Can You Succeed In Online Poker Without Using Poker Tools?

The short answer is "Yes" but it will probably be easier and more profitable to use the best poker tools to help you along. There are many different kinds of Poker Tools available today: some are just plain fun to use, some are pretty worthless and a small number of quality tools are really worth your attention.

The house rules of your local online poker room are significant. Just as most land based casinos doesn't allow card counting in Black Jack or the use of electronic devices in the casino many online poker rooms are selective when it comes to the use of poker tools. Pokerstars probably has the most restrictive policy in the business with a long list of banned poker software tools and programs. This article will give you a good idea of the characteristics that are typical for banned software types but to make sure please check the rules of your local poker room.

If you are a fairly inexperienced poker player don't be too quick in starting to invest time and money in the different poker tools - start out by reading a few good poker books (David Sklansky: "The Theory of Poker" and Ian Taylor + Matthew Hilger: "The Poker Mindset" are good for starters after those pick one specific to your preferred poker variation) and play a lot of free or low stakes poker. Once you have mastered the basics of the game you can start to think about moving on to thinking about which online poker tools are best for you.

This is the first in a series of articles meant to explain the different poker tool types, their unique value in specific situations and teach you how to select the tools that will help you improve the most. This article supplies an introduction to poker tools and categorizes the different tool types. Later articles will give more detailed info on specific tools and how to extract the most value from them.

If you expect to buy a couple of poker tools, install them and then start playing (and winning) much better poker than you are now, you will be disappointed. The best poker tools all demand that you put in the time to learn how to use and understand them. This can be many hours but the better poker tools are definitely worth your time, as you will improve over time.

Once you have read this guide (hopefully all the articles) please don't rush out and buy 2-3 or more poker tools. The best approach is to focus on one tool at a time - spend some time deciding which tool type you stand to benefit the most from and invest in the specific tool you find most promising. Then concentrate on really getting to know this tool and once you have gotten most of the benefits the tool can offer move on to the next tool.

The single most important reason to use online poker tools is to improve your skills and thus win more. The good news is that this is entirely possible to achieve the "bad" part is that is takes time. Now please move on to the next part in which you will learn which poker tool type is best for you: Trackers, HUD's, Online Databases, Calculators, Charts or Poker Robots.

The author is an experienced Webmaster, IT Professional and seasoned poker player, currently working with SEO and webmaster of the poker information site, Cool Poker Guide - the high quality free online poker guide.