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Hi there guys!

I find it hard to play poker, as of now I am always losing on that game. ;D
But of I am not using any money yet because I know I will just lose the game. Just playing online and offline... but I am really sick on it.
Can you guys tell me more about the basics of this game. How do you play the game?

And also if you could, the strategies that can be a key for winning.  

Hoping to your great responses :D

Hey man. Good to hear you want to improve your poker plays. It all depends on how much time you want to put in. There are so many books out there from top poker players, it would take a lifetime to read them all.

Here is a short summary I found very usefull:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=142456801 (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=142456801)

It just a quick summary but it gives you insight for the starting hands that are good to use.

Every decent player has fixed ranged of cards he will play and the rest he will fold. Especially when playing online where you have a very limited amount of time available to play and the information on other players is very limited too you should have a fixed system to play by.

Poker is getting very complex depending on if you play cash games or tournaments.

I would recommend to try and play on the top cards at the beginning and see if you hit a good flop - if you do, keep betting. Otherwise just get out. Bluffing as a beginner is very hard and might take a huge part of your bankroll.

Also playing poker with play money is a bit different to real money. I would recommend to try to make a jump to micro tables where the blind are 0.01 and 0.02$. You cant lose more than 1-2$ and the learning curve is pretty good.

Good lucky my friend.

PS. On which platform do you play?

There are different types of poker games available in the gambling places for people to choose, the most popular one is texas holdem poker where also you need to luck at most to win the games but you can confuse the other players with your confidence level and bluffing while cards are in your hand to increase your chances.

Better visit the online blogs to get detailed information about poker and how strategies work on it.

Are there gambling sites where I can play tables with 1-2 cent blinds and this site accepts crypto to play? If there are - could you recommend few please. Thanks

I would also like to improve poker skills, plus get some fun. I’m not rich enough to spend 30-50$ each evening playing poker, but “less than 5$” is something I can afford  ;D

Playing with play money is not interesting, because when you play, you dont care much about the result. You can all in each game and then just reload play money.

I am no expert so I tried to search for it thru online. I've checked articles and here's a link in which I find it simple to understand especially if you are a beginner. There are also videos which will make it easier to understand.

Here's the link:
https://www.pokerlistings.com/how-to-play-poker

Feel free to check it out.


This is quite true. If it is real money, a player would be forced to think of a better way whenever he is playing because he would be at risk of losing the game and money if he won't be thrilled with the game.

There are several kinds of poker and the same sounding pokers too would have a bit different rules depending on where you play. Pokerstars have a short guide for popular types of poker games https://www.pokerstars.com/poker/games/
I also some time mess up the rules with similar games like Baduci and Badugy.
You can also find a bit detailed info about different poker games in wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poker_variants

If you've just begun to play poker then it is quite normal to find it hard. Just play and play and enjoy the game. Sooner you will get the hang of it and learn the basic strategies.

The best poker strategy for me is to somehow understand or read how your opponents play. That's the key to end up winning in general. Of course, luck always matters even in poker but being able to catch your opponents' strategy will allow you to somehow dominate the game.

It is also very important to control your emotions, learn to fold, and forget about the money. A lot of newbie poker players continue to call after the river even though they know very well that their hands have too little chance of winning.

In poker we experience of losing the game I’ve tried it twice to play but I ended up losing all the time. I guess I just lack of strategies to bet. I find it hard also, so we could master the games on our own in the long run by continues playing it but of course if your funds permits it. By watching some videos, reading some articles this could gives us a tremendous way to learn some strategy.

I'm sure you can read the rules online, and there are various kinds of poker, so the rules can vary greatly. What you should memorize is the hierarchy (from the weakest to the strongest combinations) because otherwise you can't evaluate your chances. Knowing the odds of having particular combinations also wouldn't hurt in decision-making. Even though I prefer online gambling, I'm more comfortable playing poker physically, with friends. The time limits per making the move online make me nervous, and I hate those people who aggressively increase the bet amount at the very beginning of the game, whom I've met when playing online. An advantage of playing online, however, is that you can feel free about expressing emotions since nobody can see your face. As for winning, I'm not sure it's possible to maintain stable income with poker at all. I've seen good players, but even they often lose and end up with zero balance, not profit.

When you are interested in playing poker, first of all, you will spend your time reading and watching a lot of videos about for you to learn.

And once you have an idea about it, that's the time where you can ask those things that you don't understand in a poker game. You should build your own foundation and don't rely on us, because at the end of the day, you are the one who will control your strategies and do a good decision making in the game.

But as most of the people said, bad luck is your number one enemy and followed by greed.

Strategies should depend on you, and you need to deal with the actual game so that you how it actually works and played. If we give you some advice then you will not really understand it very well.
You need practice and experience in poker to make it helpful and profitable for you.

Practice having a poker face no matter what happens, don't let your opponent read your facial expression.

not quite true. I usually care more about how I will play my cards (especially if it is bad) and how I will manipulate my opponents into thinking that I have a bad card if I have a good card and vice versa, having a good amount of money/play money makes you do that. it also helps you practice and be more cautious when using real money.

