No Limit on Opponents

Poker pros know that your strategy has to change depending on your opponent. The one thing to always remember when playing poker online, is that your opponents are real people. When all you see is an icon or a computer generated character, it's easy to forget there's a greedy, ruthless human being behind it. You're not facing off against A.I. anymore, and your play online will make or break you.

Listen for audio clues.

Humanity
A guy named Alexander Pope once said, "To err is human, to forgive divine." We're well known as an imperfect species, and that means you have a greater advantage over other human players than against the A.I. Human players may fold when they should have opened. They may stay in when they should have folded. They may push the wrong button and bet less than they intended.

These possibilities and many others are what put the poke in poker. You feel it when you screw up, too. Sometimes your mistakes, that mis-pressed button or your misplaced bravado, may work in your favor. Don't rely on Lady Luck to come through for you, though. Be ever vigilant against mistakes. Don't let your opponents pressure you into making a decision before you're ready. Let the other guys make all the mistakes.

Clues
Everyone has an advantage when playing online. At a real table, you can watch the other players. You can see their body language, their eye movements, you can see the corners of their mouth twitch when the cards don't fall as they'd like. You don't have that online. You do, however, have other clues. Play with your headset and listen for sudden intakes of breath. A whistle of approval is a fake out, though, unless you're playing against a complete beginner.

Pay close attention to the messages your
betting is sending, and to the information
you get back from your opponents' bets.

Listen for other subtle tells. Often, when a player is thinking, he'll emit a little hmmm. He may not even be aware of it. Sounds like that may not seem important, but they will give you clues. If he has to think about his play, then something is making him hesitate.

Another clue to listen for is if a player is in a hurry. A player may rush others if he is excited to raise his bet, or he may be pushing others to get them to fold. If a player goes dead quiet, especially if he's usually chatty, then odds are he has a hand he wants to make a run with, and he's focusing on it.

Map your opponents' betting patterns.

Patterns
Every player online will give you different cues to their thoughts and intentions. Don't assume one player is like another. As you spend more time with each player, especially in tournament settings, you have the chance to better map that opponents' reactions and patterns. Track their betting styles as well. Some players fold on the initial bet unless they have a pair. Other players always stay in, on the chance the flop will pay off.

The trick to successfully mapping your opponents' patterns is not just to watch who wins, but what cards they win with. This will give you clues as to how the other players think. Most players, especially rookies, have obvious patterns of play. There are, of course, always players who are completely unpredictable. Watch for them and adjust your betting accordingly.

Don't bluff against your betting style. It won't fly.

Fear Factor
You have to work hard to scare an A.I. player. Get a human being down to his last hundred dollars, go all in with an ace in the flop, and you're likely to see that person fold faster than origami. Real people are susceptible to intimidation, insinuation, and plain old prevarication—in other words, lying.

Poker has a long and luxurious history of bluffing. At today's cutthroat tables, bluffing takes the form of savvy betting rather than intimidating banter. This only makes it easier, however, to bluff your opponents into folding or feeding more cash into the pot.

Today's poker players work hard to maintain stoic demeanors, wearing sunglasses and hats to hide their eyes. They also work hard to show a complete lack of emotional response to the cards and how they fall. When you're playing online though, you don't need any of that. It does mean, however, that you're going to have to learn how to bluff through your betting.

Listen to the language of Poker.

Interrogation
If you go in hard and furious on the first round of betting, everyone is going to assume you at least have a couple of face cards, maybe even a pair in the pocket. Is that what you want them to think? Maybe it is. Maybe you have a pair of deuces, and while that's a starting point, any other pair is going to beat it. Your goal should be to filter out anyone who isn't confident. Once you see who's left, you can decide if you want to continue or not.

Pay close attention to the messages your bets send and to the information you get from your opponents' bets. Learning to read your opponents and to test them via your bets is the true heart of poker. It's harder when you don't have your enemy sitting across the table from you, but that added challenge is what makes online poker so challenging. To win, you actually have to be good.

Article by Angel Leigh McCoy