You can give yourself an advantage over your opponents before you actually play a single hand with them.

For a start, you can make sure you are properly rested and in the right frame of mind for playing poker. Playing poker well requires high levels or concentration, perhaps over a sustained period (especially if you are in a tournament). You require stamina to be able to keep this up and tiredness will also impair your judgement.

Avoiding alcoholic drinks will also help - both before and during a game. You may see poker players in films drinking whisky, vodka or gin whilst they play. However, you need to be able to make quick calculations and unimpaired judgements and drinking alcohol will not help you in this department. Serious poker players in live games are more likely to be seen drinking mineral water - many will even avoid coffee and tea, even decaffeinated!

On the internet, you can easily watch a game for a while before you sit down - so you can get a chance to size up the opposition. If you have made notes on some of the players, you can read them before you sit down.

When you have chosen your table, you may then have a choice of where to sit. Normally you can chose any seat that is free. Sitting in the right place can make a big difference to your prospects in the game. In particular, you need to be careful of where you sit in relation to the loose and/or aggressive players on the table. There are, however, various schools on thought on this matter.

Conventional wisdom is that you should sit on the immediate left of particularly loose/aggressive players, who are often betting and raising heavily. In this way you nearly always get to see what they do before you have to act i.e. you will "have position on them." By sitting on their left, you will largely avoid the problem of him raising after you when you want to "get in cheap" to see the flop. When he does raise, you will often be able to fold having not yet put any money into the pot at all.

However, sitting on the immediate right of aggressive players also has advantages. For example, when you have a moderate hand and the aggressive player bets, you might be more worried about other players who call or raise than you are about the aggressive player themselves. They have been betting and raising too often for them to have a very big hand every time. By being on their right, you get to see how everyone else responds to the bet before you have to act. Also, if you are on a drawing hand, you will have a much better idea of whether you will get the correct pot odds to draw to your hand.

Another advantage is this: Suppose you have a monster hand (like AA pre-flop). You can merely call the big blind, confident that the loose/aggressive player will raise. You may then get several players calling this bet because they know the loose/aggressive player may be betting without a good hand. You can then put in a huge re-raise and pick up a big pot even if everyone folds.

Yet another school of thought is to sit opposite the loose/aggressive player. This way you can often avoid tangling with him/her when you are both in the blinds. This is especially important in tournaments where stealing the blinds can become an important part of the game. In MTTs, of course, you can't chose your seat, but in STTs, you often can and would usually prefer to sit next to passive players.

When you have chosen your seat, you have to decide how much to buy in for - i.e. how much money you will put on the table. Since most games are table-stakes games, you will not be able to bet or lose more than this amount in a single hand.

The main rule, of course, is the sensible one of not buying in for more than you can comfortably lose. This is not just to limit damage if you do lose. If you are worried about how much you could lose, this could adversely affect your play - for example, you may be reluctant to call a large bet even when the odds are that your opponent is bluffing. This is especially the case if you are playing in a no-limits game where raises could be big and you could easily lose your entire stack of chips in a single hand.

Normally you would want to buy in for enough money that you can afford to make the most of a top-notch hand. When you're sitting with the nuts at the end, you want to be able to bet or raise and put your opponents all-in if you can! You may be throwing away money if you can't afford to do this. Think about this: Everyone pays the same amount to see a selection of starting hands - the players with the largest stacks are potentially in the best position to take advantage of this fact when they do get a good hand.

Another problem with having a small stack is that your small stack may mean you may not be able to take advantage of a good opportunity to bluff - people will call because it won't cost them very much and the pot odds are more likely to be in their favour because you can't raise by a sufficient amount. Also, you may not be able to protect a hand when you are in front. For example, in Hold 'Em, you may start with a pair of tens and bet all-in. A player with two high cards, e.g. AK might well call. If he does not pair one of his cards on the flop, he might well have folded if you bet again. If you've gone all in, however, he can get the last two cards for free and outdraw you.

Finally, if you have a very big stack, this may help you intimidate your opponents. You may be able to bluff and steal more effectively and, sometimes, players will let you see cards cheaply or for free because they are worried that if they bet, you might put in a big re-raise.

Having said all this, there are advantages to having a relatively small stack - these are dealt with later on on this page.

A key to early success at poker is to learn to fold a "garbage" hand.

Most novice players will call a small early raise with almost anything. They like the action - they want to be involved! They didn't turn up so they could watch - they want to play! Even if they start with a rubbish hand, they figure they could have a good hand by the end and it's worth a small bet to find out.