I don't know man, the thing with playmoney is that you can't get broke. Once you lose everything they will just top your balance back up. So strategy wise most people will just keep going all in most of the hands with play money. I would not recommend playing a lot of playmoney poker and trying to find a good strategy for it. People tend to play differently with money and when it's for free. When I started playing poker I was really into the free tournaments which were played a few times a day. In the end it was not very fruitful. If you start playing micro poker with only 1$ bankroll at the beginning you can't lose much.

I am playing poker as well i already saw some articles about poker strategies but i don't read them since i think playing card games only uses luck but it seems that poker strategy would really work, usually i always bluff and increases bet from time to time but i think it is not a good thing i lose some amount with that strategy.

that's the point you can't get broke so you can continue honing your poker skills and if they keep going all-in with almost every card will that person learn something? I understand if people see that it is pointless but in my point of view, you can learn things even when playing with play money.

that's true, this is what I did when I was starting to play poker(after knowing enough about the game) but there are still things you can pick up from players that play poker with play money it may not be much but it is still something.

It's your nerve that matters, inside poker bluffing is a serious attempt.

Since once your opponents already learned your strategy it will burned you, many experienced players
managed to study their opponents allowing them to win to master the patterns, it's hard but learnable
and once you already have such instinct it will favor you along the way.

I'm a casual poker player and I swear poker is a hard and exhausting game but trust me it's fun when you're winning.

I see that you are a beginner on poker, I must advice that you don't go in high blinds table that would be problematic for you, instead go for the lower blinds table where you can easily fold when you feel that your cards is a trash, that won't push you to go far with less chance winning cards. And also the in and outs of the card, it is hard to read the cards but you should know your chances on getting the card that you need to win the round.

Even you read stuff or gather some information about some strategies, it won't be applied easily in most of the cases if you are having a hard time understanding the basics of the game. Since game situations are different in every session, different strategies are applied.

I suggest to just keep on playing. You have to be used to playing poker to build experience.

Practice makes perfect, not 100% but a continuous and regular playing will make you familiar with the game.

No amount of reading could make you get good, just like no amount of theory crafting could make you successful in an RPG dungeon run, or like how a scientist could never get a body builder body with just trying to study theories and best ways. Practice makes perfect, and well, with that also comes your money. You can try playing without money involved, but the experience that comes with that seems like it would end up null, since the thrill and all also helps in decision making at times. Since you're playing online and not offline, facial expressions could basically be left out, but bluffing could still be useful. Try to craft theories always on what the cards of others are depending on the situation and especially watch out for bluffs.

If you are able to perfectly execute what you read you may actually be a better player. But that's definitely not the only road toward becoming a good poker player. Some earned their poker skills from years and years of playing. Some simply seem to have the knack of it.

Playing without money involved may teach you the basics but not really prepare you for the real poker table. Your hand won't shake if you are playing with play money even if you raise $10,000 but when the real game comes, well, at least from experience, your hand will involuntarily shake when calling even a much much lower raise.

Better try playing and playing the game. Most would tell you strategies that were used by pros and other gamblers, but for me, what makes a gambler so smart and good is because of experience in winning and losing. Just add those strategies that some have suggested to your idea when to put this card etc., then keep those loses you've experienced as a lesson on both how to not lose anymore and how to handle loses maturely.

If you're a loser, the first thing you have to do is select your starting hands. On the internet you can find tables, but the table to use will depend on the type of poker you play: cash, sit&go or tourneys and also the size of the table.

Before you play online poker, you need to learn about playing poker, and you can play offline poker. If you can learn poker until you understand how to play poker better, you can try to play online poker because when you play online poker, I think you will play with someone who has skills in poker.
Your chance to win will not be bigger if you don't learn about poker to get lost many times.
By learning offline poker, you can also learn how to make a strategy that you can use when you play online poker. That will help you to play better in online poker.

   Traderethereum he needs to learn more about poker, to practice playing poker and that can increase his chances for winning.
And it's the process, learning and practicing, there aren't strategies that can be a key for winning. Only knowledge obtained
trough playing will make someone experienced and more skilled. One goes with another, and with a bit of luck maybe OP can
manage to make some profit with playing poker.

A loser could give another try to master the game. We may find it hard at the very beginning once we know the strategies in playing it's an easy for us to bet. With selecting a strong hands it can make more money. Also, some tips given may do fold if unsure and attack once the opponents shows weakness. A lot of tricks given over the internet it is on us how we execute the game.

Good to see that during your initial days of learning you are not playing with money, else you rightly said might end up losing it. But once you know more about it and learn from either watching some experts videos, or by reading the strategies that can be used to play to make it more effective for your game then you can start playing with some money just to get a flair of it. Once you get hang of it and has got some experienced you will start loving it.

Poker is not an easy game, that is why some gamblers find it a difficult gambling game because they mostly received an awful card in their hands that makes them lose a lot of profit. It is why poker face was created and use it as a strategy that even you have a low card in your hand, you can make them fold by bluffing them or tricking them you have a high card.

Basically there are many articles on the internet how to play good poker, you can also watch video poker game play tutorials on youtube
platforms. To my knowledge it takes luck to win poker, but my favorite poker strategy is bluff to make opponents wrong step. A good strategy
can also be obtained from increasing practice to change facial expressions so that the opponent is confused with movements our game play.

you are right luckily i only played poker online and it is rare to have the same opponent the next day, i think it is better that you don't stick with same opponent for a long time to avoid the way you play or maybe I should not stick to one strategy which is bluffing.

