%20(1).jpg "5 Things I Wish I Knew When Starting Poker")
This article was written by blackrain79.com contributor Fran Ferlan.
There are 5 key strategies that I wish I knew before becoming a professional poker player and you are going to learn them in this article.
This article will highlight 5 important poker tips that would have saved me a lot of time and money, had I known them when I was first starting out.
In fact, these 5 tips are guaranteed to improve your poker game, regardless of your current skill level.
Let’s get right into it.
Beginner Poker Tip #1: Only Play Strong Starting Hands
If you want to quickly improve your poker results, the best way to do it is to simply play less hands preflop.
Winning more by playing less may seem counterintuitive, but it’s by far the best way to give yourself an edge over your competition.
This is especially the case if you’re playing in low stakes games where players are likely to play too many hands.
You should only play strong starting hands that have a reasonable chance of connecting with the flop in some meaningful way.
Here’s a brief overview of starting hands you should play preflop:
a) pocket pairs (AA through 22)
b) broadway hands (face cards that can make the strongest possible straight, like AQ, KJ etc.)
c) suited Aces
d) suited connectors
These hands make up roughly the top 20% of all starting hands in no-limit hold’em. The rest is trash and should be thrown away.
These hands make up roughly the top 20% of all starting hands in no-limit hold’em. The rest is trash and should be thrown away.
Take this list with a grain of salt, of course.
The number of hands you can play profitably will depend on a lot of factors, namely your table position, the effective stack sizes, the skill edge you have over your opponents and so on.
Here are a few key reasons why you should only play strong starting hands in no-limit hold’em:
a) to gain an edge over loose opponents
In no-limit hold’em, not all starting hands are created equal.
Some hands simply have a better chance of connecting with the flop than others.
So If you only play strong starting hands, you will make strong combinations post flop more often than opponents who choose to play just about any random hand.
b) to dominate your opponent’s range
A dominated hand is the one that’s unlikely to win against a stronger hand due to a weaker kicker.
A kicker is the card in your hand that doesn’t help you make a certain hand combination, but can determine the winner of the hand if both players end up having the same combination.
For example, if both you and your opponent have a pair of Aces, the player with the stronger kicker wins the hand.
And since one pair is the most common combination you’ll make in no-limit hold’em, a kicker can often determine whether you win or lose the pot.
If you play a bunch of trashy hands with bad kickers, you run the risk of your hand being dominated.
You always want your hand to dominate your opponent’s, instead of the other way around.
c) to minimize the impact of rake
A rake is the percentage of the pot the casino takes away from every pot.
If you want to be a profitable long term winner in this game, not only do you need to beat other players, but you also have to beat the rake.
Most beginner poker players overlook or underestimate the impact rake has on their bottom line.
If you’re playing in games with a high rake, your best bet is to simply tighten up preflop, so you’re paying less rake overall.
Even if you manage to win a pot with some sort of a mediocre hand, the rake is going to eat into your overall profitability.
This means that slightly winning plays become breakeven, and breakeven plays become slightly unprofitable when you take rake into account.
I discuss this in much more detail in my recent video:
"How to realistically win at poker as a beginner."
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Beginner Poker Tip #2: Play Most Hands in Position to Get an Edge
Folding about 80% of the hands may seem boring, and fair enough.
But risking a bit of boredom for the prospect of making an easy buck is a fair tradeoff, as far as I’m concerned.
Also, playing only the top 20% of hands is just a general guideline.
A big factor that determines the number of hands you can play profitably is your table position.
You should play even less than 20% of hands in early position, but you can play way more hands in later table position.
Your table position is always relative to the dealer button.
The farther away you are from the button, the less hands you should play, and the closer you are to the button, the more hands you can play.
When you’re playing on the button in particular, you can often get away with playing a very wide range.
The closer you are to the button, the more likely you are to play in position post flop.
When you’re playing on the button, you will ALWAYS play in position post flop, which makes the button the most profitable seat in poker.
When you’re playing on the button in particular, you can often get away with playing a very wide range.
The closer you are to the button, the more likely you are to play in position post flop.
When you’re playing on the button, you will ALWAYS play in position post flop, which makes the button the most profitable seat in poker.
The second most profitable seat is the cutoff, i.e. the seat on the direct right of the button.
To play in position means being the last to act in a betting round, which is a huge advantage.
Here’s why you should aim to play most hands in position:
a) to get an informational advantage
When you’re playing in position, you get to see what your opponents do first, while they have no idea what you’re about to do.
