- Think about whether you should start play online poker.
Poker is an interesting, intellectual, but risky game. This hobby is not for everyone, and people who are prone to gambling addiction should avoid poker altogether.
βFor many years, poker players have said that the βgolden ageβ is over, but today this seems especially true.β There is much less easy money in poker now, so it would be very rash to count on a quick and easy profit. Only a small percentage of players earn money on a regular basis.
At the same time, poker as a hobby is not a bad option. With this game, you can have fun with friends or kill a few free hours alone by playing online. In recent years, poker tourism has been gaining popularity, when participation in tournaments is combined with vacationing in exotic countries.
In short: If you are prone to gambling addiction, do not play poker. There is little easy money in poker, and there is a high risk of losing everything in the excitement and pursuit of luck and easy money. Few people earn money on a regular basis.
- Learn the rules of poker, but don’t overdo it.
First of all, decide which game you want to learn to play. There are a huge number of poker variations: in one of the World Series of Poker tournaments [the name of the world poker championship], participants compete in a mix of 19 types of games, and that’s not even the limit.
However, on TV screens and in advertisements, you will most often see only no-limit Texas Hold’em. This is the most telegenic type; two-time world champion Doyle Brunson once called it the Cadillac of poker. That’s where you should start. The rules can be found on thousands of online sites, including gaming resources, where they are usually described in a special section. However, the rules of the game are best learned in practice after studying certain material. That is, you take a certain style of play or playing in a certain position as a basis and practice these techniques in practice, so there is no point in delving too deeply into the theory right away. Just start playing.
First, try no-limit Texas Hold’em, the most common type of poker. You don’t need to study the rules in too much detail; just learn the basics and the basic initial strategy — the main thing is to start playing.
- Choose a poker site and complete the registration process.
It’s best for beginners to start with online games — it’s easier and more economical. Many current poker stars started with so-called freerolls — tournaments with no entry fees but with cash prizes (most often symbolic, but there are pleasant exceptions). and the entry fees for paid online tournaments start at just a few cents or rubles.
It’s better to play on large sites — there are always a lot of people there, and you can choose a game that suits your betting level. In addition, on such sites, you don’t have to worry too much about being scammed, and the procedure for depositing and withdrawing money is very simple.
- Find friends.
Find friends who share your hobby and convince your loved ones that you are not a gambling addict
Online poker, unlike live games, often leads to socialization problems. Players spend a lot of time alone in front of a computer screen. That is why poker enthusiasts are usually very enthusiastic about finding like-minded people on specialized websites and forums, Facebook groups, and Telegram. Having poker friends also helps you improve your game faster. As in any young field of knowledge, poker books are usually outdated even before they are published, and many fruitful ideas are passed on by word of mouth.
If you admit to your friends that you are into poker, you are bound to hear a horror story about a relative/friend/colleague who lost everything and ended up badly. But while the opinions of casual acquaintances can be disregarded, it is important to convince your loved ones that you are not a gambling addict and are not going to take the furniture out of the apartment tomorrow. A mini-course on poker, after which your new hobby will be understood, is sometimes simply necessary.
- If you want to win, study the training materials.
There are many opportunities to learn poker now. Online, you can follow the streams of strong players, usually on platforms such as YouTube or Twitch, or watch so-called VODs, pre-recorded poker lessons.
An alternative to self-study is the numerous online poker schools that will select a coach and training program for you. But here it is important to assess whether the teacher himself knows how to play, and this is not easy for a beginner to do. Incorrect concepts imposed at the very beginning will set back your poker skills for a long time. - Get rid of myths and prejudices.
Most poker and poker-related legends are far from reality. Perhaps the most common misconception is that the most important thing in poker is psychology, the art of bluffing, and the almost mystical ability to βreadβ your opponent. Bluffing is probably the most important component of the game, but its role is greatly exaggerated and romanticized by cinema. The basis for success in poker is mathematics and probability theory. However, basic poker mathematics is not that complicated and is quite accessible even to people who think they don’t understand numbers.
The basic principles of poker math are not that difficult to understand.
Many people will be disappointed to learn that modern poker is a far cry from the image of elegantly dressed gentlemen with cigars and whiskey glasses. The winners of most major tournaments are guys in shorts, flip-flops, and hoodies who are not even 30 years old. They learned to play after the online boom began and honed their playing skills on the internet.
The situation is more complicated with the often-repeated statements that βanyone can winβ and βit all depends on luck.β In poker, the most important thing is the distance of the game, and if in a single hand, game session, or even individual tournaments, luck does play a big role, then after thousands, or better yet, tens of thousands of hands played, strong players will still come out ahead, and weak players will lose everything.
Don’t get hung up on psychology and bluffing — their importance is often exaggerated. Real success in poker is based on mathematics and probabilities. A single hand may be successful, but in the long run, those who play correctly will win.
- Play as much as possible and regularly analyze your mistakes.
The more you play, the faster your game will improve. The advent of online poker has led to a surge in the game’s popularity, as it has given people the opportunity to play at several tables at once (some professionals manage to run 20+ tables on several sites), quickly gaining experience in constant encounters with specific poker challenges. Those who play a lot are called grinders. To play in this format, you need honed skills and a perfect understanding of the odds of the pot at a glance, because decisions are made almost automatically after a quick glance at the board and the cards. With so many tables, you need high concentration and great attention, as it is very easy to make a mistake, and it will be costly.
As in chess, studying your own mistakes is the main way to improve your game. You can do this manually or with the help of specialized software. The vast majority of successful players use Poker Tracker or Holdem Manager. These programs collect a huge amount of technical information about your game and your opponents’ actions: how often you enter the game, how aggressively you play, how you react to your opponents’ active actions, and so on. With the help of a coach or the internet, all these endless numbers can be compared with similar indicators of the strongest players to identify systematic errors in your game.
However, at micro-limits (i.e., when playing for small stakes), you can win without any programs, simply by taking advantage of the obvious mistakes of opponents who play without thinking too much about tactics.
- Don’t forget to stop in time if poker starts to interfere with your life.
The main danger of poker is losing objectivity. If the game starts to interfere with your life or work, it’s time to stop. If you begin to realize that your losing streak is not just due to bad luck, lower your limits, start playing cheaper, or stop playing altogether. Or take a break for a certain amount of time. You should often ask yourself: is it time to stop? But this does not negate what we said at the beginning of our guide: poker is an interesting and, of course, intellectual game.