NETELLER Blog

Hey there. Welcome to my first in a series of articles about playing poker online or on the felt.
I have been playing poker for more than 4 years and have turned a hobby into a blossoming career. By contributing to the NETELLER blog, I figured I would discover something about myself, learn more about poker and teach people about the game I love.

Humble beginnings to serious success

I learned to play online, but it took a lot of time and work to grow in the game. Early on, I was fortunate to come across a few video training sites, mainly CardRunners and DeucesCracked, that helped develop my skills. I thank them for some of my successes. But I also studied, researched and talked over hands or plays with friends and other poker players in order to get better at the game.

I have cashed in at numerous World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) on PokerStars and many Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). I consider my skill to be strong in tourneys as well in cash games. I have Canadian Poker Tour championship wins as well as final tables. I consider these to be a very important part of my growth, but my biggest accomplishment to date has been cashing in at the main event of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 2009. This was my first WSOP event. As I continue to play at the WSOP, I will share my experiences and tips.

Tip of the month

My tip for this month is to polarize your range (make your range wide – as in very hard to read so that opponents cannot predict what you have from hand to hand as the game goes on) pre-flop in heads-up play. One thing I learned early on while playing heads-up is that if you only raise or re-raise your big hands pre-flop  – like kk, AA, Ak – you will not get the value you really deserve when dealt these hands. It also makes it much easier for players to exploit your tendencies. If your opponents know that you only raise and re-raise with this range, imagine how easy it is for them to see a flop and do a flop or fold strategy. If they flop 2 pair or better they know you have AA and won’t fold.

By polarizing your range pre-flop in heads-up play, you make your range much wider and increase the likelihood of getting value to be paid off. You want to make your opponents believe that you can have any hand in any possible spot. That is what makes it tough to take advantage of and they fear you more. If you only re-raise or 3-bet with big hands pre-flop, you are giving valuable information away to a good player. My advice is to try and balance your big value hands and bluffing hands to make your ranges in any spot possible. This is especially important pre-flop. This skill will not be easy to learn and some of you may be experts, but all I can suggest is start adding it in slowly to your game.

Bonus tips

Maintain a healthy and active mind. It’s crucial to work it out as much as possible. Keeping your mind sharp could give you that extra edge in a game. It’s a big advantage if you’re like me and find yourself at a table for 37 hours. I suggest that you review the history of the hands you have played to learn about what you may have done wrong and what you can do to improve your game. And getting opinions from other poker players doesn’t hurt either. Just keep yourself open to constantly learning, no matter where those lessons come from.

Another skill – and I cannot stress this enough – is to learn to control your emotions. I have seen many great players let the average Joe beat them simply because they couldn’t control their emotions.

I hope what I have shared will help you in your next game. And I’ll be here next month with some more tips. Good luck!

Today’s post was written by Todd. Todd is a Merchant Account Manager and he is a very savvy, successful poker player who spends a great deal of time trying to improve his game. His main goal is to win a coveted WSOP bracelet.