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Online Poker - Beginner Strategies
The key to being a successful poker player at any level is to
discipline and patience. You"re going to need discipline in your starting hand
selection and how you play any given hand. You"re going to need patience to wait
for the right situations at the table and take advantage of them.
Firstly, your most important job as a beginning poker player is
to develop a strong set of starting hand requirements. You need to know which
hands to play in which situations. As Texas Hold "em, especially in No-Limit
form, is the most popular and available variation of online poker, that"s what
we"re going to focus on.
A great tool for beginners to start with is poker literature.
There are many books available from proven poker pros that can start you off
in the right direction. Popular authors and players include Doyle Brunson,
Dan Harrington, and David Sklansky. Most beginner poker books will provide
you with their recommended set of starting hands and in what position at the
table you should play them. When you"re starting out, it is probably wise to
stick to their advice while you gain experience and form your own standards.
Position is power in Hold "em. The earlier position you"re in,
the more of a disadvantage you"re at because you still have a number of
players to act after you. Position rotates clockwise at the start of each
hand. Because your goal is to become a tight-aggressive player, you should
only play premium cards from early position (1st - 3rd) such as high pocket
pairs like A-A and K-K. A-K, often referred to as "Big Slick", is also
playable from early position.
When you do pick up one of these premium hands, you should
usually raise it. If you"re playing no-limit, the standard raise is 3-4
times the size of the big blind. This is a good standard because if you
always raise the same amount preflop, your opponents can"t get a read on
your hand. You raise with premium hands for 2 reasons. Firstly, you want to
thin the field. When you"re holding a big pocket pair, you don"t want to let
a lot of players see a cheap flop and outdraw you. You should raise to make
trash hands think twice about calling. Secondly, when you"ve got such a big
hand, you want to build a bigger pot. When you"re holding pocket Aces, you
want to make your opponents pay to play with you while at the same time
increasing what you expect to win in the pot.
continue...
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