Protect the Best Hand
In poker, the person who most often gets his money in when he has the best of it, and avoids putting his money in when he is behind, will be the online poker player in the end who is the most successful. A big part of this mentality includes the idea that you must be aggressive and bet to protect your hand when you are ahead by betting and making players with draws get out of the pot. Doing this, against a good player, means betting enough to ensure they do not have the proper odds to make it worthwhile to continue.
When you have a strong hand that is vulnerable to draws (i.e. not the nuts), the best way to protect your hand is to bet enough that your opponent would have to pay more than he would get back oddswise in order to continue. Often this amount might be as much or more than the amount of chips already in the pot. More stubborn players might continue regardless amount of the bet, so making sure you know how often your online poker opponent draws is important to gauging whether you can get them out even with a bet. Either way, remaining vigilant and aggressive with you holdings is an important part of maintaining longterm success.