Such a strategy, however, is far more expensive than they often think. Calling a 20c bet seems cheap - but you may be playing in 40 hands or more an hour. By the end of the night those 20c bets can add up to a significant sum. Also, if someone raises, you may have to invest even more money before you can draw cards. Much worse, however, is that often those rubbish hands will improve to a mediocre hand which may tempt you to risk even more money but which will still lose.

Your chances of ending up with the best hand are massively improved if you start off with the best hand. If there are ten people at the poker table, you will only start off with the best hand one in every ten hands. These are usually the hands you want to be voluntarily playing. You will play other hands when you have a good chance of drawing a winning hand or when you are in the blinds and no one raises.

If you are voluntarily paying to enter into more than 20% of pots in a 10 handed game, you might need to tighten up your game.

To be successful at poker, you often need to be patient. In the long-run you get pretty much the same cards as everyone else. Nevertheless, you will often have a run of bad cards. Sometimes you will sit there for an hour without getting a single hand worth playing. Your job in these circumstances is simply to be patient, save your money and wait for better hands. Don't try to force the situation by making ridiculous bluffs and don't lower your standards and start calling with poor hands. Believe in probability and know that good cards will come your way if you simply wait for them!

Another key factor for success in Hold 'Em is aggression. Because you only start with two cards, you can't know at the start of the game what hand you will end up with. However, you mustn't allow people with inferior hands to get cheap cards and outdraw you. Suppose the flop comes up 3 4 9 (two of them hearts) and you have a nine in the pocket (in your hand). You probably have the best hand at this point. It's not a great hand, but unless you bet aggressively, someone may well pair a higher card or, if they have a 3 or a 4, they may pair their other card, or they may get a straight or a flush.

Therefore, you need to be prepared to bet aggressively when you believe you have the best hand at the time. It's true that someone may well outdraw you, but that is precisely why you will be betting aggressively - to make sure that anyone who tries to outdraw you will have the odds against them. (Betting aggressively should not be confused, however, with being reckless and betting with garbage hands!)

No Limit games tend to have a maximum buy-in - i.e. a maximum value of chips you can start the game with. It is usually 100 times the big blind. E.g. In a 10c/20c game, you can buy in for a maximum of $20.

Expert players will usually buy in for the maximum amount. As I said above, the main reason for this is that if they find themselves with a fantastic hand, they want to be able to make the most of it. For example, if they have AA and another player has KK, then there is a good chance both players will be all-in and since the player with AA will win about 80% of the time, the more money he can bet, the more profit he can make! However, there are many advantages to playing with a short stack, especially for those new to the game.

Firstly and fundamentally, having a short stack reduces the risks you are taking. If you only sit down with $6, then that is the maximum you can lose in a single hand. The damage you can do with a poor decision (which you are bound to make occassionally) is, therefore, limited!

Playing with a short stack, however, has another important advantage and it is this: In online games, many players play very badly against a player with a short stack. They call bets from a player with a short stack because they know the damage to their stack is limited by the size of your stack. They might have $40 on the table, but if you have only $6 on the table, they can call you knowing they cannot lose more than $6 to you.

So, for example, suppose you get AA pre-flop and bet all-in for $6. A player with JJ may well call you because he knows his potential losses are limited (so long as only the two of you remain in the hand) and he can see all the way to the river without having to pay any more.

If, on the other hand, you had bet all in for $20, he might have folded his hand. Not only that, but if you had had $20 on the table and had bet just $6, he still might have folded his hand, worried that you might bet the rest of your money on the flop and he would have to either fold his hand or pay $14 more to stay in the hand.

Here's another example: Suppose you have two pair on the flop and bet all-in for $6. A player on the draw to a flush may well call you, again knowing that his losses will be limited to $6. It is a poor decision since he will get his flush only 35% of the time. In fact your short stack should perhaps make him even more reluctant to call since if he makes his flush, he will not be able to get any more money out of you!

Some players play badly against a small stack simply because they are bad players. Some better players, however, may make similar decisions against a small stack - but may do so for slightly more logical reasons. Here's how their thinking might go: Firstly, they might reason that most players who sit down with a small stack are poor players (they may well be right about this) and that therefore you might be betting with a rubbish hand anyway. Secondly they know that most players who sit down with small stacks will carry on playing until they lose all their money. Therefore, they don't mind being a slight underdog against you since they figure that if they don't manage to outdraw you this time, they may well outdraw you the next time or perhaps the time after that and, when they do, they will take your entire stack. Of course, this strategy will not work if, having won one big hand against them and having doubled your stack, you then get up and leave, taking their money with you!

