The first piece of poker advice I have is
“do not go on tilt.”
On tilt means you play hands or make bets you would not normally make because you are not playing your game. Maybe you’ve been losing, or maybe one player has been beating you over and over. There are a couple of techniques you can use to avoid this. The most important thing you will learn is “patience. If you become impatient you will walk away from the table with nothing left. A mad player is a bad player.
The second piece of advice on “how not to lose” is “do not chase cards when it is not profitable for you to do so.” Learning how to avoid this is really all about understanding Pot Odds.
Third in the “how not to lose” poker technique guide is “know your game.” Even though you are already in the pot, be sure that you know your game well enough to understand there is not much that you will be able to do with it other than bluff. Knowing your playing style is important because it keeps you from throwing away chips on hands you probably wouldn’t play anyway.
The final piece of poker strategy on “how not to lose” is “know your opponents.” You might already know how this works and how tracking your opponent’s statistics can help you to “not lose”. If not, I shall explain. It is important to know who the and loose players are. When you are in a hand with a tight player you can be assured that they have a very good hand. If a loose player is in the hand and you only play your quality cards, you can feel confident knowing your hole cards are better than his or hers. It’s also important to know if a player is bluffing. Bluffing is not a technique most players can turn on and off. Most either bluff too much or not at all. Figuring out which players bluff every hand is important because you can use them to do your betting for you when you get good cards, therefore disguising your strength. You also need to understand that you do not need to drop against these players with a marginal hand like second pair. Watch their betting style though. When these players get good hands they usually change their style by either betting more than usual or much less. This will become easier as you play more hands and learn to pick up these subtle tells.
