As you should know, there are plenty of different personality types for poker. They range from the wannabe professional to the lunatic raising every pot. But what style is likely to generate the best win rate online? This depends on the games that you play but as I assume most of you will be playing low stakes games, this post will be specifically for the lower stake’s games i.e. buy ins of $100 or less.
What do Poker Training Sites say?
The major online poker training sites tend to focus on the mid stake’s games more than the others. They preach a game theory optimal approach to mid stakes and a more exploitative style for the lower stake’s games. Don’t worry, you don’t have to learn these creative terms as they are not essential for beating the lower stakes games online.
Poker training site Texas Hold’em Questions say “tight aggressive poker wins at low stakes” and this seems to be echoed across most online experts. That is the style that will probably serve you best and we’ll explain why now.
Plenty of Fishes Overplaying
The low stakes games are typically occupied by “fishes” aka bad players that are overplaying too many hands. A way to counter this is to be selective about the hands you choose to play. By playing better hands than them, you are at an advantage as you can expect to hit better hands post flop.
When they have second pair, you could have top pair, when they have top pair you may have an overpair. These scenarios will allow you to extract value from these fishes who are prone to overplaying.
Aggression is Important
Notice the second part in the poker style is “aggressive”. The poker training experts are unanimous that aggressiveness is an essential component to winning poker strategy. It allows you to take down pots without content, extract value and pull off some timely bluffs too. If you play a timid style of poker you won’t be able to extract enough cash and chips from your opponents.
Aggression needs to be executed well, not recklessly. This means opening for a raise when you enter the pot, throwing in some cute 3-bets pre-flop against active raisers, and regularly c-betting heads up in position. This aggression serves to keep your win rate steady as you will command a decent win % compared to the number of hands you play. Taking down pots before the flop or on the flop is no bad thing as many regulars win money from money earnt not through showdowns.
Conclusion
By employing a tight but aggressive style you will be able to take advantage of the common failings of low stakes players. You’ll also be avoiding tricky scenarios as most of the hands you play will be relatively straight forward. If you are considering playing online poker, stick to a tight aggressive style first, then get creative as you move up stakes and gain experience with helpful strategy.
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