Now I know that most of you have been here and heard this but as poker has exploded onto the pop culture scene more and more people are rolling up stake and heading to Vegas and, like investors believing in the Enron stock, they end up wasting money thinking because they know the difference between a straight and a flush they are all of a sudden Doyle Brunson or Phil Ivey. Very few can easily pick up the game of poker and become an almost instant success and even then they hit the wall once or twice. My suggestion to all new players and some players who have been playing for months and cant seem to go anywhere as far as skill level, grad Super System and read the NL Holdem section and then apply what you learn to the play money Sit and Go's on
PokerStars or whereever you play online and practice and when you beat the low level SnG's go up a level and then so on and so forth until you think its real money time.
The next lesson for the beginners will be a solid hand selection for NL Holdem and how to play them.
Ok lesson two is rather short due to the subject but its a two parter. New players will usually look at any hand with a face card or two or even two suited cards like K-2 and play them hoping to hit the flush. There are only 6 hands that new players should play in most situations in any cash game or tourney until they understand the complexities of position and pot odds and outs, both are later lessons. I advise that new players try to stick to these 6 hands to make some money in these events: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK suited, and AK offsuit. Im sure most players new and old will read this thinking why not 10's,9's,8's and the other pairs and suited connectors (two cards of the same suit and and consecutive order)? Well be it personal experiecnce is the best teacher, but new players go broke more often on pocket pairs either because they over value or under value them in most situations. Same with suited connectors and flush draws. Now dont think Im some yahoo or a wanna be genius Im just passing on what Ive been taught from other people and experience and if you have and comments or disagreements feel free to post them.
Now that you know what a good hand is to start out with, its all about knowing how to play it. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK suited and offsuit should be bet aggressively in almost any situation and poker is a game of situations like it is of numbers. Open up with a standard raise of 3-4xBB (ex. blinds are 10/20 bet 60-80). This kind of bet chases away junk hands unless the player playing it is a fool, and spices the pot for someone with a dominated hand like AJ to your Aces to call. On the flop, make the same bet as you did pre flop if you bet 80 before bet it again and either get the pot there which would be about 110-190 or you get a call or raise. If he raises, re-raise him all-in because one of the objects of NL is to be aggressive and putting players in tough call spots for all their chips. Now if he has a better hand its just up to luck then, or you win a nice pot if he folds or calls and your hand holds up. Hopefully by doing this, you will become a feared and respected player at any table you sit at.
