This texas holdem poker beginners guide was created to teach the basics of texas hold’em, and will be concentrated more on no-limit hold’em. The main goal is to introduce this very popular game to new players in order to get them comfortable playing texas hold’em.
Learning holdem is quite easy and conceptually simple although the overall game is complex. Playing texas hold’em requires a great deal of skill and knowledge, and is not based on the cards alone.
After finishing this poker course you will not be an expert, but will posses enough information to hold your own ground in low-limit games , and begin…. read rest of article at PokerWants.com
By Mike Caro
People read books. People read books on poker. People read books on poker and they study and study. People read books on poker and they study and study and then they sit down for their first cardroom experience. Then what?I’ll tell you then what. Then they most likely have chosen to seat themselves in a $1-$2, $2-$4, or $3-$6 limit seven-card stud or hold’em game and nothing seems the way it was promised. What good does it do to know about check-raising, about reraising aggressively to get extra value, or about tricking your foes?
What they don’t know might hurt them. Those foes don’t even know that they’re in danger of being check-raised or what it means when that happens. They don’t understand why a medium-strong hand is OK to play against a single raise, but often not OK to play against a reraise. And they aren’t likely to be tricked, because they don’t have a firm understanding about what a nontrick play should look like.
Instead of going into casino poker games unarmed, as was necessary years ago when no credible books laid out winning strategies for cardroom poker, lots of new players today do something very smart. They decide…. read rest of article at Poker Pages
By Daniel Negreanu
If someone describes your playing style as weak, let’s just say you’re in lots of trouble. In fact, its the weak players that are the ones you should focus on when you are at the poker table. Rather than duke it out with the strong, fierce, aggressive players you’ll risk less, and win more in the long run against the weak, timid, passive players.
In order to pound on the weak players properly, the first thing you’ll need to do is identify them. There are generally a few clues that you can look for that while not always totally accurate, could be clues nonetheless:
1) How they dress. If someone dresses extremely conservatively they will generally play poker that way! If they dress loudly they’ll more than likely play more aggressive or flamboyantly.
2) How they talk. This is in line with the previous clue. If they are quiet or timid in the way they talk, chances are that’s how they’ll play poker.
Again, conversely, if you a dealing with an aggressive talker they are more than likely aggressive players.
3) Do they raise before the flop or just call? If they like to limp in on a regular basis, you might be dealing with a weak player.
4) Do they like to bet, or check and call? Aggressive players are bettors while weak players tend to check, or just call others bets.
So once you’ve identified the weak player, it’s time to strategize against them…. read rest of article at Poker Pages
by Chris “Jesus” Ferguson
I’m nine months into an experiment on Full Tilt Poker. I’m attempting to turn $0 into a $10,000 bankroll.
With no money to start, I had no choice but to begin playing freerolls. Starting out, I’d often manage to win a dollar or two, but I’d quickly get busted and have to start over again. It took some time but, after a while, I was eventually able to graduate to games that required an actual buy-in. As of this writing, my bankroll stands at $225.96, so I’m well on my way.
Even today, people don’t believe it’s really me when I sit down at Full Tilt’s small stakes games. They ask what I’m doing down here, and often tell me stories about how they turned $5 into $500 or $100 into $1,000. Usually, these stories end with them telling me that they…. read rest of article at Bluff Magazine
By Michael Rome
Poker experts recommend playing in opposition to the table. If players are tight, be more aggressive; if they are aggressive, then tighten up. Although this is a simple and powerful technique, it can be difficult to put into practice. We have all seen the situation in which a whole table is quickly checking or folding. This cycle can last for numerous hands, and when it does, alarms should be going off in our heads. We ought to start playing aggressively — regardless of our hole cards. Instead, we are lulled into the group dynamic, as though in some form of poker trance. Later we think back and realize a bet would have taken down the pot. It is easy to underestimate the hypnotic sway of the status quo. As humans we are cultural lemmings who have a difficult time turning against the tide of the mob. Mark Twain observed that the price of independent thinking is loneliness. In poker, however, we are rewarded for opposing conformity (rewarded in chips, not popularity)….. read rest of article at Bluff Magazine
