Poker is a complex casino game where strategy and luck are vital to winning. Both experience and insight help increase your odds of winning, which means you need to get the hang of poker first.
Get started on poker with BC Game, the best online gambling website. Make an account and top up to start playing! You can apply the strategies you’ve learned below to maximise profit in this classic card game.
Why you need to learn poker strategy
A strategy refers to principles you practice when playing poker. Every action you take is a calculated risk leading to the best outcome possible given the current data. The complexity of an online poker winning strategy can be too high depending on how many factors are included in a game. Live or video poker in BC Game is the best start for beginners before they advance to multiplayer tables.
Before scouring for online poker tips and strategies, you must choose whether to play with other players or against the house. Terminologies are the same for all poker games, but the fundamentals differ. When you’re playing with the house, you only have to choose to bet on your hand and then win even money. Multiplayer poker includes additional mechanics like positions, raising, calling, and bluffing.
Use your knowledge of statistics to determine how likely your current hand is to win a round. The most complex techniques you can use in this type of game include determining how much you stake on every turn to avoid spending on losing hands to maximize profits.
The best online poker winning strategies
A poker-winning strategy is all about making the best decisions possible. The only factor you need to consider is what’s given during the turn. Every game resets after the bet and allows you to limit your thoughts to what’s on the table.
Many of them change at each turn, but you don’t have to worry about all of them simultaneously. Just pick one, two, or three factors to determine your next step. Here are simple tips based on each element of a poker game to boost your winning odds at BC Game:
Hands
Poker hands refer to the best five-card combination you can form using the cards dealt to you. The arrangement depends on the version of the game. If you’re playing a Hold ’em version, you will likely have two ‘cards in the hole’ or cards exclusive to you.
All players then form their winning hands using that and any three or four cards on the community board. Five-draw stud is simpler because it gives each player five cards in the hole outright. Video poker gives you five cards in the beginning, and then you can be selective about which to keep and discard the rest twice for an easier way to form a higher-rated winning hand.
The goal is to have the best winning hand on the table, determined by the type of combination the five cards per hand have formed. If none of the players formed a winning hand, then the winner is determined by who has the highest poker card value based on rank. There are nine labelled categories, with pair as the lowest and royal flush as the highest, where ranking is based on each combination’s occurrence. Cards numbered 2-10 are valued in ascending order, followed by Jack, Queen, King, and Ace at the top, also arranged from lowest to highest.
When playing against the house, like in BC Game live table games, you just bet on how confident you are in your hand. Even a pair is rare in poker; making four of a kind is often safe enough to guarantee a win. You must consider your position or place on the table when playing with other players. Players take turns betting counterclockwise, and anyone can raise the stakes at any moment.
If you are confident in your hand but in an early position (the first two seats to the left of the dealer), then you should consider passing the turn or calling the bet. It’s better to raise the stakes once the turn has circled back to you or if you are in the late position (the last three players to take a turn). Raising the stakes so early can alert everyone else of your good hand, making them fold to avoid adding to the pot.
Play
Play means you double down on your ante and win 1:1, equal to the sum of your buy-in and bet. It gets more complicated in games versus other players because of the introduction of raise and check.
Every player can only either bet, raise, or fold at the first turn. Chip betting, also known as ‘calling’, means to pay the current stake. It starts at the minimum rate of the table in online poker. Raise means to increase the stakes. It’s frequently seen as an aggressive play because the stakes cannot be lowered until the next turn.
This approach is best taken when you have a good hand. Your goal is to raise the pot as high as possible, but the challenge is convincing the other players that you’re not that confident in your hand. The best online poker winning strategy is to approach this slowly, forcing other players to add so much to the pot that they are forced to see the game through.
Bluff
Bluffing is the opposite of aggressive play. It is deception where you feign having the advantage, forcing the other players to fold and give you the pot. Convincing other players that you have the advantage takes a lot of skills. One fun poker strategy you can use is to create an aggressive image by being more confident than usual. A neutral expression is the best action, but a more readable emotion is more likely to influence other players’ decisions, even if it were a lie.
Poker hand rankings
Hand rankings refer to the previously mentioned category of five-card combinations in poker. It is also directly related to your hand odds of winning because you have to consider how unlikely it is for the opponent to have a better hand than yours. Each possible combination has a certain number of ways to complete it, and categories with lesser instances rank higher in the hierarchy.
