This poker strategy section is meant to be a good starting point for beginning
players. These are general concepts that designed to help
the beginning player get accustomed to playing at a the poker
table. Entire books can be written on the poker strategy but
the following concepts are the building blocks to successful
poker play. These concepts apply to any style of poker game.
Winning money at poker means waiting for the good starting
hands before throwing money into the pot a good typical poker
player will only play roughly 20%-30% of their starting hands.
This means that 70% of the time you will be folding your hand
and watching someone else win the pot. If this doesn't sound
like something you can do than you should probably stick to
bingo or slot machines as its the patient player that will
win the money in the long run.
Here is a list of the generally accepted top starting poker
hands for Texas holdem :
A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-K suited J-J, 10-10, 9-9, 8-8, A-Q suited
These hands can generally be played in any position and the
higher the ranking of the starting cards the better they will
stand up to win the pot.
Depending on what comes on the flop and how other players
are betting will determine if you continue playing these cards
after the flop. A general strategy rule says that if your
holding a pocket pair and higher cards come on the flop, if
there is a lot of betting made by a player ahead of you it
might be safe to assume that your lower pocket pair could
be beaten. This is where it becomes important to watch what
other players are doing during the times that you are folding
and waiting for the good cards to come to see if the person
placing the bet is likely to bluff or is most likely to have
the hand they are representing.
Once you get the good cards that you have been waiting for
make sure to play them aggresively. Meaning when you have
good cards make sure you squeeze as much money out of them
as you possibly can. A lot of beginner players will try to
limp in with a large pocket pair trying keep in as many players
as possible but your large pocket pair will hold up best against
only one or two other hands so make sure to bet it to drive
out the weak players that will call and beat you by improving
into a better hand.
When you're playing at lower limit tables it is generally
not good to slow play your hand which means that even if you
have flopped the nut high hand you should bet straight forwardly.
At the lower limits your most likely to get called down anyways
and you also want to prevent people from drawing to a better
hand and beating you if there are more cards to come. If you
are going to slow play your hand then you will want to make
sure that the next couple of cards are not going to have the
potential to give another player a better hand than the one
you currently have.
When you first sit down and join a table make sure to watch
the other players and how they their cards to establish who
are the aggressive players and who are the passive ones, who
is most likely to bluff and which players only enter into
the pots with good starting cards. This information is a key
aspect to poker that will make and save you lots of money
during your poker career.
It's recommended that you go so far as to takes notes on
the other players while your not involved in a hand with them.
This will give you lots of information on their play style
when your find yourself involved in pot with them.
Nothing will improve your game more than reading everything
you can about the game and then applying what you have read
to your poker game. Poker is a game of knowledge and skill
and the knowledge is acquired from reading every poker strategy
book you can find and then applying what you have learned
while you're playing at the poker table. There are many great
books for beginners to advanced players.
Going on Tilt is the worst thing that can happen to you at
a poker table. "Tilt" is a term that refers to a
player that is emotionally unable to play a good game of poker.
Many things can cause a player to tilt such as losing to a
bad beat, playing to long at a table, feelings of frustration.
The moment any of these emotions start to affect your play
its time to call it quits for a bit. Get up take a walk, get
a breath of fresh air, relax and collect your thoughts so
you can concentrate on the hands you're going to get not the
ones that have already passed. Your mind needs to be completly
focused while your at the table.
When you sit at a table make sure you are at your comfort
level in terms of your betting limits. If you sit down at
a table and the people are betting more than you can stand
to lose you will not play your best game when it comes time
to play your cards. Many beginners make the mistake of jumping
into a high limit game with a short stack of money thinking
they'll make a quick strike and be able to stay at the table
but what often happens is they will sit down and be out of
money before they know it. It's better to be shark at a lower
limit than a small fish at a larger table.
If you are sitting down at the table with money you need
for rent, food or bills you will not be able to play your
best game because you will play a much weaker game than if
you were playing with money that was extra to you.
Poker winnings should not be measured in single games or
sessions. Every poker game you play in should be counted as
one long session in which you take breaks in. If you won $200
last night and lost $70 tonight you are still up $130. On
the other hand if you lost $500 last night and won $100 tonight
then you are still down $400 overall. Poker professionals
track there wins and losses just like any business would and
you should to. Every poker has there down periods and if they
last for awhile you will need to evaulate your game and find
out what is going wrong and fix your game.
Good luck and have fun at the tables!