Beginners Guide

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Welcome to Liquid Poker's beginners guide. This thread intends to introduce you to poker and to our site. It's not our intention to teach you poker with this post, but to show a little bit of the poker world. This guide is organized in some topics that will help you to better understand how poker and our forum work. In case you are already a bit familiar to poker, feel free to skip any topic and read those that interest you. We hope this is helpful to you!


<font size="4pt"><b>About Poker</b></font>

<b>Poker Rules</b>:

Just like in any other game, knowing poker rules is the first thing you have to do. We have an article detailing how Texas Hold’em works. Hold’em is the most popular poker game in the world. After you learn it, it becomes much easier to learn other poker games. <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticle/699930/Poker_Rules:_Texas_Hold_em">Learn the basic poker rules</a>.


<b>How poker works:</b>

There are plenty of ways to play poker online. Apart from playmoney, usually we divide it in three categories that are divided in subcategories.

- <b>Playmoney</b> - Just as the name says, it's a playmoney poker game. If you are just starting out, we suggest you to <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/out/1">create an account on PokerStars</a> and play on playmoney tables for some hours so you can get familiar with online poker. This is a great way to get a feeling of the game without the risk of losing money, since you don't have to deposit a penny!

1.<b>Cash games</b> - Cash game is a poker game played with real money. It means the chips on the table represent money. There are cash games for every kind of bankroll, from the pennies to the grands.

1.1 <b>Ring-game</b> – Cash game with up to 10 players

1.2 <b>6-max or 6-handed</b> - Cash game with up to 6 players

1.3 <b>Heads-up</b> – Cash game One on one


2. <b>Tournaments</b> – Tournaments are played until there is only one player left. Most of the tournaments pay prizes to around 10% of the field of players. Those players who get to the money are said to finish the tournament “In the money”. Every poker room has a schedule of regular tournaments.

2.1 <b>Freezeout</b> – In these tournaments you only have one “life”. If you lose all your chips it means you are eliminated.

2.2 <b>Rebuys and Add-on</b> – Rebuy tournaments are usually a lot more aggressive than Freezeout tournaments early on. They allow the player to rebuy the initial stack and get another chance at the tournament. Add-on means you can pay the buy-in of the tournament and add the initial stack to your chip stack. Let’s say the initial stack of a tournament is 1500 chips. You can pay the entrance fee of the tournament and add those 1500 chips to your current chip stack.

2.3 <b>Satellite</b> – Qualifier tournaments for bigger tournaments. Usually they work as freezeout tournaments.


3. <b>Sit N’ Go</b> – They work as tournaments, but the big difference is that they don’t follow a schedule. For a SNG to start the only requirement is that all available seats are sold out. SNG’s can start with as few players as two, but you can find SNG’s with seats for 360 players out there.

Betting Limits

In every kind of poker game (Cash, Tournament, SNG), there has to be a rule for betting sizes. Games can have a pot limit, fixed limit, or no limit at all.

- No Limit is pretty obvious. There are no limits for betting values or number of bets, so you can go all-in on your very first act.

- In Pot Limit you can bet any amount as long as the number does not surpass the pot. If the pot is 100 you can bet up to 100.

- In Fixed Limit games, bets are capped to certain limits in both value and number of bets.

You can identify the betting limit of the game at the poker room lobby. There will always be a tab displaying the limit: NL, PL or FL.

<b>Bankroll Management</b>

This is one of the most important poker concepts out there. Often it can mark the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful poker player. Bankroll management means you should only play limits with a cashier that allows you to do so, protecting you from poker variance.

If you have $100 in your cashier, it would be wrong to play a $25 buy-in cash-game, because you can lose all your roll in a blink of an eye. Even though the concept is not really complex, many players fail to follow a correct bankroll management for some reason. Do not do this. We have two really good texts about bankroll management (<a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticle/146467/Bankroll_Management_Explained">Bankroll Managemente Explained</a> and <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticle/146441/The_bankroll_management_and_variance_guide">The Bankroll Management and Variance Guide</a> in our <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticles/">Poker Articles</a> section. Read them!


