By Samantha Williams

Just because you are playing online poker, does not mean to say that strategy and in fact poker psychology does not apply. More than one big name in poker has been made because of the fact they learned to play online, won a competition and were sponsored for participation in one of the large money World Poker competitions. Online poker sites hand out these large sponsorships as prizes and many of them sponsor entire competitions.

Such a prize generally consists of buy-in or a seat for a specific championship game level, accommodation and additional cash. There is big business in online poker, both for the poker pro and for the poker room!

There are many variations of this game, Pai Gow Poker, Seven and Five Card Stud, Omaha and Texas Hold`em to name a few. Texas Hold`em is one of the more popularly played games world-wide and features in most of the big competitions.

When playing online poker one of the things you don’t have to worry about is the proverbial poker face. Professionals call this “tells” and these are habits which the player may have that provide their opponents with clues regarding the hand they are holding. Knowing these prepares any player for the game in any situation, so making sure you don’t give away behavioral or physical reactions when you play is very important. It may be difficult to control this in a life situation if you only play online poker. So if you have dreams of becoming a pro poker player, make sure you get out there to play also.

You can get some great advice about poker tells online from many of the professionals but remember in this game there many exceptions to the rules, and experienced players may even display false tells. It is all part of poker psychology!

Have you ever wondered why so many poker pros wear sunglasses or peaked caps with the peak pulled down? It is so as you can’t see their eyes, apparently the eyes never lie, and if you know how to read the eyes, you have an edge on the game. A big hole card is hard to resist looking at for longer than is necessary, also it is very difficult to look someone in the eyes for longer than is necessary when being dishonest. Poker is after all the only card game you can win without a winning hand!!

Facial expression, bluffing that you have a weak hand when you have a strong hand, anxiety signals, trembling hands, posture and attitude are all poker tells, and as we said before this doesn’t matter to the online poker player. But it will if they win buy-in to a big competition; this and many other skills will count, because poker is after all a game of skill.

By Samantha Williams

There are many different reasons why people play casino poker, it has proven itself to be the most popularly played game online, and is also a popular competitive game in live poker rooms worldwide. It offers social rewards, entertainment, education – it takes skill to play, and you can make money. You will however find that most players who do make money playing this game, started out to have fun; they are generally of a competitive nature and they just got really good at playing. A desire to win is the most brilliant excuse for playing poker, but it is also the best way to learn more about it.

Making sense of this game also means coming to terms with a lot of jargon. There is special jargon which governs particular types of poker such as Texas Hold’em or Omaha, and just general jargon, which is probably the best place to start learning. Find yourself a good glossary resource before you begin, one that explains what the jargon is and what it means, you should be able to find this at most casino poker sites.

Understand that “Blinds” are forced bets which take place off an ante, and understand how this works. If you are playing a game of community poker such as the Hold’em games, the card which are shared are often referred to as being “Board Cards”. This is another form of jargon.

Learn about draws, flops, implied odds and limit poker, in fact learn as much as you possibly can. In casino poker, the more you know the better you will fare. Try to read books by experts on the subject, these are usually guys who have made big money playing the game; guys who are your poker hero’s, you are more likely to listen and learn from them than you would anyone else.

Virtually everyone who is anyone in world poker, big stakes games has written a book. Try to unpack your mistakes when you don’t win and ask the winner if he would mind giving you a post mortem of his game. Unpacking and looking at the mistakes you made in your own casino poker game will help you to learn from your mistakes.

The most important thing you must do is play, play video poker for practice; you can find free games online if you like until you are ready to graduate to the pay for play games. Then get yourself seated around a table and play with other casino poker players. It doesn’t matter if you play online; this is just as good a learning environment as any. The games are the same, the rules are the same and they have been set up to virtually completely emulate a live experience.