There’s an old saying about how long it takes to master a sport or activity. The number being thrown about is roughly 2,000 training hours. Now Texas Holdem is no different, you need to play a lot, read a lot and watch a lot of holdem to increase your skill level. However, what used to take 2,000 hours of live play can now be accomplished in a fraction of the time thanks to the internet. Don’t believe me? Continue reading to learn how.
How many hands do you think you’ll see in the course of an hour at a brick and mortar card room? Maybe 20 if you’re lucky. Now how many hands do you think you can see in that same hour playing online in the comfort of your own home? Over 120 in that same hour, per table. That’s right you can play multiple tables online at the same time, although I caution players against joining too many tables at once as you’ll spend less time learning and more time trying to remember which table you’re supposed to click a button on. Let’s just say you are comfortable playing two tables. That’s 240 hands per hour that you’re seeing. You also won’t be that stressed out over when you’re supposed to act as you can fold at one table and play the other. You’re playing 12 times as many hands per hour now as you would have before the internet poker boom. The best part of all, is you can play without risking a dime.
Granted you won’t be picking up on any of those “tells” Hollywood keeps telling you about through their storytelling in television and movies, but guess what, those kind of tells don’t exist! A tell is really an action a player makes depending on their hand strength, typically in the form of a bet. Different tells include but are not limited to: the speed of their betting, although this is negated for players on multiple tables, the size of their bet, and the number of hands that individual plays per hour. If they play a lot of hands you’ll pick up on their patterns much quicker. Yes, that’s right a tell is really just picking up on their betting patterns.
Let’s think about live tells for a second. If a person is shaking does that mean they’re bluffing? Not necessarily. Does that mean they’re strong? Again, not necessarily. This particular author shakes when he’s playing live due to the increased flow of tobacco, caffeine, and adrenaline through the body. Just because I’m shaking doesn’t mean I’m weak, and many have thought that to be a tell that has rewarded me several times over.
The more you watch online opponents, the more you’ll pick up on patterns and hand selection. The better you can peg a player’s range aka hands they play, the more likely you are to either avoid a big loss or pick up a big hand. You can analyze betting patterns in any game, even on Zynga (Facebook) poker. Just because they’re playing for free doesn’t mean they don’t know how to play! They’re spending time playing the game, picking up on new strategies to apply towards their game and they’re learning at a fast pace. The more you play online, the more time you shave off that estimated 2,000 hours.
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