<font size="4pt"><b>Using Liquid Poker</b>:</font>

<b><i>Poker Articles</i></b>

Liquid Poker has a lot of features that will help you grow into a good poker player. Our articles section has lots of important instructions in every area of poker. Read the beginner’s articles and then progressively read the more complex ones. It's important that you also read our interviews, they usually have a lot of good information from some of the best poker players.

<b><i>Liquid Poker Dictionary</i></b>

If you want to learn the meaning of some poker term or abbreviation, this is the place. Our <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/poker-dictionary/>poker dictionary</a> is inside our <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticles/">poker article's</a> section and covers all the important poker terms. If you feel there is one term missing, you can also add it yourself by clicking on "add term".

<b><i>Hand converter</i></b>

We offer a simple and fast Hand Converter that allows you to archive your hands. Learn <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/poker-forum/471872/How_to_use_the_Hand_Converter.html>how to use our hand converter</a>!

<b><i>Room Reviews</i></b>

Our staff wrote very good reviews of the most known poker rooms. Those reviews will help you decide which room you should deposit your money in. Liquid Poker sees PokerStars as the best poker room for every poker player, from beginners to experts. <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/out/1>Download PokerStars</a> and create an account.

<b><i>Bonuses</i></b>

Liquid Poker offers both deposit and no deposit bonus. We strongly suggest you to make your first deposit on sites such as <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/-pokerstars>PokerStars</a> and <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/-full-tilt-poker>Full Tilt Poker</a>. Click on the links to know more about our deposit bonuses.


<b><i>Rakeback</i></b>

First, let's define what rake is. Online poker rooms are like a virtual casino. This means they need profit, just like any other business. Rake is the way we pay them for their service. At pretty much every cash-game hand a small percentage of the pot, usually up to 5%, goes to the poker room. In tournaments the rake is a fee added to the buy-in. In a $3+0.30 tournament, the rake is 30 cents.


Rakeback is a refund to the players. Poker players get back a percentage of the rake they pay to the poker room. It is a deal between the player and the poker room, which allows the player to receive part of the amount raked by him during certain period. Usually these rakeback deals refund the player in around 30% of the rake. Say you raked $100 during a month. If you have a 30% rakeback deal, you have the right to get $30 back.

Liquid Poker offers the best rakeback deals of the internet. <a href=http://rakeback.liquidpoker.net/>Check out our rakeback site</a>!

<b><i>Our forums</i></b>

Our forum is organized in several sections:
- Texas Hold’em hand discussion forums, divided in Low, Mid, High Stakes and Tournaments;
- Other poker games hand discussion forum;
- Main poker, that involves all poker discussions;
- General forum, for general discussion.
- Rail Heaven, for watching high stakes games online and cheering our users in tournaments.

You can surf our forums either by individually clicking on each section, or clicking on the tab “Forums” in our top menu, for an overall view of all forums. If you got a doubt you can ask it on the forums, this can boost your knowledge. The responds can be blunt though.

<b><i>Liquid Poker Store</i></b>

We sell Liquid Poker merchandise and Poker Tracker 3 in our <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/store/>poker store</a>. Visit us and see if there is anything you like.

<b><i>Blogs</i></b>

Blogs are a very useful tool for every poker player. You can list down your hands and follow your progress meanwhile receiving comments from fellow users. To create your blog you just need to click on "My blog" in our top menu and then set it up.

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add glossary of common terminology imo, like 3bet, ptbb, all that jazz. :O unless i missed one. (unless i missed notice of a glossary in the post, i mean :O)

bet sizing and good flops not to cbet

cool post

nice this helped me fix some leaks at microstakes!

Hi fellow players

Just learned how to play Texas Holdem ,, and i am loving it. All excited to join this forum

how could someone be stupid enough to not know everything in this thread. mind boggling.

On October 02 2009 17:11 TJ Cookier wrote: how could someone be stupid enough to not know everything in this thread. mind boggling.

um, maybe someone who is a BEGINNER at poker?

how could you be to stupid enough to not know that? Mind boggling.

Mind boggling indeed , Was wondering how bet structures can be used to you advantage in the game of poker

kewl

Hi you all ,i like playing poker and usually i play at Heracasino . has anyone any thoughts on building a roll from HU sngs.

