Newbie and Confused by the Beginner Poker/Poker Strategy Articles Section

Hi!

I'm new here. My background: played poker some time with friends in real life without a clue. Then got inspired by this short video: http://www.bloomberg.com/video/94782773-the-psychology-of-risk-trading-and-poker.html.
As I have a little background in forex/trading. At least I didn't lose more than I made.

So I thought I want to find out about odds and such because it might make a lot more sense to set some standards. Started out with your Beginner Poker/Poker Strategy Articles but already got confused in the very beginning by the incomprehensible and countless jargon and complex strategies mentioned from the very beginning. Not a native English speaker. I mean come on guys! When you want to start out in forex you go straight to http://www.babypips.com/school/ and you can proceed step by step from point zero with the appropriate jargon come on the side.

But here? First you get the jargon with incomprehensible complex setups for a noob, then you can learn about the rules of the game at all, and then some odds/strategy. Brilliant setup I can say.

Anyways I am here because CardsChat e-mail support told me the forum is the place to start, not by reading of your articles. So I am here and waiting for what do you recommend me to do next.

Support said this is the best place on the net(?) to learn about poker in a comprehensible way (shameless self-promo, OK), but whatever, I can learn from a book as well, so all in all what is the best place in your opinion to start as a newbie? Which site, book, or whatever learning material? Free or paid.

Green personality type here.

I would recommend you to play quiet a lot free games on whatever pokersite, then read some threads with hands getting analized by players who play successfully. Lateron move to read some books or watch videos.

Your first lesson may be your most important lesson.

Patience. Getting comfortable with the rules of poker won't take long. Learning the real game of poker will take a good long time. There is a lot to learn.

For the lingo part, this might help;

https://www.cardschat.com/forum/learning-poker-57/hand-analysis-lingo-other-poker-terms-80492/

To get comfortable on any site, use the play money all sites ofter till you can realize the overall play of all the players at those tables is terrible. There are things to learn via play money games, but ideally you don't want to play there forever.

Unless you are filthy rich, and live where it is easy to deposit on any site, learn about BRM (bank roll management ) earlier than you think it might be necessary. Once you get the bug, you might find yourself obsessed with starting another game, or adding another table and find yourself in a horrible losing streak. Learn asap what doing what you are doing is trying to tell you. Often that means taking a break.

Again, if you want to get good, in the least amount of time possible, the first lesson you must learn and incorporate into your poker being is patience.

Thanks for your insights.

Yeah, bankroll management is the most interesting part, hence my nickname! And it is the same with trading.

So do you recommend to play at first as much as my can, without any clue yet, to translate the situation to my language?

Do you think I should necessarily go for the paid sites's free money at first or is it OK if I go to a completely free site as well?

I mean I may want to use that free money from the paid sites when later on I actually have some clue about the game. I don't know if I can get banned for double registration from same IP later.

hello and welcome to the forum

now to address a few things
1st off, do you live in the USA? because that really limits the sites you can play at, so do you have any online sites downloaded yet??

next, if your really new, freerolls are the way to start probally, most sites have them, tho it can be real hard to even make a dime, as well as play money games-which can have better game play than freerolls

theres lots of books, training sites....phil gordens little green book is one many people say is a good place to start, ive never read any so...lol

never join a site twice- they can shut your acct(s) down, you can play for free and always deposit when you're ready (or just build from nothing)

learn your way around this site and read more here, it will get easier,
and ask any questions about anything, anytime

Thanks for your insight.

No, I'm not American so I'm free to chose any site I wish.

About Phil Gordon's books: it says the Black one is for the beginners, the Green one is already intermediate:

The term freeroll is already too technical to me. Heck, I asked in the most simple way, in layman's terms: is it OK for as a beginner to go to a site to play on a completely free poker site with no money involded or should I juggle with the pay sites?

Hi bankroll

The paid sites, like party poker, PKR, pokerstars all have play money too. It would probably be best to start with one of those and then transfer over to the "real money" section of the site once you're comfortable with the software.

I started playing poker 6 months ago and CardsChat was really (and still is!) very helpful to me. I played on play money tables for just one week. I don't really think you need to do more. It's also helpful to play on play money tables to work out how newsites work - how to tailor options to your taste, adding things like 4-colour decks etc. After one week I switched to real money and started on the beginners' tables. Most sites have these.

