Getting Started....

[Total Poker Noob]

This is my first post.

I have a friend who plays poker as a part time income to go with his day job. He knew that I watch poker on TV but have never played it live or on the internet. So for my birthday this year he purchased me Getting Started In Hold'em by Ed Miller. I have read this book about 5 times now.

Then came the big day, he was going to the local casino for a No Limit Tournament and asked if I wanted to come. I told him I did not feel qualified to play in a Tournament but that I would give the Limit Hold'em 3-6 a try. So I took about $400 with me and came home with $346. I do not think that I played all that badly after all I did win some pots, but with only playing for just under 5 hours it is hard to tell if it was bad play, noob mistakes, rake with a $1 bad beat jackpot, or varience. Plus to be quite honest just starting I was not comfortable with playing at limits that could reach $24 on a turn of the card.

He said I should try playing online at limits like 5 cents and 10 cents until I get around 20,000 hands played. He also told me about PokerStars and a program called PokerTracker. He said to get PokerTracker before I ever play a hand of online poker. He said play your first 2,500 hands 1 table at time (I must admit I was unaware that your could play more than one table at a time) So you can truely observe how you play. He also made an interesting comment that sometimes the best information you can gain from a table is to observe others actions after you have folded. This never occured to me but it makes perfect sense.

He told me to play the way the book says until I hit 10,000 hands. Then I should read another book...I can't remember the title but he grabbed it off his shelf and I only recall that it was a red book.

So aside from Poker Tracker, Poker Stars, Getting Started in Hold'em, and this unknown red book, what else do I need?

[Rek]

I will preface this by saying this is my view only and people will have sorts of ideas on this subject.

You have done some reading which is good and played a little live. You must therefore know the basics of the game. I think your friend is right to get on line and play micro limits. Also some very cheap tourneys would be good.

I think you should put in the time and play without further complications. Therefore I don’t think pokertracker yet and not too much deep thinking. Get used to playing and observing the table (only 1 table at this stage).

As you progress you will have questions – ask your friend and post here. Gradually add things – i.e. poker tracker, more reading, etc.

You can’t learn it all in one go from scratch. The most important thing is to get some micro limit play under your belt without complicating things too much too early.

As the saying goes “it takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master”.

[DiamondDog]

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I can't remember the title but he grabbed it off his shelf and I only recall that it was a red book.


[/ QUOTE ]

If I was a betting man, I'd say it was this one .

Excellent choice.

Good Luck.

[PantsOnFire]

It sounds like you have a smart friend. I can only add a few other points on top of his.

I agree somewhat with Rek about PokerTracker. This is a fairly complicated program and to use it to assess your play and the play of other requires some experience. However, I also agree with your friend that you should have it from Day 1. You want to store all of the hands you play and and the hands of your opponents even if you aren't going to use that knowledge right away. Actually, your friend sound competent so you may want him to look at your numbers after you get a few thousand hands.

When you begin playing online, there are tons of bonus programs that you need to take advantage of. I haven't visited it but there is a forum here to help you with that under Internet Gambling.

Here is the one peice of strategy advice I can give you as far as playing either limit or NL holdem. These games are about mistakes. Whoever makes the fewest and least costliest will win. In holdem, there are four betting rounds so there are four decision points. The pot at each desision point is either the same or larger than the previous one. This means that mistakes are more costly later in the hand. It also means that a small mistake early can multiply into a much larger one later on.

So what does that mean? It means that the first mistake you can make is to choose to be in a pot with the wrong hole cards. It may seem like a small price to pay to enter a pot and it is. If you do this with the wrong cards at the wrong time, it will be a small mistake. But recall what I said about mistakes getting larger as the hand goes on. By eliminating a small first mistake, you will eliminate some more costly later mistakes.

And remember what your friend said about playing by the book. This is most important in choosing the cards you play with preflop and the ones you fold preflop.

When you fold 20-30 hands in a row and you haven't played for an hour, suddenly crappy hands like Q7s suited start to look good. This is comparable to being in a bar, checking out all the hot chicks, getting drunk and then realizing near closing time there's only two chick left and they are ugly. But what the hell it's the end of the evening so let's go for it. When you wake up the next day, you realize you should have passed on that and just come to the bar again the next evening.

[Total Poker Noob]

That would be the book.

[Miraculix]

Hi.
I think you should read this post to start with: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...age=0&vc=1

I´ve never played the lowest limits (maybe that´s why I´m still grinding the $25 and $50 [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]) but I think this strategy will work very well there. When you´re feeling a bit more comfortable with online games, running good, bad beats and all the emotions included in this game you should read EVERYTHING you can find by Pokey on these forums. Believe me, it´ll be worth it.
This is another good post to start with: http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showfl...&PHPSESSID=

Good luck

// M