Poker guide for
beginners
by Steve Larson
Your utmost priority as
a rookie online poker player should be to try to avoid common mistakes as much
as possible. Almost every player who takes up poker goes through some of the
same problems and commits some of the same mistakes. Learning about these
mistakes is the first step you’ll take towards avoiding them and thus towards
improving your game.
The number one rookie
mistake has to be the playing of too many hands before the flop. Patience is the
key here. I know you’re excited that you’re finally playing Holdem, I know the
chat you have going on got you in the mood for some action, I know you’re eager
to win, but playing too many hands before the flop will not take you any closer
towards getting the better of your opponents. I know that starting hand
selection is slammed by many of the top poker professionals. After all, they
don’t play their cards, they play their opponents. You, however, won’t be able
to do that for a while, so you’d do better to stick with the next best thing and
focus more on your starting hands. Playing AA, KK, QQ (an already made hand) is
a no-brainer. You should definitely play those hands under all circumstances.
Playing AK, AQ, KQ is also largely justified by the fact that your chances of
catching top pair backed up by a strong kicker on the flop are excellent.
Don’t fall for trap
hands like K,2s the K is indeed a force to reckon with if it pairs up on the
flop, but the value of your hand will suffer greatly because of your weak
kicker, and believe me, there are few things worse than losing a big pot on
account of a weak kicker. The fact that your cards are suited only gives their
EV a roughly 2% boost which shouldn’t really be a reason for you to play them.
To make matters simple, just fold all suited hands that you would’ve folded if
they had been unsuited. Tight play before the flop is important because it’ll
save you a lot of money, by keeping you away from negative EV plays. The EV
(expected value) is the king of long-term Holdem. This is how some of the top
poker experts describe winning poker: every time you play a negative EV
situation, you lose a little bit even if you happen to get lucky and take down a
particular pot. Likewise, every time you play with positive EV, you win a
little, even if you happen to lose one particular bet. Tight preflop play keeps
you within the EV+, and that’s exactly where you need to be.
If tight play is the
way to go before the flop, after the flop, you need to tighten up even more. You
see, after the first three community cards hit the board, your showdown hand is
about 70% made. That gives you some pretty solid reasons to fold if the flop
misses you completely. This brings us to the second most frequent rookie
mistake: taking losing hands way too far beyond the flop. A losing hand in poker
is like an old car: you should get rid of it as fast as possible, the longer it
stays in your possession the more losses it causes. Throw that losing hand away
and don’t pin your hopes on Lady Luck. She’s got no business turning poker
players into consistent winners.
Do not play a hand just
because you suddenly ‘get a feeling’ about it. This is not slots, roulette or
wheel of fortune to resort to such dubious strategy. Poker can be beaten
mathematically only. Stick to math and you’ll be OK. Listen to your gut-feelings
and you won’t.
Another extremely
common beginners’ mistake is to allow emotions to take over. Be aware of the
fact that poker is a game designed to test your emotional toughness. Once you
take a seat at the table, you can be 100% certain of one thing: you’ll be tested
too, there are no buts and maybes about it. When you play on tilt you are
everybody’s dream opponent. As soon as the other players sense you’re letting
emotions guide your actions, they’ll gang up on you and try to ‘milk’ the
situation to their best advantage.
Never be a short term thinker. Winning at
Poker
is a long term affair. Sure, it’ll sometimes happen that your pocket rockets
will get the stew knocked out of them by a caller who makes a straight on the
river. Does that mean you made a bad decision playing your Aces in the first
place? Not at all. In fact, the winner made a bad decision calling your raises
when he had nothing.
Should you play pocket
aces in the future? Certainly. The EV was on your side, and thus your decision
was a good long-term one, even if it proved to be disastrous in the short-term.
Don’t ever leave any
sort of advantage escape your attention. Sign up for a
rakeback deal, choose your bonuses
carefully and do everything you can to provide yourself the best possible odds
at the felt.
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