help a newbie out

Hi guys, I'm Orome from Teamliquid and I've decided to try out poker and see if I can become rich.

So yeah I'm a complete beginner, I know the basic rules from playing some very casual games with friends from time to time, but that's about it. So here's a few questions.

I read Grot's guide on this site, should I get the book he recommends ("Getting started in Hold'em" by Ed Miller)?

In general, is reading books worth the time or should I just play as much as I can?

Where should I start playing? Play money or real? What stakes?

Anything else I should know?

Thanks for any help!

Hi Orome and welcome to the site. If you ask me you should get everything you can put your hands on, books, CR videos and play a lot of hands, if you want to start i'd recommend playing low BIs sngs to learn the basics and build a roll from scratch. Also get Holdem manager once u re rdy to grind it up ! Good luck.

If you can afford it i suggest starting at 25-50c at least, anything below that is hardly poker at all. Books arent really that good except for few selected ones, you should opt to watch videos as much as you can, there are plenty of them around, search for some of LP regulars videos on forum here, also check out http://www.flopturnriver.com/poker-videos, this should be enough for you for a long while, so dont just into subscriptions right away.

hey,

you came to the right place.

best way is to just play a lot and post your hands for advice.

as you gain some experience, you can start watching vids which are pretty helpful.

one critical point: if you choose to play with real money, don't play beyond what your bankroll allows. like... don't deposit 50 dollars and open up two tables of 25NL and expect anything much to come out of it. playing the penny tables is a slow learning process at first but it's the best place to learn solid, basic poker.


GL

I have to say starting at the lowest level (NL2) is key to grind in one basic fundamental: play only good hands. Once you can get that basic skill down, you will 1. Realize that poker is full of bad players and you can win simply by playing better hands, 2. Learn postflop play by starting with the easiest situations e.g. what to do with AA heads up vs a donk (potpotshove).

Why most beginners suck is because they have poor, undeveloped postflop play, and get bored so they play all sorts of hands. Premium hands require the least skill postflop, so start from there, as said in Grot's guide.

As for what you should start at, play money is pretty stupid because you'll see people just shoving all in preflop with any 2 cards for the heck of it. I guess you could learn a little because if you do the same as them, but only with AA, you are going to see a huge profit. However, I suggest depositing like 25 dollars to start off, and grind NL2 while buying in for 1 at each table. Once you get to 50 dollars, buyin for 2 dollars per table you play. Once you get to 100 dollars, move up in stakes to the NL5 games, and start using the 20buyin rule as said in the bankroll management guide. If you can do all this, you should be on your way to becoming a good player.

Thanks for the help guys. What website would you recommend I start playing at? And what about all those free $ ads?

I fucking hate you from a trashtalking match on wgt back in the day

gfy, grudge holding for life.

the book isnt nescessary now that u read the guide anyway, my guide is basicly the same thing except it doesnt cost money and isnt as well written

i'd recommend playing 0.01/0.02 full ring at pokerstars and buy in for $2, and make sure you put in a lot of hands before moving up so you get some experience and confidence and learn to enjoy the grind

when u beat NL$2 for a lot of buyins (like 20) move up to the next level its just like laddering on starcraft

On November 01 2008 14:40 CrownRoyal wrote: I fucking hate you from a trashtalking match on wgt back in the day gfy, grudge holding for life.

roflmao

be prepared to be screwed over many, many times

On November 01 2008 14:40 CrownRoyal wrote: I fucking hate you from a trashtalking match on wgt back in the day gfy, grudge holding for life.

Except I never played wgt.

thanks guys

up 5 dollars after playing 0.01/0.02 for 2 hours

this rocks!

There's one thing I don't understand in Grot's guide, he says that in order to play some hands there need to be a certain amount of callers already. How does having more callers make your hand more likely to win?

On November 01 2008 21:00 Orome wrote: There's one thing I don't understand in Grot's guide, he says that in order to play some hands there need to be a certain amount of callers already. How does having more callers make your hand more likely to win?

Those hands play well in multiway pots; you don't flop something with them often, so you need to be sure you get paid off a decent amount of the times when you hit.

Fuk the nl2. It doesn't learn anything beside maybe patience. But what is the fun if you play only AA allin pf ? Of course i'm exagerating but you won't learn a single fuking thing ever.
It's like playing a starcraft game where you go with the most conservative style and don't get any credits except for nice stats ? In poker it would result to a nice profit. But fuk it i don't want money i mean it's nl2, i'd rather play like durrr and losing my money but at least i'm learning a LOT of things.

If you've never played poker seriously before, you can learn a lot at NL2.

On November 01 2008 21:50 RaiZ wrote: i'd rather play like durrr

Harrington on cash games, which is extremely recent, might be pretty good for you. You'll likely want to start playing 6 max as opposed to full ring as soon as possible so that your transition is as smooth and easy as possible and at low stakes. It's widely agreed upon that 6 max is more profitable, your skill edge is magnified with less players in the game. There's also a great deal worse variance and longer/worse swings.

As soon as possible, you'll want to invest in a subscription to a site with training videos and a poker tracking software, such as poker tracker or hold'em manager. Hold'em manager is probably better, I'm not sure about the prices but I believe it's cheaper and supports more sites as well. Oh yeah, and for the love of god do NOT create an account on fulltilt poker until you've looked into rakeback there and know how to get an account linked on creation. If you create an account without following whatever procedure your chosen rakeback provider specifies, it'll be very difficult to get rakeback. Rakeback, in case you don't know, is just a portion of the rake taken from each pot that your provider refunds you. It's exceptionally important for microstakes and low stakes because the rake is very very large relative to the pot size. If you're not earning a bonus and or rakeback, especially while grinding microstakes, you're doing it wrong.

NL2 will at least teach you patience and discipline, don't get stuck in the "I'm too good for this game level blah blah blah" mentality. Everyone is going to have leaks in their play and it's way better to plug them while you're playing as low as possible than when you've moved up to ssnl.

I would probably play Omaha High Low If I was gonna start now

but nobody ever listens to me so, gl hf

you too late... give up :-P