Poker For Novice Players
Poker has grown more popular with its introduction on national television where individuals get the chance to see how the game is played especially when it comes down to the last few tables until the final showdown. What we get to watch on television is a Texas Hold ‘em tournament with no limit on pot prize in play and from afar, spectators will presume that it the game is easy to play. The players looked relaxed and confident. Initially, you would think such but once you try it on your own, you might find that it is not as easy as you thought it would be. Let me demonstrate why.
Best Choice for Newbies
Although you might be excited to get your hands on bigger pot money, all new poker players always start with smaller amount and learn poker piece by piece. Instead of going for no limit games, you should try poker first with low limit games. In fact, it is recommended to start with free poker rooms so that you are slowly introduced to poker without as much financial risk. Then, when you are ready to test what you learned from free poker rooms, you can start betting small with low limit poker games. Most betting for low limit comes with structures of a minimum of $2-$4 up to a maximum of $4-$8. Betting cannot go over this amount set.
Game in Motion
Poker such as what you see in Texas Hold ‘em, starts with blinds to be posted by two players to the left of the dealer. The first player posts a small blind while the next one will post the big blind. Generally, the big blind is twice that of the small blind. Incidentally, the big blind is also the minimum bet for the game. As the game moves on, all players get the chance to post the big and small blind because it is expected that the deal rotates around all players on the table. For this initial play, no other player is required to post any more blinds except the first two.
Cards start flying and betting gets hotter as the game progresses. The goal of the game is to come up with the best card combination to be able to win the pot. Not everyone will stay on until the end and only those who are strong enough can get a shot at it.
Starting To Play Poker
If you are one of the many individuals who would like to start playing poker, I will not be surprised. Many players get excited about the prospect of hitting it big with the jackpots just like what they see when networks broadcast live poker tournaments. But before we start going there, it would be nice to know the game mechanics because poker has branched into different variations of games such as Omaha Holdem, Texas Holdem, Five and Seven Card Stud Poker and even the Hi-Lo variations have become a game of choice for some.
Basics on Cards
When playing poker, a deck of cards is utilized to play the game. Although you might have noted that an ace is the highest card value one can possibly get, poker is more than just getting an ace. You need to combine them into a powerful hand that can make your opponents crumble when the time comes for you to show your cards. But I’m getting ahead of myself. The next best single card you could get is king, then queen, followed by the cards in descending order of value: jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three and two. As for the suits of the cards, there is no one suit with a higher value over the other. In short, all suits are considered equal in value.
Starting Hands
After learning the values of the cards, you need to combine them together to come up with the best combination of 5 cards possible from the cards dealt to you and combine it with the community cards that all players can dip their hands into. Just so you are aware, you will find in poker books and publications that there are about 169 possibilities for the two-card poker hand. Out of this possible number, pro players will be the first to tell you that you will only be able to play 80 of them, about half of your initial odds.
Factors Come into Play
You would probably say to yourself that you can stay on in the game because of the 80 playable hands but you are mistaken because not all of them are any good for any position. When we say position, this is in relation to your seat location from the dealer. The closer you are to the dealer makes it more imperative that you got a strong hand to withstand calls and raises the follow your action. The farther you are from the dealer’s left makes it possible for you to check out the players that made their move before you and calculate poker odds. Now that is for another topic.
Poker Simplified
As a poker player, it is imperative that you start understanding some terms and jargon that you will encounter while playing poker. Sure you know what betting means and you probably understood enough about calling and raising bets from constantly watching a game of poker. But there is still much to be learned about the game such as differentiation check or call or are they just the same. What can a flop mean and why is a turn different from a river? These are some of the terms you will encounter while playing poker so it’s best to get used to them before your opponents realize that you know close to nothing about poker.
Opening Salvo of Poker
At the onset, two players get the chance to place small and big bets and the players who will do so are chosen based on their position relative to the dealer. If they are the persons next to the dealer, then they could start the pot brewing with the small and big blinds as what they are called. These are bets that no other players are supposed to call or raise, at least not during that time.
Once that’s done, the dealer starts handing out or dealing cards face down around the table. Each player starting from his left gets them face down. The dealer is the last to get his cards. Now here is where betting starts with the player to the person’s left who posted the small blind. Depending on what cards they have and the odds of improving their hand, a player may call or check, raise the bet of the previous player or fold. After this initial round, the flop or three community cards are dealt on the board face up. Any player can use the cards here and betting goes around a second time. The fourth card known as the turn is placed facing up on the middle of the table too. Similar to the flop, any player can grab it to combine with their hand and betting follows this single card. The river or the fifth card is then dealt face up which signals the start of the final round of betting for the players. All players remaining seated on the table are then supposed to show their five card hand, two from the initial hole cards and three from the table or board. The player with the best 5 card hand or combination gets to pocket the pot for this game.
