5 Rules for Beginners who want to Make Money Playing Poker

Target Audience: This strategy post is intended for players who describe themselves as "freeroll whores", players who haven't deposited any money online yet, or players who have made a few deposits & are breaking even or losing.

Introduction: Making money playing poker on the internet is much more than just being good at poker. There are several things that successful players do to increase their expectation that happen away from the poker table. They choose profitable games, they manage their bankroll well, and they maximize the rakeback that poker sites give to you in return for playing. This post will be a short guide to getting started at online poker in a profitable way.

This guide is also written to be as short & sweet as possible. Also, at the end of each section, you'll find cliff notes, summing everything up in 1-2 short sentences.


Rule #1: Start at a smaller poker site

There are several good reasons to start at a site that is smaller than the big two (Full Tilt or Pokerstars).

1. The smaller sites give you more rakeback & bonuses.
2. Smaller sites are often softer.
3. You won't be able to make use of the advantages large sites offer.

Smaller sites need players, and in order to entice you to play there, they often offer bigger bonuses or more rakeback than the big two. And because the rake you pay is a large portion of your win rate at microstakes, earning more of that rake back by clearing a bonus or getting rakeback is very important when you're first starting out. And when you're new & barely winning, very often whoring bonus is the only thing growing your bankroll.

The main advantages to playing at a big site are:

1. They provide more game selection at higher stakes & non-hold'em games.
2. Their software is better for playing multiple tables.
3. Their software allows the use of a Heads-Up display & tracking programs.

If you are just starting out in the world of online poker, you likely don't care about these three reasons. You're not playing high stakes, you're not multi-tabling more than 3-4 tables, and you really don't need a HUD to beat almost all microstakes games.

Small sites I'd recommend starting with (that allow US players) are: Carbon Poker, Bodog, Absolute Poker, Ultimate Bet, Cake Poker. All of these sites have good rakeback deals & large bonuses. Use google to find rakeback & bonus deals. Just make sure you check the terms & conditions of the bonus, as some of them expire, and some are easier to clear than others.


Cliff Notes: Bonus whoring at a smaller, softer poker site with a small deposit is a good way to start playing online poker for real monies. You won't miss the features of the large site, and you'll earn more cash to start with.


Rule #2: Freerolls are training wheels

Freerolls are a double edged sword, they're both good and bad. They're good because they provide a free way to learn the game. However, they're bad because they can teach you bad habits & you could be earning far more money playing for real dollars. When I played freerolls a few years ago, I made about 2 cents an hour. Playing the lowest level cash games or sit & go's, you'll usually earn FAR FAR more money.

So here's the plan: Play freerolls at two of the sites you would like to make your first deposit at. This allows you to play two freerolls at a time. As soon as you cash in one of them, make your first small ($50-$200) deposit at that site. By getting through the large freeroll field, you'll have an idea of how to play poker. Plus, you'll have a bit of extra cash to play with. However, you won't waste your time playing for 2 cents an hour, and since you've deposited, you can now play with correct bankroll management.

Cliff Notes: Play freerolls at 2-3 sites until you cash, then deposit a small amount. Don't waste your time accumulating bad habits, and earning no money.


Rule #3: Practice REALLY safe bankroll management

Bankroll management means that you do not risk a large amount of your total money at once. And since you are a new player, you should practice VERY SAFE bankroll management. No matter how good you are, poker is a game with many ups & downs. If you do not manage the risks you take well, even excellent players can become broke fairly quickly. So if you don't want to deposit ever again, here are my bankroll management recommendations:

• No-Limit Hold'em Cash Games: 2500 big blinds minimum, 3500 big blind target.
• Single Table Sit & Go Tournaments: 30 buy-ins minimum without fee included, 45 buy-ins target.
• Multi-Table Tournaments: 50 buy-ins minimum, without fee included, 75 buy-ins target.

The minimum is the lowest amount of money you can have to play that level. If you drop below that level, then you'll want to move down in stakes. The target level is the money you'd prefer to have to play a given stake level, so that you can sustain a long string of losses.

So, for example, if I wanted to play $5.00+$0.5 sit & go's, I would deposit enough money to give my account $225 (45 buy-ins). This way, I can sustain a 15 buy-in loss, and I'll still be able to move down in stakes to recover my bankroll.

Cliff Notes: If you don't manage your risks carefully, you will be broke. And you should be extra careful when you're beginning because you are not used to the swings that poker can cause you.