Using the principles like that off doubling up on red in casinos on roulette. But with poker HU SNG. Less variance of course because it's pretty hard to lose more than 5 HU sngs at once. Unless ur really bad.

Any thoughts?

ie. $1, $2, $6 , $10 , $20 etc

On December 29 2009 14:41 ELTON JOHN wrote: Hi you all ,i like playing poker and usually i play at Heracasino . has anyone any thoughts on building a roll from HU sngs. Using the principles like that off doubling up on red in casinos on roulette. But with poker HU SNG. Less variance of course because it's pretty hard to lose more than 5 HU sngs at once. Unless ur really bad. Any thoughts? ie. $1, $2, $6 , $10 , $20 etc

omfg nice graph

Roflgraph. What happened? Epic runbad or had a few too many shots of jack daniels?

On December 29 2009 14:41 ELTON JOHN wrote: Hi you all ,i like playing poker and usually i play at Heracasino . has anyone any thoughts on building a roll from HU sngs. Using the principles like that off doubling up on red in casinos on roulette. But with poker HU SNG. Less variance of course because it's pretty hard to lose more than 5 HU sngs at once. Unless ur really bad. Any thoughts? ie. $1, $2, $6 , $10 , $20 etc

if you are talking about martingale strategy (always betting just enough to get slightly ahead) or another betting strategy, it doesn't work

most of them are structured such that they will maximise your chance of having a winning session, but at the same time making your losing sessions so severe that you end up with the same longterm results (as in the graph)

hey nice tips u got there....

Hey guys thanks for this beautiful explanation, actually i am also looking for some more detail info about poker

On January 27 2010 02:42 carlcebosky wrote: hey nice tips u got there....

stop lookin at my tits u perv

Thanks for the post. Looking around on some sites in the beginning was certainly overwhelming. I hope that people starting out check out this post. The links/articles/etc... are great.

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some stuff is old but still a lot of great articles for beginers, post #4
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/55/...rums/2-2-nl-anthology-v1-down-346801/

Well-Done

Is there a probability chart that tells you to raise or fold??

On March 15 2011 13:47 empressivlee wrote: Is there a probability chart that tells you to raise or fold??

There is an M chart that is used in tourneys for when you should shove all in or fold depending on your stack size in relation to the blinds, position at the table and how many orbits (M) you can survive for.

For cash games not really.

Graph looks standard, if you consider earlier shots (big losses in few torunaments) the "epic downswing" was just cumulation of 2-3 smaller swings which occured around 120#, 180# and so on.

nice start page, i´m looking at this for the first time

This reminds my my graph then i was mass playing 5$ hu games and once i had all stakes tab on and was lookin 3/4 ppl registred and acidently registered to 200$ 4 player hu sng. I lost but next day i won 4$ 180 man sng. Had siminal cliff jump on my graph

Very informative post and this actually helped a lot...

Thanks!

monster up and down

Boring freeroll hunter are boring

On December 29 2009 16:37 Jelle wrote: Show nested quote + On December 29 2009 14:41 ELTON JOHN wrote: Hi you all ,i like playing poker and usually i play at Heracasino . has anyone any thoughts on building a roll from HU sngs. Using the principles like that off doubling up on red in casinos on roulette. But with poker HU SNG. Less variance of course because it's pretty hard to lose more than 5 HU sngs at once. Unless ur really bad. Any thoughts? ie. $1, $2, $6 , $10 , $20 etc if you are talking about martingale strategy (always betting just enough to get slightly ahead) or another betting strategy, it doesn't work most of them are structured such that they will maximise your chance of having a winning session, but at the same time making your losing sessions so severe that you end up with the same longterm results (as in the graph)

martingale works, you just need infinite bankroll for it :DDD

if i had a trillion dollars i'd martingale vs the US government...busto the government and own the USA

sorry mate, one trillion is not enough - according to xkcd money graph

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lol

i just starte this week playing. when is the right time to start with real money? i am just scared of loosing. :O

when did you guys start?