Going all-in was just and example to show that while playing play money dont really care if they win or lose. They do not risk anything while playing play money. And is the worst part of it. You cant learn anything while playing play money. I've tried playing play money IRL poker night - that was the most boring game ever. People just wait for AA ok KK and go all-in, and pass all other cards. Cant remember any interesting round that night...

I definitely agree with you. I have struggled few times of playing it before I got it.
Watching and observing is one thing but you got to experience it to fully grasp the game.
Good thing is we can try it virtually, as you have mentioned.

This is the best tips I've read so far:
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://jonathanlittlepoker.com/10thingstodotoimprove/&ved=2ahUKEwiY4vWA2qLrAhUPCuwKHZRjCpUQFjAIegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw1MB4VG-1ECv3CnDq6fs8T_

I don't play poker because it's too complicated for me. Sometimes I do sports betting but not using crypto currency cause I find it not really profitable, especially when you always lose your bet. There is a lot of tutorial as well on youtube, you could watch pro's giving tips but I'm sure that's not exactly the whole key to start winning on poker games. Imagine, why would someone who is better in poker going to tell his tricks to random people on the internet? I mean it could be use against him, and that's not good.

If you really wanted to be a good poker player. You have to dedicate all of your time studying and figuring out your own technique by the information you've learned on the basics. It's like a derivation of formula in calculus.

I think one of the best places to watch and learn from other mistakes are the sit n go tournaments.These tournaments usually last longer than others and if you are careful to the details,you keep track of what happened,why someone lost and why someone won you can build up your experience and strategies pretty quickly.
I have found this to be the best way to level up your poker game knowledge in the fastest possible way.

I'm not that good at playing poker but I enjoy it and play it with my friends, Money is involved that's why I better do something before I ran out of cash. I have the similar experience to you before but watching youtube videos on guiding you to play better and actual video presentation make it better for me to learn how to execute the proper move on a perfect situation. I also practice playing on mobile poker applications to improve my skills and referring it as my practice whenever my friends ask me to join their poker sessions. The only key I found out my self is the repetitive session of playing and watching guides on youtube. That's it!

That's banar, because watching or playing poker gambling will trigger andernalin in the game and the main strategy in playing poker in my opinion is being able to read the faces of the opposing players because they can manipulate unexpected things.
Bluffing must also be backed up with a good card for good results and have the courage and capital to back it up.

Youtube can also be helpful, there are many tutorials in Youtube where they discussed some tips and tricks, being observant is needed in the game, but we all know in the end experience matters. It's good to OP that he didn't put money yet, being observant is needed in these game too and Courage to bluff or to know when is the right timing to bluff. It's sometimes better to play blackjack honestly than poker so you'll only deal with the dealer.

Anything without learning doing it directly will not be a favourable result. We will have to understand how it works, how it is played and what are the strategies to play so that we can have advantage over others. We need to practice till we become confident about how to play and then only should be playing with the real money as with whom you would end up playing would be experts and will lose easily without any preparation done.

we cant avoid to be tense and loose confident when we are already on the actual events . this is normal and happen to our oponents too but we can still try continue our foccus on our plays . drink water or bring some fluids that help you lessen the pressure that you feel .

practicing is okay to improve our game but we shouldnt over done it to perfect everything  . like you said , real actual game is always better

Better game plays with poker is very simple and that is to sit in the table and play. Learn from it through experience of playing poker and see how your opponent usually do in thr plays. There are different types of players and you should be aware of those players that always do rush by calling high bets which will then making you confused whether to bet or not in that certain rounds. If it happens that you know your opponents then that will be great buy in anonymity then that would be a little difficult to gamble but as long as youa are lucky with cards then there is nothing to worry about.

In fact, I often try to play on Android to keep sharpening it so that I can and play well and still what I play without money continues to receive bad cards whether what happens to me is this unlucky or poker must play with strategy.
Playing poker with money I have never felt because I knew I would lose because there was no skill in playing it but I often saw other people's games so easy to win, oh really unlucky.

Try to play on swcpoker or Sportsbet the site I recommend for poker games but usually swcpoker was way more active in regards to it. Play with real players but just on micro stakes just for you to learn more and more.

I don't recommend you to play directly to swcpoker or any other poker sites involving crypto but it's okay if you know the basics first. For example, you know what's the highest and the lowest cards on your hands, bluffs and more. Here's a better catch-up for you to learn https://www.pokerstars.com/poker/terms/

your lucky because its not real but what if you play for real ? you could be loosing now but what if your only badluck that time ? badluck cant occur everytime but youl also experience to be lucky . what your doing alright , having a poker game installed on your phone is handy than practicing online  . it saves data and battery because its offline . dont think that you will loose because itl discourage you to play for real but it seems that your not ready , practice first and develop a skill/strat

Ofcourse.
Videos, combined with  free poker games (esp the downloadable/offline ones) would be one of the most important ways I'd learn poker.

There should be really good videos on sites like YouTube on poker tutorials, strategies etc. I think he/she could find such videos first and then download/find the exact poker that the videos teach, to practice while watching the videos

Don't get sick of it, try to continue playing if you really want to learn. There are so many things you can learn by continuously playing. As you gain more experience, the better you will get.

