Good poker strategy is about choosing the right starting hands, passing on a marginal hand but pouncing on a monster hand. Pick a few premium hands to raise in late position (where you are one of the last to act) and fold out a lot of your meagre holdings pre-flop.

The best starting hands in poker can be grouped like this, starting with pocket aces:

• A-A
• K-K
• Q-Q
• J-J
• A-K suited
• A-Q suited
• A-J suited
• K-Q suited

These are all hands you can comfortably raise with in late position. Some hands like A-A and K-K, you can also raise in early position, where you will be one of the first to act post-flop.

You can also add in hands like 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, 7-7, 6-6 and suited aces like A-10, A-9, A-8. Don’t get too attached to small pairs like 2-2 and 3-3 and only play them to extract value on the flop.

Good players know how to bluff in order to get better hands to fold. Start off by learning the continuation bet (c-bet). This is a bet you make on the flop after you have led the betting pre-flop.

It doesn’t matter whether you have hit the flop or not, but a c-bet will keep the story going. Plus, if you have an aggressive image, a c-bet is good for disguising your made hands.

Your opponent may believe you are just trying to buy the pot while you actually hold a decent hand.

Bluffing is a great poker strategy to learn as you improve your poker game. But don’t get wedded to the idea of pulling off a lot of bluffs. You don’t want to bleed chips by playing your marginal hands a lot, especially if you run into a calling station who doesn’t respect your plays.

You can also throw in a few semi-bluffs. A semi-bluff is used when you have a drawing hand that has the potential of improving into s strong hand.

For example, you may hold 6-5 diamonds, and 8-9-J hits the board with two diamonds. You now have straight, flush and straight flush possibilities so there is the chance of making a decent hand if your bluff gets called.

Understanding starting hands is a good poker tip, but understanding the rankings is even better online poker strategy.

For example, if you are dealt A-8 and the flop comes K-8-2, you know you have a pair of eights with an ace kicker. However, you are being beaten by a pair of kings, and possibly a set of 2s or 8s.

So, what would you need to improve? Possibly another 8 to give you three of a kind, but that might give an opponent a full house. An ace would give you two pair and put you in a strong position. However, if there was a pre-flop raiser, might he hold A-K?

You should be aware of the odds of hitting a winning hand. This involves learning about:

• Outs
• Hand Odds
• Pot Odds

The outs are the number of cards in the deck that can improve your hand. By calculating your outs, you can calculate your hand odds.

Now look at the amount of money you need to put in the pot to call and compare the two figures.

Let’s imagine your hand odds are 4/1 after calculating the number of outs, and the pot odds are 12/1. You are being paid 12/1 to make a 4/1 call. That’s a simple and easy call every time.

Luckily, you can find lots of hand odds cheat sheets online. Print one out and keep it safe when you next play online poker.

Understanding your position at the table is one of the key pieces of poker strategy you need to learn.

In early position, where you are first to act, you may end up facing a raise or re-raise. Conversely, in late position, you have more information on what your opponents have done.

The importance of position can’t be understated. It informs the range of hands you will raise and call with and dictates how aggressive you should be pre- and post-flop.

For example, you should always raise 4-4 to 8-8 in late position if there have been no raises. But in early position, those hands become just calls. The nearer you are the small blind, the more careful you should be.

Good cash game and poker tournament strategy is also about aggressive play. There’s no point playing premium hands if you’re not willing to bet a lot of chips and force players out.

So, a top poker tip is to be tight and aggressive by selecting a few hands to play and betting them hard.

If you’re up against weaker players who are prone to folding, you can be aggressive with your small pairs and suited connectors too. This lets you disguise the true strength of your hand, especially when you only connect with part of the flop.

The beauty of online poker is that you are dealt a huge number of hands. The action is fast and furious, especially in turbo Sit ‘n Gos and fast-fold cash games. So why play a lot of hands when another one will be along in a minute?

It can be boring sitting at your PC and folding a lot of junk. But don’t be tempted to play poor hands just because you have nothing better to do.

Similarly, you need to learn to fold when you think you have a good hand. If a tight player is re-raising on a flop of A-6-10 where you have middle pair, it’s probably a sign that you’re beat. Give it up and save your money for another hand.

You always need to be 100% sure of your play. If you’re not sure what to do facing a raise, the best decision is usually to let the hand go.