Everybody now realizes how popular poker has become in the last few years. One interested in starting to play the game for money may wonder what his chances are at winning any money with so many players getting started daily. The truth is if you aren’t an educated player your chances aren’t very good at all. If you are a beginner I’m sure this isn’t what you were hoping to hear, but relax! I’m here to help. A great way to improve your skills is by playing as often as possible on the internet. Even with the silly ban on internet gambling there are still many sites that offer real money play for U.S. citizens. With that said I will tell you my favorite is Ultimate Bet. For referral use miketsp00. There are a lot of places to play though. It depends on your preferences.So how do you play against these opponents when you can’t see their poker face? The answer is very carefully. Most experts will tell you in a live casino the key to winning often is to be aggressive. That holds true in online poker as well to a certain degree. However on the internet it is much more difficult to pickup tells on your opponents. It seems at times everybody who you play against online is overly aggressive. This is what you need to exploit. It’s important to pay attention the the other players every move even after you have folded. At the same time you need to convery your own table image carefully. For the first 15-20 hands you want to play only premium starting hands. I’d start with nothing less than J 10 suited or better. This way as you are getting a feel for the other players you won’t be getting yourself into many hairy situations. You will know when you are in a hand that you are strong and you can relax a bit. As you start to take down a few pots showing only premium cards you can now begin to loosen up your play a little. Remember table image. All these players see you as a “tight player” because you haven’t been involved often, and when you have been you’ve shown the nuts! So you can now begging to raise some smaller pairs and 8 9 suited etc. in mid to late position. Most of the time they will fold and you can pickup the blinds. At the same time if they call you may think they are very strong because they all know you as a conservative player. They aren’t going to call or raise you without a premium hand of their own unless they are just maniacs. In which case you would already know this from information you’ve gathered in the previous hands. It’s not difficult to identify the donkeys online.A quick note about starting to play more aggressive… I recommend raising with hands such as 3 5 or 5 7 suited in late position if nobody has raised ahead of you. You will only be competing with the blinds and they will likely fold. If they don’t your hand has many killer possibilities though. Say the flop comes Ace hearts,2hearts, 4spades and you had 3 5 of hearts. You’ve already made a straight. You also have a flush draw and a STRAIGHT FLUSH DRAW! If your opponent has an ace they are likely to call any bet you make in this situation. They will never put you on such low cards because of your preflop raise. There is a great chance you will take them for all their chips if it’s a tournament or their money if it’s a cash game! This is called “low ball poker”.I hope this article was helpful for everyone!