Basic Poker Strategy
For this article I'm going to assume that you're a beginning to somewhat experienced amature poker player. I'm going to assume you know the rankings of the hands and the basic way the game is played.
If you don't, go read up on the basic rules and then come back to this article.
Calculating Pot Odds
One of the first things that you'll want to learn if you haven't already is how to calculate your pot odds.
Here I'm going to show you the simple strategy that I use to calculate my pot odds, and talk about a few advanced concepts as well.
Let's set up an example, say you hold the AK of hearts, and the flop comes 9h6d4h. You're first to act, and your opponent bets out $40 into a $120 pot.
There's now $160 in the pot, and it costs you $40 to keep playing. What do you do?
The first thing you need to do is to count your "outs", or cards that will help you to win the hand.
We'd like to hit one of the remaining 9 hearts that are left in the deck in order to make the nut flush.
Depending on what you think your opponent has, an Ace or a King may win the hand for you as well, giving us a total of 6 more outs.
I use the rule of 4 and 2. The rule is that you can count your outs on the flop, and multiply them by 4 to figure out your percentage of catching one of them.
So, there are 9 more hearts in the deck, 9 outs multiplied by 4 equals 36%, close to 3-1 odds for us to hit on the turn or the river.
Add in the other 6 outs for the ace or the king and we have a 60% chance of beating our opponent, making this situation an obvious call.
Another thing you'll need to consider are what players refer to as "implied odds". Implied odds are used to calculate the amount of money that you can win in the future, and can get a little tricky.
Let's look back at our flush hand. If our opponent has $500 in his stack, and we hit our flush on the turn or river, how much more money will he put into the pot? Of course you never know for sure, but it's a good thing to always consider.
For example, if you have a "gut shot" strait draw, you only have 4 cards in the deck that can improve your hand.
If your opponent has $500 behind him, and bets $20 into the pot, and you're pretty confident that you can win $200 or more of his stack, it's not a bad idea to chase hoping to hit and get paid off big.
When You're First Starting Out
Players who are first starting out make some very common and easily iidentifiable mistakes. One of the biggest mistakes is not learning about managing your money properly, known in the poker world as your "bankroll."
It doesn't matter if you're the best player on this planet, you're not going to win 100% of the time. It's impossible.
Even the biggest pro's plan on losing a good percentage of the time, their goal is simply to win more money then they lose.
A good rule of thumb to live by is to never play with more than 5-10% of your bankroll at any given time. 10% being only when you're experienced at the level you're playing at, and know that you have a good chance of winning.
Banroll management is extremely important, for more information on it see our banroll management article.
Playing Too Many Hands
This is another very common mistake that new players tend to make. They limp in out of position with weak hands like 8/9o, and they over value mediore hands such as KJ.
In my opinion, it's nearly impossible for a brand new player to play "too tight". So if you're brand new to the game, stick to only playing premium cards for awhile until you get a good feel for the game, and understand basic concepts such as playing in position.
Not Understanding the Importance Of Position
Many new players are completely unaware of how important position in poker really is. When you have to act before the majority of the rest of the table, you need a strong hand to play. When you're acting last, on the button, you can open up your game and raise with many hands that you should fold in eary position.
It takes experience at the tables to really learn the importance of playing position. Just know that if a total amature player, and a pro, where playing heads up, but the amature got to play the button the whole time, he'd be a favorite to win.
Playing Too Loose/Passive
There is a strategy that many players recommend, and for players new to the game, or losing players trying to become winning players, I strongly recommend this strategy as well. It's called "tight/aggressive".
What that means is these players are generally fairly tight before the flop, not wanting to get involved without a premium hand or a positional advantage. When they do get involved, they play extremely aggressively after the flop, putting pressure on thier opponents.
I talk more in depth about playing a tight/aggressive game in the "Playing Styles" article.
Bluffing Too Often
I love these players in Las Vegas cash games. The types of players who bluff way too often, I like to call them ATM's.
Usually, these players not only bluff too often, but they put too much at risk when they do bluff.
The problem with bluffing for too much money is this. Say there's $40 in the pot, and the overly aggressive player pushes all iin on the flop for $200.
I run into this situaton with amature players all of the time. The only way you're going to get a call is if someone has a strong enough hand to call you with. If you're beat, you'll get called and lose your whole stack. If you're not beat, everyone will fold anyway.
