I had to laugh yesterday.

My boyfriend's cousin's son (he's Lebanese so they have a big family) phoned his grandmother in a flat panic. He's only seven - but he'd managed to hack his father's online poker account and had lost every single cent of his father's credit. He needed his gran to make an electronic deposit - fast!

Now while I don't encourage underage gambling (even if you are of Lebanese descent)... He might have escaped his inevitable punishment if he'd known how to avoid these poker mistakes...

You see, according to Doug Reed (author of Secrets of Successful Gambling) you must never do this...

* Don’t get bored folding your hand and waiting for good cards to come along. Watch your opponents instead. Learn and categorise their behaviour and their moves. Or, if you’re online, play more than one table at the same time.
 
* Don’t assume that an amazing hand should win everytime. You may hold a great hand, but you can often count on someone holding onto their rubbish cards well into the game...”for fun”!
 
* Don’t bluff too much. You want your opponents to fold when you bluff, so bluff relatively rarely... but make it convincing when you do.
 
* Don’t think that you can’t watch for tells, just because you’re online. The number one online tell is for the big blind to pre-select the check/fold button. Then on the flop, pre-selecting the check again is a dead giveaway of a hand you will probably fold under pressure.
 
* Don’t play at too high stakes. That’s the easiest and quickest way to lose money. You can’t make good decisions when you’re also worrying about losing a huge stack.

* Don’t call big bets “on the river” with marginal hands. That can be expensive, unless you have specific reason to think your opponent is bluffing.
 
* Don’t be too passive. Don’t give free or cheap cards because you’re scared to bet. Even if you’re not sure you’re in the lead, it is often right to bet anyway.
 
* Don’t play for too long – your brain won’t function well after many hours of sitting at the table. Your judgement will fail in the end, so take a break.
 
* Don’t forget to chop and change your playing style. Playing the same way all the time makes it easier for your opponents to read you.
 
* Don’t ignore the odds: The most important tool you should get hold of is an odds calculator. Online poker is fast, which makes it difficult to keep track of odds and hand percentages. So type “odds calculator” into google and pick one to suit you. .
 
Whether you are just starting out, a seasoned player or an online poker newbie, these are some of the most important rules to follow. Even if you are only seven.