Poker is a game of incomplete information, and the player with the informational advantage will come out on top more often than not.
b) to control the pot size
When you’re the last player to act in a betting round, you get a final say at the price of the pot.
If you have a strong value hand, you can bet or raise to inflate the pot size.
If you have a marginal or drawing hand, you can just call or check behind to keep the pot size small.
c) to bluff more effectively
Due to the positional disadvantage, your opponents will be less likely to fight back for pots.
This means you can often push them out of the pot with a well-timed bluff.
For example, when your opponent checks to you, it’s usually going to be a sign of weakness.
This means you can apply a lot of pressure on your opponents when you’re playing in position, whether or not you actually have a strong hand.
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Beginner Poker Tip #3: Enter Most Pots With a Raise
If you’re the first player to enter the pot, you should do so with an open-raise.
A lot of amateur poker players make the mistake of limping in when they’re the first player to enter the pot.
To limp in means to just pay the big blind instead of open-raising.
Here’s why you should enter most pots with an open-raise:
a) to build up the pot with your strong hands
If you want to win big in poker, you need to win big pots.
And the best way to do it is to build up the pot with your strong hands as soon as possible.
The bigger the pot you build up preflop, the easier it is to ship the rest of your stack in the middle post flop.
In poker, most of the money you’ll win will come from your strong value hands where your opponents can pay you off with weaker hands.
So your best bet is to start building up the pot preflop while your hand is likely to be ahead of your opponent’s calling range.
b) to steal the blinds
When you open-raise, you can sometimes take down the pot preflop if you make all your opponents fold.
If you open-limp, on the other hand, you’re giving the players in the blinds no incentive to fold their hand.
Picking up a few pots preflop (even without a particularly strong hand) is great for your bottom line because you don’t have to pay rake if you don’t see the flop.
Check out my ultimate blind stealing cheat sheet to learn how to steal the blinds like a pro.
c) to avoid multiway pots
If you open-limp, you’re inviting other players to limp behind you, which usually leads to multiway pots.
A multiway pot is a pot with more than 2 players involved.
The more players involved in the pot, the harder it is for you to win the hand, because every additional player is going to have a chunk of equity against your hand.
Ideally, you want to get to the flop as the preflop aggressor (preferably in position) against only one or two opponents.
This will make it much easier for you to win the pot, either by making the strongest hand, or by pushing your opponents out of the pot with a well-timed bluff.
d) to get initiative
If you are the preflop aggressor, you have the opportunity to continue the aggression post flop with a continuation bet (or c-bet for short).
C-bets are usually profitable, so you should be inclined to make one on most flops unless there’s a specific reason not to do so.
If you’re often not sure whether or not you should c-bet the flop, check out my ultimate flop strategy guide.
If another player open-raises before you, you have the option to either call, fold, or raise (3-bet).
As a general rule, calling is the last option you should consider preflop.
Getting to the flop as the preflop aggressor is going to be much more profitable over the long run than getting to the flop as the preflop caller.
So calling preflop should be more of an exception than the rule.
Check out my preflop calling guide to find out when it’s ok to call preflop.
Beginner Poker Tip #4: Make a C-bet on Most Flops
Being the preflop aggressor puts you at an advantage throughout the hand, because you can make a c-bet on the flop.
If you connect with the flop, you can c-bet for value and get called by a lot of weaker hands.
If you miss the flop, you can still make a c-bet on most flops and try to push your opponents out of the pot.
When you make a c-bet with the intention of getting your opponents to fold, this is known as a bluff c-bet, or a light c-bet.
Here’s why you can usually c-bet regardless of whether or not you’ve connected with the flop:
a) you have the range advantage
The range advantage means you theoretically have more strong hands in your range than your opponent.
Since your opponent didn’t 3-bet you preflop, their range is capped, meaning they can’t have strong hands like pocket Aces, pocket Kings, Ace-King and so on.
These hands would probably 3-bet preflop instead of calling.
Your range remains uncapped, on the other hand, meaning you theoretically could have all these strong hands in your range.
This means you can credibly represent a strong hand on most flops.
For example, let’s say you open-raise preflop, you get one caller, and the flop is:
A♥Q♣4♦
If you c-bet, you can credibly represent a lot of strong hands like pocket Aces, pocket Queens, AK, AQ and so on.
Your opponent is unlikely to have these hands in their range, because they would probably 3-bet you preflop if they had them.
b) your opponent is just as likely to have missed the flop as you
In no-limit hold’em, most hands miss most flops (2 out of 3 times, to be precise).