The hierarchy of each label and its conditions include the following in descending order:
- Royal Flush – Cards with Ace, King, Queen, Jack, and 10 in the same suit
- Straight Flush – Cards in consecutive order in the same suit
- 4 of a Kind – Four cards of the same rank are in the hand
- Full House – The hand consists of both 3 of a Kind and 1 Pair
- Flush – All five cards, in no rank order, wear the same suit
- Straight – Five cards form a consecutive order by rank
- 3 of a Kind – Three out of five cards share the same rank
- 2 pair – Two different pairs of cards in the hand
- 1 Pair – Two out of five cards have the same rank
Suits refer to the shape and colour accompanying the cards. Only four, namely clubs, hearts, spades, and diamonds, are equal. Your hand’s rank affects your winning odds, but the pot odds are up to the players to raise. No matter what kind of hand you are holding, always do what it takes to raise the pot unless you’ve folded it.
Blinds
Blinds are the buy-in price at poker that two players have to pay. The first player to the dealer’s left (or player with the dealer button) pays the small blind, half of the table’s ante. The second player pays the big blind, equal to the table’s ante. This becomes the first turn’s stake size, ensuring that all players have to either bet or fold rather than check.
It’s mandatory, but you can use your position relative to the big blind as part of your online poker strategy. If you want to play a defensive approach, it’s wise to fold if you are in the early position. You don’t know how confident the others are during this stage. It will be bad for you if you have a bad hand and someone from the late position raises, causing the turn to circle back to you with higher stakes. Alternatively, you can play that way in the late position if you want to bluff against other players.
Fold
You must learn the proper timing for folding, raising, or bluffing. Folding means surrendering poor hands to pass the turn. Despite sounding like a surrender, it is one of the best ways to learn poker strategy for minimising losses. This way, you can preserve your bankroll for the next game when you have a better chance to win the pot.
Table position
The table position is sometimes also called a ‘seat’ based on the structure of the poker table. You are seated on a table facing other players. Alternatively, the position also refers to where the cards in the hole are rather than the player. There are some poker games at BC Game where you choose a hand to place a bet on rather than settle with what the dealer gives you. It’s a game called ‘Bet on Poker’, and the cards in the holes are referred to as a seat.
The position will have an active role in your play style in a multiplayer setting. Depending on the number of players, there can be three groups of seats relative to their distance from the dealer. Two blinds and the first player to the big blind’s left are in the early position (EP). Dealer and the two other players to their right are in the late position (LP). Everyone else between the EP and LP is in the middle position (MP).
The best strategy for winning online poker incorporates one’s position on the table. However, this is complex, given that you change position every time the game resets. Thus, you have to make a strategy for every seat and the number of players available.
Play online poker now
BC Game offers plenty of online poker games for you to play. You just need to make an account, deposit crypto, and then meet other players at any table you wish. Take note of the stake size and version of poker because every table is different from the others.
Players can compete in poker tournaments at BC Game, where they can up the ante and jackpot prizes and have a more competitive experience. Go to the casual table if you want a limited ante size, or go to the high roller table for a higher potential payout. These are real cash games that can make you a millionaire if you play smart enough or are really lucky.
Conclusion
Poker is a complex game with plenty of factors to consider in making a strategy. This complexity makes it compelling, and everyone is welcome to try their luck at BC Game. You can play using any table from the best software providers in online gaming. Be creative and smart using a poker-winning strategy to get the upper hand.
FAQs
What are the different kinds of poker online?
Video poker is a single-player game where you need to build the best hand possible and win cash based on what winning hand you form. Online poker has plenty of versions. The most complex and popular ones include Texas Hold ’em, Omaha, and the draw stud, where your goal is to have a better hand to win the pot.
Live poker games involve a dealer playing traditional poker versions with you, like Texas Hold ’em, Omaha, and draw stud. The difference is there are only two cards in the hole and one turn to bet or fold.
What are poker hand rankings?
Poker hand rankings revolve around the nine categories of winning hands. Each is ranked based on how rare it is compared to the others. The five-card hand rankings are the basis of all poker games in the world, no matter which version you are playing.
What are poker table positions?
Table positions refer to players seated relative to the dealer. Players directly following the big blind or preceding the dealer are in the middle position. If players play after the blinds, they have a good early position, and those who play at the end of the cycle are in late positions.
