There are a number of ways for you to increase your profits while playing poker, with many strategies directed at specific types of tournaments or games in order to better adjust your plays to meet a specific game's needs at any time. Despite these there are still a few general tips that you can use to help give yourself an edge over the other players at the table and increase your winning substantially as you play.

First and foremost, one of the key ideas for all poker games is to keep your plays varied throughout a game in order to avoid predictability. Most experienced poker players and even those who have simply been dabbling in the game from time to time will pick up on obvious trends after a while. Do you only play a strong hand? Do you call on everything that comes your way, even if it's not great? Do you like to check-raise? Do you limp into pots every time hoping for something to come your way on the flop? These and more are all questions poker players are looking to answer about you, and keeping your opponents guessing is one way to keep your plays unpredictable and therefore your money flowing in rather than out of your chip stack.

Bear in mind as well that you should be looking for those clues on your opponents at all times yourself, both online and offline. Players will generally exhibit clues as to the strengths of their hands throughout any number of games no matter what the setting and a discerning eye can generally catch these tells as they comes across. Any variation on play no matter how small could be a tell - in an offline setting this could be a change in a player's breathing speed, nervous ticks, increase/decrease in chattiness or even nervous facial itching, while in an online game this may be the speed at which bets are placed, increased or decreased usage of the chat box, the size of plays and whether or not a player "limps" into a pot by merely calling a bet early on or takes a strong lead and raises with a moderate to strong hand to swing table control more their way.

Finally, try to target players that are generally in mid-level table positions for most plays when possible. These players are generally more comfortable with their chips so willing to put more into the pot, however not comfortable enough to follow through with a bet if it's too large and will undermine their position so they won't dedicate to a full play through if the stakes get high enough. Lower stack holders typically feel more cornered and are more willing to call bets with even a marginal chance at winning, while chip leaders tend to defend their positions and not give ground without any likely chance of it working out in their favor, so target the mid-level players and bring home the pot to slowly increase your table standings and secure your position no matter where you may be.