If you want to play on cash tables then best to start with lowest limits of 2nl or 4nl/5nl. You will need a MINIMUM of $40 for 2nl and $80/$100 for 4nl/5nl. If you want to play tournaments then as suggested above you can play freerolls. This means there is no entry fee - completely free - so you risk no money. The problem is that there are thousands entering and play is quite bingoish so you may struggle to learn in the beginning. They also take hours sonmetimes 4/5 hours and even if you win might only be $20 or so. You could also play for 4 hours and come away with nothing. If I were you I'd try S&Gs (sit and go's). STTs (single table tournaments) have 9/10 players only so you get more of a chance and they can cost as little as 20c to enter.

Good luck!

Thanks for your insights.

My post was deleted by the moderator because of a link. Do you remember? I have no idea why.

I wrote: I'm not from the US so I am free to chose which site to join.

I linked to Phil Gordon's site, the guy you recommended. You wrote about his Green book and I said on his site the Green is the intermediate and the Black is the beginner. But it's forbidden to link to that? Strange.

bankroll said:

I linked to Phil Gordon's site, the guy you recommended. You wrote about his Green book and I said on his site the Green is the intermediate and the Black is the beginner. But it's forbidden to link to that? Strange.

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Just read the green book. I believe that the black book just covers very basic aspects of poker, so as long as you already understand that then you will be fine.

bankroll said:

Thanks for your insights.

My post was deleted by the moderator because of a link. Do you remember? I have no idea why.

I wrote: I'm not from the US so I am free to chose which site to join.

I linked to Phil Gordon's site, the guy you recommended. You wrote about his Green book and I said on his site the Green is the intermediate and the Black is the beginner. But it's forbidden to link to that? Strange.

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That is not the link that caused your post to be deleted. It is fine to link to Phil Gordon's site.

When you mention paid sites, I think of subscription sites, like wsop, or ZEN premium. I'm sure there are many others that I never hear of.

Perhaps you are talking about Real Money poker versus Play Money poker. Almost every Real Money poker sites have play money games. I can not think of any that do not have play money games.

ayrton said:

Just read the green book. I believe that the black book just covers very basic aspects of poker, so as long as you already understand that then you will be fine.

Click to expand...

So do you think just because I played some hands in real life I can already skip a 300 page poker book and go straight to the intermediate level? Hm.

On the other hand, many recommend the Harrington series, including CardsChat's very own Strategy Articles. How does it compare to Phil Gordon's work?

bankroll said:

So do you think just because I played some hands in real life I can already skip a 300 page poker book and go straight to the intermediate level? Hm.

On the other hand, many recommend the Harrington series, including CardsChat's very own Strategy Articles. How does it compare to Phil Gordon's work?

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Read both, and everything else you can read. Then read them again after you play many more thousands of hands.

bankroll said:

So do you think just because I played some hands in real life I can already skip a 300 page poker book and go straight to the intermediate level? Hm.

On the other hand, many recommend the Harrington series, including CardsChat's very own Strategy Articles. How does it compare to Phil Gordon's work?

Click to expand...

Sorry, i misread your original post and didnt notice you have little experience with poker.
You should actually read the black book then, to get some knowledge on the basic rules and understand how a player thinks. Then read the green book, while playing a little poker. I think its important to play inbetween reading as it allows you to test out the advice given and gives you an idea of what its talking about.

I have never read any of harringtons books, but many people recommend them. One book i would recommend is Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen. The book is a walkthrough of every hand Hansen played at a tournament and gives a good insight into how a player thinks

ayrton said:

Then read the green book, while playing a little poker.

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Obviously. It makes sense to play in between reading.

ayrton said:

I have never read any of harringtons books, but many people recommend them.

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The Harrington books are at least accessible (available on Amazon.com), though The Black Book is a little obscured: it's out of print. If it's so good no one wants to buy it, so no one prints it? Strange.

ayrton said:

One book i would recommend is Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen. The book is a walkthrough of every hand Hansen played at a tournament and gives a good insight into how a player thinks

Click to expand...

I guess that's not for a starter but later!

Thanks for your insights.