Another advantage for the beginner is that having a short stack often reduces the number of decisions you have to make or makes your decisions easier. For example, you may often find yourself going all-in before the flop. This means you no longer have any decisions to make on the flop, turn or river. You might also go all-in on the flop, again meaning that you have no more decisions to make.

Some people might say that if you want to avoid making decisions, you shouldn't be playing poker at all. However, reducing the number of decisions you have to make on a given hand means there are fewer opportunites for you to make mistakes and fewer opportunites for other players to bully you out of a hand. There may also fewer opportunities for them to get away from their losing hands.

Here's an example - suppose you start with KK in the pocket. A player puts in a decent raise and you raise him all in for $8. Because you have a small stack, he calls with his QQ. You're a big favourite and will win about 80% of the time.

Suppose that you had started with a large stack. In this situation, you may not have been able to raise all-in because he might then have folded and you don't want that to happen! Instead, you might raise $3. He calls. The flop comes A J 5. Now you don't know where you are! If you bet, he might well fold since he will be frightened of the ace. You will have won, but will have won less money than if you had had a short stack and had bet all-in preflop.

Suppose instead that he bets or raises, pretending that he has an ace. You will probably then be forced to fold your Kings, since, for all you know, he may well have an ace! He could even have been playing with JJ and now has three-of-a-kind! Either way, you would have been better off if you had been playing with a short stack.

With a short stack you can often simply get all of your money in the middle when you are confident you are ahead and have a good chance of getting a caller. Occassionally you will get outdrawn, but most of the time, if you start out ahead, you will finish ahead!

There are many players who like to bet "on the draw." i.e. they bet when they haven't yet got a decent hand, but have a good chance of drawing an excellent hand (usually a straight or flush). This may be considered incorrect in many circumstances since your chances of getting your draw will usually be quite small (e.g. 35% if you are drawing to a flush and have 2 cards - the turn and the river - to come). There are many occasions, however, when it may be correct to play this way.

Firstly, you may believe there is a good chance that everyone else will fold, conceding the pot to you straight away. You will have to be the judge of when this is likely to happen.

Secondly, betting on the draw may help you disguise your hand if you get it since you may well have bet before you could possibly have had a straight or flush.

Thirdly, if you believe you will get several callers, the pot odds situation may favour a bet. For example, if you have an ace-high four-flush on the flop, then a bet may be profitable in the long run if you can get several callers, since you will get your flush by the end slightly more than a third of the time.

Sometimes a small bet will actually help you to be able to see cards cheaply. For example, a small bet by you may discourage a player with top or second pair on the flop from raising. If you then check on the turn, he may be suspicious of a check raise and may himself check. Thus, you may get two cheap cards - very useful if you are on a draw. If you are the last the act in each betting round, a small bet on the flop may deter other players from betting on the turn, thus letting you see the river card for free.

Another reason for betting on the draw may be because you are playing pot-limit. A small bet on the flop, called by several players, may significantly increase the size of the bet you can then make if your draw comes off. By increasing the size of the pot, it may also tempt another player to try to bluff at the pot if you later check.

You may bet on the draw because you believe your opponent is also on a draw. If neither of you gets the draw, another small bet on the end may help you steal the pot, perhaps convincing your opponent you had a pair all along!

Often a bet or raise will help you get valuable information about an opponent's likely hand. Has he got top pair or just second pair? Does he have a good kicker? Has he got two pair or trips? Is he on a draw himself? You are more likely to get clues to help you answer these questions if you bet or raise rather than simply check or call.

The downside to betting on the draw is that you are putting money into a hand when you will probably not make your draw. You must also consider that you might face a hefty re-raise, and have to fold if you don't have the pot odds to continue. You must consider the chances of this happening if you do bet. This will depend on your position and on the people you are playing against.

There are some circumstances in which betting on the draw is particularly appropriate because you have such a good drawing hand that you will actually be favourite to win the hand even if you are currently behind.

You have so many "outs" (cards that will win the hand for you) that you may want to bet or even raise even if you believe someone else has for example, a pair of Jacks. A King or Queen will give you top pair. Any heart will give you a flush. An Ace or 9 will give you the nut straight, and the Ace or 9 of hearts will give you a straight flush. You actually have 21 outs to a hand that will beat a pair of Jacks and the likelihood is that at least one of them will turn up by the river. Once again, if you do get your monster hand, your previous bet may help disguise what you have, and give you a good chance of being called when you bet or raise again.