If it is not for just registering for a freeroll... here is an answer.
Quite a lot started playing with playmoney and next sold it for some real money and started from there playing micros.
If you don't want to go through playmoney (which is understable), start at the lowest stakes, and don't move up until you feel very comfortable and beat it easily.

wow thank you very much for your help.
i know i sound very amateur (and i am!) but i really appreciate you helping me out as i believe you all know it better than me! thank you very much!

just out of curiosity: whats so bad with freerolls? as i understand its a tournament withouth entry fee right? that doesnt sound that bad. and can i change playmoney on PokerStars too?

freerolls are not any bad. It's just that sometimes liquid poker hosts freerolls and some people sign on the site just to be able to play them.

Ok so i played alot these past few days. I would like to try a real money game. Of course only with a few dollar/cent.

My problem is: i live in germany. i dont think it is legal to play for money online....is that correct? i dont want to get in trouble and thats what i found out lately.

playing online is perfectly legal in Germany as far as I know

someone make a beginners guide for plo already : )

I think it's about time pwnya!!

Have at it, make the best guide you've ever made!!

Make us proud!!


+ Show Spoiler +

i'm sorry this has nothing to do with anything but i don't know where to ask:
is there a way to know which threads we've read on LP? (like the bold thing on 2p2)

nope sry

fantastic post for beginners........and also for me....

Hi, I've been on the starcraft part of teamliquid for ages, and decided to give poker a try. Can I ask some questions? Is this the right place?

I took the pokerstrategy offer for $50 free on titanpoker if you did their quiz etc. Is titanpoker a good/bad site?

They keep repeating (at pokerstrategy.com) that I should play TAG. To know if I actually am playing like a TAG (I'm aiming for a cute little noob TAG right now), I feel it would be useful to take some statistics on myself (and maybe even on other people). Is there a free software that can help me take that kind of statistics? I don't feel like spending the $90 dollar for the fancy software you advertise on the OP right now.

cheers, see you at the tables! (plz don't take mai monei!)

edit: also, the accounts are separate on the starcraft and poker parts right? I didn't make a new account for nothing?

Also, is the advice from pokerstrategy accurate for a beginner?

I read the "become a winner" articles by Jelle (from 2007!), which seemed to say more or less the same: play only the strongest hands preflop, but don't be afraid to raise when you get a good hand on the flop. Is that how I should play now at the start? I am getting a bit bored by sitting and folding round after round using the table from pokerstrategy (table.pdf), but maybe that is working as intended.

On September 27 2012 06:59 Art.Cascade wrote: edit: also, the accounts are separate on the starcraft and poker parts right? I didn't make a new account for nothing?

Correct, both sites use seperate databases. We don't want minors or people that have moral objections to poker to automatically be a member of a poker site.

Oh, rIght, that makes a lot of sense when you explain it that way, thanks.

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There is free tracking software
http://sourceforge.net/projects/fpdb/

it's not very user friendly though.

Thanks for help guys!
I installed fpdp. What are good numbers to show on the HUD? I have 11.7% VPIP, is that too small? Maybe not enough hands to really tell atm.

I'll create a thread as Rapoza suggested once I have a bit more to show. Atm I have like 300 hands (up almost 2 dollars, yay me!) and just a few large bets. I'm playing preflop according to my chart, but pretty sure I'm doing everything after that wrong. Possibly folding/checking too often. I want to get a few more hands for better statistics before asking for advice though. Ty again.

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thanks for this cool beginners guide..............
i also learn this from http://www.worldcasinoyellowpages.com/online-poker-rooms
thanks,

On October 02 2009 17:11 TJ Cookier wrote: how could someone be stupid enough to not know everything in this thread. mind boggling.

It's not stupid, people are not BORN with knowledge...everyone starts somewhere and somewhere along the line this info needs to be available. This is a beginners poker forum, the perfect place to find this sort of info. Imagine if it was never ever available? Now THAT dear Sir, is mind boggling along with the fact that you seem to be oblivious to this.

solid thread bump from a quote ~4yrs ago.

Wow, look at that graph

Thanks for the information!

