Hand reading is one of the toughest skills for many aspiring poker players. It’s easy to read a book and learn about pot odds, learn about playing aggressively, and so forth. But many players, especially many new players, are lost at sea when it comes to hand reading. They don’t even know where to start.

A lot of hand reading is deductive reasoning coupled with thousands of hands worth of observation with a little psychology thrown in. In other words, it’s a fairly complex process. But some hand reading is pleasantly simple.

The most simple form is the “giveaway” where your opponent does one thing that’s just a dead giveaway about what they have. You may not be able to nail it down to two exact cards, but you can narrow their range enough that you can really take advantage.

Every player performs a “giveaway” once in a while, but the inexperienced and amateur players you’ll find in your local $1-$2 NL game or home game probably do them all the time. Obviously, every player is different, but here are four common preflop “giveaways” that I see and exploit a lot while I play….  read rest of article at Noted Poker Authority

By Eric Lynch
In all of my time playing poker, I’ve found that most successful players tend to fall into one of two categories. One category is the player who always attempts to be the table captain. This player attempts to constantly bend the will of everyone at the table to conform to his game or suffer the consequences. Typically, this player is aggressive and enjoys the fact that the other players at the table have to basically play their game with him. I realize that this sounds kind of negative, but it really isn’t. Some of the best players I know are table captains. They have a presence at the table that often commands respect and yields results.

There is also a second set of successful players, and this is more my camp. This set is not necessarily better or worse than the first set, just different stylistically. These players let the situation dictate their table persona rather than forcing the table to bend to their will. This style basically revolves around assessing the players at the table and then adapting your game to best suit the situation with which you are presented. For example, if you are at a table where everyone is superaggressive, you simply sit back and pick your spots to selectively play back at them, knowing that their overaggressiveness will eventually pay you off when they overplay a hand against you. Conversely, if the table is superpassive, you can put on your table captain hat and start raising a lot and running the table.

I mention these styles so that everyone knows where I’m coming from. Every player is different, and has a style that works for him. One of my biggest strengths is recognizing different table situations and…. read rest of article at Card Player Magazine

By Kathy Watterson and Lou Krieger
Kathy Watterson, who is my co-author on a soon-to-be released book that’s all about Internet poker, co-authored this column with me. Some of this material will appear in that book, although in a somewhat different form. This column is aimed at beginning players, particularly newcomers to “brick and mortar” and online casino poker, or those who might have been playing for a while, but never stopped to think about what it takes to become a winning player.Poker is a game of money played with cards; it’s not a game of pots played with money. It’s also a game of skill, not of chance, and players who go at it solely by the seat of their pants stand no more chance of winning at poker than they do at roulette. Without a solid basis for making decisions about whether to check, bet, call, fold, raise, or reraise, you might just as well play the lottery. Winning poker players understand strategic concepts, and they apply them with precision and discipline. Let’s look at some.

Win money, not pots: Anyone can win pots, but winning money is the object of the game. Pots are only incidental. If your goal is to win the most pots, that’s easy. Just play every hand and call every bet until the bitter end, and you’ll win every pot you possibly can. But you’ll lose a ton of money in the process. The very best players….  read rest of article at Card Player Magazine

By Matt Matros

Try to play correctly from the outset

As a poker coach, I’ve had a wide variety of players ask me for advice. Some are middle-limit players who are trying to take their games to the next level. Some are regulars on the tournament circuit who just want to bounce ideas around. Some are rank beginners. I’ve found, however, that whatever a player’s skill level, his strategy is largely formed by how he learned to play poker in the first place.

There are generally three methods that players use to learn poker. One method is to start by playing every hand. In all likelihood, this will initially result in a large loss of money. But then our player will begin to play fewer and fewer hands until, eventually, he hits the sweet spot, where he can actually turn a profit. A benefit of this method is that it forces the beginner to learn how to play with subpar holdings. A downside is that he may go broke before he ever learns how to play well.

A second approach is to start out playing extremely tight, probably taking a small loss or grinding out a small profit almost every session, with very few swings toward the extremes. As the new player gains experience, he gradually adds more and more hands until, eventually, he becomes…. read rest of article at Card Player Magazine

No Limit Holdem is a very easy game to learn, but difficult to master. Here is the actual quote, made famous and credited to Mike Sexton.

“No Limit Texas Holdem takes a minute to learn, and a lifetime to master.”

This quote is true, but with a few no limit holdem tips to use on your game, you can improve your chances of winning significantly.

This article takes a look at a handful of poker tips you can apply to your No Limit Holdem poker game. These tips are designed to be used by new and entry level poker players looking to make quick improvements in their game, and to get a basic understanding of some of the principles and strategies you should be thinking about at the poker table.
 
Tips for Playing Your Starting Poker Hands:
 
There are a lot of starting hand guides available, this isn’t one of them. These tips are quick helpers to get the foundation of a solid poker game underneath you. These are the concepts behind starting hands and ideas you should be thinking about while playing no limit holdem.

1. Small Pocket Pairs.
Play small pocket pairs against many opponents and try and see the flop as cheaply as possible. You typically want to play small pocket pairs against many other opponents. Especially in a cash game or in the early stages of a tournament. Criteria for playing small pocket pairs is that you…. read rest of article at Kick Ass Poker