Rule #4: Start playing Turbo, 1 table, 9 player Sit & Go's

This rule isn't set in stone. You could play cash games, or regular speed SnG's to start with. But I believe this is the best choice of game to start with because:

1. Turbo SnG's are the easiest type of game to learn.
2. Turbo SnG's are very soft.
3. You can play more turbo SnG's in the same time period.

When you're in a Sit & Go, and you have 15 big blinds or less, your only play is often to go all-in preflop, or fold. This is a good thing because it makes your decisions simple, and your opponents will do stupid things like limp off 10% of their stack. Turbo sit & go's allow you to get to this short stacked play much quicker than regular sit & go's, and they give you a better $/hr. If you want to learn to play Sit & Go's, there are several good posts on the subject on this site.

Playing 1 table sit & go's will reduce your swings when compared to multi-table tournaments, and the strategy for multi-table tournaments is not as simple as sit & go's. Also, you will want to pick the lowest priced sit & go that has a fee that is less than 15% of the buy in. Often sites will offer sit & go's for very cheap, but the large fee you pay will eat into your profits. So for example, at Ultimate Bet, I would start by playing $5+$0.5, because the fee is only 50 cents (10% of the buy-in). The $1+$0.2 sit & go's have a fee of 20%, and they aren't that much easier than the $5+$0.50's.

Cliff Notes: Start with one table sit & go tournaments, because they are the simplest game to learn. Start with the cheapest stakes that have a rake less than 15%.


Rule #5: Track Your Results

Knowing what games are profitable for you is very important. You'll probably be experimenting with many different game types, and you want to know which ones offer you the most profit. Also, bonus dollars & rakeback can hide the fact that you're actually a losing player at the tables. Thus, you'll want to use a spreadsheet, or a tracking website, to keep track of your results. There are free websites like this one which allow you to keep track of your results. Use them.

Later in your career, you may want to purchase tracking software like Poker Tracker or Hold'em Manager. However, until you have about $500-$750 in your poker account, their cost isn't really worth it.

Also, make sure that you play a decent sample of hands/tournaments before you decide if your win-rate is good or not. If you've only played 2000 hands in a cash game, you don't have enough data to know if you're a solid winner or not. Play at least 8000-10000 hands of cash games, or 40-60 sit & go's before you look at your results.

Cliff Notes: How will you know if you're a winning player unless you keep track of your results?


Conclusion: Online poker can be a profitable & fun hobby. However, there are more things to think about than just playing correctly at the table. Hopefully I've got you thinking about 5 things away from the tables that will turn a fun hobby into some money as well.

As always Good info C9

I just signed up for Check your bets. Hope it helps. Thanks for the great info

nice post. one thing i've always neglected in poker, which i do for all other forms of betting is to track everything i do very carefully...down to even writing my own programs to do so (so i can track extra things i'd like to track). the things you say seem like such common sense...well, because they are; yet it amazes me that most people don't seem to use common sense with wagering. you really do have to cherish those buy-ins that you have...even if it is just chump change. there's a certain pride from building from nothing or from a small deposit i think many people are too impatient with. the obvious message is you can't take shortcuts, you will learn nothing from taking shortcuts...in all walks of life it seems you're gonna just have to do it the hard way

Very well written and clearly explained. Great job!

I wish I had read this when I had started out so that I could get rakeback on Tilt. Awesome guide and a must read for anyone starting out!

You can still get rakeback on full tilt if you haven't signed up through another site. Just email them about it and you can get on a waiting list and hopefully get in pretty soon after.

I signed up through CC. Not a bad sign up imo

Thank you very much it is helpfull and I learn a lot.

Nice post thank you, I too am going to sign up with check your bet and I like your BR management idea alot.

excellent post, thanks.
and will take a look at your link soon.

Very nice post and good info for the beginners

Nice post.

One small thing. In Rule #4, I think I might recommend standard STTs rather than Turbo, the reason being that Turbo tourneys tend to encourage loose play.

A common leak among beginners is to play too many hands. Therefore, playing in an environment which favours this style of play will tend to encourage that error.

Rule #6

Once you have obtained a large bankroll ....... Do not tell your wife.

I didn't know about Check Your Bets...That looks great.

Thanks for all the good info for us "whore!"

i agree but most other turbo players are loose, If your a tight player i would encourage turbo's because you can just pick spots and pick people off.

i agree with this alot.. the summary is.. get your money in right and play tight to ensure u cash .. hope it helps.... and thanks for the great tips

Great Post!