Usually you want to bet when you have a good hand - it means other players have to pay for the privilege of trying to outdraw you.

There are many occasions, however, when you can make the most of your hand by slowplaying it - i.e. you check or bet far less than your hand is worth in an attempt to try to trick other players into betting or raising themselves or into believing you are bluffing when you bet later on.

As a simple example, you may have an Ace and an Ace comes up on the flop along with 2 low cards. If you bet, a player with, for example, a King, will most probably fold and your hand will make you little money. If you check and a King comes up, your opponent may well bet and you can re-raise him. If the King comes on the end instead, he may well suspect you are trying to steal the pot if you bet or that you have a King yourself.

Slowplaying is potentially most profitable in no-limit games. In fixed limit games, you may often be better off trying to drain your opponents with several bets. In no-limit games, disguise is more important. Players are more likely to fold when there is a likely superior hand because they don't know how expensive it will be to see the hand to the end. Also, you only need to fool your opponent into calling a single big bet to make a decent profit - so you may well be able to afford to miss an early opportunity to raise.

The key to slowplaying successfully is to be aware of the risk you are taking by allowing opponents to draw cheap cards. You need to be prepared to fold if it looks like one of your opponents has made his draw, however unlikely it may have been. If you slow play a pair of Kings and an Ace comes up, it's bad news and your own fault for slowplaying the hand in the first place. However, it is only likely to become a disaster if you keep on calling regardless!

The safest time to slowplay is when you have a monster hand that is extremely unlikely to be beaten even if you allow people to draw more cards for free. In such cases you are actually hoping that people will improve their hands. You want to give them a chance to "catch up" and get something with which they can bet or call with. Even when you have a monster hand, however, slowplaying is not always the best policy. If you check and call all the way along and then bet big later on when there is no obvious draw that you could have made, it might look suspiciously like you've been slowplaying a monster all along. If you bet, your opponents may be fooled into thinking that you have only a moderate hand and you are trying to protect it. One clever tactic may be to bet straight away and then, on the next "street" (when the next card is turned over), check, suggesting that you were trying to win the hand there and then and are now worried that you may be beaten. A bet on the end may then look like a bluff.

Check-raising

One type of slowplaying tactic is the "check-raise." This is usually used when you have a very big hand and you are one of the first to act. If you make a big bet straight away, you may be concerned that everyone else might fold and you will get hardly any value for your great hand. You may therefore decide to check. Your hope is that someone else might then bet and might get callers. You can then put in a big raise. If everyone folds you will at least have got more money than if you had bet straight away and everyone folded. However, you may well be lucky enough to get a call. Your opponents should really know they are beaten since a check-raise almost always indicates a very big hand. A check-raise is rarely a bluff. However, there is already a lot of money in the pot and players may feel committed to the pot and will call because they don't want to give up on the money they have already put in the pot.

The risk of check-raising is that everyone else might check as well. This might mean you win less money than if you had bet in the first place or, worse, it may mean another player manages to outdraw you for free.

In some parts of the world, especially in years gone by, check-raising was actually considered to be a "dirty tactic" and may even have been banned. This is rare these days - check-raising is considered as a perfectly reasonable play. Many casinos actually have it clearly displayed in their rules that "check raising is allowed," perhaps to warn people who learnt their poker in the days when it was considered "ungentlemanly" at best. On the internet, of course, there are no such inhibitions and check-raising has always been a very popular tactic.

Before you bet on the end of a hand, even when you are confident of having the best hand, you should consider how likely it is that your opponent will call with an inferior hand. Often there will be a good chance of this, but this may not be the case. If you only have a moderate hand (suppose you have paired the third highest card on the board), a bet may be a mistake since if your opponent has nothing, he may well fold. If he calls or raises, he may well have you beat. Either way, your bet does you no good.

Often this situation arises when you believe your opponent is on a draw - e.g. to a straight or flush. If he has missed his draw, he will probably not call even a small bet, If you bet and he calls or raises, it may well be because he has been slowplaying a big hand all along.

If you are first to act and you check, there is the chance that an opponent who has missed a draw will try to bluff and you can call and win a decent pot even with a moderate hand.

Sometimes there is a rational reason for betting on the end even with a moderate hand and this is when you believe that if you check, another player may then be tempted to make a big bluff that you wouldn't feel able to call. Even a small bet may be enough to put them off this idea.

An alternative reason for betting on the end is as a bluff - but that's a different matter entirely!