Sunday, October 15, 2006

Online poker


Later this month I will write an article about alternative ways to make a living.
If you haven’t read the articles labelled “How to get rich” I suggest you do that soon.

I was actually not sure about posting this article or not. This is a very difficult subject, and poker can be somewhat dangerus if you play without your head, so to speak.
I’ve been playing online poker for a couple of years now, starting as a hobby, but soon I started to dig a bit deeper, read some books, and then realized that I was making a profit.
In this article I will introduce to you, some basics guidelines, and provide you with a couple of great links. If you are not familiar with the rules of the many pokergames I suggest you take a look here: Poker rules.

Isn’t poker gambling?
Poker is gambling. But that doesn’t mean it is a bad thing. Poker is one of the only two game, where you can beat the house (e.g. the casino) in long run. The other one is Blackjack.
If you take a game like roulette, or the one-armed bandit, the house will always win in the long run.

I can almost already hear you say something like “…but in roulette, there is a fifty/fifty if you go with black or red all the time, isn’t their?” You’ve seem to forget about the green field my friend. Roulette has a slight advantage. But enough to make the house win in the long run. It’s all mathematics. In poker this is different. Sure the house win, but the terms are a little different.
Lets take an online pokersite for example. They take somewhere between 2-5% of every chip put on the table. But it dosent really matter, if you play correct all the time, you will win in the long run.
But it isn’t easy. It requires discipline, among a lot of other things.

The mathematics of poker
This is it. It is all mathematics. If you stick with the matemathics. You cant go wrong.
I will not go into detailed explanations on how to play poker correctly. But I will provide you with links and some very readable books to get you started.
There is also a lot of software out there, there is designed to help you making the right decisions, and track you play, and thereby eliminating any flouds you may have.

Tools
These are some very recommendable tools, some of them I used in the beginning, some of them I still use and some I just occasionally to make sure I am still on the right path.

  • Pokertracker (This is very recommendable, takes some time to learn, but if you like statistics…)
  • Calculate’em (Pure methematics, helps you make the best decisions)
  • PokerAceHud (This is an add-on to pokertracker, and will give you stats on the other players at the table)
David Sklansky is one of pokers best aurthors, at least in my opinion. Check his books at Amazon
You should be a little carefull about reading Doyle Bruson's "super system" and "super system 2", these are greats books indeed, but doyle has a very aggressive way of playing, and that might confuse you in the beginning.

Links

  • Bonuswhores.com will help you build a bankroll, with the smallest start amount possible.
  • 2+2 forums has a lot of analyzing and finding the best possible play going on. Worth a visit.
  • Bet365 is a great place to start, and this link will give you rules in a way you can understand.
Outro

As mentioned above, this is a very short introduction to online poker. Poker is one of many way to make an alternative income. Please remember to never play for money you cant spare. Set aside a fixed amount each month, and DO NOT use any more. Remember poker is a game of skills not luck, but luck is a factor and so is bad luck. Only if you always make the correct play, you will win in the long run.

You need to fully understand these concepts if you want to make a profit from online poker:
  • Bankroll management
  • Deposit Bonuses
  • Table selection
  • Starting hands in various positions
  • The mathematics in poker
  • Thight-aggressive playing

I’m not trying to either encourage or discourage you from playing poker, but it you want to make it more than a hobby, you need to know what you are doing.That’s all for now… have fun!>And please leave a comment if you did find this usefull.

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