So even if you miss the flop completely, your opponent is just as likely to have missed the flop as you did.
And since you have the range advantage, you can still credibly represent a lot of strong hands with a c-bet.
This means your opponent is going to have to default to folding to c-bets most of the time.
This is especially the case in low stakes games where a lot of players won’t adjust enough to your rampant c-betting.
A lot of players at the lower stakes tend to play too straightforwardly on the flop.
This means they will give up their hand fairly easily if they don’t connect with the board (which is going to be most of the time).
Against these fit-or-fold players, you can basically print money by making a c-bet on virtually any flop.
c) you have a chance to catch up on future streets
Even if you miss the flop, you will often have a chance to improve your hand on future streets.
As a general rule, the more likely your hand is to improve on future streets, the more inclined you should be to make a c-bet.
This is especially the case if you flop some sort of a draw (like a straight or a flush draw), or if you have one or two overcards.
An overcard is a card that’s stronger than the strongest card on the flop.
For example, on a flop like Q♠8♦5♣, Aces and Kings are overcards.
If you have a strong draw, your best bet is to play it very aggressively.
This way, you can either take down the pot right away without needing to hit your outs, or you can potentially take down an even bigger pot on future streets if your draw completes.
An out is a card that you need to complete your draw. The more outs you have, the stronger your draw and vice versa.
By the way, you can quickly calculate the percentage chance of your draw completing by using the so-called rule of fours.
Rule of fours: simply multiply the number of outs you have by 4 to get a rough percentage chance of your draw competing from flop to river.
The rule of fours gets slightly less accurate the more outs you have, but it works well in most in-game situations.
If you want to know the chance of your draw completing on the next street (flop to turn or turn to river), you simply multiply the number of outs by 2 instead of 4.
If all of the above factors are not working in your favour, it’s better to skip a c-bet and give up the hand altogether.
For example, if your hand has very poor equity, and your opponent is very unlikely to fold to your c-bet, it’s better to give up and wait for a better spot.
Beginner Poker Example Hand #1
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt A♦Q♦ in the MP (middle position). You open-raise to 3 BB. Villain calls from the BB (big blind).
Pot: 6.5 BB
Flop: K♠8♥3♣
Villain checks.
You: ???
You should c-bet 3 BB.
Even though you’ve missed the flop, you can still go ahead and make a standard c-bet on a flop like this.
The board is fairly dry, so there’s not a lot of ways villain could have connected with the flop.
Your range theoretically has more Kx hands than the villain does, so you can credibly represent a strong hand like AK, KQ, KJ, pocket Aces, pocket Kings and so on.
Even if you get called, you still have a decent chunk of equity to fall back on.
You can still hit an Ace on future streets, and you also have a backdoor straight draw.
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Beginner Poker Tip #5: Don’t Chase Bad Draws
One of the most common amateur poker mistakes is chasing too many draws.
When playing poker, most of the time you will either miss the flop completely or flop some sort of a draw, like a straight or a flush draw.
In no-limit hold’em, most draws don’t complete, and drawing hands are almost always an underdog to made hand on the flop.
This means you should only chase draws that
a) have a reasonable chance of completing and
b) make it likely that you will win the hand if you do complete your draw.
Also, you should always consider the pot odds you’re getting on a call to figure out whether or not you can continue playing the hand profitably.
Simply put, the pot odds are the ratio between the pot size and the price you need to call to continue playing the hand.
For example, if you face a half pot bet, you’re getting 3:1 pot odds on a call, and if you face a full pot bet, you’re getting 2:1 odds on a call.
This means you need 25% equity and 33% equity respectively to continue playing the hand.
Since most bet sizes you’ll face will be between half pot and full pot, it’s worth remembering these percentages at least.
So how can pot odds help you make better calls when you have a drawing hand?
You simply compare the hand equity you need to call with the percentage chance of completing your draw.
For example, let’s say you’re dealt A♥5♥ and the flop is: K♥8♣2♥
In this spot, you have 9 clean outs to a nuts flush.
For simplicity’s sake, let’s assume your opponent doesn’t have any sets in their range, so there’s no threat of them making a full house with one of your outs.
By using the rule of fours, you can estimate your chance of improvement to a flush to be around 36%.
So if you face a half pot bet and you’re getting 3:1 on a call, you need 25% equity to break even on a call.
This means you’re getting favourable pot odds on a call here, so you can continue playing the hand profitably.
Granted, just because calling has a positive expected value (it’s +EV), it doesn’t mean it’s the most +EV play.
