With most internet poker sites, you’ll find a convenient little option that allows you to check/fold in a hand or to automatically bet or raise a person if you happen to be playing limit. While those buttons do make it very easy to get through the game quickly, they aren’t exactly ideal for your playing strategy. You could be really hurting your chances of winning by jumping into bets, raises and folds. How? Let’s find out…

When you check/fold a hand, you end up losing the ability to bluff later on. Even if you want out of the hand, there is always a chance that you could win with just a minimum bet because the other person also doesn’t have a hand. You can’t bluff if you just check it through. As much as it may hurt you to wait an extra five seconds to check, it could help your game out a lot. Otherwise you might be the one who gets bluffed.

If you are going to bet in a hand, wait for the clock to start going before you do so. This makes it seem like you had to think a second, and it’s about the only way you can put on a poker face in internet poker. If insta-betting is part of your strategy (perhaps for a bluff) then that’s fine, but don’t make it a habit just because you want to jump the gun and get the game rolling.

Take a second to fold too if it comes around to you. Again, you want to make it seem like you are thinking about something. That allows a bit of time for your opponents to sweat out the time wondering what in the world you might do next.