I can be a bit of a control freak in most aspects of my life, and poker is a great example of that. True, there are a maddening amount of variables present in every hand of online poker, there are a few things that you can do to minimize a few things that are out of your control. The main thing that drives me nuts is not knowing what my opponents are holding. Of course, that’s kind of the point, but short of asking them, there are a few direct ways to figure out what they have. Luckily, through research, experience, and a lot of trial and error, I’ve found a few ways to dig into my opponent’s heads and get an idea of what they’re holding. My favorite way is the pre-flop raise. A good raise before the flop separates the wheat from the chaff. Unless a poker online player is particularly loose (and you should have figured that out by the time you try this), a pre-flop raise will force out the weak hands and leave you fairly certain that your remaining opponents have hands that they believe in. Once the flop hits, you can decide whether or not your opponents have made their hands by the flop texture and how your opponents bet.