Game Choice:

Poker Strategy - Game Selection

Game selection is a critical skill at poker. While many new talented poker players strive to better their skills in order to win more, often the route to increased profits lays simply in choosing a better game to play.

When I refer to 'game selection,' I am not refering so much as the type of poker game, but rather the players in the poker game. You want to play in a poker game where you have an advantage over your opponents. No matter how good you are, if you play in a game filled with sharks, it is virtually impossible to make any money. The luck factor and the rake would make profits slim in the long run.

Now you know you need to find the game that is beatable, but how do you determine which game that is? There are several ways to quickly analyze your opponents to figure out if you should play in the game:

First, you may just know the opponents. If you play at your local casino or an online poker room for a while, you will get to know the players. Either by keeping notes or just through memory, you will know who is strong and weak and who you understand the best.

Second, determine how loose passive the game is. A game that is loose is good. This means the flop percentage is high and people will call you down with hands that really only can beat bluffs. A game that is passive is also good. This can be determined by how much raising occurs. If people won't bet hard when they have very good hands, they will let you draw out on them and let you get away with only small losses on your losing hands. Fundamentally, the two work well together because the loose game let's you win big pots when you have your made hand and you are aggressive and the passive game let's you draw cheaply and have small losses on losing hands.

Finally, notice the number of fundamental mistakes people make. After reading this site, you will hopefully have a good idea about poker fundamentals: preflop hand selection, pot odds, etc. If you notice people calling with K4 offsuit and drawing to inside straights without pot odds, the game is good. People who often call with poor starting hands and draws without pot odds are doomed to lose.

Poker Strategy - Your Best Game

Overview

While this is hard at first, advanced players must figure out which game they play best and why. Different games and different betting structures require different skills. Since winning at poker means having a higher level of skill in certain areas, a true winner should know why he is winning in order to maximize his advantage over his opponents.

I cannot tell you which game you will be best at, but I've noticed some trends. Winning poker players have mastered the Four Key Skills of poker. Furthermore, they also have an advantage with the technical and/or people aspects of poker. The technical aspects refer to taking advantage of poker 'math,' such as mastering pot odds and playing tight. The people aspects refer to skills such as bluffing and varying your style of play. Here is what I believe certain games reward the most:

Longhand Limit Holdem

Limit holdem rewards technicial skills, especially patience and an understanding of hand value. Since many hands go to a showdown, reading one's opponent only helps so much because it is harder to bluff and pot odds will often make a river fold highly risky.

Shorthand Limit Holdem

Shorthand requires a mix of people and technical skills. People skills are important at analyzing a shorthanded game. You must understand your players and figure out which type of game to play. Often, a very aggressive form is best. However, in a loose game, you should revert to standard poker strategy. Thus, once you analyzed the game using people skills, technical skills will be rewarded because one type of 'technique' should be employed to beat the game.

No Limit Holdem

No limit holdem also requires both technical profiency and people skills. Technical skills will help you understand how much you should bet and how much you can tolerate to call. People skills will help you in a hand (by putting an opponent on his cards) and determine your general strategy. No limit holdem fundamentally comes down to how people utilize aggressive betting. If people are meek, steal a lot of pots but fold if stern resistance comes to your bluffing. If people are being very loose, be patient and trap them. You should often be able to wipe them out in one hand.

So...Which One for Me?

As you can see, poker is about technical and player proficiency. If you are very good at remaining patient, playing quality hands, and playing pot odds, stick to limit holdem. If you excel at poker because you know how to deal with opponents, you want to be in a shorthand or no limit game.

Poker Strategy - Playing Multiple Games

One of the many advantages to playing poker on the internet is the ability to play multiple games at once. Some sites, like Empire Poker, allow you to play up to three games at once. Other sites like Pacific Poker limit you to one game, but you can still play multiple games at once by playing at two different sites at once. The decision whether to play two games at once or not is not to be taken lightly because it can greatly affect your win-loss rate.

When playing two games at once, you will naturally not be able to pay as much attention to your every move and will probably play a little worse. If you average $25 an hour playing one table, you may be only able to average $18 at each table. However, since you are playing two tables, you would then average $36 an hour which is still higher than the original $25. Thus, the key factors when deciding whether or not to play two tables is establishing what you believe you make an hour playing one table, how much this will be decreased if you play two tables, and whether or not this new number X 2 (or perhaps even 3) is greater than the original amount you were making per hour.

Since playing two tables lowers your profit rate, you must have already established that you can beat the game consistently in order for it to be profitable to play two games at once. If you are breaking even at a limit and decide to play two games at once at that limit, you will probably begin to lose money since your profit rate will go from 0 to say -$5 an hour per table, which amounts to -$10 an hour.

If you are beating a game, you may or may not be able to still beat that game if you play two tables. For example, if you consistently are beating a low fixed limit game, you will probably still be able to beat this game if you play two of them at once. This is because you are probably beating this game not by paying close attention to your opponents, but rather through solid poker fundamentals like playing the right starting hands/pot odds/etc. However, if you are playing no-limit games, you may not do so well if you play two at once because no-limit games rely much more on reading your opponents and adjusting your play to the style of your opponents.

Furthermore, playing more than one game can be stressful. You will be constantly checking each game, making snap decisions every 15 seconds, etc. This may decrease the joy factor of the game, which may be more important to you than any extra money you could make by playing two games at once.

If you are considering playing two games at once, your choice will come down to how you answer the following questions:

1. Can you beat this game consistently already?

2. Are you beating this game because of poker fundamentals, rather than relying on reading your opponents?

3. Do you think you will make more money playing two games at once? If so, does this money justify any potential "fun" you may lose because you can't get as into the game? If you answer yes to all of these questions, perhaps you should try playing two games at once! Otherwise, you should probably stick to just playing one.