table size

What is everyones advice on the table size when your playing hold em? Im a beginner and like to stick to 4-5 people. Sometimes I challenge myself and go to bigger tables but I seem to always loose. I always end up kicking myself for my moves afterwards but I am slowly learning from my mistakes. Any thoughts?

Stick to what your comfortable with regardless of what that is. When you think you are ready to move up, I would maybe try different strategies and see which one works best for you. I suggest practicing on the play money tables.

Thanks, t1riel.

When playing shorthanded poker (2-6) people you can play more starting hands, but when you start playing full tables you have to limit yourself to the amount of starting hands that you play. So it really depends on if you like to play a little loose and see more flops, or if you like to play tighter and stick to decent starting hands. Like t1riel said play whatever is comfortable for you.

For me, it depends on what I'm doing. If I want a really focused poker game I'll often go for a 6-player Sit n Go or even a Heads Up match, where the players aren't walking in and out and I can try to get reads on them. If I just want some light action in the background, I might open up at a 10-player table and just play very tight/aggressive. I like all of the above, just depends on my mood.

If you're not confident in your abilities, I'd stay away from shorthanded tables. It's true that playing about looser is correct when you have fewer opponents, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you should play ALL hands more loosely. The problem with being an inexperienced player at a shorthanded table is that you get to make mistakes much more often, and a player who knows what he's doing will eat you up.

I'd find a full table, stick with the top 20 starting hands, and play them strongly. Once the discipline is learned, move on to learning situational play, and eventually maybe move back to shorthanded, armed with the knowledge of which hands work when and how they should be played.

Good luck.

I agree with F paulson. you should play at a table with more players so that you can get a feel of the game when you arent hit by the blinds more often and you can lay back a bit a get a feel the hands.

Could you post the mistakes you are making in the full tables, maybe we could give you some good advice ? ( playing out of postion , A10 UTG looks good ? ) those are the kind of mistakes that come when you dont have patience, please let us know we would gadly help ^_^

^ I played against 19 others on Titan last night and did pretty well. Still, I rather face 6 people.

I agree with this but would add that you stick with "Limit" and avoid "No Limit" tables. It will give you a chance to learn odds a little better and not lose everything in one hand.

I agree with the "incremental" structure of learning Hold Em: start with Limit and play tight/aggressive to learn how to play the best hands, then slowly add to your game. Add short-handed play, loose play, and No Limit once you've got your head around odds, raise/call/fold strategies, reading players, and so on.

It's true that this game takes "5 minutes to learn and a lifetime to master" or however it goes, there are many layers that you can add to your game over time, but start simple!