Whether you’re playing online poker or playing at a land-based casino, you’ll need a good strategy if you’d like to achieve a consistent string of successes. While luck is a factor that needs to be considered, there are a few tips that can be used to help you win once you have a firm grasp of the basics of poker. To stay ahead of the competition, a unique and effective strategy is necessary, because employing an aggressive and tight game style while avoiding going on tilt simply isn’t enough these days.
In this segment, we’ll be taking a look at some of the most unconventional tips that can be used whether you play poker online or live poker. We can’t guarantee they’ll work for you, but who knows, maybe they might help you scoop the pot next time you join a game!
The most unconventional tips
What could be considered to be an unconventional poker tip? Essentially, it’s something that most players haven’t considered doing. While you could easily resort to simple strategies when playing at a lower level, you’ll need to switch things up when the competition increases, especially if you’re playing in an online poker tournament.
Only play SPATS starting hands
SPATS, an acronym that stands for Suited-connectors, Pairs, Ax-suited (where x is a small card in the same suit as the ace), Ten and higher, and Suited one-gappers (a starting hand of the same suit with a one-card gap between values,) is a poker strategy that focuses on a particular range of starting poker hands to be played, which means that you should fold if you don’t have the right kind of hand.
When playing these SPATS hands, you’ll automatically reduce the variance of the game, tighten up your play style and win more often. However, you should exercise extreme caution on the small blind since you haven’t committed much to the pot and this could put you in an unfavorable position. When it comes to defending your big blind, you’ll need to pay attention to the player who raised your big blind. If this seems like a confusing strategy, all you need to remember is to stick to SPATS on the blinds and the button (the last position to act.)
To better understand this strategy, think of holding a hand with any 10 and a queen; when a tight player raises you, you should then fold. When playing the perfect range, this doesn’t mean it’s compulsory to play hands that are within a good poker range, it just means that those are the hands that you’re allowed to play.
SPATS works very well because it’s unpredictable as you appear to be a player that’s playing tight, but if you raise with a suited one-gapper from a middle position and hit (to make a made hand,) nobody will expect it, which would be handy in Texas hold’em poker tournaments.
Hit the right stupidity vs. creativity balance
There are many live and online poker players that make terrible decisions during live poker tournaments and if you know what you’re looking for, you can easily capitalize on your opponent’s bad decisions. However, there’s a fine line between stupidity and creativity. For instance, a tight poker player is often viewed as the least creative, as they play premium poker hands and fold once they miss.
By selling yourself as the tightest player at the table, you’ll be able to get the jump on your opponents as they’re not expecting you to do anything creative. This will get other players to make reckless plays against you as they believe that they have you figured out. This has the potential to rack up a major bankroll in amateur online poker tournaments as players are none the wiser. This tip focuses on deception and will need a lot of practice before it’s mastered.
Focus on strategy talkers
When you sit down at a poker table, the person talking about their poker strategy or poker strategies, in general, is usually not a great player. The projection of their lack of skill is something that a good player would never do as anyone that understands the game wouldn’t give away their strategy.
Allow these players to make mistakes, and if you’re playing a low-stakes game it’s almost guaranteed that they’ll do just that. On the other hand, the quiet players are the ones that you’ll need to worry about, especially ones that look very comfortable while playing tight and aggressive.
Avoid tilt
Having a strong mentality in a poker game is what separates the good players from the mediocre ones. Having a mental edge will prevent you from spiraling into tilt mode: Remember it’s always best to remove yourself from the table when you’re not in a great frame of mind. Establishing a plan to remove yourself from the table is one of the best poker tournament tips we can provide, as this will help to prevent any major losses.
Go left when they go right
Playing a well-known good strategy and winning is great, but if you’re not okay with being known as a small-time winner, you may want to rethink your approach. By studying the game as an experienced player, you could come up with different ways to formulate a unique approach that could bring you lots of success. It’s not impossible to come up with your own strategy and stray from the beaten path to completely blindside the opposition.
Brush up on your poker skills with BetMGM
If you’re keen to play real poker online and practice your skills or test new strategies, then BetMGM has you covered with some of the best poker games and tournaments available. Register and explore a seemingly endless selection of the best casino and live casino games. Regardless of whether you’re an experienced player or a newcomer to online gaming, you’re guaranteed to find something that piques your interest.
