can be one of the most rewarding things you do as a player. But it can also be one of the scariest — especially if you’re a new player or someone just getting into the game for the first time. If you’ve never played before, you might not know how much of an impact your mistakes have on other players at the table. Or if you play often, you might not realize how difficult perfecting your game can be. This is where online vs live poker comes into play. The pros predominantly play online to make room for practice and improve their game more efficiently than playing in real-life settings would allow them to do (regardless of whether they win or lose). Here are some great tips from some of the best players in the world on how to play better live poker.
Play with good money management
The first thing to consider when you start playing live poker at S128 is how much money you’re going to be putting at risk. Even if you have a winning strategy that works very well, you have to remember that you will lose money if you don’t play smart. The most common poker mistakes are money management issues. If you don’t keep track of your bankroll and know when to take a break, you will end up with a massive bankroll loss. It’s crucial that you remember that poker is a game of chance, and you can’t control the outcome of every hand that you play. Keep in mind that winning money is not the only thing that poker players are after. You play poker to enjoy the competition, learn from your mistakes, and improve your skills. So how do you achieve this? First and foremost, you need to have a good bankroll. It’s often the biggest barrier to entry for new players. You want to keep in mind that it’s better to lose $50 than to gain $20. You can only play so many hands before you have to take a break. If you only have $10 in your bankroll, it’s not worth risking all of it on one hand. Ideally, you want to have $50 in your bankroll so that you can take a break if you lose a hand, but you also don’t want to risk more than $50 on a single hand.
Don’t be afraid to sit down and learn
You can’t expect to be a great live poker player overnight — it will take time and practice. But if you have a strong bankroll and are ready to start playing, you should also look into online poker training. There are tons of online poker training sites that can help you with this. A great way to start is with cash game training. This will help you get a feel for how live poker is played and what to expect. And it will also teach you how to incorporate betting strategies into your game that will improve your overall winnings. Once you feel comfortable with cash games, move on to tournaments. You could also look into live poker coaching if you have a strong bankroll that allows you to dedicate a few hours per day to practice.
Know when to fold and when to hold ‘em
One of the most important poker money management skills you can develop is when to fold and when to hold ‘em. In poker, you don’t want to be raising all the time — even worse is to be in a situation where everyone else is raising, you feel like there’s a good chance of winning, but you don’t want to put all your money at risk. That puts you in a lose-lose situation, and the less you win, the less money you have for the next cash game you play. This can be very frustrating, but there are ways to mitigate this. One way is by practicing holding ‘em. This way you get to know the winning percentage of your hands and you can better adjust when there are people you shouldn’t be playing against. Another strategy that can help mitigate the problem is to play at a lower stakes. This will allow you to play tighter with less risk while still enjoying the competition.
Breathe before you think
While it’s good to know when to fold and when to hold ‘em, it’s even more important to stay focused and avoid getting too emotionally involved in the game. Everyone has bad days at the tables, and you can’t let bad beats ruin your confidence. Everyone has bad beats. One of the most important things to remember is to breathe before you think. If you’re feeling rattled by a bad beat or other mistake you made, take a step back and remember why you’re playing. There are plenty of places online where you can get positive affirmations and positive vibes to help boost your confidence and stay positive when you’re feeling down.
Have a solid strategy up your sleeve
While you can’t predict what cards will fall next at the tables, you can make a plan for how you want to win. The best way to make that happen is to have a good strategy. And it doesn’t matter if the strategy that you come up with is super complicated or super simple — it just needs to work. The best strategy for winning at poker is to have a hand that is strong enough to win the pot, but not so strong that you’re guaranteed to lose. The goal here is to have a hand that is just good enough so that you don’t have to use too much chips, but just good enough that you have a good chance of winning. You can come up with different strategies for different types of tables. Think about what the most important things are to you in poker. Is it making the most money possible? Is it winning in certain situations? Is it just playing a certain type of table? Once you figure out what is most important to you, you can tailor your strategy to win with that hand type.
Keep an eye out for (and play) good hands
If you want to make the most of any strategy that you come up with, you need to know what your strongest hands are. This will help you avoid playing hands that are too strong or too weak. One of the best ways to do this is to keep track of your hand stats and hand chart in poker training sites such as Poker Stars. You can also use this hand chart to help you with money management. If you know what your strongest hands are, you can play more conservatively, which will ultimately allow you to play more hands without risking all of your money if you have a weak hand. A hand chart is also a great way to visualize your hand strength and track your win percentage over time. It’s also a great way to learn from your mistakes and adjust your strategy if you notice a pattern in your hand stats.
Stay focused on the most important thing: winning your game
The last tip that we’d like to share with you is the most important one of all. You have to keep in mind that the only way that you’re going to win a game of live poker is if you make better decisions than your opponents — and if you make better decisions than you are, you’re going to make money. This means that the only way you can improve is by playing more hands and by playing better ones.