Choosing games that fit your skills

There are many different poker variations and countless structures in which to play them. As well, online tournaments have exploded over the last three years, and today there are slightly more tournament games than cash games online. This development was not expected just a few years ago.

Most rooms have, however, a standard range of games offered. These games are Texas hold'em, Omaha (both high and high-low), Seven-Card Stud (both high and high-low) and tournaments. The extra games offered at some poker rooms are usually Draw Poker, Five Card Stud or Razz.

By far, the most popular variation for cash games is fixed limit Texas Hold'em, closely followed by no-limit Texas Hold'em. Much fewer Texas Hold'em games are played in pot-limit style. Other games with decent volume in cash games are Omaha, mostly limit Omaha High-Low and pot-limit Omaha High. Next in popularity is limit Seven-Card Stud and its High-Low version. You will also find a few Five-Card Stud games at certain poker rooms. For more on specific strategies for each of these games, please click on poker game strategies. The classical Five-Card Draw Poker and Lowball were very popular in the eighties but are only played at a few sites today.

As a beginner, it is recommended that you start out with fixed limit Texas Hold'em. This is an easy game to learn the basics and, as mentioned before, it is the most popular form of poker today, where most beginners play. Almost all online poker rooms offer plenty of micro-stakes limit Texas Hold'em, where you can get lots of hours of play for around $30. The swings are also much lower at limit Texas Hold'em and a beginner with a small bank roll do not risk going broke due to some losses, unless they move up in limits.

Lower stakes fixed limit Texas Hold'em is well-suited for patient players with odds counting skills that play safe. By sticking to the standard starting hands and a basic strategy, you will do reasonably well. To succeed at higher stakes, you will need to read opponents more and be comfortable playing very aggressively.

No-limit Texas Hold'em cash games are not suitable for beginners to play other than at really low-stakes. No-limit Texas Hold'em benefits people with guts, aggressive style, and good sense for reading players. These are traits more experienced players display as they learn to bluff more. This is not an advice not to play no-limit Texas Hold'em, rather we are encouraging beginners to start out carefully and to take advantage of playing in some tournaments as well. To succeed at higher stakes, you will often need to be patient and cautious, play tricky, and take calculated chances to break your opponents (using implied odds).

Short-handed games with 6 or less players are trickier to play and require more skill. This is because the players are forced to participate in hands to not be blinded out. It requires a more aggressive style of play with more deception and bluffs. As a beginner, you should avoid these games. If you are a winning player who is good at reading opponents and comfortable playing aggressively, you might benefit from switching from full ring games to short-handed games.

Due to the fact that no-limit Texas Hold'em is the most popular form of tournament poker, participating in these events is a great way to go from fixed limit to no-limit play. In a tournament, you choose how much money you want to risk before you start playing, making this a low risk way of playing no-limit. To begin with, you can participate in the small $3 or $5 buy-in events. As well, most poker rooms offer free roll tournaments and there are many available online. For hourly updates of the free rolls, please use our poker free roll page. Be aware that tournaments are not like cash-games because of the increasing limits that eventually force players to act in tournaments. Cash games require a lot more patience and there is also less luck in cash games.

In tournaments, all players pay a buy-in plus a smaller fee to the poker room. The buy-ins are put into the prize pool. The prize pool is distributed to the top finishers in the tournament, with most money paid out for 1st place and subsequent prizes awarded in a descending order. (First place is often about 25% in big events and 50% in one table events.) In larger events, as few as 10% of entrants finish "in the money," meaning they receive a prize. For more details on tournament strategy, please read tournament strategy. The size of tournaments varies greatly ranging from heads-up matches to a field of several thousand players. All tournaments are common in the way that the stakes increase and they go on until only one player remains.

Tournaments enable you to win big on a small investment. For example, Greg Raymer, the winner of the main event at the WSOP 2004, won $5,000,000 on the $10,000 buy-in, which he in turn won at a cheap online satellite. Satellites are tournaments where the prize is an entry into a bigger tournament. They are a great way of gaining playing experience and come with the added bonus of having a shot at playing in a major tournament.

The skills needed to win different types of tournaments vary significantly. As a beginner, you often benefit from playing small, single table tournaments. (Playing fixed limit versions will often make it easier for you to compete.) These tournaments resemble the larger tournament but are much faster, they have an early stage with low blinds and a late stage with high blinds which is very good practice for final table play. As well, your accumulated mistakes will affect you less, since tournament structure is fast paced and you will not play many hands.

If you are looking to play a lot of poker for a little money, the big multi-table tournaments with low buy-ins like $5 or $10 are good. You will often be able to play for several hours and the competition is not too harsh because stronger players generally avoid these low limits. Remember to be patient early on, but switch it up several notches as the stakes grow bigger.

Poker tournaments can be won by as well as anyone who knows the rules. A very basic and rigid strategy will make you a winner at the lower limits. Typically, players do not adequately adapt to the size of the blinds and antes. This makes the average player play too many hands early on and then play too passively at later stages, when aggression would steal valuable blinds and antes. A very common beginner mistake is to bet too weak when making the first bet or raise. It is important to not allow players get in cheap and trap you when you have pocket aces or kings. If you are playing tournaments and have not read a poker book on tournament strategy, we very strongly recommend that you do so. Please see our Editor's pick for more information.

If you are a great tournament player, you should consider going up from single table tournaments to the biggest multi-table event you can find, as your skill factor and patience will pay higher dividends at such events. However, to make a good hourly profit, you might need to play many simultaneous events to compensate for the length of these large events.

In general, great cash game players will financially outperform great tournament players, as the cash games stakes-per-time-unit are relatively higher. The style of play differs so markedly between cash games and tournaments, this makes tournament specialists often time lose to cash game players. Several world-class tournament players actually have a terrible cash game track record.