Essential poker tips for beginners

Despite its western origins, poker has become a global game in recent years, with multi-lingual coverage on TV and . It’s an easy game to learn but can take a lifetime to master – which is why we’ve created this quick and simple guide to give you the essential poker tips for beginners, so you can start playing today.

Choosing Your Starting Hand

This is one of the most important decisions you will make each hand. You have a fixed number of chips and you need to make them last. Don’t waste them by getting involved with multiple players when you haven’t got a good hand to start with. It’s better to fold patiently than play every hand.

Choose your hands carefully.

️ Harrah's vs Caesars - Differences and Which Is Better

So what makes a good starting hand? Most Texas Hold’em players will use a system known as ‘Hands’ to decide whether or not to hold onto a hand. This system ranks combinations of two cards according to their value, using a system of numbers from ‘Pair of Aces’ down to ‘7-2 (aka the ‘Rag)’. The important thing at this stage of the game is to stick roughly to these rankings.

Don’t call a raise with 8-5 just because it’s ‘higher’ than the pair of 6s that raised – they’ll almost certainly have a hand strong enough to beat your rag at this stage, and there will be more rag left in the deck that may be stronger than yours too. So when you’re learning how to play online poker, it’s best to stick to holding hands that are JJ+ (Ace fullhouse or better) in early position, and hands that are QQ+ (6s6c is now okay) if you’re sitting in mid/late position where you will have more time to make a decision after the flop.

Another way of looking at this is to think about how likely your hand is to make a strong hand by the River (the seventh and final card dealt). Do I have two cards of the same suit (meaning a flush is possible)? Is there a chance I can make a straight? Can I double or triple up? These are all things to consider when deciding whether to get involved in a pot.

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Which Poker Position is Best?

Every table has ‘blinds’ – two players who put money into the middle before the cards are dealt. This creates a ‘pot’ for the player with the best hand at the end of the round to win. However, the blind players don’t get to choose their cards first, that honor goes to the player to the immediate right of the big blind.

This is important, because it means that any player who is smart enough to watch the other players pick cards before they make a decision on what to do with their own, will have a significant advantage over those who don’t. This is because different players receive their cards at different times, based on their seating position relative to the dealer (represented by the plastic drum that moves around the table after each hand).

The player to the right of the big blind gets to act last after the flop (when three community cards are dealt, face up, that anyone can use to make the best hand), and first before the flop and after the turn (the fifth community card, placed face down then turned over after the betting on the flop has been completed). This is known as ‘early position’, ‘middle position” and “late position” respectively and it’s crucial to know the subtle differences between each in order to play successfully in all of them.

Early position is immediately to the left of the big blind and you’re guessing a little in terms of what’s happening with the game. Should you assume that the blinds will squeeze a lot so you can slip in a cheap middle pair? Will the late position players usually raise anything decent they’re dealt, making a fold the correct move a lot of the time? You won’t know until you’ve seen them pick their cards.

As you move around the table, you get more and more information about how the game is likely to unfold, which gives you more options on how to play your own hand. By the time you reach late position again, you will have watched seven other people pick cards, see if the card room staff are shuffling badly (making it hard to find a good hand) and note which opponents are in the game and which ones have folded.

All of these things combined will allow you to make the best decision on how to play your hand. That could mean raising frequently to push other players out of the way (thereby making any hand you have favorite going to the River), or folding regularly in the knowledge that your opponents will be acting last, giving them the opportunity to make better hands than you.

Confused? Don't worry. Just focus on playing your best game in whatever position you're in and, over time, you'll start to develop a feel for how each table sector works.

What is Position in Poker?

Position is the single most important factor in poker as it provides you with vital information about your opponents. Acting last gives you the opportunity to make the best decision since you’ve had time to see what everyone in front of you is doing. When you’re in late position, you gain further advantages due to remembering what players in front of you did in previous rounds.

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Example

The Button (directly right of the dealer) always raises with two cards.
The small blind folds most of his hands.
The big blind calls often.
The players in middle position only play premium hands.

Knowledge like this helps you make informed decisions on how to play your own cards. Furthermore, you also have to consider your opponents’ positions and what they might know. The players to their left have more information about the current state of affairs than you, hence they either have to or make decisions faster.

Sometimes it’s obvious what a player has even though they may have folded. If four players fold after raising pre-flop, it’s highly unlikely that seat six, who called before the flop, has a better hand than all of them. Of course, he could've hit a straight on the board, but chances are his hand is weak. Always keep an eye on how many players fold before the flop.

It’s also worth noting that poker rooms use a shootout tournament format where players are re-dealt cards after the first round in order to change their positions at the table. Anyone that makes it to the next round will therefore have a completely different position at the new table.