I think it is much better if you will search for the basics or any strategies on the internet. Then you can try doing what you have learned using online/offline poker.

It's not about bad cards, but about understanding the game itself. You don't need to always have good cards in your hand in order to win, but you just have to try to figure out what's in your opponent's hand.
This is the key to victory.
You should start your poker training by understanding your opponent's ranges, which can be quite difficult without an extra off. However, by keeping an eye on the opponents' cards you see at showdown, you can plot their approximate ranges.

This includes the core strategy in the game of poker and does not rely on cards but rather understands the game and can read the cards and faces of opponents so as not to be fooled by their expressions.
It takes courage to play poker and supporting capital, and besides that, play casually and hesitantly when raising bets because your opponent will judge the cards you have are not good and quite the opposite.

I have tried the advice you gave, I think I still can't be like you because when I applied the method you gave I suffered a loss even though I tried it with a small capital in the hope that the method you gave would work for me, from this case I conclude that everyone has their own luck.

^ Basically, if you are not an expert, you will just waste money by not knowing that you are wasting money.
There is an application on Playstore that you can download and you can start a dollar bet with live online users. and I think you already read some suggestions here in this post so for additional, It's better to learn in actual, Read and Play with a real bet. Nevertheless, a poker game is very simple if you know the mechanism of how to play.

This is the only correct method. The opponent always has a certain range of cards that he will play with. Tighter players will have a starting hand range of 10% -25%, while recreational players can have 40% +. Your task is to keep in mind the approximate range of your opponent, and push off from him and not from the strength of your hand. It is a skill that can be developed. Obviously you won't be good at first, but with the right diligence, you can greatly improve your hand reading skill.

the first thing any noob should look at is starting hands and position:
https://www.cardschat.com/poker-starting-hands.php
https://www.pokerlistings.com/strategy/how-not-to-suck-at-poker-play-in-position

beginners should start with a solid ABC starting hand strategy like this:

https://i.imgur.com/MmRFWNY.png

learning to fold garbage hands preflop, and weak hands when playing out of position, is crucial to becoming a decent player.


sportsbet.io removed their poker room. good riddance---terrible software and therefore no traffic. hopefully they license new software and do something to promote it, but i don't expect that to happen anytime soon. maybe towards year end, or in 2021.

Fortunejack may still be an option for gambling poker because there are also several other games available and hopefully you can get a lot of profit from that gambling place, and keep in mind that Fortunejack has a minimum requirement to make a withdrawal.

only for casino/table games, where you're playing against the house. fortunejack doesn't have an actual poker room where you can play against other real players.

there is no skill or strategy involved with video poker. it's pure gambling.

There are free Masters Class available where Daniel Negreanu teaches you his ways doing poker. Although there are free videos on Youtube on how to play poker but experience is the best teacher. Some people just got the knack in performing and playing poker. You can always rely on the probability on how the cards are distributed since a deck of cards is always 52 excluding the jokers (though this technique would really require a great gut feeling and takes into consider the cards that are being played in front of you). There are some feisty poker players and there are some players that completely loses their emotions so that they can be calm while playing.

As a beginner I would recommend to not bluff at all when you play online. One major mistake new players tend to do is just to bluff too much. You need to put in a lot of your bankroll to make a bluff work - if you just keep min raising it's not convincing. And do you really want to put all your money in the middle with a bad hand? As a beginner you want to build a bankroll so you can play on higher stakes tables eventually. Your winning tend to be small in the beginning. If you play on 1 and 2 cent table don't expect to make 10$ every day. It's just not reallistic.

Just try to play basic, solid poker. Raise with good cards and fold bad ones. Keep raising if you hit the flop and folding if you don't.

Once you have the basics down of poker rules and starting hands you need to think more about the game and positioning on the table. Try to put yourself in the shoes of your opponent (What cards is he holding? Is he going to raise with these cards or just call? Would he call my raise with his cards?) You always need to recheck your approach to the game.

Yep, I can name one. It is called SwCPoker, and it is one of the best bitcoin poker sites around. In the past they used to run cash games with stakes as low as 0.1/0.2 chips(10/20 sats), and today, I mean, right now, there are tables with stakes 1/2, or 0.012/0.024 USD at the current rate.

https://i.imgur.com/ErvkC30.png

Apart from watching latest videos on YouTube with the best poker pros in the world in real action, I would recommend SwCPoker for practicing.

EDIT:

Actually, there are cash games with even lower stakes on SwCPoker, currently:

https://i.imgur.com/Zpqu5Id.png

I wrongly assumed they discontinued such games.

Exactly.
While reading the post, I was thinking that players can fool themselves with fake expression to get their opponents to play wrongly or in certain way.   I guess it's also about understanding when your  opponent is fooling you with expressions.

I'd probably try to predict what card my opponent is holding by looking at things deeply. There are few other strategies I will probably consider.

Facial expression is important only in offline poker, while for correct understanding, you must each time look at what cards your opponent is playing, as well as what expression he has at that moment.
In fact, this is also a matter of skills.
However, I prefer to talk about online poker, as it provides more opportunities to play, and some poker rooms are discussed in this thread.
In online poker, mathematics is important to you, such unstable factors as facial expressions and behavior are absent, which somewhat simplifies the task of reading hands.

