How do i become a better poker player?

Question

I play online ( fake and real money). I just started playing real money online 2 days ago.
I am playing the penny tables and i played a s&go tourney the other day.
I placed 8th in the tourney (out of 18).

I really want to become a better player. Any tips? Any books to read? Any general recommendations for a beginning poker player?

Thanks everyone for the feedback, i am sure it will help me out.

Answer 1

One of the best ways to get better is to just play a lot more. I'd say to play the free ones for a while.

Answer 2

First of all, don't take advcice from a guy that tells you a straight beats a full-house. It doesn't unless its a straight flush. Anyway, back to your question. I've played poker for 4 years. Here is my advice. First, don't play the free games. You learn nothing at these online tables other than how the mechanics of the game works. Examples: blinds, betting, raising, etc... As for strategy, people playing for free will chase cards trying to catch flushes, straights, or pairs. So you really dont learn a thing. Deposit some real money on a reputable site ( Ful-Tilt, Ultimate Bet) and then play in some small $1 or $2 sit&gos. The play here is loose as well, and you will get some bad players chasing, but not as bad as in a free roll. Once you start feeling a little better about your game, steadily move up. Another issue for new players is patience. Here is a great way to handle this problem. Buy in to a $5 or $10 multi-table tourney. You can expect to be play against anywhere from 150 to 500 other players. Patience is the only way to do well in these. My last bit of advice is to go out or look on Ebay for Howard Ledderers DVD. It is geared toward beginners and even comes with a cheat sheet for what hands to play from the various positions when you are new. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

You could go buy some books and they will tell you in general terms on how to play, but in the end it is all situations. Some important questions you have to ask yourself when you play a hand of poker are, What is my position, how many chips do i have, how many others are in the pot with you, are the other players aggressive, am i playing aggressive right now or i am playing tight, can i bet and take down the pot, do i have the right odds to call. Knowing your position and knowing your opponents are the key to winning. I always play aggressive poker, but i am aggressive for a reason. Raising and re raising just to do it will only break your bank roll. But playing is the best way to get better, the more hands you play the more you know about the game.

Answer 4

The only way to get good at anything is to practice. That means playing as much as possible. But be careful of the play money or cheap games on the internet. They can teach you bad habits, because they are often "unrealistic", for a couple reasons:

1) Other players do not play "seriously" when there is no consequences for bad play. Many players always see the river, no matter how bad their hand is. This is not what they would do in a real money game. So you won't learn much in such games.

2) In my opinion, the poker sites "enhance" fake money and cheap money games to make players think they are better than they are. This encourages novice players to start playing real money games, which is what generates income for the poker site. I cannot prove this, so it's just my opinion, but I am sure that fake money and cheap money games will not make you a better players.

To be good, you have to play in real games for real money. This means live games with live people seated around you. You have to be able to see the other players sweat to become a good player yourself.

Just my opinion, but I'm almost as old as Doyle Brunson, and we both learned the hard way (he just learned it much better).

Answer 5

I would recommend getting Dan Harrington's 2 books.

I have been playing for about 6 months now and playing the free sites will help you get the game mechanics down. Betting amounts, styles of play, reading other players are just a few of the things you can pick up.

Try cardschat.com for some tips and advice from other poker players to help your game.

Answer 6

As far as books go, check out David Sklansky's The Theory of Poker. It covers a lot of ground and has been read by lots of those that consider themselves "good" players. The best way to improve is simply play... and pay attention. Learn from your mistakes... don't keep making them. Sounds simple... but you see people do the same dumb things over and over again. And learn from watching how every one else plays. Live play is really preferable when you're trying to improve. You can watch what the "good" players at your table do, and see what works for them and what you like. Then incorporate it into your game. And a great way... is discuss situations and past hands with others who play a lot... and ask them how they would have played a hand or what other ways of handling a situation would have been. I would suggest playing live games as much as possible over online to really learn the most the fastest.

Answer 7

there are many many ways to become one many books promise but there is only tips on what they would do poker is about odds and luck you could be the best at knowing what to do but be facing someone who is lucky and lose take this bs example

the flop 3 4 5 all differnt suit
turn and river A and 5
me i had a A and 5 so i had a full house

well some kid went in with a 2 6 off suit which is not recomened he won he got lucky

never go in with anything under 10's unless there straigh possibilities or same suit ex 34 ok 3 4 hearts ok

10 q
10 10
10 k
10 j
10 a
j q
j k
j a
q j
qq
qk
qa
k 10
k j
k q
k k
k a
a 10
a j
a q
a k
AA
look for those combos in holdem
best of the best bouvsoly

Answer 8

I play a lot of poker. It is 100% skill and 100% luck. I played in my live and online tourneys where I made the right move but luck was not on my side. Try fulltiltpoker.net with poker code: REALPOKER and get a bonus. See you there.
David Sklansky and Dan Harrington have really good books especially Harrington but start with the first then move on.

Answer 9

Playing for fake money will help you only if you play the biggest buy-in tournaments (at least 10,000+ chip buy-in), otherwise you'll probably only learn bad habits. In order to get better at poker you will need to do two things - play thousands and thousands of hands, and read poker literature or discuss poker with other (more) experienced players.

For poker literature -- for tournaments the best book out there is Harrington on Hold 'Em (volumes one and two) by Dan Harrington. In my opinion this is the best no limit hold 'em book ever written. I can't tell you how much it costs, but it is available on Ares (the file sharing service) for free (*obtaining the book this way IS ILLEGAL*). The other poker author I recommend is David Sklansky. His books are mostly based on limit poker in all its forms, but there is a ton of good information in there.

As for discussing poker - if you have a group of friends that play poker a lot then you can talk to them about poker, but I also recommend an internet poker forum. 2+2 is a popular forum, but it is so huge that you can get some conflicting/confusing advice. I recommend a smaller forum for a beginner. At least read the posts that are already there, and you will absorb a lot of good information. I also recommend posting hand history files to give the people of the forum a chance to analyze your play.

The most important concept in poker (especially for cash/ring games) is "expected value" (usually abbriviated as +EV or -EV). I am not going to go into it here because I don't feel like spending a half hour typing... but here's a link that explains EV fairly well. In order to understand EV you need to learn the odds involved in a specific situation, so make sure you know how to count outs. The math of poker takes a bit of memorization, but it is really very simple once you know it.

Here's a page that explains EV - http://www.pokertips.org/strategy/expected-value.php
I recommend you browse all the strategy articles on that website, as they are all very good. There is also a very active forum on that website. I don't participate in that forum, but from what I've seen there are some very good players that give excellent advice on that forum.

Good luck.

Answer 10

since you are playing small stakes, if you have read any legitimate literature on the game you are probably better than the vast majority of your competition...the best way to play in those games is to be very straightforward, with no bluffing unless you recognize that your opponent is playing tight, because most players on this level just call down with anything

as for poker books, the harrington on hold 'em series is very educational for players of all levels...once you advance out of lower levels i would recommend doyle brunson's super/system and super/system 2, they give great advice on how to play power poker and how to win at medium and higher games