You must decide just what your poker playing limit is.

The term of playing limit has nothing to do with the term of bankroll. Your playing limit is simply the amount of money you would feel comfortable playing. No one can be indifferent when playing his own money and therefore they cannot remain calm when it comes to losing them. Therefore, don’t use all your saving or paycheck to play online poker. This is not good for two reasons:

1. If you lose, you will have a bad memory of the game that left you with no money at all, when it is your fault for not being responsible and for not thinking through your actions.
2. You will lose! Think about this one for a while. You will most certainly lose because your game will be affected by the constant frustration that arises from your worries about your money.

So, avoid these situations by playing an amount you wouldn’t care about. Just think of it as if it was an expense to buy a game, and now you are playing that game you paid for. This way the worries can be ignored and your playing style can really become what it needs to.

If you have a normal profession or one more basis of profits, then the above strategy should suit your case. But when you plan to play poker for an income, then stuff gets difficult. A professional poker player has no source but his bankroll. The bankroll has at all times to remain intact so it can generate income.

When you play poker your income will fluctuate. If you are a wealthy person and don’t care about money because you already have too many, then fluctuation doesn’t mean a thing. But if poker is your only source of income, then keep the bankroll intact only as long as you don’t need it. When you have to pay the bills, you will remove that amount from your bankroll. It is a bad thing and it means you didn’t know your limits. Your initial bankroll will become smaller and smaller not because of poker, but because you wanted to rely on an amount of money you did not actually have to spend.

A professional poker player has learned his limits by now. He knows exactly how much he is playing, and he knows how much he should leave at the online casino and how much to put in a bank or invest in the stock market after a win. There is no need to increase a good playing limit that has been tested. Every time we go above it, we can redraw the exceeding money and leave this way the bankroll intact while making an income.

At first, you will have to play just for fun and with a limited bankroll. You have to know that playing for fun money won’t get you competition. In these poker rooms, there is hardly any competition at all.

You can see on TV different poker tournaments that are transmitted live and you might be tempted to imitate the players there. You must not do that because on TV they don’t show the entire game, they only show a couple of hands and the final hands. And the thing is that you don’t have the experience of those pro players.

Beginners make many mistakes like playing too many hands for example. They wish for a miraculous turning around of the odds, they think they will get lucky at the next hand and receive the cards they need and they don’t quit on time. If you are ever in doubt, just fold if your cards aren’t that good and you are not so good with calculating odds. Even if you make a mistake, the probability is low that when you do the exact same moves that mistake will occur again. At the same time, don’t stick to your one pair too much, not any pair of cards can win the game and you must learn to give up before it’s too late. But use your instincts wisely to see if the opponents are bluffing.

When playing online and especially if you are a beginner, don’t exceed your budget ever! You must be very careful with the games you are entering in. If your bankroll is, let’s say, $500 then do not enter tables with bids over $2.5/$5. Because if you do that, you might end up losing all the money in just one extended unlucky hand. Experts say it would be a good idea to play from your $500 bankroll to $100 a day tops, excluding winnings. If you win and the bankroll grows bigger, then you can extend the limit. But first of all, before playing, you need to learn. Buy a book, attend some courses online, get experts to teach you, learn as much as you can not only about the game itself but about its strategies too. After you have the theoretical notions, we must put them to use. Exercise as much as you can. Even 6 hours a day if you want to become a professional poker player or at least to make serious many. The good line about online poker is the fact you can keep your theory book close to you even while playing. If ever unsure, check the book.

Almost all online poker game providers give you the possibility to select 4 color decks, so you will see each suit in a different color. This option is useful because after an hour of playing it might happen that you have a flush and you can’t tell it, or you can’t tell the others have.

If you really need money or you are in debt, playing poker is not recommended unless you can control your winning desire. There are big chances that you will lose and the debt will grow, and so you will have a bad opinion about poker and winning when it is actually your fault. At all times you must stay alert and don’t let anything disturb you: no television, no e-mail writing, and no telephone. Don’t play after you had a drink because alcohol can alter your decisions if too much was used.

KNOW THINE ENEMY; KNOW THYSELF The more poker you play, the better you will become at identifying certain types of players. Though it’s no guarantee of complete success, once you have an understanding of how a player approaches the game, you will have gained some much-needed knowledge that will help you read their cards and win some pots. While playing, observe your opponents’ style and betting patterns. Things to consider: Do they play slightly recklessly by staying in longer than they should? Are they too conservative and fold immediately if they think they have a bad hand? Do they have the guts to bluff? Keep these things in mind for your own playing as well. It’s good to vary your approach—you don’t want your opponents to get a handle on you.

• The loose poker player stays in round after round with less-than-perfect hands. In many cases, he is hoping that his hand will improve with new cards. Because he rarely folds, the loose player may win some pots, but by staying in too long, he also loses a lot of pots. After all, the word loose looks an awful lot like lose and loser, doesn’t it?

• The tight casino player plays conservatively and gets out early unless he thinks he can win. Tight players rarely chase cards, and they hold on to their money until the time is right and raise bets when confident. If you adopt this style, be careful—it is wise to mix it up just a little. By never straying from the “tight” style, other players will fold early when you bet, knowing that you only stay in with a good hand.

• The aggressive player, like the loose player, tends to stay in but is also likely to step up the betting with raises. However, this does not necessarily mean that he or she always has a good hand; the aggressive player may simply enjoy creating some action at the poker table, or he could be bluffing. However, if he does have a good hand, look out— if you stay in, it can cost you some big bucks.

• Passive players are less skilled versions of tight players. They don’t take risks, fold the poker hands early, are reluctant to raise, and rarely, if ever, bluff. These players may not feel fully confident of their poker skills, may have already lost some money, or may have simply not discovered the thrill of what gambling is all about.