Strategy Synopsis

The following is my summary of the Sixhanded strategy to make money playing poker online. I have taken liberties with parts of it, so I'd still recommend reading his site for the proper details. I'm going to stick with this for a while anyway, at least until I'm more confident.

First of all - opening hands ranked: (Most of these abbreviations should be obvious, 'T' is 10, 's' means Suited, and 'o' means off-suit, 'Pic' is any picture card) (Took this from a table on Wikipedia)

1. AA KK QQ JJ AKs
2. AQs AJs KQs TT AKo
3. ATs KJs QJs JTs AQo 99
4. PicTs 88 KQo AJo or 8+ Suited Connectors (This means at least an 8 and one of the next 2 highest cards of the same suit i.e. 89s 8Ts 9Ts 9Js ... but NOT 8Js 9Qs)

Secondly - Early in the game FOLD EVERYTHING except the hands in group 1. Let the other players take money off each other, knowing that a good hand will come, and when it does you can afford to make some decent money off it.
If you are late on the table (say dealer position), then it's OK to bet on the group 2 hands if everyone else has folded into you or just flat called the blinds. This is called "having late position".

If one of your hands comes up, bet 3xBB. This is your standard bet, never vary it - you'll only be giving people a read on what you have. If everyone else folds - this is a perfect result ... it means you can continue to fold for the next orbit and your blinds have been paid for.

If someone else re-raises you, FOLD, unless you have one of the group 1 hands. In this case, I'd probably re-re-raise with AA or KK, if necessary go all-in, you're huge favourite with this. With the other 4, it's up to you whether to see or fold (if you can afford it to see the flop). But if you miss the flop and it gives opportunities for better hands, assume he has them and don't be afraid to fold.
If you hit the flop, (i.e. it improves your hand), then BET - especially if he checks into you. At least a 1/2 pot bet if you can afford it. If you go out, then it's because he needed a LOT of luck - and so you can rest easy knowing you gave yourself every chance.

If you get called on your pre-flop bet, then it's similar to above. If the flop improves your hand, or at least doesn't make it any worse (i.e. you have QQ and a K comes out), then bet at least 1/2 pot. If he re-raises you, and there is possibly something that could beat you, don't be afraid to fold. Never assume someone is bluffing, even if you know they are, they'll try it once too often and you'll still be in the running. Obviously, to add to this NEVER BLUFF yourself, it's not worth it, you'll do plenty well following this strategy.

In the middle of the game (3-4 left in a 6-man game, or 2 hours into a tournament), you can afford to loosen your criteria a little. Because you've been so cautious in the beginning, others will respect your 3xBB bets, and they'll be afraid to lose this close to the money. You can allow yourself to bet on groups 1 and 2, and sometimes 3 when you have late position to steal the blinds. As the game goes on, you can use your judgement to play with group 4 hands in late position - maybe just calling to see the flop with them - unless things are getting desperate though, I wouldn't bother (like if you only have 8 or less BBs in your stack).

Once you get to heads up, everything changes. Here you will only play if you have ANY PAIR, or an Ace with a suited smaller card, or decent other card. For anything else, FOLD (unless you are allowed to see the flop for free obviously). Realistically, you should be willing to go all-in with any of these hands - the odds should be in your favour, and you have to be unlucky to lose. If the opponent is cagey, and you have a really good hand (TT+), you can try to suck him in with a 3xBB bet before going all-in, just to milk it if he still folds. [This is probably too tight, possibly it's OK to continue 3xBB betting on decent hands as above]

These aren't hard and fast rules - stick with them rigidly at first, but as you get a feel for the game, feel free to loosen up and try different things. Sticking with this means you should get money in a 6-man game about 70% of the time. It's not easy though, it takes a lot of patience to fold what you believe is the best hand, but it's worth it in the long run. This strategy works best if it's not a Turbo or shortstack game, you need to have time to allow the good hands to come to you.

Make a new plan, Stan

I started playing Texas Hold'em about 8 years ago, just after starting college. For me, it's far superior to 5 card stud for a number of reasons - but mostly because the element of luck is vastly reduced, so it is much more a game of skill. Skill to understand the value of your cards; to be able to read the board; to be able to read the opponents; and to know how to apply all this to get maximum return for your cards. There is still luck involved of course, but the point is that you should try to rely on that luck as little as possible.

I didn't realise this for years of course. In my head, you took the cards you were given, tried to see as many flops as possible, hang in the pot for every draw - and hope like hell that no-one else has anything better. This isn't a very profitable way to play, and so luckily I was only very rarely playing for money. Lots of games were had with my equally poor college mates, where we were playing for chips only. You might think that that would be damaging to a poker player - having no respect for the chips since they're worth nothing - but I can be very competitive, and so I hated even losing here.

Over time I developed a bit of a sense of the worth of a hand - or more appropriately the lack of worth of the majority of hands. This led to a lot more pre-flop folds, and a lot more wins. I even picked up a few quid in friendly games with my mates and family. It never occurred to me to try playing poker online - frankly the idea scared me. You hear so many stories of people with gambling addictions losing everything, so I was surprised to hear that a friend of mine had been playing online a while, and was doing quite well. And I knew for a fact that I was a better player than him the majority of the time.

So I signed up for an account and gave it a go, and placed in my first game to make a $9 profit. "Ain't this easy", thought I. Obviously, I lost this profit pretty quickly. I was all flushed with success, and kept making silly bets. After about 12 games over the course of 2 weeks I was only really treading water - so I decided it was time to actually have a strategy.

I looked around online, but didn't find anything I really liked at first. Mostly the poker tips sites were just full of so much jargon that it was pointless trying to understand a bit of it. Eventually though I found SixHanded. This site explained in fairly simple terms how to profit from playing a tight aggressive strategy. I gave it a shot, and placed 2nd and got my first 1st in the next few games.

Not that it's easy - far from it in fact. But it does give a great chance to make the money more than half the time, and you should be getting more 1sts than 2nds after making the final 2. I'll post another entry with my synopsis of the scheme, but I'd recommend reading through his site for all the proper details.