Poker Set Up / Checklist

When I had golf lessons we broke everything down into a setup checklist and my game improved over night. Everything from addressing the ball and direction, grip, stance, practice swing, follow through position etc.

In poker I'm just starting to look at what my main consideratons are in the game.

Obviously position is a key factor - I found a good intro vid on everythingpoker.com. I look at stack sizes, who I think is short stacked and likely to shove, how far off the bubble is, my position in the game etc.

Top sports pros will set themselves up for each move they make. I'm wondering what the equivalent set up is for a hand of poker?

I think if you are going to play at a high level then it's very important to have a plan for the hand you are about to play. That's were your own strategy for your range and position will keep you ahead of the game.

steveiam said:

I think if you are going to play at a high level then it's very important to have a plan for the hand you are about to play. That's were your own strategy for your range and position will keep you ahead of the game.

Click to expand...

So what would be the key elements of your strategy?

The key elements if you are just starting out would be to stick to ABC poker keep it simple play when in position and try and develop a tight aggressive image and build from there. When you have more experience you can introduce other aspects of the game.

The key elements would be to consider the tendencies of the other players at your table and decide how to play your hand based on this information. Some players you can play any two cards and win every time just by barreling, other players are going to kill you unless you have a very nice hand. Be careful if you are exploiting people not to do it too much because you will be looked up by observant opponents. Probably just try to play solid and pick your spots very carefully for big bluffs; a lot of small bluffs, c-bets, turn bets will take down a lot of pots against most players and win you a lot of chips, when you are running the big bluffs you need to have a sound understanding of who you are attempting to bluff. In tournament poker, table image at the early/middle stages is not that important because you are mostly up against donks who will not notice or care about what you are doing and you will get moved around a lot anyway as the donks bust out, later on when you are more settled at a table you can exploit a particular table image more effectively. Try to get your chips in the middle when you are a favourite, don't play marginal hands out of position, etc.

i took about 20 minutes to write out a massive post but then it signed me out and i lose it
so i will write a shortened one. still hope it's decent and it was just off the top of my head so could be different from the last one haha.

1-choose a poker site. start off on one of the smaller ones, i seen you are on 888, that is good as there will be very few regs and tons of recs just starting. after a couple of months you can move on to one of the big 2 sites, once you are fairly confident. that is of course pokerstars or Full Tilt, or both. but don't be in any rush.

2- deposit a bankroll. only deposit what you can afford to lose. i had to deposit so many times for the first 4/5 months of playing online. don't expect to win straight away.
you could also try to build it up from freerolls, but imo it is better just depositing, even a small amount.

3- select which type of holdem (i assume) you would like to play- tourny/ cash/ sng. and stick to it for a while. you want to get good at one form rather than average at all. also when it comes to studying all 3 formats are totally different and have totally different concepts required to do well.

4- sign up for a training site. this could just be on youtube, there is a lot of good material available for free. this is so you can hear from good players what you should be doing at say, different stages of a tournament in order to have a chance of winning them.

5- choose which days you are going to play and which days you are going to study. don't play random hours or sign up for a tournament where if you go deep you aren't going to be able to finish it because you are going out.

6- set up a good environment to play in. try be at peace when you play, not annoyed/ distracted or whatever. get a decent seat/ desk/ laptop (comp)/ mouse. have a bottle of water next to you. have food that is ready to go on a 5 min break.

7- the poker. i know this is what you actually asked for, but there is so much more about poker leading up to the hand that is vital to do well.
some things to look out for-
weak/ strong players. who's tilting. blind levels. how often blinds go up. how many blinds you have. who is a nit/ who is loose. who is sitting out. who always calls your cbet and who folds if they miss the flop. what stage of the tournament you are at. who has big stack/ short stack- how are they playing them. what are your ranges for opening from early position vs late position. these are just some ideas here. there will be a lot better people to advise you when just starting. look for videos.

when starting imo you should just be playing solid hands, try to get the spewy players to give away chips when they hit weak top pair and you have a good kicker, or two pair etc. don't get fancy. just play tight and aggressive when you enter pots. you can loosen up when you move up in stakes and people actually fold.

hope this felps, just some ideas on a checklist type thing. note that it is as vital to prepare well for playing and get good funadementals than it is actually playing. if you prepare well and know your stuff you will do well when playing

I think no one else has to post here. U`ve pointed everything. I wonder what more u would have posted in ur 1st one?

dominoXXL said:

I think no one else has to post here. U`ve pointed everything. I wonder what more u would have posted in ur 1st one?

Click to expand...

haha basically everything was explained in more detail, like each point

Thanks indahood for taking the time to post that. There's some interesting points I'll come back to when I get time aside. I may be on my 24hr post limit (which I think includes edits) so may be later tomorrow.

The Nuder said:

Thanks indahood for taking the time to post that. There's some interesting points I'll come back to when I get time aside. I may be on my 24hr post limit (which I think includes edits) so may be later tomorrow.

Click to expand...

no problem man glad i could help yeah that is annoying at the start i remember basically abandoning threads mid convo for the day because i ran out of posts haha