Having a poker nickname is important for one simple reason - table image. When people refer to you by your nickname it tells other people that you’re an experienced player that has been around for a long time. You don’t get a nickname that sticks when you’re a novice player. It tells everyone around that you know what’s going on at a poker table, and opponents should think twice before messing with you.

Having a nickname will also help you promote yourself. Players with nicknames seem to get more press than other players. The nickname offers a little more into the personality of the player, and sometimes even into the style of play that person may employ.

Besides, having a nickname is cool. If you’re lucky enough to be given one by an established player it can only help you and your table image. Even bad ones get noticed and remembered.

Does the perfect Texas Hold’em strategy exist? I guess it does, but only to a degree. There’s no such thing as a strategy that will make you a winner every time you play. There’s too much luck involved in poker to make someone a consistently dominant force on the poker tables. If you play poker with any seriousness, you know that you can do everything right in this game and still lose.

The perfect strategy in Texas holdem takes years to learn. It’s a personal journey that one gains with experience; along with the help of whatever one can learn in poker strategy books along the way. The best strategy is being able to recognize how every opponent plays, and then being able to adjust your game to beat them at what their habitual weaknesses. That strategy can be studied, but will take tens of thousands of hands to learn to execute.

Everyone knows the golden rule of life is “treat others as you would like to be treated.” However, that doesn’t really fit in poker. If you treated the other players at the table the way you wanted them to treat you, then you would be dumping your chips to them throughout the entire game.

If you do a quick Internet search of poker and the golden rule you’ll find some very different definitions then the one cited above. You’ll find rules that tell you to maximize the pots you win and minimize the size of pots you lose; always use pot odds when deciding whether to call or not; know your fellow players and adjust your play accordingly; and so on. Unfortunately there’s no one “golden rule” of poker that will make you a winning player overnight. But there is a list of “golden rules” to follow at the table that will keep you afloat while you improve your game.

Analyze the weaknesses in your game and develop your own list of customized golden rules; follow them and take your next step toward playing winning poker.

1. Never draw to low end, or sucker end, of a straight. You’ll get the card you want only to be beat by a bigger straight. Draw to nut straights only, if you’re getting proper odds.

2. Play more aggressive when you have position on your opponents. Being last to go gives you an edge against everyone else; take advantage of this and win free chips.

3. Don’t call a raise in the big blind just because you have something invested. Your position is poor and you’re most likely up against a good hand that has a higher winning percentage.

4. Make large bets when you think you have the lead. Don’t let your opponents draw cheaply on you. Bet half the size of the pot so draw hands will be making a mistake to call.

5. Read hold’em books and document your play. Organization will make you a winner.

1. Learn patience – learn to play calm and not through emotion. You have to learn to face adversity and bad luck and still continue to play to the best of your abilities.

2. Learn to trap – read and practice the skill of trapping aggressive opponents into dumping chips to you. Slow play big hands and let over-aggressive players bet large sums into you.

3. Learn which game is best for you – learn the appropriate size of game your bankroll can support, and when you’re at a game that’s hard to beat. Be diligent about finding a beatable game.

4. Learn positional play – learn how to use position to your advantage, and to help you make decisions about opponent’s actions.

5. Learn to put opponents on hands – practice the skill of guessing your opponent’s hands through betting patterns and physical gestures. Remember how players play certain hands so you can recognize it later.

For no-limit limit holdem the most important skills a player can have are patience and hand-reading abilities. Having patience includes good starting-hand selection, as well as waiting for trapping situations and the nut hand. It also includes having the sense to fold second-best hand when certain players make large bets. A patient player always plays in the proper-sized game for their bankroll, and they don’t tilt out when they experience a run of bad luck.

Having the ability to read hands includes using betting patterns and memory to guesstimate what an opponent might be holding. It means that certain actions from certain players will point to them holding certain cards. This ability comes with experience and continues to improve the longer one plays the game.

If you can train your abilities in those two skills, you should have success in today’s over-aggressive no-limit holdem tables.

1. Drawing to the low end of a straight. If your card comes, you’re still easily beat.
2. Letting your emotions get the best of you. Stay calm or leave the game.
3. Raising with the second-best hand. Sometimes it’s wiser to call than raise.
4. Playing too many hands in poor positions. The worse your position, the better your hand must be.
5. Calling too much. Poker is about folding and betting, calls should be rare.
6. Staying in a game that you can’t beat. Don’t take it personal, find a better game.
7. Chasing draws when the bet is too big. Keep your drawing odds in your favour.
8. Playing outside your level. Play in a game where you have 200 times the big blind.
9. Bluffing at multi-player pots. It’s not a high percentage move with three or more players.
10. Playing tight at a short table. Get aggressive at a short table.

If you’re concerned about cheating in poker, especially online, the only realistic type of cheating that does go on is collusion. It’s not as common as it was before, but on a rare occasion I still run across some idiots that think they can get ahead by playing together and sharing info.

It’s done by two or more players all playing at the same table and communicating with each other via telephone or something like MSN. They know each other’s hands and try and force players out of hands by raising and re-raising each other, then one of them folds on the river once they’re head to head.

Unnoticed it can make a small amount of profit in the correct setting. It doesn’t take long to recognize when you’re in a situation where this is going on, and most sites can recognize this behavior once it’s pointed out to them through hand histories.

Deciding when to bet in Hold’em is dependent on the situation in which you find yourself. If you’re playing at a table where the players are calling down to the river often, betting should be done only with a hand you feel is in the lead. This situation is not good for bluffing.

If you’re at a table full of tight-style players who can be pushed off of pots easily, it’s a good idea to bet at any flop that doesn’t have an Ace or King in it. Tight players play big cards, and when the flop has none in it you can pick it up by betting into it.

Another good time to bet is when the flop has a pair or three to a straight or flush. Betting into these flops will scare off everyone except the opponent that may have the big hand. Then you can get away from it if you get called.

A proper pre-flop strategy is dependent upon the type of game you’re in. If the game is loose affair, then a tight pre-flop strategy is your best approach. Waiting for big hands in a game that has action almost every hand will make you money. When you get dealt big hands, cash in on your big pairs and “big slick” hands by raising and re-raising the overly aggressive players who are trying bully the rest of the table.

If the game is tight and all the players are waiting for good cards to enter a hand, an aggressive pre-flop strategy will serve you best. Raise the blinds when you’re in the later positions, and get out of hands you’re in when you get raised or re-raised by one of the tight players.

Steal as many pots as you can and control the game by isolating players. Once you have them isolated your chances of winning improve.