This trick is very popular and used by a good many people playing online poker. By checking your list often, you can see when some of them are logging to play the game. You won’t be able to see exactly where they are seated (at what table), you can still find them if you manually search the tables for them. This might take a while, as there could be a number of tables, but in the end it will be well worth it. This trick is best used if you want to add maniacs to your buddy poker list. These guys can make a table much more suitable to your style of play. If you have a poker maniac at the table, there could be some very serious pots there.
Tip #2 Refresh your table listings by clicking between the games
This trick works best for the “Sit and Go” (SnG) single table tournaments, which are known to be pretty quick to fill up. How many times have you see a message stating something like: “waiting for 4 players” as the status of the specific table, but when you actually clicked on the game, it has already started? The thing that makes the big problem here is that a lot of online poker sites don’t have high enough refresh rates.
Tip #3 Keep notes on your opponents
This is very important. You always need to pay attention on how the other people around you are playing. Are they aggressive? Do they like to bluff? Do they fold easily? In online poker, players are coming and going all the time, but since most of them come back tomorrow or even later in the day, these notes can help you when you have to play against these opponents again. It’s a lot of info to be gathered here, but here is some of it: aggressive or passive; loose or tight…
You should know when you are beaten and when to pack up and leave the table. Luck will not always be at your side and pushing it will not make it any less interested in you. It’s okay to leave the table if you are outplayed or just plain unlucky. Chasing after the guy that rivered you for the tenth time in the game will accomplish nothing but him beating you the eleventh time.
Tip #3 Buy-in more than you need at the table
If you’ve been paying attention, then you should know by know that you should always sit in at the table where there is at least 20 times the big blind at any table. When it comes to online poker, you should even make that 30 or 40 times the big blind. Some people like to sit with 100 times BB. Why would you do this in the first place? Because you never want to be in the position of fearing that you won’t have the money for raising the pot.