A new player looking to learn.

To get to the point I have been playing 0.10c SNG tournaments on pokerstars.com for the purpose of gaining experience and hopefully making a bit of money to play at higher stakes like 0.25c and push on as I get better.

I've been getting continuously better at these tournaments but after trying out a 0.25c tournament I was shocked by the difference between 0.10c tournaments and 0.25c tournaments and found out that I had to change my style alot. I finished 14th of 90 player on that 0.25c tournament but found out that I was really unconfident during play.

I want to simply ask you guys for tips on getting better at playing online poker and preferably which type of games I should be playing. A list of good poker books I should read would also be quiet nice.

Thanks in advance,
Hyski

Hyski said:

I want to simply ask you guys for tips on getting better at playing online poker and preferably which type of games I should be playing. A list of good poker books I should read would also be quiet nice.

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Tips on getting better: Do hand analysis. That's really the most important one.

Which games you should be playing: The ones you are good at. Preferably ones that fit your personality & talents.

Good poker books: Start here. Everyone wants to buy books or subscriptions to trainings sites, or get coaching. But really you can learn a TON about the game without ever paying a dime.

As C9 says pick the game you feel most comfortable with, SnG, MTT or Cash.
Then stick with that game until you feel you are running over the competition.

Also you didn't say how big your bankroll is.
Make sure you read up on Bankroll Management and STICK to it.
Very Important!!!!

Get a copy of Poker Tracker (Hold'em Manager) and analyze your game after at least 20,000 hands.
Look at your game and be honest with yourself, are you playing too loose, too tight etc.
Also check out a few of the books available, Harrington, Super System etc.
Also if you have questions about your hands post some hand histories on the HH forums, you will get some great, albeit very honest responses

Good Luck

Leo 50 said:

As C9 says pick the game you feel most comfortable with, SnG, MTT or Cash.
Then stick with that game until you feel you are running over the competition.

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*thumbs up*

Look at the strategy articles at the top of the page.

also check out the links in this thread. There's lots of information available in here, a small section on SnG's but some of the cash game stuff is tranferable to the SnG players.

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/learning-poker-57/5k-post-1kish-compendium-cc-threads-192979/

How and how much you need to change your play depends on how you've been playing. It's not very difficult to win at the lowest levels, be it ring, SNG or MTT. The most straightforward way is to make fewer poor plays than your opponents. They'll make plenty, which leads to them basically handing you money, so the idea is to hand back less.

The simplest way to make fewer poor plays is to play TAG. While this may not maxiimize your win rate if you have a significant ability advantage, that condition probably doesn't apply. However, you don't have to play this way forever; indeed, you should expand your game as you learn and improve. But for now...

I would suggest reading > Phil Gordon's "Little Green Book". There's a good chance you'll be able to pick it up from your local library (if not, you might be able to order it at your library as an 'inter-library book loan').

Look for articles like "10 top mistakes beginning players make" (< stuff like this)

Practice more playing at the limits you are comfortable playing. Once you feel it's no longer a challenge, maybe try to move back up again to see how you do.

Poker Orifice said:

I would suggest reading > Phil Gordon's "Little Green Book". There's a good chance you'll be able to pick it up from your local library (if not, you might be able to order it at your library as an 'inter-library book loan').

Look for articles like "10 top mistakes beginning players make" (< stuff like this)

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^^This. That was the first poker book I read and I had so many "Aha!" moments during it's ridiculous.

I can also recommend reading the Golden Archive here at the forums. It has a lot of very, very good threads:

WA/WB Concept
Analyzing Your Own Hands
Tourney Stack sizes
Some more on analyzing your play (Tournaments)