Scouting out your online poker opponents isn’t exactly the definition of fun. However, losing $10 or $20 every session isn’t a whole lot of fun either, which is why it’s so important that you be willing to study other poker players. Some of the main things you should be looking for include the following:

1) What range of hands your opponents are playing preflop

4) What hands your opponents play in various situations postflop

The last point is an open book because there’s so much information you need to account for with postflop hand ranges for each player. However, the key is that you watch your opponents and learn as much as you can about their tendencies in each situation. For example, how large of bets do they make when they’ve flopped top pair with a strong kicker? Do they slow-play big hands? Do they check-raise other opponents with the nuts? Are they willing to raise with a flush draw as a semi-bluff?

This is just a small sample of the questions you can answer while studying other players. Obviously you won’t remember each little detail from every opponent during a session, which is why player notes are always handy. In addition to taking notes, your overall online poker experience will help out immensely when profiling opponents. After all, things tend to slow down on the poker tables when you’re playing consistently every day, and this makes it easier to get a good read on each player.

If you’re really serious about getting better at reading opponents, you can always observe tables; this works great if you’re thinking of moving up a level and want to scout out the competition without betting any money. Of course, there’s nothing making you do this since it gets pretty boring.

In any case, just make sure you’re able to concentrate on the game at hand and study your opponents. By doing so, you’ll gain invaluable information on them, which will aid your decision-making process quite a bit.

One common thought among many poker players who get handled in the micro stakes is this: low stakes players don’t respect my raises, so I need to move up the limits. But the reality is that, if you can’t beat the micro stakes, it’s not a good idea to move up limits just because micro stakes players don’t respect your raises. In fact, the tendency of low stakes players to not respect raises provides all the more opportunities for you to beat these fish in the long run.

The main thing you have to understand here is that value betting is your friend. If you strongly feel you’re ahead based on an opponent’s tendencies, you bet the maximum that the opponent is willing to call. In most cases, micro stakes players are the easiest to value bet against because the money is so insignificant, and they just want to see more cards.

Just be sure to watch your opponents for a while before making any huge raises so that you can identify their playable range of hands, which should be pretty wide in the micro stakes. Sure there will be times where you go all-in with pocket aces and get called by a couple of players – one of which cracks your aces. But thinking long-term, if you keep making strong value bets, you should have little trouble with these stakes.

Along with value betting, you need to keep a very tight range of hands and avoid bluffing. The latter is a downfall of many players who lose in the micro stakes because they try to make steals from the cut-off and button, only to get called by one or two players afterward. Simply put, there will be enough spots where you can make money without bluffing in low stakes play, so don’t spew off money trying to steal.

Another point worth mentioning here is that you need to select your tables carefully as well. When looking at the lobby statistics, a high flop-viewed percentage coupled with big average pot sizes highlights where the loose players are. Furthermore, these represent the best players to value bet when you’re ahead because they’re highly likely to call.

One more point worth making is to always consider the possibility that your opponent actually has a hand when they’re betting big. Many players make the mistake of thinking that micro stakes players are constantly going all-in with bottom pair and ace-high, which isn’t always the case.

One concept that you may see mentioned quite a bit on poker forums and in strategy articles is 3-betting light. Seeing as how the name of this term isn’t entirely self-explanatory, it’s worth diving a little deeper into what 3-betting light means.

3-betting Light Definition – The basic definition of 3-betting light is re-raising another player preflop without great cards, and/or when you know you’re behind. For instance, if a player out in front of you raises, and you re-raise with 8s-9s, this is a light 3-bet because your holdings aren’t that strong.

Example of 3-betting Light – To better illustrate how 3-betting light looks in action, let’s say that a player to your right (button) who’s been stealing a lot raises to $6 in a $1/$2 Hold’em game. The small blind folds, and you (big blind) 3-bet to $18 with 7d-8d. Obviously your cards aren’t overly strong and would be best played in a multi-way pot. Furthermore, your position after the flop will be bad, which all combines to make this a light 3-bet.

Best Light 3-betting Situations – Expanding on the situation above where you 3-bet light with 7-8 suited, the ideal situation is for your opponent to fold here. If they call, you’re going into the flop with cards that don’t play well heads-up, and you are out of position too. If they reraise, it would be silly to do anything other than fold in this situation.

Taking all of this into account, the best scenario for 3-betting light arises when a TAG opens the betting from late position in hopes of stealing the hand. The reason why this is ideal is because they’re far more likely to fold being a TAG because they were simply hoping to steal the hand.

Now some people might ask why we don’t light 3-bet a LAG because they play such a wide range of hands. The reason is because the LAG is less likely to fold to a light 3-bet than the TAG, and their range will probably beat your’s in light 3-betting situations. Furthermore, you should be looking to value 3-bet bet LAG’s with good hands because your range will normally be ahead of their’s.

Micro stakes poker, which consists of limits ranging from $0.01/$0.02 to $0.10/$0.25, is filled with loose players who live and die with top pair, and are willing to call with just about anything to see the flop. In short, these players present you with excellent opportunities to whittle away at their stacks and increase profits. But in order to do this, you need to know how to properly bet against micro stakes players, and here are a few tips for doing just that.

