We recommend one course of action to any player mired in a losing streak: Shift gears. We all change gears during a poker game. Sometimes we do this consciously, as a planned strategy, while other times we just wind up playing differently later on than we did when we first sat down.

When you’re losing, consider gearing down . . . way down, by playing fewer hands. Losing means it’s time for lots of traction and not much speed. It’s a time for playing only the best starting hands. Not marginal hands, not good ¾ or even very good ¾ starting hands, but only the best hands. That means you’ll throw away hand after hand. It takes discipline to do this, particularly when some of the hands would have won.

But here’s the recipe for gearing down:

Stay away from troublesome, marginal hands. Go with the gold.

Make opponents pay to draw out on you. Most of the time they won’t get lucky, and that extra money in the pot will wind up in your stack of chips.

Never play weak starting hands from early position.

These concepts apply to all forms of poker. But by themselves they’re not enough. Each form of poker is quite different, and each demands the application of specific strategies and tactics if you’re to win consistently. Once you’ve learned to blend general poker strategy with game-specific tactics, you’ll be on your way to becoming a solid, dangerous poker player, online or off.