No matter what you read in the various published strategy guides and online chat rooms about pot odds, implied odds, reverse-implied odds and pot equity, there is no mathematically definite strategy for poker played in casinos. Because the best poker is unpredictable and in casinos you are likely to experience the best poker, all decisions are eventually somewhat intuitive. (Like the stock market, you can’t figure out Dan Harrington—if you could, you could beat him. Note: you can’t.)

However, online poker—for better or for worse—is different. The sheer volume of online players (and the relatively low investment of time and money needed to play online) means that internet games tend to be fast and loose. Your opponents can’t be trusted to fold when you bluff, and frequently—because your opponents are idiots—you can trust very little “information” gathered in the course of a hand.

Thus, the best strategy is to play tight, mathematically precise poker, while seeing as many hands per hour as possible in order to make this slow-n-steady strategy pay a decent hourly wage. A good, tight player can expect to earn somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 per every 100 hands of low-limit poker.

In a casino that deals 30 hands per hour, this translates into $3.33 an hour (you would be better off working at Starbucks where at least you get health benefits). But online poker sites frequently deal upward of 60 hands per hour, immediately bumping the hourly wage of a solid, no-frills player up to $6.

Now, find a site that allows you to play multiple tables at once. If you’re playing six fast tables simultaneously, you’re seeing 360 hands per hour and—if you can avoid going completely insane—can make somewhere in the neighborhood of $36/hr.

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