• Don’t ever gamble more than you can afford to lose – set yourself limits (most sites allow you to set deposit limits) and stick to them – this is true not just for poker but ALL forms of gambling.
  • Learn as much as you can about how to play before getting involved (this is where those web sites will come in handy). There are lots of different strategies, read about them, try them out and then come up with the one that works for you.
  • Don’t play when you’re tired, angry, stressed, drunk, otherwise not able to concentrate fully (unless of course one of these actually improves your game…)
  • Try not to get emotionally involved, it will lead you to make rash decisions that looking back on with an objective viewpoint might make you wince – also known as going on tilt or steaming.
  • Don’t chase your losses – if you keep losing then there’s probably a reason and you should quit and live to fight another day
  • Play small stakes, until you get the hang of it at least. The standard of play generally increases as the stakes go up. Having said that, don’t try to learn how to play poker by playing with ‘play money’ online – people play completely differently when real money is involved, no matter how small the amount. You won’t learn anything playing for play money.
  • Find your game and stick to it. There are lots of styles of poker and they suit different styles of play. The most popular is probably No Limit Texas Holdem but if you want to play purely to make money then Limit Holdem could be a better bet. It takes a very good poker player to be good at several different styles of the game.
  • Never sit down to play in a tournament if you don’t have time to see it through. You will be throwing your money away. Poker is a waiting game, a game of patience a lot of the time. You can’t force the pace of the game because you’re in a hurry. You might be able to for a short while but you will get yourself in trouble fairly quickly and lose your stack.
  • You can keep track of your poker earnings for free at CheckYourBets.com Poker Stats Tracker. This may be quite painful when you first start playing but it’s a useful tool in the learning process. You can keep track of both online and face to face games using the site for free.
  • Learn to trust your instincts. This might sound a bit silly but the more hands of poker you play, the more you should notice that your first instinct about a hand or a situation is correct (if you don’t find this then don’t give up the day job you’re not going to make a living from poker) but you often ignore them.
  • Try to listen to these instincts. How many times have you folded a hand, even though you felt you were going to win it, only to see the card or cards you needed come up? How many times have you played with what seemed to be the winning hand, only to have a nagging feeling that you were going to lose and you did? Just give it a try for a while, after all what do you have to lose (other than a few hands/games) and see how you get on.
  • Combine this with good technical knowledge of poker and the ability to read your opponents and you can become a formidable player.