Winning Online Poker

What is a "good" win rate at online poker? That depends on a lot of factors: how well you play, how well your opponents play, the stakes, and more. This chart shows the approximate number of "big bets" (i.e. $6 in a 3/6 game, or $20 in a 10/20 game) you should be winning per hour:

Opponent's Skill Level	Your Skill Level
Opponent's Skill Level	Good	Very Good	Excellent
Very Poor	4 big bets	4.5 big bets	5 big bets
Poor	2.5 big bets	3.5 big bets	4 big bets
Moderate	1 big bet	2 big bets	3 big bets
Good	0 big bets	1 big bets	2 big bets

Note: If your opposition is even better than this, your win rate will continue dropping as the level of competition increases, and you shouldn't even play unless you are an absolutely top-flight player.

If you play pot-limit or no-limit, consider a big bet to be about four times the size of the big blind. ($2 in a .25/.50 NL game)

Notice how sharply your win rate drops off based on the level of competition. This means two things: (1) Select good games where the opponents play badly, and (2) Sharpen your skills before you attempt to take on the tougher games.

Three other quick notes. First, your skill level is relative to other players at that limit. Obviously, just because you are one of the best .01/.02 players on a server, does not mean you can beat 10/20. Be honest when evaluating yourself.

Second, your win rate will obviously not match this number exactly. In poker, short-term luck greatly affects your bankroll fluctuations. You need to play as many as 10,000 hours before you can have a confident estimate of your true win rate. In other words, DO NOT assume you are as good or as bad as the chart says you are, just because your win rate matches up with that cell on the chart.

Third, if you are going to play multiple tables, your performance at each one will not be as good as it would be if you were playing each table individually. When you aren't able to devote your full attention to the game, you will naturally miss some things that you could have picked up on. I would estimate that a good multi-tabler will win approximately 1.8 times as much playing two tables as one, 2.5 times as much playing three tables, and 3 times as much playing four tables. (These figures assume you have adjusted to the pace of playing four tables at once. If you cannot follow the action at four tables, you will not be able to make reads as accurately and your win rate will suffer.)

At live poker, the rule of thumb used to be that a good player won "one big bet an hour", as Mike McDermott said in Rounders. However, online poker has three big differences that alter that rule:

We have already investigated this effect. All top online players play multiple tables, and most play at least four at once.

This doesn't quite triple your win rate (because the games are not as loose as live games), but it gives it a big boost.

This is also huge. In a live game, in order to switch to a better table, you need to find a better table, get on the wait list to move to it, and hope the game stays good while you wait. Online, switching tables is a click away.

In order to win big online, you basically need two things: (1) knowledge of the game, and (2) table experience. Unfortunately, experience at the table is a huge part of the equation, and there's no way this site can give it to you, other than advising you to go out and play. Work your way up the limits gradually, but keep moving up until you find a place where you feel comfortable. Keep reading up on poker; a number of excellent poker books can greatly help your game out. Visit the 2+2 forums and ask for critiques on hands you've played, or just read other posts and see what the experts have to say.