A much better approach would be to bet out $20-$40, it has the same effect, and you don't risk going broke every single hand.
I've outlined a few of the most common mistakes that I run into in this article. Do your best to avoid these mistakes, practice as much as possible, and you'll be well on your way to being a winning poker player.
Tournament Strategy
There are many different approaches to tournament play, here I'm going to outline the strategy that has worked well for me and other players in the past.
Many players, including some pro's, say that there's no difference in strategy between tournaments and cash games. I disagree. In a tournament, you can't reload. If you lose you're out.
Say you're dealt pocket aces 6 times in a row, and you go all in and are called by a bigger stack every time. Statistically, you're supposed to lose, and will bust out of the tournament about 1/5 times holding AA vs. a random hand.
Preserving your stack size is an incredibly important aspect of tournament play.
Tournaments can be divided into 3 separate "stages of play". There's the beginning stage, when the blinds are small compared to the average stack sizes. The middle stage, when the blinds are becoming larger compared to your stack size, and then the end game, or "desperation mode", when the big blind is approaching 10% of your total stack size.
All of these stages require a different strategy, so let's get started.
Beginning Stages
In most poker tournaments, at the beginning, the blinds are going to be small when compared to your stack size.
Like many players, I use a very tight strategy in the beginning stages of play. The reason is simple.
In tournament play your only goal is to survive as long as possible. If you gamble with a few big hands and double up at the beginning, it's not a big deal. Doubling your stack from 1k to 2k will give you a slight advantage, but doesn't guarantee any success in the tournament.
Playing a big pot early on and losing however, means your tournament life is over.
In the early stages, I'm either looking to fold and preserve my chips, or double up with the least amount of risk possible.
My favorite hands to do this with are sets and big flushes. This means I'll be folding almost everything besides pairs and suited aces that I can see the flop cheap with. If I hit, I'll try and win a big pot, if I don't, I can fold and keep my stack in tact.
I'll play premium hands such as AA, KK, AK, and AQ suited as well, but I'm not going to risk my entire stack over a big pair after the flop. I can throw away AA or KK easily early on. I'm not saying you shouldn't call someone all in pre flop with AA, but if they get all excited after the flop, there's a very real possibility that they have your aces crushed and you'll be going home early if you can't let them go.
When I do get premium hands early on, I'll play them very strait forward, usually raising 5x the BB pre flop to discourage a lot of action. Once the flop hits, I'll try a continuation bet, but I have no problem slowing down if my opponent acts like he's got a real hand.
Middle Stages
I consider the middle stages of a tournament anytime you have between 11 and 70 big blinds in your stack.
During this time, I open up my game and start to play extremely aggressively, much like I would in a cash game, trying to build a big stack to for the later stages.
This doesn't mean I'm going to take a lot of risks though. I'll still play fairly tight. I'll also keep an eye out for opportunities to push smaller stacks around and steal the blinds. My goal for now is to take down small pots with little risk, or catch a real hand and double my stack with minimal risk.
I'm a big advocate of "small ball" poker at this stage of the game. Meaning I'm not likely to put a big percentage of my stack at risk without a great shot of winning the hand.
If you're running really well, sometimes you can reach the "bubble", or even the final table, while your stack is still large enough to play the "middle stages" style of play.
As the bubble approaches, pick on the short to medium sized stacks. They know that they just need to survive a little while longer to make the money, and will give up pots that they'd normally fight for relatively easy. This is the time to really work on building your stack.
When I play a tournament, my goal is always to place first. Squeezing into the money just doesn't do it for me, so I'm not afraid to take a few risks on the bubble in order to build a massive stack for the later stages of the tournament.
Late Stages
Sometimes you can make the final table, even win a tournament without worrying about this part of the game. You also need to know when your opponents are in the late stages, or "desperation mode", as I like to call it.
This happens when you drop down to around 10x the big blind in your stack. You'll need to take action quick while you still have enough chips to do damage with.
You're looking to push all in and hopefully steal the blinds or get called and double up. Most of the time you won't have the chance to be patient with this, so you're forced to push with almost any two cards from later positions as long as you can deal some damage to the stacks around you.
When my opponents are in desperation mode, but I'm not, I like to start raising more frequently. Instead of raising 3-5 times the big blind, I can raise 1.5 times the big blind, and it usually has the same affect. People are either afraid to play and fold, or they'll push all in, giving me the choice to escape cheaply or call if I have a real hand.
Most of the action you see on TV revolves around the later stages of a tournament, which is why you'll see so many all in moves. Most pros don't like to go all in, and don't usually like to risk all of their chips even if they do have a slight edge.