Poker is really a variant of skill based games, if you know a lot about psychology you'll see more your opponents cards without looking at it, a simple glance, smile, movement of the hand will give you an idea what cards they are playing. Facial expression is one of the most noticeable coz you are facing each other, however there are people, experienced people who does not show any expression at all, either he's having a good or bad card.

I must agree, but the mathematics on this field is hard since it will be a wild guess for you, 1/52 chances of getting the card you want and you can't just stick with wishful thinking that you're going to get it in the card draw. It is easier to play poker in online than offline.

And make it more difficult as there's no basis aside from luck and mathematical calculations. Most of the time it's more on luck
and strategy are only based from experienced but nothing was been proven to work accurately.

Unlike with onshore casino where you are playing against your opponents and by reading facial expressions you are gaining more
confidence dealing with your decisions.

Not only you, do find it difficult to win when playing poker, I also experience the same thing. So from that I continued to study various kinds
poker strategy, but until now have not found the right strategy. And I thank all the members of this forum who have willing to share experiences
and strategy of poker games. At least I can begin to understand how to determine good and effective strategy can be win in poker games.

There's no such right strategy to consider right now, because this game was just mind reading. If you can't get what's the psychological aspect on every moves that pertains to a combination, then you're lost. Once a person hit the wrong move and you weren't able to counteract on that, you won't probably hit your right cards in order to win on poker. So to make it easier to understand it's by lucky chance for us to win.

well I also sometimes have no luck when gambling using poker I often lose and the cards I have often don't make sense so I prefer not to gamble poker but do other gambling such as monopoly which at fortunejack in my opinion is still easy to get a profit.

I tried to play poker back then but I have no luck to win and that experience saddens me. I tried to search out for what tips and tricks that I can use when playing but still I can't manage to win and I think playing poker is not for me that's why I switched to different games online. When you win on poker games is in it overwhelming and satisfying? And how much is the biggest price you can win?

Every poker games has different strategy that you can use it depends on the games you want to play and there is also a  poker game that will only base on your luck. So you need to know where in those two are you playing and if the strategy you know will work there.

I don't know if there is a specific strategy to win in this game, you have a chance to win depend on the card that you get and how dare you are when you bet. Like other people say above, gambling is not depend on your strategy, your strategy just have 30% to win the game and the rest is your luck. You may need to play another game like sportbet or dice gambling, I think that's more fun then it especially on sportbet that you can make an analyst every bet you start.

Probably easier for the quietness & focus, but may not be the best place to gather important information while playing with your opponents.
 I think if you could just mute the distractions(esp sound) in physical world, you could gather alot in the surrounding and from your opponent.

There are zillion strategies, each for a different situation, but I can tell you about one that works for me personally. If you flopped two pair, call anything waiting for full house to come out, and if there's still no full house after the river card, bluff the hell out of it.

It is a modified version of Daniel Negreanu's strategy, only he suggests to apply it also when waiting for a straight or flush, which doesn't work for me when I have a straight or flush draw. Villains figure it out most of the time, somehow. :)

Try it. GL!

this is going straight into my notes on you. :P


that old school DN play doesn't pay off like it used to IMO. lots of people call it light these days.

the best strategy is probably one that can't be pinned down---consistently switching up your style/range, especially based on table dynamic.

I can agree with you. For me there is a big difference when playing online or in real life. I often find that online players take much higher risks and bluff a lot a more than in real life.
For me bluffing online doesn't work, so I most of the times play only with good starting cards (above 10) and don't take too many risks.

Maybe, just, maybe, that's exactly what I was counting on when making that post?  ;) ;D


Absolutely agree with you on this one. That's why I'm watching the newest high stake games, and trying to avoid the old ones, however attractive they look. Poker evolves all the time, and what could be a great strategy 5 years ago, can be considered a weak one today.


If you watch an online tournament with 100+ participants till the final table, you see that there are no those bluffers sitting there. Even though they take top places in the  beginning, most of them are out in the first hour.
 

That's how I'm trying to play too. But I know one thing for sure: you can't play poker without bluffing occasionally. ;)

In playing poker you need to focus, you should wait for your good hands. Strategies is somewhat 40% in poker and 60% will be compose of luck.

I've been a poker player for almost 3 years already and I've been playing almost everyday. So here are the best experience that I learned in playing poker.
Be patient, don't play if you are in anger, read the movement of your enemy and lastly don't be greedy. It's better to lost 1/4 of your tokens rather than losing it all
so you should always put it in your mind.

Too obvious advises from a man who played everyday for 3 years, don't you think the same, eh?  :)

I have a better one: "If you don't see fish on table, that means that fish is you" (c) Fargo  :D

And god damn, this is true due to my experience

At the moment I would recommend focusing on online poker rather than physical games. We don't know how long this pandemic will really last and if it's going to be around next year. Better to focus on poker that you can play from home.

At the moment there are the 2020 World Series Of Poker Online tournaments where you can see the best players compete against each other. If you want to improve your game I would recommend either watch the official stream (https://www.wsop.com/live/ (https://www.wsop.com/live/)) or one of the pro's stream. Watching the best of the world play can be a good learning experience.

