Playing Texas Hold?em Online ? 3 Steps To Increase Your Win-rate & Earn More

Posted by Nick Niesen on October 28th, 2010

As more and more people have gotten involved in playing Texas Hold?em online, things have begun to change. The world of Texas Hold?em online has changed from people playing multiple tables, making a small number of big bets in about 100 hands and collecting some money for their trouble, to a few multi-table players fighting over the few scraps of what has been left behind of low-limit Online poker.

This change, a result of the multi-gaming culture of online poker, has resulted in a less beatable poker game and less money for winning players. Yet, don?t despair. There is still money to be made and terrible players to take it from. Yes, there is something you can do about your dropping win rates.

The first step towards winning is never playing lower limit 6 max tables without a rake back deal. And, when selecting a table, never play with fewer than four players.

In a casino, the floorperson will lower the rake once a table gets down to only six players. If the game drops to four players, the rake will be lowered again. If only two players remain, the casino will drop the rake all together. The casino?s primary concern is to keep the game running. Nobody will want to play at a table with four players with a full rake. This isn?t the way the game is played online.

Almost all Online casinos charge just as much to play 6 max or fewer as they do when there are ten players. In a full game, players can make money by playing very tight and aggressively. However, in 6 max, players make money with small edges. And since with low limit poker there is often only a small edge with a lot of money in the pot, a high rake can eliminate the edge altogether. This makes it very difficult to walk away with a decent amount of cash and playing against only three others magnifies the problem so that nobody has an edge on anyone else. You can minimize this problem by being more selective when choosing a table Online.

The second step towards modifying your game is to adjust your limit. The games that have suffered the most in recent years are the 2-4, 3-6, and 5-10 games. Strangely enough, when playing Online, it is easier to win a 10-20 game or a 15-30 game nowadays. The reason: there are a lot of serious, yet under-funded, players in these games. The higher stakes games still have a decent amount of recreational players, who haven?t built up a bank roll to truly compete in the larger games.

The third step towards earning money Online is to learn how to choose the best games. You need to find a table with players who don?t understand the finer points of hand selection. If you?re at a table where everyone keeps folding, you?re scared to raise because you think they might fold, or there is a lot of pre-flop folding going on, you should get out of the game immediately.

If you follow these three simple principles, you should be able to make a fairly decent win-rate and hourly income playing Texas Hold?em online despite changes to the game in recent years.