Tip #1: Make Bigger Raises -The first thing you need to throw out the window in micro stakes games is the idea that 3x-4xbb preflop raises are going to scare anybody off of a hand. If you make a 4xbb raise in $0.01/$0.02 Holdem, you’re only betting $0.08, which won’t dissuade a micro stakes player from calling. And this can be a big problem if you’re holding pocket aces, and three other players decide to call your 4xbb raise to see the flop. So keep in mind that you’ll be forced to make 10xbb raises or more (depending on the table) to scare off potential callers.

Tip #2: Overbet with the Nuts – One nice thing about playing in micro stakes games is that players are willing to call big raises with far less holdings than those at higher stakes. For example, some players are willing to risk their whole stack with second or third best pair. With this being said, you can usually get more value out of the nuts by overbetting. For instance, if you hold As-Ts on a board of Ks-9h-3s-Qs, you can bet two or three times the pot size and still expect a call on this obviously dangerous board.

Tip #3: See Lots of Flops – Not everything in the micro stakes is about overbetting and making big preflop raises. In fact, you can also put yourself in some favorable situations by being passive preflop with suited connectors and small pocket pairs just to see flops. Once you’re on the flop, you can try to outplay others because micro stakes players are well-known for being bad postflop players.

Anybody who knows ABC poker strategy realizes how important it is to know your opponents and watch their betting patterns. By doing so, you get a much better indication as to the strength of your opponents’ hands. However, sometimes it’s hard to keep track of the information you gain just by memory alone – especially in poker tournaments since players are constantly switching tables.

In bigger poker tournaments, it’s pretty much impossible to keep track of everybody, which is why you should be taking notes on players. Now this isn’t to say you need to keep track of every single player who makes a 2xbb raise from the button, but you should at least keep track of poker players who make significant moves that can define their play.

For example, let’s say you notice a player make a 3xbb raise from middle position, and two other players behind them call. The flop comes out A-9-4, and the player shoves their stack into the middle when they’re in no danger of blinding out. One player folds, some fish calls, and the original raises shows pocket queens, while the fish shows K-9. The board fails to help either player, and the original raiser wins the hand.

Seeing as how the original raiser is still alive in the tournament, it’s worth taking a note on this particular play. You could jot down: “Screen name” makes moderate raises from MP (middle position) with premium hands, then overplays second pair when OOP (out of position). Assuming you and this player both move onto new tables, only to meet up later in the tournament, this information could be extremely helpful.

If you’re wondering how to take notes in online poker, Carbon Poker offers a nice feature where you can both tag opponents and jot down notes on them. To do this, just click on the player’s name during a game, and a screen will come up. Here you can tag the player as a Shark, Fish, Buddy, Champion, Bluffer etc., and jot down your own personal notes on their play. And what’s nice is that you’ll be able to see this information whenever you find them in a poker tournament or cash game.

Most poker tournament players have a healthy fear of the blinds because they gradually increase as tourneys move along. And this fear especially increases when you move closer to the tournament bubble, where your hard work either pays off or is all for nothing. So the question in this situation becomes what you do when you’re trying to hang on for a tournament cash in the face of increasing blinds. That said, let’s address this subject more by talking about a little strategy for these situations.

Measuring All of the Factors

The typical poker tournament bubble scene goes like this: the large majority of short stacks freeze up and either wait for A) a great hand to come, or B) the bubble to burst. Many poker strategists suggest playing really aggressive in these situations because so many others are playing tight, but this doesn’t usually work for the short stacks.

After all, the biggest stacks are far less likely to respect your raises or shoves when you are short on chips. So if you’re trying to hang on to make the money, it’s often counterproductive to bully other players around when you don’t have the stack to scare anybody.

On the other hand, folding pocket tens when they come around preflop isn’t a good idea either. You don’t know when the bubble is actually going to burst, and you could get stuck trying to decide whether or not to shove your remaining 2bb with Q-4 offsuit.

All in all, playing the bubble when you’re in danger of blinding out involves a number of factors such as how low some of the other remaining stacks are, how likely you are to get away with a steal, how much a small cash actually means to you, and whether or not the amount of money is worth passing up +EV moves. To illustrate these factors in action, let’s move on to a tournament example.

Playing the Bubble with a Low Stack

Assume you’re down to the final 21 players in a poker tournament where the top 15 cash. Your stack is at around 6bb, and there are nine other players with about the same stack size. At this point, you’re in a fold or shove situation because if you raise, it’s very likely a bigger stack will reraise and put you all-in anyways. So this becomes a time where you should be thinking about two main options:

1) Keep folding and pray for a cash
2) Play aggressively and hope to double up

Most people would say the first option is a terrible idea because other short stacks will be playing aggressively, and this strategy will earn them the blinds needed to stay alive. But if the money is significant to you (instead of a tiny cash), not going all-in with hands like J-T(o) could be to your benefit. In some situations, players will get a good run of cards right when it appears as if their tourney life is over. Furthermore, assuming there is another short stack or two at your table and they’re not playing aggressively, you could sneak into the money if they bust out.

