Tips for a beginner from a beginner.

Over the past 4 months or so I have learnt a lot about the game. While none of this advice is ground breaking I thought I'ld put down what I have learnt in the hopes of helping others starting out in the game to get better. Just don't get too good and play on my tables, cheers


1) Bankroll management is key to be successful: - If you want to play poker like you would roulette or the slot machines then by all means deposite $100 and play at $100NL. But if you want to play poker to make money in the longterm I can not overstate how important this is. When I first started playing I did play stakes over my limit, and even though I was probably a marginal winning player at those stakes, variance just kills you if you are not properly bankrolled for it and I wound out losing my deposits. It was only when I knuckled down at started to adhere to proper bankroll management did I begin to slowly but surely increase my bankroll.

2) Seriously Bankroll management is key!!!: - When I had $250 in my bankroll I was playing 5NL. If I lost a couple of buy-ins because of either bad play or I got sucked out on I brushed it off just fine. I had plenty of buy-ins left for this level and I knew I could win it back without too many problems. When I had $20 in my account and I was playing 2NL, I was getting a lot of bad beats which affected me much more than it should have because with every bad beat increased my likelihood of going bust. This put me on tilt which only compounded the problem

3) If you think you are going on tilt....quit your session : I have lost a lot of buy-ins when I have gone on tilt. If you feel yourself getting frustrated, calling down with hands that are marginal at best, making big bluffs with no rhyme or reason just turn off your computer. Trust me, you will thank-yourself later.

4) Learn some basic poker maths: - Poker maths does not require a university maths degree and after awhile it becomes somewhat automatic. But learning about concepts such as EV and pot odds can save you a lot of money and make you a lot of money. Put in the time to learn these concepts, it is worth it!

5) Learn to lay down your big hands: - AA, KK, QQ, AK may all look very very attractive pre-flop, but none of those hands are unbeatable and if you act like they are then you will lose a lot of money with them. If the board has a lot of straight or flush possibilities and you find tight players playing back at you, there is a very good chance you are beat. Lay it down and save some cash.

6) Do pay attention at the tables: - Use a HUD. Take notes on players. Don't check your email or watch tv while playing. Focus everything on your tables and you will play better.

Ahhh and I forgot

7) Don't be results orientated: - Many times I've been in a situation where a really tight player has raised UTG and I'm on the button with something like KQ and I have folded as I know I'm most likely dominated at this point. The board pops out A J 10 and I catch myself cursing for not calling that bet. But really the majority of the time I am going to be losing money playing that hand and it is the right move regardless of what the flop was. Likewise if I get all my chips in the middle with the second best hand only to hit an unlikely river card to win, it is very easy to go 'wow i'm awesome!' when in actual fact you should had lost that hand and I probably played it poorly. Focus on whether or not you are making the right plays, not if you got lucky or not. Everyone will get lucky from time to time, you make a profit by maximizing your skill.

sound advice for people starting out and also for people who have been playing awhile playing out of my roll always kills me thanx for the refresher thoughts

Nice post OP,

Its good solid fundamental advice like this that keeps us grounded. Its not just for beginners.

I still come to this section to have a read and hopefully pick-up a couple of tips.

Good post BTW, and yes my wife saw me lay down AA the other day. IT was a great call in the end.

very good advice and a must for beginners to read still working on 1, 2 and 3 lol

inti

Nice. have bookmarked it for reference.

Very good advice like alot of others have said not just for beginners but for every one.. I think we all struggle with those from time to time...

Very nice post. Quitting session during tilt is a very important tip that most people do not do since they assume they're playing their A game regardless of how horribly the bad beats piss them off. I often do that as well.

Thanks guys for your appreciation!

Yeah tilt is a big one...it can wipe out winning sessions and more if you are not careful. If you can't control your tilt then I will almost guarantee that you will be a losing play overall.

A useful thread from a new member...It is something of a rarity.
Great tips: Easier said than done

Good tips.

I might add; review your hands. Even if you don't have tracking software you can find a text file of your hands. Pull them once a week or so and look for big losses, big wins, big pairs, ect. Post the ones you have questions about in the hand analysis section for advice.

very good advice for the begginer or the 2nd stage begginer as what I call it.Varience is what a begginer really needs to learn cause like you say your not always going to get lucky chasing and at the end of the day youll end up loosing more being a chaser rather than a person who really has the guts to fold an AA AK AQ from time to time.I learned the hard way loosing my first $300 in less than 3 days thinking i could make it a few thousands by playing very loose and going all in with every AA AK i got

umm...you still should always go all-in with AA and KK pre-flop no matter what!(ok some people might have laid down KK and i think it's wrong...but NEVER lay down AA it's 100% a pre-flop all-in hand!!)

^^^ +1

Have to add also that a tourney structure would be different. Blinds raise and you have to adjust as levels go up.

Good advice all around though for cash and early MTT play.

Actually, I beg to differ with the "NEVER lay down AA it's 100% pre-flop all-in."

While it's true majority of the time, which is 99.99999999%, there are very few selective times where you might wanna consider folding AA pre-flop. If the structure of the tournament is flat where top # gets paid the same and you have a very solid M zone to survive lot of rotations on bubble play but chip leader goes all-in, there's no need to risk bubbling out over 16%. Other than those very few exceptional cases, I agree that it's 100% pre-flop all-in hand. To explain better of what I'm trying to say, here's one case where I folded AA pre-flop.

http://www.cardschat.com/f46/folding...bubble-167465/ (http://www.cardschat.com/f46/folding-aa-pre-flop-satellite-bubble-167465/)

Yeah, this was focused on cash games sorry, should had made that clear

As for folding AA preflop. Yup, there are occasions in tournament play where you should lay it down.

Of course someone folding it in my live tournament game tonight because 'I always lose with it', is probably not the best reason going around

Sort of combining the first three, understand that BRM involves more than how many buyins you have. It also involves not putting yourself in situations where losing a buyin or two will put you off your game. This applies no matter how many buyins you have in your bankroll. When you sense you wouldn't take losing those buyins as well as usual, you can always play lower, or not at all.

Agree! But he was talking about cash games I think...I don't think anyone has ever laid down AA preflop in a cash game...EVER!(and plz don't give me the mis-click example )

Very good advice
We see so many new players who don't understand odds and get so frustrated when their hands don't hold up. 60% is not a certainty, nor is 80%!
BRM is key. the best advice of all!

mis-click or sitout

or disconnect ?

Th anks for posting these tips. It seems like everywhere I look when I googlesearch the internet, they all say that Bankroll Management is the most important to adhere to. Something I think worth adding to your list is 'patience'. This is something I had to work very hard at.

Nice post...Thanks for the tips.Hope it helps to improve my bankroll.
I get easily tilted some times and i should work on controlling it.

One thing I have learned with my BR management is to only take %10 of it to the tables, sng,s, or MTT's. I use to take half or more trying to get a large BR fast only to lose some good hands to chasers or the good old river. So now I play more sng's or mtt's because I seem to always do better at these versus the ring tables. Good advice in your post takethepain. CH