Raising your flush draw may well be more profitable than calling, so you always have to consider all the possible lines and choose the most profitable one.
For a full breakdown on how to use pot odds to make the most +EV decisions, check out my ultimate pot odds cheat sheet.
Important note: the pot odds only tell you if you can call profitably RIGHT NOW.
In other words, pot odds don’t take into account the amount of money you can potentially earn on future streets.
This is where the implied odds come into play.
Simply put, the implied odds refer to the amount of money you can potentially earn on future streets if you hit one of your outs, for example.
Implied odds allow you to call in certain spots where you’re not getting sufficient pot odds on a call.
Just to be clear, the implied odds don’t give you the license to call just about any bet just because you have the potential to make more money on future streets.
When considering the implied odds, it’s better to err on the side of caution.
If you want to consider the implied odds, you need to have a certain degree of confidence that your opponent will actually pay you off if you manage to hit one of your strong combinations.
You also need to make sure your opponent doesn’t end up having an even stronger hand.
In other words, you need to consider the reverse implied odds, as well.
Reverse implied odds refer to the amount of money you can potentially lose if you hit a strong combination, but your opponent ends up having an even stronger hand.
For example, let’s say you are dealt 9♠8♠ and the flop is T♥7♣2♥
You have an open-ended straight draw, so you have 8 outs total (4 Jacks and 4 Sixes).
But a Jack of hearts or a Six of hearts can also potentially give your opponent a flush that beats you.
This means that 2 of your outs are “tainted”, because they could actually help your opponent more than you.
So you’d need to discount those outs when figuring out your equity.
Beginner Poker Example Hand #2
Cash Game, Effective Stack Size: 100 BB
You are dealt J♣9♣ in the BB (big blind). Villain open-raises to 2.5 BB from the CO (cutoff). You call.
Pot: 5.5 BB
Flop: A♥Q♠8♥
You check. Villain bets 3.5 BB.
You: ???
You should fold.
This is a textbook example of a weak draw you’re better off not chasing.
Let’s consider the pot odds first. You’re getting 2.57:1 odds on a call, meaning you need about 28% equity to break even on the call.
You have an inside straight draw, so your chance of improvement from flop to river is 17%.
This means you’re not getting sufficient pot odds to call profitably here.
What’s worse, even if you hit your lucky Ten, you may end up having only the second best hand, as your opponent could beat you with KJ.
The final nail in the coffin is the fact that you’re playing the hand out of position, so it’s going to be way harder for you to realize your equity and win a big pot.
5 Things I Wish I Knew When Starting Poker - Summary
Improving your poker game takes time, but you don’t need to learn a lot of advanced poker strategy to start winning relatively quickly.
All you need to do is learn the basics of tight and aggressive (TAG) strategy and play in games where you have a reasonable chance of winning.
To sum up, here are 5 poker tips all beginners should know.
1. Only play strong starting hands
You should only play hands that have a reasonable chance of connecting with the flop in some meaningful way.
This includes pocket pairs, broadway hands, suited Aces and suited connectors. These hands make up the top 20% of all starting hands in no-limit hold’em.
The rest is trash and should be thrown away.
2. Play most hands in position
Playing in position means being the last to act in a betting round.
By playing in position, you have an informational edge over your opponents, you get a final say at the price of the pot, and you can value bet or bluff more effectively.
3. Enter most pots with a raise
If you’re the first player to enter the pot, you should do so with an open-raise.
Open-raising allows you to build up the pot with your strong hands, gives you the opportunity to make a c-bet on the flop, and makes it less likely you’ll be playing in a multiway pots.
Also, you can sometimes win the pot outright preflop if you make all the other players fold.
4. Make a c-bet on most flops
A c-bet (continuation bet for short) is a bet made by the previous street’s aggressor.
C-bets are usually profitable, so you should be inclined to make one on most flops unless there’s a specific reason not to do so.
5. Don’t chase draws
Most draws don’t complete in no-limit hold’em, so you should only chase draws if you’re getting sufficient pot odds or implied odds on a call.
The strength of your draw is determined by how many outs you have, and how strong your hand is likely to be if you do manage to hit one of your outs.
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This article was written by Fran Ferlan
Poker player, writer and coach
Specializing in live and online cash games
For coaching enquiries, contact Fran at email@franferlan.com
Or apply directly for poker coaching with Fran, right here
Lastly, if you want to know the complete strategy I use to make $2000+ per month in small/mid stakes games, grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet.
