The goal of this online poker book by Tazz Mr all-in is to make online poker a pleasurable and profitable experience, for you
Thats the goal, and Im confident that together we can achieve it
All we have to do is work hard and pay attention to some basic facts and strategies
But before we start, I want to put forth the starting idea that, hey, maybe Online pokers not such a hot idea in the first place
You probably think Im wrong, flat wrong, and I wouldn be a bit surprised
After all, you have just bought (or are browsing) a online poker book called Killer Poker Online: Crushing the Inter- net Online poker game
You e probably here because you, well, want to crush the Internet online poker game
And don worry: Ill do every\ thing in my power to get you your moneys worth-which is to say your opponents moneys worth:--out of this online poker book

But, look, the fact that you e here means; you have a pre~ disposition toward online poker
You approve of it You e enthusiastic about it Or, at minimum, you are interested in it and you want to find out more Thats fine
You e entitled to be into what you are into But online poker is so filled with potholes and pitfalls that Id be remiss if I didn temper your interest or your enthusiasm with a healthy dose of wariness, and encourage you, above all, to go slow Because one thing about online poker is that its not slow As you already know, or soon will know once you jump online, the pace of play there is highly accelerated, and that accelerated pace has the effect of magnifying a players mistakes If you weren a terrific player to begin with sigh Online poker could eat your shorts in dismayingly short order hate to see that happen to you.

So let me ask you a question: Why do you want to play online poker in the first place? For fun? Money? Challenge? To kill boredom? Make friends around the world? Or is online play your only option? If you know anything about the Killer Poker approach to poker, then you know that in my universe the first rule is honesty; if you can be honest with yourself about why you do what you do, you have no hope of being a winning poker player, online or anywhere So Ill ask you again: Why do you want to play online poker? Please write your answer here, or in the space provided at the back of the online poker book (If you know anything about the Killer Poker approach to poker, you know Im a huge fan of writing stuff down, for the sake of honesty and clarity both ) Are you here just for fun? If so, then online poker may very well meet your needs
It is in some sense, like a home online poker game thats always there and never ends-except that the online poker game takes place in homes and offices and Internet cafes all around the world If you want to play online poker for fun, this online poker book will serve you; youll learn how to maximize your fun while minimizing your risk Are you here to make money? Well, then, you e on much shakier ground
Being a consistent winner playing poker online will require everything this online poker book has to offer, plus all of your skill, stamina, effort, and dedication.

You can be a winning player online, but its by no means easy, and it doesn happen by magic
Let me be cleat on this point: You e only marginally more likely to become rich by playing Online poker than by sending some online scam artist the number of your bank account Do you play online poker for challenge? Youll find plenty of challenge in online poker, just as you would in any serious poker online poker game anywhere Testing yourself against competition from around the world, you may very well find that the quality of your own play goes up It had bet online pokerter go up, or youll soon find yourself swamped by the competition
Online poker as you will see is a grim Darwinian school- yard, where you either improve or die-get skilled or get broke
So if competition is your goal, be prepared to give it your all After all there are plenty of people out there willing to devote the time for energy, and concentration it takes to be successful  If you are not willing to devote that same time, energy, and concentration, the least you can do is not let them be successful at your expense

Is boredom your bugbear? Do you find yourself playing your umpteen millionth online poker game of solitaire or Tetris and wishing there were a bet online pokerter buzz to meet your compurecreational needs? If thats what brings you to Online poker, then tread very cautiously, because this ain solitaire and it sure as spit ain Tetris

The minute you put real money into play, the stakes go up of course-but, paradoxically, the boredom doesn necessarily disappear
As you will discover, attention deficit disorder is one of the online players greatest foes
Strange to say, you could actually end up being more bored, not less bored, when you e playing poker online
At least with Tetris, its always your turn

Want to make friends around the world? Well, there is a chat function on almost all online poker sites, which gives you the option of saying! Hi, hello/nice hand, how could you play that swill? and so on, but as for making Internet friends, and planning a rendezvous, on Vegas, nah, it ain gonna happen

