Getting rich playing poker online or in the casinos is almost an art form or science that can be mastered by those who have a real appreciation for the game and its intricacies’.

It’s been often said, “to win at playing poker it’s not so much the cards as it is getting inside the mind of your opponents”. Now you don’t have to be a psychologist but at end of the day it’s knowing how to read other poker players that makes the difference between winners and losers.

The question of course is, how do you get to understand what other players are thinking?

There are a number of techniques used by the more experienced players to mess around with opponent’s heads causing them to make more mistakes on the poker tables than they would normally do.

Mind games

Regular players are easier to read than the novice, why? the novice is unpredictable, while the regular has developed and acquired similar sets of skills and practices through experience that you may use in a poker game. You understand how to play in certain situations and you know regulars will often be thinking the same way.

Poker can be likened to a game of chess. The great chess players can anticipate their opponent’s moves sometimes four or five moves in advance. For every play that his opponent makes the champ already has four or five moves to counter.

Now I recently reviewed a book on poker written by one of the best in the business who gives some excellent examples on how to out think your opponents on the poker tables.

Here’s a huge tip when playing against a regular by the same writer:

“Focus on what he thinks you have and what he thinks you’re trying to do and manipulate him with his own thoughts by exploiting them”.

Some tips on the habits of bad poker players:
• They usually never lay down a draw
• They have a ridiculously huge range preflop
• They will almost always float on flops then fold to your bets on the turn
• They only raise when they actually have something
• They will play a top pair like it’s a royal flush
• They will overbet the pot when they have a big hand or even push if they have a big hand.

When playing against a bad poker player, focus on their bad habits, like overplaying draws and floating every flop, and exploit those habits, not their thoughts.

In one chapter of this book the writer reveals:

1. The importance of getting inside of the head of regulars, and exploiting the thought process of those players.
2. Some great tips on exploiting the bad habits of bad poker players and how you can make a lot of extra money as a result.
3. The power of the chat function and how you can use it to make bad players go on tilt and give you alot of money which they wouldn’t normally do.
4. The not so common strategy of showing his cards in certain situations. Often considered not a good practice, but there are some very good reasons why he does this.
5. How to create the right poker table image as a great strategy to fool your opponents into putting you in a box classification that couldn’t be further from the truth. You don’t want your opponents to know your actual style of play, your habits and betting patterns.
6. A great technique to figure out the cards your opponent has almost every single time.

Every great poker player has his little secrets, the key to improving your game is to pick up the best tips and strategies from the top two or three poker players in the world, this will ensure you have all your bases covered.