A Boring Playing Style is Profitable

Back in the old days of aquatic poker, I'd run into the same half-dozen stuffy sharks every week at the cardroom. The small no-limit game used to host the occasional sand shark, the ever-popular competing hammerhead, and a couple of great whites. Their play was extremely tight, predictable, and they'd only come out of their shells (no pun intended, Texas Turtle) when they had the nuts.

It was always difficult to stimulate any action, so I mostly played an aggressive and unpredictable game. I didn't have much of a choice with these observant rocks - it was either mix it up or let the blinds chip away at my stack. These days, online poker has taught me to completely overhaul my poker game. I'll tell you why I've learned that it's almost always best to play a boring, predictable, textbook style in online ring games.

First of all, I'd like to preface this strategy by I only recommend this strategy for wild ring games with 40-50% flop percentage and big pots. Since you usually want to be playing the opposite style of your opponents, I recommend that same aggressive and unpredictable game I mentioned above if you run into a tight online table. Tighter players tend to be more timid with their play, so you can't raise all of your strong hands and expect to get any action. You'll need to mix up your play in order to extract the most money from these players and keep them guessing. Also, this only applies to ring games, where the blinds remain stagnant.

Strategy Summary

Most online tables are loose and aggressive. They are, for the most part, full of multi-tabling gamblers who often play their hand regardless of what their cards are. For this type of competition, I believe that a predictable and mostly boring style of play makes you money and keeps you out of trouble. What does this style of play entail? First of all, you can't play trash hands against maniacs! Most of the time, it's just a bad investment. If you're going to run into heavy aggression and loose calling, at least have cards to stand up to it. You'll need to raise your premium hands in position every time. This includes big pocket pairs, A-K, and sometimes A-Q. The only time I would recommend just calling before the flop is if you are in first or second position at a very aggressive table. More on that later. Next, when you raise, make a sizeable raise in a no-limit game. Bet at least the size of the pot. Also, when you see a draw on the board and you have a vulnerable hand, you should bet out every time. Finally, you should release your unimproved hands without question.

Raise Your Premium Hands

One of my first suggestions was to raise your premium hands at every opportunity, let's explore that more in-depth. You know the obvious reasons why you should raise your premium hands: to thin the field, and to build a bigger pot. Hands like pocket Aces and Kings go way down in value when you're up against 3 or 4 opponents. When you're at the wildest of online tables, you'll be seeing this many players on the flop routinely. Against weak opponents, the obvious play is the best play. Don't try to get fancy and trap them too often. They won't be paying attention to your sophisticated plays, and will usually make the wrong move regardless of what you do. Also, don't worry too much about the "standard" raise of 3 or 4 times the big blind. That simply won't be enough to drive out bad players a lot of the time. I recommend the "online standard" raise be 5 or 6 times the big blind. The obvious play is to raise your good hands, so raise them. This is especially true from late position when no one has raised the pot. If you're in first or second position at a highly active table, you might consider just calling and hoping for a raise behind you. If you do get raised, you should probably reraise. Getting all-in with your opponent preflop when you're holding Aces or Kings is never wrong. If you routinely play passively with powerful hands that become so vulnerable on the flop, you're just begging to give away your stack.

Bet Out When You See a Draw

Next, why should you always bet out when you see a draw on the board? The easy, correct answer is that you should make your opponents pay for their draw. In no-limit games, it is so easy to punish your drawing opponents. Just keep betting big (at least the size of the pot) to make them go against the odds. If I'm holding Ah-Kh, my opponent is holding 4d-5d and the flop comes down with 8d-Ad-9h, he is about a 2 to 1 underdog to hit than last flush card by the river. He is about a 4 to 1 dog to hit it on the turn. If the pot is $20 and I lead out with a $20 bet, he is getting 2 to 1 odds to see one more card. I'm making him go against the odds (4 to 1 to hit the flush on the turn) with my pot-sized bet. If he calls me, he's statistically making a mistake. If the turn card isn't another diamond, I'll bet the pot again. Why let up? If he still calls and makes his flush, at least I made the right moves. That's just a bad beat. He'll only make that flush 1 out of every 3 times you play, so you're making a lot of money on him calling your bets over the long-run.

Release Your Unimproved Hands

Finally, why should you release your unimproved hands? This one is a no-brainer that might seem obvious, but I see this common-sense gone to waste every day playing online. Most often, it comes in the form of A-K. Why do players hold onto this hand when they haven't picked up a pair or at least a draw on the flop? Calling a bet with just overcards is a waste of good money. Sure, you might bust your opponent if you hit that miracle Ace on the river, but what is he already has a set? And will you really call a bet again on the turn when a blank falls? Let your unpaired overcards go when you don't improve them on the flop. 'Nuff said.

Against bad players, you don't have to work hard. Just play by the book, raise your strong hands, and fold your weak ones. Make your fishy opponents pay for their draws. Personally, I prefer to make fishies pay with their skin, but that's just me. There isn't much to beating really bad online players. The reason a simple strategy works is because you profit from your opponent's mistakes. They'll put bad beats on you occasionally (or maybe not so occasionally), but they won't be your fault if you made them go against the odds. The next time you play poker online, try to play a predictable game. The obvious plays will make you look like a WSOP champion against online players and certainly let you suffer less bad beats.

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