Being a poker fan, I would love to think that "poker is game with 80% of skill and 20 % of luck", as they say, but, actually, I agree with you. If you are a skillful poker player, you will beat an unskillful one in the long run(when hundreds, or, rather, thousands hands played), but you can never be sure of your victory in a particular game, or even in a tournament.

Indeed. Most losses on poker games are because lack of composure and good mentality on the game.
There's lot of good players on pokers that we a player might encounter. Patience and good composure will be one of the key to win poker.. Don't belittle the opponents and don't feel tiny from them. Calm, enjoy the game , and win or learn.

some of the best players are quite loose aggressive (LAG) and are not picky in their hand selection. they can succeed this way because they know how to leverage their table position, and because they are good at reading their opponents---sensing when they can bluff them off a hand.


especially in a tournament. tournaments (especially ones with a large field) are much higher variance than cash games. that's why cash game players often hate tourneys---they take hours to finish a single one, and it takes hundreds or thousands to generate a good sample of your performance.

even after 3 bitcointalk series, i don't think we have the greatest idea of who the best players are yet. variance is a bitch, and it takes a big sample to even out.

Reading opponents in online poker is fairly hard in my opinion. If you play Zoom, the old rush fast paced mode from fulltilt or have 4-6 tables of the same time. The reaction time has to be very quick. Writing notes on other players definitely helps in a though decision. But overall you should really stick to a fixed strategy to just make it simpler for yourself. Once you move up in the tables the number of players will be less and you see more of the time the same players. What you also see pros doing on TV is making "bad moves" - like playing to aggressive - because they know everyone can see their starting hands on TV and they want to remain unpredictable for their opponents. If you only play online with a lot of different people - I wouldn't recommend such plays for beginners.

zoom/rush is a really specific type of game. rush SNGs used to be my bread and butter in the pre-UIGEA days, so i absolutely know what you mean. and in that context, i agree to some extent. normal tourneys or cash games play quite a bit differently, and you can spend many, many orbits playing the same players, so it really pays off to observe your opponents---note preflop play %, whether they chase/bet draws, show down bluffs, etc.

even in zoom/rush, hand reading is still relevant. you still need to determine your opponents' ranges on each hand and act accordingly. a lot of players are playing an ABC game and will play hands like top pair and flush draws in typical, readable ways.


it's not just about the TV factor. it's also because at higher stakes and skill levels, one needs to remain unpredictable. if you play a very ABC game, good players will recognize it and bluff you off key spots.

i agree---not necessarily for beginners, but neither are higher stakes.

Yes, it's probably best to concentrate on online poker streaks right now. By the way, one of these series is currently taking place at party poker.

$100M+ GTD series prize pool

https://www.partypoker.com/en/wpt-world-online-championship

Well, I remember before when I was exploring my self to play poker. There is not strategy because getting a card in your hand is that an odds is what on based on luck. So, perhaps there is no strategy on it while playing poker, --it is a matter of skills when you start playing. I suggest you install a poker app offline in your cellphone and play or study what is a good handcard. Op stating on was he wrote was right.

Idk, maybe you and I play cash games differently. I, for one, almost always quit immediately after a good win, but you can't quit a tournament when you are on the 1st place ... well, you can, technically, but you have zero chances of finishing on the 1st place then, and, depending on the number of players left, your chances of finishing ITM are slim. I think that luck plays bigger role in cash games than in tournaments, but, tbh, I rarely play cash games, so I can wrong here.


I absolutely agree with this. Maybe after a thousand of tournaments we would have an idea, but 24(3X8) is way too little for that.

Your best bet is to switch it up from time to time based on gameplay.  If the table is loose, play tight waiting for your best shot to hit the stack.  Likewise if the table is tight play a bit loose and take some cheap pots.  Key is reading your table right and playing accordingly.  Be flexible

But why would you quit after a huge win immediately? Having a big bankroll on the table is great to show other players that you know how to play. Your stack definitely makes a difference in cash games in my opinion. With 1-2 cents as blinds your max stack you can sit down with on a table is 2$, but If you see someone with let's say 8$ you know already he doubled up 4x. Personally, if I face somehow who has less chips than me, I try to use my chips and bluff more often. But when the opponent has me covered I am a bit more cautious.
For tournaments, being first is already great, you definitely have the highest chances to finish in the money. Playing more tight for a while and wait for players being knocked out is what I usually do.

lol, so you like to "hit and run"---not the best etiquette at a cash game table. :P

why do you quit? because you're afraid you'll just give the money back?

if the game is good (profitable) and i'm playing well, then i stay in, period. a deeper stack in a fishy game should only make things more profitable.

I understand, and that's why I rarely play cash games. The last time I played them was more than 2 months ago.


Not only afraid, but I'm almost sure I'll give the money back. Why? Because this had happened many times in the past: first I win 3x or 4x of my initial bankroll, then 15-20 minutes later I lose it all. ...

But you are right, it's not the best etiquette, and if I don't want to upset other people, I should probably stop playing cash games completely. That's why I love tournaments: they don't allow me to show my dark side - the desire to hit the jackpot and run. :)


This is not about me, definitely. I can never say whether the game is profitable or not.

