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I want to learn how to play poker effectively. In tournaments I've always been conservative and had a decent cash rate. However I generally always min cash or so because I'm never one of the chip leaders usually. HELP!

you need to learn how to play position. when to steal, when to 3 bet, how to take down pots without seeing a flop. those are just a few things that could improve a players odds. and being stubborn is not how to win at poker. example: youre UTG and dealt AJ suited my play is fold, 90%+ will raise from UTG with that trash and get super stubborn. folks its just AJ and you got 5-6 players behind you. why waste time on that hand thats most likely gonna cost you chips?

there are plenty of methods to learn poker
if u r interested in theory books , I would recommend David Sklansky for u , especially the theory of poker
if u r interested in cash books , I would recommend Dan Harrington , u can check Harrington on cash games
but when we talk about tourneys , there are plenty of books and strategies and most of them are useless and repeating the same thing all over the book
but I would recommend  Lee Nelson for u , he is my best author about tourneys
u can check let's play poker for SNG one table and u can check Kill Phill and Kill Everyone for MTT strategy
and if u r interested in some videos I would recommend Gripsed youtube channel , it's great and helped me a lot

Search high stakes poker, there are 7 seasons on the internet, maybe a full list of 7 seasons on youtube, so you can enjoy the real poker, you can learn lots of things from the videos.

Some best players, see durrrr dwan's play style, you can learn some from him, he pretends to have bad hands when he has good hands, and bluff lots of money when he has air, he is a poker talent, search Tom dwan vs ivey, that's awesome.

A good way to start is Phil Gordons - Green Book

A site that I learned a lot from when I started playing a few years ago was PokerStrategy.com. Has a lot of pros and up and comers who give you some nice advice and when you rank up there you open up to more advance strategy. It is definitely worth checking out.

Lol no, stay away from outdated garbage books like these.

I would say most books are a total waste of time, in the era of so many sites providing video training i see very little use in books.

Personalaly when i was starting to learn about poker i've read some books that were considered "classic" and after becoming good myself it became so clear that they were an abysmal waste of time.

Most of the times this is usually when players lack Post bubble skills. Grab a book which focuses on the post bubble part and what kind of play to use during different parts of the tournament ( Start/Prebubble/ Bubble/ FT) . You can also just watch videos of people from famous poker sites showing their tournament play.

If I recall correctly, learning to play Poker is very easy. Whats very difficult is learning other peoples reactions. That's something that can take years to master if not decades.

Amateurs reactions are different from Professionals.

A common misconception of poker based on cheesy movies that has nothing to do with the reality

Yup, its all about making the right move, and does have some part of Hand reading, but its not always easy to read hands . Check out the Moorman Book of poker, relatively a new book I just read a few days back. It has some good hand examples, and is good for people who are intermediate at the game.

I've always wanted to learn how to play to be honest.
I'm too lazy though & not sure if I'd be any good, in an ideal world I'd love to be able to play & be Dan Bilzerian  ;D
It just looks too damn complicated though, so many winning hands, you have to be able to process almost instantly what other peoples hands could be, % chances of losing/winning.
I would love to be able to play but can't be bothered & haven't really got the time to learn.
I wouldn't want to be a noob & get my ass kicked any way.

Dude just watch some videos and you'll get hooked  ;)

Books are outdated nowadays  8)

Check out 2plus2 forums but be warned people over there like to troll newcomers.  8)

IMO, the best way to learn how to play pokee effectively is just practice, practice and practice. ;)
That's what I did in my first time learning to play poker in facebook application, without reading any books..
But ofc you need to know the basic rules of poker.
The more you practice the more you learn..

practice a lot and play Zynga Poker in facebook.com     ;D

If you have facebook account you can search poker games and practice there before playing

I would rather just suggest practising on Pokerstars with play money chips. The users on FB are more like newbies who keep shoving. PS still has a better standard of players for play chips, and also has tournaments running througout the day.

As a former player to a decent level i'll give you the only 2 things you need.  1.) Watch videos of other players playing, some are free on youtube but you should sign up to cardrunners or similar training school.  2.) Play lots of volume and use the skills you learnt in the videos.

Thats all you need for starters, other than that become friends with someone who is better than you and learn from them.

"Practicing with play money chips" is the horrible advice that will most likely backfire. The only use of play money tables is get comfortable with the interface and the general rules.  Other than that, its a waste of time and an actual way to become worse at poker.