Good stuff, c9.

great stuff. only thing i dont agree here is to play freerolls before depositing. as you need an account to play a freeroll and if you got an account already thay dont allow rakeback as you got to signup though them. this is currently my problem at fulltilt they wont allow me rakeback because i already got an account there.

very good article with good rules (like the additional rule #6 )tho I do not consider myself a freeroll "whore" they are a good way of starting a bankroll on a new site (or restarting)

Good advice, very helpful!

Great advice thanks much as I am in your "Target audience" Lol. It always helps to find another good perspective or way of looking at things.

"One small thing. In Rule #4, I think I might recommend standard STTs rather than Turbo, the reason being that Turbo tourneys tend to encourage loose play.

A common leak among beginners is to play too many hands. Therefore, playing in an environment which favours this style of play will tend to encourage that error."

Absolutely agree with this criticism. Turbo sit and goes are not real poker - they're a "luck fest" first and foremost! Trying to learn good poker by playing turbos is not a good idea.

Learn to play skilled poker first and then, if you really want to play poker like it's a slot machine, think of playing turbos. It's arguably harder to learn skilled poker coming from turbo playing than the other way around.

I'm actually with c9 on the turbo issue.

They're a long way from being "luckfests". You just use a slightly different set of skills in them. I know my results in turbos (both in terms of ROI and $/hr) are significantly better than they are in standard SnGs. It's over a reasonable sample, and it simply wouldn't be the case if turbos really were luckfests.

Egon has a point when he says that they often encourage people to play too many hands, and that's probably what leads people to believe that they're luckfests, but that's also what makes them so soft and therefore such a good target.

lol...

1. sharkscope Boku87 on pokerstars. He mass multitables turbo SnGs.
2. reread what you just wrote.

"lol...

1. sharkscope Boku87 on pokerstars. He mass multitables turbo SnGs.
2. reread what you just wrote."

---


Well great for him: he does well at turbos! Does that change my point one bit? No! I change nothing in my response. Surely you're smart enough to know that if enough people play them then by the law of averages someone has to win more of them than another given person! Besides, we're not talking about whether turbos are good for "Boku87" or other *particular* individuals!! We're talking about advice for beginners.

Furthermore, advising beginners to play turbos first is akin to teaching babies to run before they can walk.

And also, why is it that many professional poker writing experts, also advise beginners to stay far away from turbos?

Here is but one verbatim example from 'Texas Holdem Poker Win Online' by Paul Mendelson (a Poker & Bridge expert):

"Some sites offer 'Turbo' events, where the blinds rise every minute, or three minutes, or five minutes. These are, in effect,speeded up events and, as a result, they are far more of a gamble than a regular Sit & Go. If you must play them - presumably because you are impatient or in need of a brief thrill - then aggression, from the start is essential. Ultimately these quickie events come down to a crap-shoot. There's a lot of luck in poker but this format relies on it too much..."

- @ p. 62

I fully agree with him, and absolutely disagree with the OP's advice & yours, that beginners should try to master Turbos before they can play regular poker. Spend your time learning the skill of normal poker and try mastering that first, is wise advice to beginners.

thanx c9 for a great read and have started check ur bet Is very good since I dont have pt3 or hem...beats pen and paper mucho appreciato....

Great Information, Never knew about some of things that u described above, When i win money i usually just go to the .1/.2 cent tables then when i feel comfortable i move higher up.. I usually get up a lot in my bankroll then loose.. I will use these tips and strategies when playing..


Thanks!

I'm sorry but that's just not true. Turbo sng's is the simplest form of poker to learn and if you learn to pushbot correctly, you should crush the micro limits. There will be some variance, but not really more than in other forms of poker.

sngs is a very good way to start playing poker because it's much simpler than cash games.

If you're going to throw statistics into this, you should also consider the likelihood that he achieved the results that he did. I can assure you that his results are beyond improbable if in fact he is really a breakeven player.

So if people need to walk before they run, what's the skill that needs to be learned to play a game that's not a turbo SnG before you play turbo SnGs? While I do not believe ICM push/fold is a very useful skill to have long term, it is the easiest to learn and very nearly the sole skill required to beat turbo SnGs.

If taking a bunch of marginal +EV decisions all the time is a crap-shoot then maybe it is. In this case, you can also call the highest level of cash games, even bigger crapshoots because I bet they push like 51/49 edges all the time (slight exaggeration). They both push edges that aren't quite as big as some other games but pushing edges is what poker is all about (granted the skills required to push these edges is totally different between these games). If you know what you are doing in turbo SnGs (or even super turbos), the skill edge you have on the competition at the micro stakes is BIG.