How to Play Online Poker Tournaments

Tournament and cash game strategy differ quite significantly, mainly because there is a fixed payout in tournaments (usually the pot buys a prize, with a certain percentage going to each of the top place winners). This means that you need to finish in a certain position in order to win money, unlike cash games where you earn money whenever you have more than when you started (within reason, of course).

Since there’s no incentive to hang around in a cash game once your buy-in plus risk money is covered, most players will leave the game once this threshold is crossed. In a tournament, nobody wants to leave no matter how poor their cards seem to be, hence everyone plays until the bitter end.

This changes poker essential tips in several ways.

Essential Poker Tip No.1: Tight is Right

In a cash game it’s often beneficial to play what are referred to as ‘borderline hands’, meaning you can afford to throw away a few bucks every now and then to keep the action going. These minor losses are recouped by winning bigger pots with strong hands, so being in a slightly weaker position before the flop isn’t such a bad idea if you’re playing well and can outplay your opponents post-flop.

However, in a tournament you only have one life, so you can’t afford to throw money down the drain. Therefore, you should only play strong tournament hands that have high winning percentages, and avoid borderline hands wherever possible. Late position hands are generally stronger than early position ones so, as a rule of thumb, move up one or two hands when choosing what to hold in tournament play.

Essential Poker Tip No.2: Know When it’s Time to Go

Even if you’re playing the tightest game in town, you’ll eventually find yourself in a hand with nothing. Provided you’ve been careful about the stakes you’re playing, folding in this situation won’t hurt you too much, but unless you have the discipline to keep foldering until Lady Luck turns up to kiss your forehead, you’ll eventually go all in with nothing and be eliminated from the tournament.

This is why, in a tournament, you need to know when to run rather than walk into certain elimination. Players in a cash game have the luxury of riding a losing streak out - in a tournament, such decadence is not permitted. As soon as you realize that you’re on a downswing and can’t win any pots, it’s time to fold and get out while you still have some chips left. Cashing in a tournament is better than none, so be pragmatic - if you feel you’re playing poorly, back yourself to come back stronger another day.

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Essential Poker Tip No.3: Change Your Game in Later Stages

The dynamics of a poker game change as the number of players reduces. Initially, it’s acceptable to play any reasonably strong hand as there will be plenty of opposition. But as the later stages approach, you’’ll notice that there are fewer players taking part in each round. This is the time to play even tighter than usual, only getting involved in hands that contain high-value cards.

As the final few rounds approach, you should try to play just the final, for example JJ+ in early position and hands like QJs or AQs in middle position. Anything weaker than this should be avoided unless you have a very good reason for getting involved, and even then you shouldn’t raise on such hands. This is the time to go with the flow - if everybody else is folding in a particular position, it’s probably not a good idea to put your opponent on a tricky decision with a weak hand.

Essential Poker Tip No.4: Steal Less in Early Stages

You still aren’t supposed to play the 'garbage', but in tournaments it’s sometimes a good idea to use 'Small Pocket Rockets' (SPRs), like 88 and 77, in late position to steal the blinds. SPRs aren’t strong enough to see you through to a showdown, but you will often find that you can force your opponents to fold if you bet or raise after they’ve called the raise before you.

However, this tactic becomes less effective during the later stages, when players become more cautious and less willing to risk their valuable chips on a gamble. Conversely, this more conservative style means that it’s easier to 'steal' the pot by checking or calling in late position, as players will not be queuing up to raise after you.

This tactic applies equally to online and real-time games, although body language becomes a factor in the latter, allowing you to judge your opponents’ tendencies more accurately.

Essential Poker Tip No.5: Loosen Up Close to the Bubbles

If you’re close to reaching the money, it’s sensible to loosen your game and play some hands you wouldn’t normally touch. At this stage, avoiding borderline hands can be very costly indeed, especially if your opponents are following this advice. Try to stay flexible and adjust your tactics to suit the changing conditions.

This advice doesn’t apply to the very beginning of a tournament, when players are even more tight than usual, having a wealth of chips at their disposal. There isn’t too much you can do about this other than being patient and waiting for a good hand in mid to late position. This is particularly true in online poker tournaments, where players can be machine-like in their adherence to strict, computer-generated strategies.

More Tips for Online Poker

Here are some general online poker tips for beginners you should remember when entering a tournament:

Play to win: Never forget the tournament structure. Unlike ring games, every tournament needs a winner. Don't play every marginal hand - only play the good ones.
Bet strongly with the top hands: Top pair on Aces, Kings, Queens or a straight or better will most likely win the pot. Make sure you get paid off when you have one of these.
Be careful with low pairs: Small pairs are fairly weak hands as you can't reliably make a straight or a flush. If you miss all your draws, you might not even win a low pair kicker race against another small pair.
Pay attention to your opponents: If your opponents play tightly, you should do the same. If they play loosely, you can profit by playing even more tightly, picking up only the best hands. Conversely, loose opponents will pay generously for playing marginal hands into stronger hands.