Have a healthy and watchful respect for strong-tight players who are rarely in hands, particularly if they play hand out of position. If a player like this raises in early position you should fold all those marginal hands, and small pairs as well.

When weak players have entered pot, you should be happy to call and take flops with them provided you can do this inexpensively. Slow playing big hands has a higher expected value in No-Limit than it does in Limit games where it is rarely right way to play. That being said, it is a skill that takes a lifetime to master, and can easily backfire on you.

As blinds increase in tournament play you must be flexible with your evaluation of starting hands as you have to keep your chip stack well ahead of pace set by blinds. In tournament play you cannot wait for perfect starting hand, and frequently you need to make your own luck. Be selectively aggressive, especially in later stages of tournament. Initially you should be tight at least until you have a good read on some of opponents at your table. Try to avoid coin-flip scenarios where all your chips are at stake. This happens all time in online tournaments where players feel comfortable going all-in on AK and equally comfortable calling that hand with any pocket pair.

The winners of tournaments at all levels are usually those players who pace themselves early on, make a move in middle stages of event, and then start all over again at final table by once again playing strong-tight.

Look at game schedule. Does it have enough of games that you want, when you want them? Are limits that you want, there when you need them? In short, can you use room when it’s convenient for you?

The next thing you have to do is look at number of players that are playing in room. Check out total number of players on their schedule page at different times to see if it is a popular room or not. The less popular a room is less chances you will have to play. A good rule of thumb is if room has less than 1,000 players, at their slow time, you will not have enough games going on to give you a choice when you need it.

Go to cashier window. Check out methods available for depositing money into room. Do they have many options or just a few? Are methods expensive or do they have some free ones? How difficult is their system to use? Is it very complicated?

Now you have to look at how to withdraw your money. This is very important as many rooms make it very difficult and complicated for some of their methods of withdrawal. Check to see if they have Neteller, as this is easiest and least expensive method of all. In fact, it is free to user.

These are most important points to look for in selecting an online poker room. There are many more, but they are based on your personal wants or needs and have to be found by yourself.

Good Luck.

Authored by: Robert Myer, Webmaster of Beginner's Online Poker Guide, as well as a poker player for over 20 years.