I'm starting to understand why you make some of the statements that you do after reading some of these crapshoot/lottery/luckfest comments. You give more generalized and easily interpreted statements that help guide people towards reality whereas I just point out facts that are confusing and let people misinterpret them. I think I turn into an egocentric condescending critic when respond to some of these posts because I get frustrated by people not reading the previous answers and the lack of thought and reason that goes into them... (to no one in particular and just sometimes) I really need to stop posting on here


On a side note, I'm beginning to believe that if you want to improve long term, you should begin in cash games as long as you can take the bankroll hit because ICM push/fold is not applicable in ring, and because ICM push/fold is so much easier to master than all the intricacies of ring, you will not have much of an edge as you move up to the higher limits. I've read how many high stakes ring players regret starting out in SnGs as they say it slowed down their progress as poker players and it definitely makes sense.

That being said, turbo SnGs are a great way to start off a bankroll and/or if your goal in poker is to just make like 10 grand or so in a reasonable amount of time.

Yeah, ideally you'd study a lot, play very little, and learn cash games first. But in my experience, new players play a ton, study less, and have huge leaks in cash games.

I figured it'd be much safer for a player to read "If you have 10 big blinds or less, your decision should be push all in preflop, or fold", than to have to absorb all the intricacies that come with playing cash games. Sure SnG's are more complicated than that, but if you remember that simple rule, you can pretty much crush micro SnG's. Its not that easy with cash. Hand values change with stack sizes, pot size management & implied odds come into play, and there's just more potential for someone to spew like a fire hose.

I'm not criticizing your method in any way as it applies to the vast majority of people out there (and I'll add that I have respect for your viewpoints). I'm just offering a different perspective for people who are starting out but have serious long term plans about the game. It took me 6 months to realize I wasn't playing the right game (most profitable in my mind). Sure, it got my bankroll going as I started with nothing but I really wish I had made the transition to NL cash earlier. The first two months allowed me to learn the basics of poker and bankrolled me for 25NL which is when I should have made the transition.

However, I couldn't resist immediate profits and spent the next 4 months wandering between games (a month of FL, a month of DoNs, a month of super turbos, a month of 18mans) and making small profits in games that are easier to learn (maybe not so much FL as I did gain some valuable skills there that I'm certainly applying to NL but I moved away from that game because its dying and even the low/midstakes are full of difficult to exploit regs).

I've spent the last month doing a lot of studying of NL ring (I'll admit that I still play SnGs cause I suck at life and can't completely get away from immediate profits) and feel that I've been opened up to a whole new world. I feel that I am learning things that will give me a greater edge. I believe poker is about developing edges against other people and the greater your poker skills, the larger your edge and the higher you will be able to play resulting in greater profits (and as an added benefit, the higher your edge, the lower your variance).

I'm fully bankrolled for 100NL now but I'm only playing 10NL because I don't feel I have the skills nor confidence necessary to play the higher limits. I just wish I had made this transition 5 months ago when my bankroll was smaller but could still safely play cash with reasonable bankroll management. I won't claim that I would be beating 100 NL now but I am almost certain that I would have superior poker skills than I do now. I probably lost you 15 paragraphs ago but I couldn't think of a better way than to tell my life story to back up the purpose of my previous response.

Erm... no. You're contradicting yourself here.

If turbos truly were just "luckfests" then in the long run everybody would be losing to the rake, just like they lose to the house edge at roulette or slot machines.

This obviously isn't the case, because we know there are players who do very well playing turbos over large samples. Belgo has highlighted just one example. These players and their results simply couldn't exist if turbos were just skill-free "luckfests".

Maybe you don't like the brand of poker you need to play to profit at turbos. Maybe you don't like the increase in variance that they bring. That's fine. But you're patently incorrect in claiming that they're just crapshoots, because the evidence dictates otherwise.

I always suggest people stop playing the big open freerolls with small prize pools as soon as they feel they're no longer absolute newbies. Even if you crush them, you'll only make pennies per hour, and it's not very hard to make more from buyins, although you do have to get used to the fact you can lose money, not just break even or win. MTTs are the hardest in this regard. Depending on the sizes of the ones you enter, it's not unusual to have streaks of 10 and more where you don't cash. But a couple of decent results will pay for a lot of non-cashes.

If you'd prefer less variance, SNGs and ring games are probably better choices. The latter will require more adjustments from MTTs, which you presumably started off playing.