Strong online poker players will know how to hide information well especially when they take a particular betting line in hand. They always keep you guessing. The trick against these players is to hide your information well but many players fail to hide valuable information and end up giving their hands away before the final bet.
Here are three ways you give your poker hand away:
You don’t slow play good hands
Say on the turn, the board reads Jack of spades, 8 of diamonds, 5 of spades and 9 of diamonds and imagine you’re holding two pair or a set. If you are like most online poker players, you aren’t going to slow play one of these hands on this board. If you’re checked to, you are going to bet but if bet into, you’re most likely to raise.
We’re not saying you should slow play each time on dangerous boards but you should also be willing to consider it but if you never slow play, you’re providing other players with vital information.
You don’t check-raise bluff the river
Most poker players regularly never check-raise bluff the river. They are concerned that if they check, their opponent will check it back and they will lose. If they take a chance to bluff, most players want to get the bluff in straight away when they know they have a good shot.
The same logic applies to value hands so river check-raises tend to be quite rare overall. You should start check-raise bluffing the river.
You don’t make large bluffs
Bluff big depending on the situation. Sometimes you might fold the best hands, other times you might miss bluffs where you would have folded but you need to realise that other poker players might be able to pick up on your patterns while you’re giving information away. Games will get tougher and players will be able to pick up on and use this data to beat you.