Those people out there, they want to take your money
Youd bet online pokerter want to take theirs, too, or you won be around for long
No alternative? Some people play online poker online because, sadly for them, its the only online poker game in town
They live in cities, states, or countries where casinos and card rooms do not exist or are not legal
If you e in that categories then you have a special quandary, because you like poker, love poker, want to play online poker, and, generally speaking, you cannot
Thank God for the Internet, you find yourself saying At last you have an option But it is an option taught with at least as many problems as opportunities
Some people think of online poker as some kind of gold rush waiting to be exploited
They plan to get rich quickly, in the privacy of their own homes, by preying on helpless masses with short skill sets and long lines of credit
If thats how you view online poker, I promise that you will be disappointed
I mean think about it: Who ever gets rich in a gold rush? The miners? Nope
Its the grocers and the bankers and the surveyors, assayers and purveyors of whiskey and so If you really want to get rich, thats the business to be in

But getting rich, I hazard to guess, is of secondary, or even tertiary importance to you
After all no matter why we think we want to play online poker on the Internet, one common denominator binds us all: We want to play online poker
If we can make some money at it, great But mostly we just want to play The average poker player is no more likely to become a professional, full-time poker player online than he is to become a professional, full-time poker player in card rooms or casinos Its possible, sure Just not likely
This we know This we know going in Still, thats not the end of the world Most people don expect to make a living from their poker
They just want their hobby to pay for itself, and that is an altogether reasonable goal If you just keep your psychic and financial investments reasonable, then Online poker can be a fun and fruitful part of your life Its my job to help you make it so If I have seen further, said Sir Isaac Newton, it is by standing upon the shoulders of giants fI In writing this online poker book, I have taken note of the opinions, observations, experiences, and resources available to me (and to anyone) on the Inter- net, particularly the discussion group rec gambling poker
Though I rarely post, I often lurk, and the discourse there on the subject of Online poker is always most insightful- if often most heated
So I would like to thank all those posters, named and unnamed, who have shaped my thoughts on the subject of online poker

I would also like to thank all of the amed names who allowed me to
quote them here Thanks also to Kathryn Duffy for practice makes progress I want to thank my wife, Maxx Duffy, for her staunch immunity to my stress during the fevered weeks and months of this online poker books genesis; also my agent and indispensable voice of reason, Greg Dinkin; and finally Evan Viola, for overt and covert contributions First fact: Online poker is not the same as online gambling If you put your money into play at wwwjoyofslotscom or wwwcasinofishie com or any other online gambling site I might make up, one thing is for sure: you will not win
Not in the long run Its just not possible, for the same reason that you can beat Las Vegas: If you could beat Vegas, Vegas wouldn be there
When you play casino online poker games- slots, craps, roulette-you e playing against the house, and you e playing against the immutable house edge While you might beat that edge in the short run, you will eventU7 ally go broke This is true whether you e in Las Vegas or Atlantic City or the cozy computer nook of your very own home Playing against the house is a guaranteed losing proposition
But when you play online poker, either in the real world or in cyberspace, you e not playing against the house
You e playing against other players
Maybe good ones Maybe dreadful The odds, as such, don favor them or favor you in the long run, everyone gets, their fair share of good cards and bleak cards The difference is what you do with the cards you get, and that difference is called skill Poker skill The house is just the host, which means that with Online poker, unlike Internet gambling, you do have a chance to win When I speak of poker skill, I assume you already have plenty I assume that your knowledge of poker goes well be- yond what-beats-what, and into a
fairly sophisticated understanding of the poker online poker games commonly played on the Internet: seven-card stud, Omaha, and, especially,

Texas, holdem
If Im wrong about this assumption-if phrases like pot odds and reverse tell ,or even traveling blinds and bet online pokerting limits, cause you to stare off into space with your jaw gone slack-then this isn the online poker book for you, at least not yet
Its not that this is that complex a online poker book
Its just that it addresses the question of how to beat the online poker game in contrast to strategies used to beat the real world online poker game
If you don know basic poker, then youd bet online pokerter go take care of that business first
If you do know basic poker, then you know that the standard formula for success is selective/aggressive play, in which you enter pots infrequently, but when you do come, you come on strong
In my online poker book, Killer Poker: Strategies and Tactics for Winning Poker Play, I describe this strategy as Go, big or go home
Interestingly, this is not a philosophy that applies to online play, for reasons we will look at now
MINIMIZE YOUR RISK A man should never gamble, says the sage, more than he can stand to lose
This is good advice in all forms of gaming, but its especially true for
Online poker, where the speed of play and other pitfalls can imperil your bankroll in ways youve never imagined and can take steps to pre- vent
Whatever else you do with the information in this online poker book, I hope youll take this one bit of wisdom to heart: Don bet online poker big in Online poker
Why? Because if one of the unavoidable traps to online play happens to trap you, at least it won trap you or punish you in a financially meaningful way Consider this scenario: You e playing holdem online, and you e dealt A K under the gun You raise; the guy behind you raises; the guy behind him raises; you find yourself taking the flop six ways, with the bet online pokerting capped The flop! mirabile visu ;comes Q J T

