Where did you start?

K

King Joffrey

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When you guys started to really start enjoying poker and decided you wanted to get better where did you start? What did you focus on learning and mastering when you began?

So far that is my biggest issue is I don't know where to begin, what to focus on, or how to take my game to the next level.

How many of you felt like this starting out and how did you fix it?
 
dcor

dcor

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Understanding hand values preflop is a starting point. Learn how to play certain preflop hands by position. Also, I would highly recommend playing online and using a hud (holdem manager or poker tracker.) Learn to understand what the stats mean as well as player profiling. There is a ton of gold in these forums....heres a good link to start with. I don't know if you are wanting to play cash or not...but I think it teaches you a lot more fundamentals starting out (edit: I feel like a cash player can play tournaments better than a tournament can switch to cash. Here's the deal though. You need to pick either cash or tournaments and stick to that for a while until you figure out the difference between both of them.....work on one game, get it straight. If you feel like you want to switch to one or the other, do your research before you dive in)....thats just me though...Also, watch videos if you can find them.

https://www.cardschat.com/f49/archive-compendium-195602/

this has some of the most insightful and explanatory threads in cardschat.
 
K

King Joffrey

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Understanding hand values preflop is a starting point. Learn how to play certain preflop hands by position. Also, I would highly recommend playing online and using a hud (holdem manager or poker tracker.) Learn to understand what the stats mean as well as player profiling. There is a ton of gold in these forums....heres a good link to start with. I don't know if you are wanting to play cash or not...but I think it teaches you a lot more fundamentals starting out (edit: I feel like a cash player can play tournaments better than a tournament can switch to cash. Here's the deal though. You need to pick either cash or tournaments and stick to that for a while until you figure out the difference between both of them.....work on one game, get it straight. If you feel like you want to switch to one or the other, do your research before you dive in)....thats just me though...Also, watch videos if you can find them.

https://www.cardschat.com/f49/archive-compendium-195602/

this has some of the most insightful and explanatory threads in cardschat.

Very much appreciated thank you!
 
Propane Goat

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Some common mistakes made by new players including myself are limping into way too many pots pre-flop, ignoring the ramifications of position, and overvaluing mediocre hands such as KT, QJ, A5, etc.

Also, you should get started as soon as possible on learning how to count outs and calculate pot odds, because you cannot advance to any decent level without these skills. Being able to do these calculations will help keep you from constantly losing chips by calling off your stack chasing draws without the proper odds, for example.

I chose to focus on tournaments starting out because I could play in freerolls and practice the basics without worrying about spewing money. I'm not aware of any particular advantage in starting with tourneys over cash games, beyond being able to experience many more hands with your losses limited to just the buy-in.
 
JusSumguy

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So far that is my biggest issue is I don't know where to begin, what to focus on
Card selection, and table position to start. From there you go to strategy.

You have to have a firm grasp of card selection based on position before strategy can make sense.

Oh... and try not to limp in an unopened pot. ;)

-
 
AtiFCOD

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I play poker cos I love to play poker. :) I enjoyed it when I played governor of poker, a poker program on my PC and later when I played live in big GTD tournaments.

I got better in poker mainly by playing a lot of tourneys and by reading about it in forums/books.
There are also some very good videos about it on the net.
 
WeenieSVK

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I can only recommend you to watch videos on pokerstars.tv they are called everything poker. I watched them all when I started to play and I learned basics from every aspect of this game. I bet you will find them on youtube too :)
 
Juanes1913

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Hi, you can focus on preflop cardselection and table position.
Also I recommend you watch poker videos and see the way they play any top pair out of position and all that tricks they dominate pretty well
greetings!
 
DrazaFFT

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I always love to play poker and played online and in home games for few years now but didnt really know anything about poker beside rules. I started playing seriously when ftp was back. I played only freerols on ftp for few months, then i find this forum i find out about free bankrols claim them and lost them all. That was the point where i realized that i need to learn if i want to have some success. Started with watchig wpt and with CC, now im reading harrington on online cash...
 
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ph0n3_j4ck

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I got really interested when i started in about high school. My bro and I would always watch wsop. We didn't even realize that they only showed the action hands. When i started playing, it was something else. It was BORING as heck. All i wanted was action! I figured out that wasn't the way to go about poker if i was to get any better. I started playing so many more hands online and with my friends. Not sure how good I am right now, cause I don't use any tracking systems, but I know that I am improving every day.
 
EvertonGirl

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I started to play poker online a few years ago when I downloaded PS. The best download ever!

I only played play money back then and I was winning lots of play money, thought I was the poker queen, turned out to be beginners luck :D

I never really played that much online till this year where I have improved and found out there is a maths to the game/sport I love. (hate maths lol). I love everything about poker, even the studying (which I hated doing at school lol)
 
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Demian151

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Play for real money. even if its just for pennies. poker is not poker without real risk. start with limit hold'em. learn the science of it first. pot odds position and relative starting hands. play tight, like super tight toss JJ UTG. stay away from short handed games until you get better. read, read, and most importantly read. OH, and theres an article in here somewhere by a woman who used to wait tables and now makes 100k+/year. find that and read it. she has some great advice on starting out.
 
dcor

dcor

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Play for real money. even if its just for pennies. poker is not poker without real risk. start with limit hold'em. learn the science of it first. pot odds position and relative starting hands. play tight, like super tight toss JJ UTG. stay away from short handed games until you get better. read, read, and most importantly read. OH, and theres an article in here somewhere by a woman who used to wait tables and now makes 100k+/year. find that and read it. she has some great advice on starting out.

I don't quite know that throwing away jj utg is exactly great advice. No offense...utg range should be tight, but I think tossing jj is a little hasty.
 
Poker Orifice

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When I started out playing online I got right into reading alot almost immediately. It just seemed like the logical thing to do. One of my first posts on Cardschat was asking for opinions from the other members regarding what books would be good for a beginner to read (I think I wrote 'Intermediate' skill level though... cuz back then I wasn't good enough to know that I really wasn't any good at all, LoL).

I began playing poker quite a long time ago ... as soon as I was able to hold the cards in my hands (think 'Beatles' era). I played a fair bit & even got half serious about it in my teens.

If you're starting out I would strongly suggest reading these books:

Phil Gordon's 'Little Green Book'

Then if you're planning on playing tournament poker, read these:
Harrington On Hold'em Vol.1 (nlhe tournament)

Harrington On Hold'em Vol.2 (end game strategy)

The time you invest in reading this books will save you a ton of time spent floundering. (you should be able to pick these up via your local library... most will order them in for you if they don't have them on their shelves).
 
jazzaxe

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One of the things I don't like about the America access sites is the lack of fixed limit holdem. There are not enough games to make it worthwhile. I noticed on Juicy Steaks that there is no game usually above nickel/dime. Why even play for that amount?
 
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