Playing Weak Poker Opponents

As crazy as it may sound, one of the biggest difficulties faced when playing online poker is weak opponents - players with less understanding of the intricacies of Texas Hold'em. You need to know how to play online poker against weak opponents to avoid being dragged down to their level and receiving some big and somewhat frustrating beats at the virtual felt.

You must always keep in mind that less-experienced online poker players - of which there are many - especially at lower stakes games, won't understand the deeper levels to your play. This means that they may well fail to see you bluff or they will see flop after flop with almost any two cards. As weaker opponents don’t understand Texas Hold'em in as much depth as stronger players they will quite often fail to see, let alone be drawn into, advanced strategies.

To make the most and lose the least when facing less-experienced online poker players, don't over complicate things.

Your best way to play hands of Texas Hold'em against weaker opponents is to play strong power-poker. Lesser experienced players won't understand your fancy check raises, so don't waste chips or opportunities using them - simply play to the strength of your hand.

A good way to identify if a weaker opponent has nothing is if they check after the flop and the turn. Weak players will only bet if they have a hand, it only needs to be bottom pair with a flush draw but if they have no hand they will generally only check. Weak players like to see loads of action too. They want to see flop after flop, more often than not with cards that are mediocre at best. If you’re a stronger and more experienced online poker player you understand that if you don’t have the cards you don’t play. But it’s often not that much fun for the impatient weaker players to just sit waiting for their next cards when what they should be doing is paying absolute attention to detail regarding the other players betting and play. Wait for your moment and don’t get drawn into the weaker opponent’s quest for excitement.

As a final thought it may also be worth pointing out that even if an online poker player is absolutely terrible at the game, the cards don’t know that. You must always respect the fact that even the worst players in the game hit killer flops, more often than not in fact due to their thirst to see some action and their willingness to pay to see them.