On October 02 2009 20:05 Elite00 wrote: Show nested quote + On October 02 2009 17:11 TJ Cookier wrote: how could someone be stupid enough to not know everything in this thread. mind boggling. um, maybe someone who is a BEGINNER at poker? how could you be to stupid enough to not know that? Mind boggling.

Well said...
It is like saying until you read that you were stupid..

Next level bot.

Hello guys

I recently started playing poker. What i found out so far, that is really addicting :D Since i am sc2 fan, i favor this forum and decided to ask stupid questions that are not in beginners guide or in novice guides.. :D I hope i will get some friendliness.

So the questions:

Do you guys registered to most poker sites because of "100%bonus of cash"? It sounds very very huge bonus.
Played some games with pokermoney and tried cash games. I do think sit'n'go is easiest to start especcialy when you win if half table players drop out. It doesnt give you any money but gradually i could try those normal tables. Any comments on this?

I also interested in making my own sheet with results of some kind of to track something that is suppose to be important(not just interesting). Any guide in here? Or is this that bankroll manager? Or bankroll manager is another useful sheet of info?

I noticed i try boldly with shitty hand(same color) for flushes. It seems to pay off, at least when i play very casually. And i also focus on my timigs to fold the cards by guessing if i will loose.

And the last question: is texas holdem most popular or easiest to play for noobs or the way to become a good poker player? Will people eventually transition to other poker types?

Ty. for answers!

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Loving the break down for beginning players in the thread!

On January 16 2014 13:15 webas wrote: Hello guys I recently started playing poker. What i found out so far, that is really addicting :D Since i am sc2 fan, i favor this forum and decided to ask stupid questions that are not in beginners guide or in novice guides.. :D I hope i will get some friendliness. So the questions: Do you guys registered to most poker sites because of "100%bonus of cash"? It sounds very very huge bonus. Played some games with pokermoney and tried cash games. I do think sit'n'go is easiest to start especcialy when you win if half table players drop out. It doesnt give you any money but gradually i could try those normal tables. Any comments on this? I also interested in making my own sheet with results of some kind of to track something that is suppose to be important(not just interesting). Any guide in here? Or is this that bankroll manager? Or bankroll manager is another useful sheet of info? I noticed i try boldly with shitty hand(same color) for flushes. It seems to pay off, at least when i play very casually. And i also focus on my timigs to fold the cards by guessing if i will loose. And the last question: is texas holdem most popular or easiest to play for noobs or the way to become a good poker player? Will people eventually transition to other poker types? Ty. for answers!

Definitely try to always take FULL advantage of the 100% bonuses you find. For example, if you have $300 and one site offers 100% at $100 and 50% at $1000; you'll want to deposit to the first option first off, grind up / unlock your winnings and bonus, then deposit on the other site when your bankroll is large enough. It's definitely a great reason to start at a site, but you should also weigh that against the risk of the site closing (if it isn't regulated or for another reason). Do your research!

Sit and goes are a great starting point. Your edge is quickly made known, especially at lower stakes when that is often a matter of patience. You might typically be able to literally sit out and get 5th place or higher a decent amount of the time in a 10 man tournament. These tournaments also teach you about adapting to players quickly, about variance of the game, and about keeping cool after things don't go your way (because they won't a lot of the time!)

Texas Hold'em is by far and away the most popular game to play. However, it's also one of the more competitive games. If you're getting into a game, or anything you want to beat, just make sure you're doing more than your competition to learn and to improve, and you will come out on top in the long run (barring any physical talents, like if we're talking basketball and being above 6'5" helping quite a bit)

Are there any good guides that tell you which hands are worth seeing the flop for and which hands are worth betting on and stuff like that?

On December 01 2016 09:45 jrkirby wrote: Are there any good guides that tell you which hands are worth seeing the flop for and which hands are worth betting on and stuff like that?

http://www.gamblingsystem.biz/books/2p2NL6max.pdf

Good for preflop starting hands for 6max

Hi,

Thank you for this very informative post.

thanks for the info. bru

these youngins are really polite as fuck

Hello! Thank you for this thread. I am new to this platform and want to thank you for posting this thread. I have been playing poker for a long time now and have started real money games six months ago. I hope I will get to learn a lot from the members in this community and also share my own experiences with you all.

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