As for the other suggestion, most players will advise that you do everything possible to double up before being in danger of blinding out, which is certainly a good idea because if you do double up, at least your stack will have some power behind the bubble. However, just because you have 3bb left doesn’t mean it’s the time to shove with T-3(o). A lot of what you do in this scenario will depend on position, and your judgement of how likely you are to be called here. A good idea is to wait for the cut-off or button to come around, then try to steal – especially if the players behind you are tight and/or low stacks.

One more thing to keep in mind is that when you play a lot of poker tournaments, the bubble becomes less of big thing, which allows you to forget about the money and make +EV plays without fearing a non-cash.

One of the more neglected skills among beginning poker players involves thinking ahead when looking at your cards. More specifically, many new players get a hand, and only think about how it relates to preflop play. To illustrate what we’re talking about, let’s say you have A-9 preflop, which is a decent hand for the following reasons:

1) You’ve got an ace
2) The 9 is an alright kicker
3) It’s suited

Taking these three factors into account, some players might be tempted to play this hand no matter the situation – provided the price to see the flop isn’t too high. However, playing a hand like this could also lead to trouble depending on the situation.

For one thing, your 9 kicker isn’t that great, thus leaving the possibility that your A-9 combo could be dominated by hands A-T and up. Another thing worth mentioning here is how you have very little straight potential since there’s too big of a gap between these hands.

Of course, the situation you’re in can also make this a really bad hand to play. For example, let’s say you’re in middle position during a poker tournament with 15bb in an unopened pot. Now A-9 suited isn’t a terrible hand to play here, but what happens if you open with a 3xbb raise, and somebody reraises to 8xbb; at this point you’re almost in a situation where either a call or shove puts your tournament life at stake. And if you choose to fold, you’ve just lost a fifth of your stack trying to play a marginal hand from middle position.

To sum this up, it’s important to think about all of the factors and possible outcomes before choosing to play a marginal hand preflop. If you think there’s too much at risk, fold your hand and wait for a better opportunity.

While there is plenty of general poker strategy for playing tournaments, you should fine-tune your approach for larger tourneys. The main reason why is because large poker tournaments involve more personalities in the field, which translates into looser play, lots of maniacs, and crazy action within the first few blinds levels. That said, here is a look at some large poker tournament tips that will help you survive the early going.

Play Really Tight – As just stated, bigger tournaments involve a lot of overly-aggressive play by inexperienced players. And while your goal should be to take advantage of these types, you also need to focus on making sure the situation is right when doing so. So play really tight in the beginning of big poker tournaments, and wait for great hands/late position to come your way. By doing this, your premium hands almost always have a chance to get paid off.

Don’t Overvalue Dominated Hands – While cards like AQ and KJ can win you big pots when they hit, these hands shouldn’t be overvalued in big poker tournaments because they’re too easily dominated. Now this isn’t to say hands like this don’t have any value – especially when you’re in late position and/or your stack is getting low – but don’t overplay them early in big tournaments.

Raise Big – A generally recommended preflop raise is 3x the big blind plus 1bb for every limper in the pot. And depending on the blind levels, this raise can certainly limit the number of players in a pot. However, in large poker tournaments, it’s usually not enough to make others fold early on because the blind levels are so low, and there are quite a few calling stations in the beginning of bigger tourneys. This being said, you’ll need to raise much bigger than this in most cases to isolate players in big poker tournaments.

In addition to all of this, just remember that larger tourneys have more variance because of all the players involved. So if you’re going to play them often, realize that you’ll go through long periods of not cashing at times.

There are numerous pitfalls that beginning poker players run into when starting out in the game. But one of the most common beginning poker mistakes by far is not believing your opponent has a hand.

Now a lot of this stems from the fact that bluffing is so glamorized in poker, and new players come into the game thinking that people are bluffing left and right. But truthfully, most skilled players only bluff when they’ve got at least a few outs in their hand, and when they’re facing an overly-tight opponent.

Even with this being said, there are still lots of poker beginners who constantly think that they’re the target of a bluff. For example, they’ll call their opponent’s river bet with pocket 9′s after an ace has just landed on the board. And sure enough, their opponent paired an ace on the river to get top pair.

Fortunately, a lot of this problem can be cleared up by watching your opponents’ betting patterns and tendencies. But even then, you have to be careful because, while you might think you’ve correctly read an opponent, you always have to leave open the possibility of being wrong.

In the previous example where your opponent rivered an ace, they could have been betting like they were chasing a flush draw the whole time that missed on the river; if this were entirely it, then their raise would have been a bluff. But you should have also considered that they could be chasing an ace-high flush, which turned into a pair of aces in the end.

Above all, don’t fear being bluffed so badly. Oftentimes, beginning poker players would rather blow off their stack to catch the one time they’re being bluffed, rather than make +EV folds and risk being bluffed one out of 10 times. Long story short, always consider the possibility that your opponent is playing their hand like it is before assuming they missed.