I would second that as well. Instead of practicing with free play chips its better to just play very low stakes like 0.01/0.02. You don't need a high bankroll for that. But it would not be an efficient way to improve your tournament game. Games which are of low buyins < 3$ usually won't get you good tournament experience. You will likely be playing against people who would be playing for just fun and would see a similar playing style like playing chips.

if u practice with play money , believe me you will not learn anything
play money players always put you on easy decisions , and most of the time it's all in or fold
as I said before , try the recommended books and follow some channels on youtube that offers coaching
and while u r learning u should also practice , and try to purchase a tracker so u can review some hands ( this is not an option if u will just play bitcoin poker )
and remember , poker is beatable if u do it right

While I don't have a specific resource to add, I'd echo the folks who say that practicing with play money doesn't help, and I'd take it a bit farther: you have to know your opponents in poker and different types of games produce different types of opponents.  Online poker, for example, is very different from real life poker because the number of cues you can get from your opponents is limited to how long they took to play (a noisy signal, at best) and their history.  But you can still learn from the type of game you're playing (ring game? tourney? what stakes?, etc).  So, i guess I'd just say that in part, getting good at poker will depend on whether you are playing with frat boys at a weekend party, a local casino, swcpoker.eu, etc. 

Along the lines above, I noticed that almost everyone who replied assumed that you're playing no-limit texas holdem, but in fact,there are many more types of games and many different scenes that go with them.  I have some neighbors who play a friendly game with low bet-limits and it's basically impossible to push someone off of chasing a flush or a straight, but that's just part of the game they play.  Which kind of poker are you playing most often?

i agree with the others practice practice practice!!!!!!

I actually been searching youtube and there is a ton of free info these days you'd never get back in 2005-2008 where some people would just bet the pot each time they want to bet lol. 

You could also consider downloading some of the courses from successful players, obviously there are ways to download anything for free if needed.

The rule of poker is different in different place. What type of poker do you want to learn?

Play in position is not necessary, I just learned when to bluff and I still win.
But I'm a NL/PLO man.

People online will have a series of sophisticated stats these days for how often you bluff and in what position you bluff most.  Doing too much of any one thing is usually bad unless the game conditions never change.

I have gone through a lot of those videos. Watching some of the shared hand histories is fine, but for other videos its best to just sign up for a site like Runitonce or CardRunners, there you will have an extensive list of training videos for both cash games and tournies.

But this is why stakes are so important to think about too.  Sometimes, I call what I suspect is not a bluff just because I want to see if the player is bluffing---even if I don't have cards to beat it.  I might lose that hand, but if the stakes are small, it might be more valuable to know what kind of bets the other player makes.  For example, say I've got a low pair and there's a obvious straight draw on, I can't beat the straight if he has it, but I want to know whether that bet was real.  I'm surprised how often the player is actually bluffing, has nothing, and I walk away with the pot.  However, if the stakes are high, I won't do that.

well first of all to play poker i think you need to love that game,its not all about learning.
watch some tutorials. read some blogs,and then go to freerolls and try what you learned.
after couple of months you will be solid player with possibilty to earn while playing it :).
regards.
-katerniko1

i think you can google it and there are so many you tube videos showing how to play and gradually you can be effective enough in playing..

poker from beginning: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTG43QRUwLM

Trial and error.   Play at small stakes games. to learn.   Learn when to bluff, when to fold, when and how much to raise.  I find for myself that I can read 100 books about something but learn more by actually doing something. 

Try online gambling websites to figure it out. 1-2 hours and u can become a professional player.. almost. Check the rules out http://casinomonster.ca/history-of-gambling-in-canada/ Cheers.

Magicmexican has made really points throughout this thread.

That being said, if you want to read books I suggest the following. Instead, you should probably watch videos/streams, there's a lot of quality content out there.

http://www.twoplustwo.com/books/poker/theory-of-poker/
https://books.google.ca/books?isbn=9731991344 (if you enjoy and understand math)

I'd say first learn the rules and practice with play chips or play freerolls. try to play all types of poker at least once. such as HE ,omaha, HORSE, and also try the pot limit and no limit versions and get the feel of the games. Try to figure out which games r u most comfortable with and then go to poker blogs and read reviews about books specific to your interest. Mind you, there's a lot of difference in playing a cash game and a tournament. Figure that out too.

GL

I know a really good website to learn but it is in spanish...

http://www.educapoker.com/

If you know spanish it's a very useful site

^This. The only way you're get good at it is if you play for real money, first of all try to find the site where there are lot of players active on ring tables, then deposit a small amount and start playing, don't go too fast, learn to fold when you have no hand (you can't bluff on every hand), you need to spend a lot of time on the Money tables, you're not going to learn anything from freerolls or playmoney.

If you loose your money, learn from your mistakes, think about whether it was a bad beat or were you trying to bluff and were called, if you win don't run away, stay there and play safely. If you can find some local tables to play live poker that would be best.

good idea, would like to have this info too

being a successful poker player means at the beginning losing many many times, only that way you will learn how to play efficiently and patiently. Learning is a painful process but when achieved the fun begins...there are no shortcuts...

Search high stakes poker, there are 7 seasons on the internet, maybe a full list of 7 seasons on youtube, so you can enjoy the real poker, you can learn lots of things from the videos.

And i find the names of good books, it may help you:

Every Hand Revealed by Gus Hansen (2008)
Super/System: A Course in Power Poker by Doyle Brunson (1978)
The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky (1994 Edition)