winning poker strategy

If the online poker world was a pie chart you would see two giant slices and a tiny sliver. The first giant slice would be the losing players - the majority of players.
The second large slice would comprise of players who are very close to break-even - they beat the rake, but they never really win any money playing poker.
The third slice, a tiny sliver, would represent the winning players who are making the money they want to be making at online poker - probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 10%.
If you don't find yourself in the small group of winning online poker players, the best remedy is to start to look into the different things that winning players are doing to consistently win. This article will look into the things your opponents are doing to win at poker.

Use a Hand Replayer

One of the most important things that almost all consistent winning players do is objectively review their sessions at a later time.
A hand replayer is a piece of software that allows you to watch yourself play after the game has ended. Some hand replayers will even show you your odds of winning on each street, your pot odds, and other information.
Regardless of what your hand replayer does or doesn't show you, the most important thing is that you use one - regularly. When you are playing poker there is emotion, a time factor, and other factors that prevent you from being objective about your game.

When you watch yourself play later on you see things in a different way, and you will find that you start to learn from your mistakes, and improve your game. When you watch yourself make a mistake you will be able to spend some time thinking about how you should have played, whereas during the actual game the next hand gets dealt and there is no time to think objectively about the last hand.
Similarly, in almost every competitive sport (football, hockey, boxing, etc), every professional athlete reviews film after each game to find ways they can improve. At the top levels it's really not an option. The same holds true in poker. If you are not reviewing your sessions regularly you will have a difficult time making it to the top tiers of the poker world.
Poker Specific Statistical Tracking Software
Statistical tracking programs analyze the hand history files which a poker site saves to your computer. These programs will tell you how often you raise preflop, how much money you are winning or losing with AA (or any other hand), and countless other statistics. You can also see how much you are winning/losing from each position (SB, BB, Dealer Button) with each
starting hand.
Many good players are shocked to find out that they have actually lost money overall with hands like AQ and JJ. One profitable player I know was stunned to learn that he was actually a losing player with pocket Aces, even though overall he was a winning player.
As if that wasn't enough data to sort through already, these programs also collect all of this data on each opponent you play at the table. You can see whether each opponent is profitable or not (based on the hands you have played against them), how often they raise preflop, how often they win at the showdown, and much more. Opponent profiling not only adds an edge to your game, it is being used against you by a growing population of players who use this software (and it is growing fast to the point that it is becoming a perquisite to playing online poker).

Heads Up Displays
Closely connected to the statistical tracking software described above are Heads Up Displays (HUDs).
An HUD is a program that takes the data that your statistical tracking program collects and puts it right into the poker client. This means that as you look at the table on your screen you not only see the usernames of the players you are playing, you also see a wealth of information about how
they play.
A growing percentage of your opponents can see how you are playing in real time. They know how often you raise before the flop. They know how many flops you are seeing. They know how aggressive of a player you are.
All of this information is right at their finger tips.
If you are playing without this tool you are doing so at a handicap. You wouldn't take an even money wager that the 1st ranked sports team will lose to the sports team in dead last place, so why play against players who can see how you are playing without knowing how they are playing?


Discuss Poker Strategy with Friends
Talking about tough laydowns, marginal calls, and other hands that you are uncertain about is helpful to bring perspective to your game. In this way, you can reduce the frequency of costly mistakes without the cost.
These days, knowing other players who play poker is not a prerequisite to doing this. This brings us to the next thing that your opponents are doing to develop an edge which is essentially an extension of this point.

Participate Actively in Poker Forums
The major online poker forums (2+2, pocketfives, etc) are full of meaningful discussions about poker. Discussions range from basic poker theory to advanced probability, and from Hold'em to lesser known games such as Pineapple.
The major online poker forums provide an unlimited source of free poker literature on any topic. While poker books are beneficial to your game, an unlimited source of knowledge on the game of poker is available to you free of charge.
Actively participating in poker forums has also become a very important edge that a lot of your opponents are using. A growing percentage of the threads are people posting hands that they want feedback on (such as a tough laydown), and asking the poker community whether they played their hand right. This, like discussing poker strategy with friends, brings an objective perspective (multiple perspectives), and can be an even more efficient way to develop your game.
In poker, there is not always only one answer to any questionable situation. Learning multiple perspectives gives you the best chance of making the best possible decision when you encounter a similar situation in the future. It's a quick and easy way to find out if you are playing as
perfectly as you think you are.

Read Poker Books
We touched on the unlimited body of information available on poker forums, but poker books still have an important role in developing your game. For instance, Dan Harrington's three volumes on tournament play were so good that I honestly feel that a player who hasn't read them has no place in a poker tournament with a significant buy-in. Their intuitive skills at the game of poker are not enough against players who have studied these three books on tournament play carefully, and applied their principles.
Reading poker books will improve your game, and you can be sure that your opponents are reading them. In order to keep up with your opponents you need to be constantly bringing fresh perspectives to your game.
I should put a quick disclaimer here about reading books because I see so many players make the same mistake. When a typical player first learns about the value of playing in position, they overplay their position. When you read a poker book you will almost always naturally overplay some aspects of what you have just read. You will learn about some great new concept like fold equity, or the squeeze play, and you will overuse it.
One solution would be drop down a limit or two and practice what you have learned outside of your regular limit after you've done some reading. With less pressure you will be able to experiment with the new concepts you have learned before applying those concepts in high pressure situations.

Poker Coaches
Poker coaching is becoming a huge business, and thousands of players are turning to coaches to bring their game to the next level. Players are paying anywhere from $30 to $1,000 an hour to learn from the best. If poker is not a sport it sure does fit the definition closely, and there aren't many players at the top tier of any sport that could say that they reached that level without using a coach at one point or another.
So what does a poker coach do? A poker coach for an online player is generally is available by email or messenger, and helps you to improve different aspects of your game. In most cases this involves sending the coach hands, or sessions, via email which they review and then respond
with feedback on how you played the hand or session.
This, like several other methods discussed in this article, is another way to bring a fresh perspective to your game.

Summary
Almost every person who sits down at a poker table feels that they are naturally suited to be a profitable poker player. It is natural to think that your individual skill set will naturally make you a winning poker player, but with more people working on their game using the tools described in this article there aren't many players who can just sit down at a poker table and
collect money consistently.
Poker is not free money day, it is a game of skill which millions of players are studying, many quite regularly. Whether you choose to implement some or all of these tools as part of your arsenal is your decision. Just know that each one you add will help you to even the playing field, and become a more profitable poker player.
Remember, poker is not a zero sum game. You cannot be in the 51st percentile and expect to be profitable. Every poker room takes a rake from each hand, and this means that many good poker players are either losing players, or break even players.
This is why it is so important to constantly work on your game. You'll win that big tournament some day if you set your mind to it. If you play enough satellites and take enough shots at those big tournaments it will happen sooner or later. Just know that the length of time it takes will be
directly correlated to how much effort you are willing to put into becoming the best poker player you can be. Above all, never stop learning.