Playing a cash game like Poker requires skills, patience, and hours of practice to polish your skills. You should be able to develop strategies to deal with uncertainties in Poker. On a poker table as a beginner, getting familiar with various buy-ins, poker variations, tournaments might seem a bit overwhelming at times. Having a proper poker tournament strategy always helps. You can familiarise yourself with the poker variants too. And that's where MPL helps you with the Rules of Poker guide.

You can also refer to some basic poker tips to help them during the early part of the game. Knowing a few rules helps lay the foundation for advanced strategies in the Poker cash game.

MPL is one of the best online poker sites and is trusted by poker players across the country. What's more, you can also win exciting rewards. Get started with your poker journey at MPL!

Top Poker Tips For Beginners To Play Online Poker

It is always helpful to know a few poker strategy tips for beginners. It is easy to think any hand can be converted into a winning combination through some luck with community cards. This is a big mistake that players often make during the early stages of playing Poker. A professional poker player memorizes the poker hand rankings to identify a winning hand.

Here is a basic guideline of poker hand rankings

A-A and K-K are considered as the Premium Hands. If the player has such a combination as their hole cards, winning the pot is higher.

Following the same principle, A-K, Q-Q, and J-J are strong hands. A-Q, 10-10, 9-9, and 8-8 are considered marginal hands and lead to a winning pot.

A general online poker tip to follow is that the player should fold any hand less than a pair early.

Choose your starting hand carefully

It's tempting for a rookie player to play every hand merely. Why should you fold and sit around watching others have all the fun? There's a reason you should choose your poker starting hands carefully. On the flip, the majority of your hands will be behind, and you'll be pouring good money after bad.

Choosing the right beginning hands, passing on a mediocre hand yet pounce on a monster hand, is the foundation of a good poker strategy. Choose a few premium cards to raise in late position (where you are one of the last to act) and fold a large portion of your limited preflop holdings.

Beginning with pocket aces, the best starting hands in Poker may be categorized as follows:

All of these hands are comfortable raising in late positions. Some cards, such as A-A and K-K, can be raised in an early position, putting you among the first to act after the flip.

Hands like 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, 7-7, 6-6, and suited aces like A-10, A-9, A-8 can also be included. Small pairs like 2-2 and 3-3 should only be played to extract value on the flop, so don't become too attached to them.

Learn how to play Jack-Ten in Online Poker cash games

Play in Ranges, Not Hands

One of the most critical poker tips is to spot the average novice players in a game. Observation is another skill you need to develop on an online poker table. Here's how you spot them;

Beginners: Put someone on a specific poker hand

Advanced: They think in terms of ranges. This is especially helpful when it comes to calculating pot odds.

 A range is the entire scale of a player's poker hands in a specific situation. For instance, a player can have a flush, top pair, middle pair, bottom pair, a draw, ace-high. In this case, advanced players will anticipate that the opponent will show the entire range of hands. They don't focus on winning only a single hand but try to figure out the best hand to play. They will also try to predict the opponent's range. A beginner will put out only a specific hand because they want to act out their gut feelings immediately.

Learn the basic math

Learn the fundamentals of mathematics. While many think it is a game of chance, it is actually focused on accurate judgments, basic concepts, and probability. In Texas Hold 'Em, odds come into play in this situation. Take your time to understand how to calculate the odds of striking your hand, how many outs you have, and how to compare all of this to the wager size you're up against.

When you have all of this knowledge, you will be able to make better judgments based on math rather than guessing whether or not your opponent has it, which will make you a stronger player.

Recognizing betting patterns in Poker Games

While the early hand can dictate the entire play, it is not the only poker strategy a player will use to win an online poker game. Getting the best early hand is generally the ideal way to play to hand. However, many different factors can sway the game if you share the table with experienced players.

One way to identify the game's flow is the tried-and-tested reading of your opponent's poker strategy and making a fair judgment of the opponent's cards. While that might not be an apparent online poker tip, one can always figure out an opponent's mindset by closely analysing their betting pattern. It understandably takes time to get it right, but as a beginner, it might just be the right time to familiarise yourself with some advanced game tricks. You can extract a lot of information from a player's betting style during each round and how it translates during the showdown.

Adopting different styles of play

A crucial online poker tip is to mix up a variety of approaches as Poker is a fascinating game. Some of these approaches include -

Tight - Play cautiously with relatively fewer hands and take lesser risks.

Loose - This is the opposite of 'tight,' involving playing with many hands and being more willing to gamble.

Aggressive - This involves a lot of betting, opening pots, and going for huge bets to put the opponent under pressure.

Passive: This is the opposite of aggressive, which involves calling more often than betting as it is in the opponents' hand to dictate how the action unfolds.

Slow Playing: Slow Playing, called sandbagging or trapping, is a deceptive play in Poker where players bet a weak hand with a strong holding.

In a poker game, the key lies in being flexible enough to use any style depending on the situation, as being predictable more often than not ends up in defeat. Play tight when you have to, make loose calls when required. Beginner poker players could look to go for a 'tight-aggressive' combination. Play differently, and you can win more money.

Using positional play to your advantage

One of the most important poker strategy tips is understanding your table position.

You may face a raise or re-raise if you are in an early position when you are the first to act. On the other hand, in a late position, you have more knowledge about how your opponents acted and what they might hold.

The significance of one's position cannot be overstated. It determines which hands you will raise and call with and how aggressive you should be before and after the flop.

If there have been no raises, you should always raise small pocket pairs in late position. Those hands, however, become merely calls in early position. The closer you get to the small blind, the more cautious you need to be.

