Become a Good Poker Player

What does it take to transform from a complete novice to a card shark? Practice, patience, and a willingness to improve.

Steps

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Basics of Being a Good Poker Player

  1. Learn the rules to a few different poker games. The most popular game at the moment is Texas Hold 'Em, but Omaha and 7 Card Stud are also very common. You can learn poker rules from friends or a simple web search.
  2. Download an online poker room that will allow you to play for virtual money. There are many of these, including pokertactics.org, ultimatebet.com, pokerstars.net, and fulltiltpoker.com.
  3. Create an account and use your free play chips to play poker. Pay attention to which hands tend to win most often and how often certain hands arise. This should become second nature over time.
  4. Once you've played some poker and think you have a good grasp of the rules and tendencies of most players, you're ready to start reading up on poker strategy. Websites like duckspoker.net and pokertips.org as well as books like Doyle Brunson's Super System can be invaluable resources.
  5. When you are consistently winning with play chips, it's time to put something at risk. If there is a casino within driving distance, make the trip and place some low stakes poker. Most casinos offer either a $2-4 or $3-6 Texas Hold 'Em game. These games are usually pretty soft (easy to beat) and provide a good starting point for the novice poker player. If you don't have access to a casino, create a real money account on your favorite online poker room and play whatever limits you feel comfortable with. (Though this is not legal in the US)
  6. Apply the information you've studied to actual competition. Real money players are much better than the play money opponents you've been beating on the internet. If you play with discipline, patience, and intelligence, you are likely to win money.
  7. Continue to play. Talented poker players acquire their skill from thousands upon thousands of hands of experience. If you continue to play poker with discipline and an open mind, you should improve consistently.
  8. Read some books on poker by seasoned poker pros to pick up some tips and tactics.
  9. Learn how to calculate the odds of winning a particular hand and use this information to inform your play.

Being a Better Texas Hold'em Player

  1. Learn which starting hands are statistically favoured to profit in the long run so when you are dealt cards, you only play the hands with a positive expected value.
  2. Learn how to bet against the people you play regularly so that you can get the most chips out of a pot. Pay attention to their playing styles and habits.
  3. Make sure to raise when you believe you have the best hand. If you play no-limit, make your raise a sufficient size to chase away drawing hands that could end up beating yours.
  4. Learn to calculate odds. There are some very easy methods that require little math skills. You can learn to safely call bets on a hand that is favored to lose if the pot is large enough. Learning your pot odds will enable you to call or fold at the right times, earning much more profit in the long run.
  5. Take notice of your position to the dealer button. Try to minimize to play hand out of position (positions just after the button) and try to maximize your hand on the button, and before it. The small blind is the worst and the button is the best position.
  6. Read! There are several sites and forums dedicated to poker strategy, and amazing amounts of books and magazines on the subject of gameplay.
  7. When first starting out, it is advisable to adopt a tight-aggressive strategy until you understand the game mechanics. You can make a profit at lower limit games by simply playing the strongest hands from the best positions, and either raising when your hand is strong or folding if you feel it is beaten.
  8. If you induce a bluff, make sure the "story" you tell is right. Imagine that you have the best hand and try to bet that way. If you pre-flop raise, you opponents most likely assume you have high cards like A-A, A-k, A-Q or A-J, if the flop comes, and you pre-flop raised and the flop is showing some high cards, you should bet because you need others to believe that you have high cards, if the flop doesn't show, high cards, you shouldn't raise because then is your story incorrect and other players will know that you were bluffing the pre-flop raise, and you will most likely get dominated by better hands, you should then check instead.

Tips

  • Don't be discouraged if you hit a losing streak. It can be disheartening to see your money float away, but even the world's best poker players endure downswings. If you continue to play solid poker, you will climb out of it.
  • Poker is a game of patience. Do not play a hand if you don't think you have the best one at the table. Think of poker as a 10,000 inning baseball game.
  • Always make sure that there is at least one opponent at the table who is a recreational poker player. You make the money in this game off of the players who make big mistakes like playing too many hands, calling too much and betting weakly.

Warnings

  • Because of the inherent danger of wagering money, never play poker if you don't have your personal finances in order. In other words, you should never play poker with money that you can't afford to lose.

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