What Winning Texas Hold'em Should Be About
by Tom Hanson

Contrary to what most rookies might think, beating Texas Holdem online is not an easy feat to accomplish. Being a game of small edges and of high luck-induced variance, it's not easy to beat even if someone is playing at a table full off fish.

On top of the fact that in Texas Holdem a rookie will stand a 40-60 chance against a seasoned player, a phenomenon called "schooling" also comes into play. Schooling's basically about the weaker players ganging up on better ones to make their lives miserable.

If you're looking for a game where rookies don't really stand a chance against good players, Omaha might be the game for you. As far as Texas Holdem goes, you can try to outmaneuver your opponents somehow.

Since the only advantage a lucky rookie will get over you is a short-term one, you might want to take the game onto a field where short term advantages do not matter that much. That is exactly why you should play STTs or SNGs. These games are short enough to be worth the time you invest in them, yet they are long enough to kill rookies. Another advantage they have, is the fact that there are only a limited number of players in them (compared to MTTs, which sometimes gather thousands of players) so your chances for victory do not take a serious blow.

Ring games are extremely tricky to beat for good players for other reasons than the ones named above, too.

As I said, the luck factor comes in big in Texas Holdem ring games. Dealing with this luck factor is an issue sometimes not even the best players come prepared for. Good players know, of course, that in order to win at Holdem they need to be on their best game and pray that it is enough to be better than the others and to beat the rake (those who really know their game, have other ways to beat the rake too, like rakeback.

They are aware of the fact that it takes only about a 55-45 edge to be a long-term winner, and as long as they keep pushing that edge by staying on their best games, they should be OK.

This is where the luck factor comes in. It sometimes so happens that our good player experiences a bad-luck streak. Even though he's playing his best, nothing really seems to work out for him.

You should know that even though they push that small edge of theirs, winning Texas Holdem players will still lose about 65-70% of the time. The only thing is, that they lose less than they win in the remaining 30% of cases and they manage to beat the rake too.

Now then, losing 65-70% of the time may not seem like a glamorous way to make money, but when it becomes 90%, the situation becomes downright unbearable.

These are usually the things that push our good player over the edge and send him tilting.

He fails to grasp the idea, that even though he's losing 90% right now, in the future that will go down to about 40% or even less - provided he can stay on his best game and push his edges well.

Instead, our guy decides to compensate for the losses by becoming a 45-55 underdog and playing a bunch of hands like that. Obviously, this is not the way to make money. This is why it's extremely important that you stay in control of your emotions all the time.

Online poker is particularly good at taking you out of your emotional comfort-zone. Learn to control your emotions and learn to deal with the luck factor. It is there, and it won't go away just because you get angry with it.