Never be the first player to limp.

As a beginner poker player, never be the first player to limp. There are two main reasons why you should never limp :

You can't win the pot before the flop like you wanted(if you raised)

You can face multiple players because you might have tempting pot odds if you limp. Thus, you're less likely to win the pot.

The more mature poker skills are to limp when at least one player has already limped. It is a good poker strategy because you will be getting great pot odds. This means you can win something.

Learn how to Bluff

The game theory of Poker suggests that top players wouldn't win nearly as many pots if they didn't bluff. Because sometimes it so happens in poker tournaments, you will frequently miss the flop or turn. Learning to bluff is an excellent strategy to get people to fold.

To get better hands to fold, good players know how to bluff. Begin by understanding how to play the continuation bet (c-bet). After leading the betting preflop, you make this wager on the flop.

It doesn't matter if you've struck a flop or not; a c-bet will keep the tale moving forward. A c-bet is also excellent for hiding your made hands if you have an aggressive persona. While you may have a good hand, your opponent may assume you're just attempting to buy the pot.

Must read: Online NLH Poker: Bluffing the Right Way!

Aggressive semi-bluffs with the right hand

Bluffing remains an integral poker strategy that can turn even a losing game in your favour. While there are numerous strategies associated with bluffing in Poker, 'semi-bluffing' is a poker strategy where the player dictates only if they draw a decent hand. This means that the player will bluff only if the hand dealt has outs to improve to the best hand during the later rounds. Bluffing with a total nothing hand before the river has chances to backfire more often than not. Hence, semi-bluffing becomes important as it lays down the perfect hand criteria to proceed with a bluff or fold.

One such scenario is that poker players should check if the hand-drawn has potential showdown value during the betting round. E.g., a pair or ace-high.

Defending Blinds

A basic poker strategy is used to suggest that you should fold the majority of your hands in the small and large blinds. Nowadays, however, the popular belief is that you should guard your blinds at all costs.

You've already paid an imposed bet if you're in the big blind, for example. You're also second to act when the flop is revealed. Why should this be a position you have to defend when you don't know most of the table?

Post-flop betting is the key to the answer. You're the last one to act in the big blind. You can raise, call a raise, or check to see if anyone has raised before the flop.

Being the last to act offers you much information about your opponents before the flop.

With this knowledge, you can call the big blind with various hands. Furthermore, you may be getting a good bargain on a flop.

However, use caution while playing the big blind. The player should avoid re-raised pots and consider the number of players in hand. With a multiway-playing hand, you should also protect your big blind, such as suited connectors or premium pairs.

Play Low Stakes and Keep Making Notes

A poker tip to keep in mind: Play low-stakes games to hone your skills, then try your hand at larger at buy-in poker tournaments. Always take notes when playing. Implement these easy poker tips to improve your game and win the pot.

Choose The Stakes Sensibly

An often overlooked poker tip, choosing your stakes wisely is very crucial. Being a winner is difficult without proper bankroll management, even after using the best poker tips. Play Poker in limits that you can afford; avoid those limits where you have the potential to lose money.

Don't Play Too Many Hands.

If you are under the impression that playing too many hands will give you a winning shot, that is the wrong poker strategy. This is a prevalent mistake that beginner poker players end up making. Sure, a few poker hands will give you a winning pot, but you're more likely to lose. While starting, always be selective with your poker hands.

Too much Bluffing is also Bad.

One of the poker rules you need to remember: too much bluffing will make you lose the game miserably. Poker tournaments often showcase the bluffing part, but that is not the poker strategy that will help you win the cash game. Bluff occasionally, but don't follow that strategy blindly. Focus on your cards more, be it Texas Hold'Em tournaments or any other variant of Poker.

Poker Mistakes that Beginners Make

In Poker, you need a few gaming strategies to actually win. Not taking the initiative, not playing enough hands are some of the poker mistakes that beginners make. To know in-depth, read Typical Beginner Mistakes in Poker.

Poker Tips for Hand Selection

Stick to playing stronger hands from an early position than you would from a late position. This means that if you are in one of the earlier position seats, you should stick to playing the top two tiers of hands and avoid lesser hands like; AQ, AJs, AT, KQs, and so on. Do not play a weak hand at the starting position. Another tip: Don't get caught in Calling Station Mode.

Tips for Poker Tells

Players make some tell-tale poker signs, like nervous talking, nail-biting, frequent glances, or filling up the chatbox with messages. However, if you observe closely, there are more Poker tells than you know. Read Common Online Poker Tells for a more comprehensive list.

How to Play Poker Online for Real Money

Want to play Poker and bring your online poker strategy to the test? Besides being just a card game, it's also a cash game. Start playing Poker on MPL and win big now!

2 Bonus Tips for any Poker Player

Attack When Your Opponent Shows Slight Weakness

Players can often have a relatively weak hand that will fold when faced with multiple bets. When your opponent starts showing a lot of weakness, you can take advantage of them with aggressive bluffing. Don't just go with semi bluffs; go with pure bluffs. This poker strategy will be a winning shot.

Fold when unsure

This is one poker strategy that almost all players know but fail to execute when playing the game. Poker is a mental game. A good poker player is generally the one who folds more hands than he actually wins. It takes real prowess for a player to fold a good pair - a situation where most will be enticed to continue hoping to snatch a win.

However, what differentiates a pro player from the crowd is their ability to read the table, the opponents, and deciding to fold even if it means losing a few poker chips during the initial betting round. Whenever you're unsure if you should play the hand or fold, the general rule of thumb is to choose the latter.