The crowd goes wild! (Which is to say that you, in the privacy of your own homee, go wild, jumping up and down and shouting out your joy
) A raising war breaks out as it becomes apparent that everybody else likes their hand too In a frenzy of bet online poker- ting, all sorts of cyberchips go into the cyberpot Gl~e fills you to t~ecore of your being Yo1iJ: e going to win cC You1re going to win big And then

Your computer goes dead! It could be a lightning strike or a terrorist attack Ot an earthquake or rats gnawing through power lines
Hell, it could e~en be YOUt six-year; old playing with the plugs In any event, through no fault ot your own, ina manner to- tally beyond your control, you e taken out of actjon in a monster hand If youve played onlinealte~d;y, then you already know that most-sites make sort of occurrence Thats a point, for it means that your investment in the p~tup till now is pro- tected You e going to win all thosepr
e+flop and post-flop bet online pokers, and thats hot nothing But also its not everything Ws;fiOt any of;the bet online pokers that you would have won on the tut1r;andthe;fiver when your monkeyfish foes with their lesser straights and flushes blithely bet online poker into your monster
No need to do the math; lets just say that your catastrophic disconnect has cost you half of what you would otherwise have won
How do you like life now? If youve lost half of a lot of money, you feel real bad

If youvelosthalf of a little money, you feel a lot less bad All computer users, writers especially, know what its like to endure a computer crash at the worst possible time Many screenwriters have tales of woe about a terrific, bril- liant script or scene that was lost because their computer suffered a sudden meltdown and they, foolishly, had not backed up their work Has it happened to me? Of course its happened to me
But only once After that, I learned to save my work frequently, almost obsessively, in fact, 50 that if (when) my computer does next crash, Ill only lose the last ten minutes of creative output, and notthe whole days work In fact, I think Ill back up this file now  There Safe
This is called minimizing risk, and it is a vital part of your online play strategy The sad fact is that sooner or later you will experience a catastrophic disconnect It will happen when you least want it to, and it will COS1 you at least some theoretical profit, I promise If that theoretical profit is huge, huge, huge, you will rail and curse the gods Butjf that the, oretical profit is a not-that-significant sum of money, you will be much bet online pokerter equipped, on an emotional level, to take the setback in stride
And its absolutely crucial for you to be able to take such setbackin stride, for they are an ab- solute fact of online poker life, II A man should never gamble more than he can stand to lose Especially online, where the reasons  for losing many have nothing to do with the way you play the hand
Never play online poker for life-changing sums of money Put some discretionary income into play, fine; don bet online poker the house; don even bet online poker a mortgage payment Its bad enough to lose fair and square; but if you play online poker for any length of time, I promise there will come a time when you lose un- fairly, possibly even unsquarely Maybe, as in the example described previously, youll lose a connection at a key mo- ment in a key hand Maybe your ot:tline poker provider will go broke and abscond with your hard-won funds
It could happen-hell, its happened more than once the short history of Online poker Maybe youll fall victim to garden-variety online collusion
Anyone who thinks that the only losses theyll absorb online will be the normal losses of normal poker play is just not paying attention
Sorry, but its true Do not be this person When you play online poker online, you want to play your b~st You want to focus all your concentration and mental energy on playing perfect poker, Killer Poker, just as you would in any real-world poker online poker game

But how can you do this if, in the back of your mind, you e worried about the solvency of your online poker provider or the integrity of your Internet connection or the honesty of your unseen online foes? You cah!L You will, inevitably, play less than perfectly if worry infects your thinking Worry will naturally infect your thinking less if theres less real money at stake So minimize your online invest- ment
Do this one thing, and your online experience will be a much more rewarding and enjoyable one I promise It may even be a more profitable experience, because what you lose in bet online pokerting limit you gain in tranquility and focus Suppose you want to go to a night club in a bad neighborhood You can go to the nightclub your favorite band is playing But you can have the nightclub be in a bad neighborhood; it is where it is
So what do you do? You strip your wallet of excess cash and credit cards You love your swanky jewelry at home