Of course there are strategies. You even have to develop them based on the cards you get and your position in the game. Poker without strategy would not be poker. Before you start playing poker, you should first consider some simple strategies. These include good money management, otherwise you will quickly become a poor man.

well, did you win those pots based on skill or luck? or to put it more bluntly, is there a maniac at the table giving his money away? if so, you should probably stick around and take some of it.

classic quote from my favorite poker movie, rounders: "if you can't spot the sucker in your first half hour at the table, then you are the sucker." :P

Meaning you can be successful playing poker with good money management and strategy? Do you know anyone anywhere that earns consistently from poker by depending on strategy, good money management, skills, etc?
If such people exist, then I don't see much difference between them and those earning sustainably from their businesses. People should aquire the right skills before going into poker, I think.

As a poker player, you know yourself that it's always X% and Y% of skill. I personally think that luck plays huge part in poker, maybe 60%, but, on the other hand, it's not like in slots or dice, which are 100% luck based. That's why I would call poker a skill based game, where luck still plays a big part.


Idk, man, to be honest, I can spot a bluffer pretty quickly. But "sucker"? No, I can't spot a sucker. Imo, this is what poker game is about: pretending to be a sucker and winning in the end. :)

There are very few people who can completely subsist on just poker.  You have to have a big enough bankroll to handle a really bad string of cards.  It happens to everyone so if you can't handle that long downturn you won't be able to get away with just playing poker.  I advise people to do it as a hobby on the side of having a full time job.

Indeed, strategies are essential playing any game. And I think that for you to come up with strategies you must have enough experience and knowledge about it. Although, If I were to decide, I'd still choose to have a job while also earning from playing poker.

It's not as easy as it sounds. The current average level of poker players is quite high compared to what we could see 5 years ago, and even much higher than 10 years ago.
Poker does not forgive mistakes, and the field is developing too fast. To earn poker, you need to live. It is very similar to trading in terms of the time and resources spent and the result obtained.

But don't do it, poker is kind of game can result any experienced player to go bankrupt so they shouldn't have poker as kind of primary income source but there are lot of players doing it all the time but it doesn't mean they are living with it, they might be holding huge amount of stocks which can give them security for their survival so they are taking such risk by spending all the time but not all the resources.

I think the best way to learn Poker is through doing—that's what I did at least.

Before I started playing at a casino or online, I first played at home games: at first for nothing, but then later on for small stakes. Once I could comfortably turn a profit from home games, I then starting playing low stakes tables.

Now I play at medium stakes most of the time.

I recommend the book "Essential Poker Math, Expanded Edition: Fundamental No-Limit Hold'em Mathematics You Need" <- good for learn which hands to play and calculating your outs.

You can also study how some of the greats play by watching WSOP on Youtube, look out for Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan etc, and see how they act in tough spots.

I think. I would advise you to learn a little about poker at www.pokerstarsschool.com
(if you have no friends to play with, or dont like to do this)

Then I would advise you to play in play money mode
Every good player develops his own strategy...
It comes with the time!

A key word in poker: Practice makes perfect!

The golden rule that generally applies to gambling:

NEVER play with money that you cannot lose even in the worst case, because you need it for your life.

---

Stay save

SiNeReiNZzz (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=251328)

It's a ongoing process, there's actual spice that will allow you to keep using the same patterned over and over you have to increased
your knowledge and skills. Experienced will allow you to find ways in adjusting to a better formula to work with your chances, poker players is not stopping they keep growing from time to time.

If you make poker your main source of income, and therefore your main job, you are taking that risk. In addition, there are certain rules, which it is better not to go beyond, in order to avoid the element of randomness leading to unpredictable losses. Therefore, it is imperative that you always stick to bankroll management. Poker is a game of probabilities, the more correct your decisions are in the long run and the more you keep your bankroll, the higher the probability of a stable income.

re the short run, i would agree. in the long run---unless you happen to be extremely lucky or unlucky statistically---i truly believe it boils down to skill much more than that. this is especially true IMO because skilled players know how to read hand ranges, employ pot odds, prevent tilt, control pot size, etc to give themselves an additional edge so it's not purely based on the chance of hand A winning vs hand B.

Learn to bluff and think wisely if you will call in the game, that's one of the basics in poker.
Yes, if you are trying to be a professional poker player, you need a lot of experiences before making it as a source of income. It's hard to rely on gambling games, you don't know when will you win in the game.

Actually, only a few people in this world can make gambling as a source of income but before they made it into that, they already have a lot of experiences on the game that will make them last longer on the league.

If you mean experienced vs inexperienced player, I totally agree with you. But there are thousands of pretty good poker players in the world, and when, say, a 100 of them meet in a tournament with 20 paid places, it depends 90% on luck, who of them will end up ITM.

I personally think that today any online poker tournament with $100+ prize pool attracts several such players, and who of them will win  depends mostly on luck.

Basically, that's what I mean when saying "luck still plays a big part". I don't take inexperienced players into account.

in that one tournament, yes, luck will be a big determining factor. a single suckout can knock the best player out of the game. however, if you run that same tournament 1000 times, i am confident the best players will cash statistically more often. that's what i'm getting at.

Definately right on this one.  One game anyone can lose but playing winning poker over the course of a large amount of games the better players will ALWAYS win out.  Its definately not 90% luck who ends up in the money poker is not a game of chance like roulette or craps.

Agreed. But that would take like 3 years of playing. Also, we would have to assume that: a) weak players don't improve their skills over time; or b) some fresh weak players join the game all the time(which seems more realistic than the former scenario, and, in fact, that's what actually happening). So, yeah, with the exception of some crazy outliers, skillful players should perform better overall.

It's a game of probability but I think It's possible to predict your opponents better than what people think is possible.
In regards to dice(esp physical ones), I believe you can find/notice patterns, behaviors, sounds, features etc you could use to your advantage. I guess you'll need to train yourself to identify them.

not necessarily. in fact, that's the beauty of online poker. between stacked tourney schedules and multi-tabling, online players can get way, way more games in than live players. if it would take 3 years live, it might take 3 months online.

But would not that be too bad for the player? I mean what if he got the same schedule of playing at the same time is that even legal? I'm just wondering if ever that there is 2 casino who got the same player with their tournament. But to be honest, it is more enjoyable playing poker in live than online, the interaction between the players gives more about than what they said.

Yes, it is absolutely legal to play different games at the same time on an online poker site. Good poker sites make it as convenient as possible to do so. What is illegal is to have multiple accounts and play with two, or more of them, in the same tournament or cash game.


There are ways to read your opponent in an online game. Factors to consider are:

1. the previous behaviour of the player;

2. time he's taking on making a decision;

3. the size of his bet;

4. and even what he's saying in the chat.

You don't necessarily need to see the face of the player to read him/her. That's why good live poker players do well in online games too:

https://i.imgur.com/fldFNdF.png

If you love to play poker, you enjoy it both ways.

I think you're overestimating luck. It plays a very important role in every single tournament, locally, over a short distance.
But if we take a large sample of tournaments, then luck will be much less important. In fact, every decision made in a tournament has an aspect of luck, but if we sum it up, we can see that the main factor is skill.

Since the quantity and quality of your decisions depends on how large the factor of luck will be, both locally and globally.
The shorter the distance, the higher the factor, the longer it is, the lower it is.

there's a big difference between playing multiple tables at once (multi-tabling) and using multiple accounts in the same tournament (multi-accounting).

multi-accounting is prohibited but there is nothing wrong with multi-tabling. it's win-win, really. players can get a lot more hands in, which is good for profitable players riding out variance, and everyone benefits from the increased player liquidity. if everyone were only allowed one table at a time, there would be way less players sitting at ring games and playing in tournaments.


to each their own! i love both. the problem with live games is they are slow, and riding out losing/break-even stretches takes a lot longer since you're seeing so much less action than online.

In that case the player  need to fix his schedule or pass that tournament to others since its not possible to play it at the same time with two different website tournament.

Having it online make it possible to other players to play from different location and that I think the advantage for poker players that want to play online than in live .

As an aspiring poker player myself, I can say that it is better to overestimate luck than underestimate it. There is a dangerous trap waiting in the path of a "shark", namely, the illusion that you are  unbeatable. Some well-known poker pros lost a lot of money because of falling into this trap. Imo, it is always better to think that you were lucky in the case of winning, and to think that you were not skillful enough in the case of losing. It is a good strategy for improving your skills, and not falling into the trap I mentioned.

that is an interesting theory. i understand the danger of becoming cocky and overconfident. it leads to poor decision making, same as going on tilt. to me that is separate from honing your skills---which is primarily about properly leveraging your equity (the chances you will win the hand, with or without a showdown) in any given situation. that's more about pure number crunching, and also having the kind of experience that aids in hand reading your opponents.

if you attribute everything to luck, i don't understand how that helps to hone those skills.

Luck definitely plays a big role during each individual hand you play, but on a bigger scale luck becomes not important anymore. On almost all of the poker softwares you can look at your past hands. It makes sense to keep track of your general plays. Like which hand are you playing good and make money and where are you losing money. It can happen that you lose with AA vs 27 in one hand. But across 10,000 off hands you will see AA dominate. It's all about playing for a long time to make luck not so important anymore.

No, not everything. Everything depends on luck in dice and slot games, but, of course, poker is far from it. I've just noticed that many people underestimate the part luck plays in poker, that's all. :)

As I said earlier, there are thousands skillful players, and who of them wins mostly depends on luck. But there are millions unskillful poker players. Let's not forget about that. :)

And since poker is a game that's constantly evolving and discarding old school rules, there's no such thing as staying at the same level. If you are not improving and getting yourself better, you might find yourself among those unskillful millions, one day. :)

Proxy will do in this matter. Pretty sure that if you are a poker player you know some players that are lucky too when playing poker you can ask them to proxy for any schedules that you will not be able to meet. In this case who might knows that your proxy might be better or luckier than you.

Online gambling now is a trend so I guess that doing proxy would be fine as long there is a resources available at hand. Higher chance that the player could be denied playing as proxy.

Experiences do really matters on these games, the longer you play the more experiences you are gaining but don't forget that luck really plays an important role in each game. There are situations that we can both use experience and luck that will lead us to a great win. I know that feeling because I, as a player/gamer already felt that on a situational game where I should use my experiences and rely on luck. So in the end, even you already have a lot of experience and you thought you wouldn't rely on luck, we are wrong because we always rely on it on our mind and luck will be always there.

On that statement, experienced may point you to the right position to take. Poker are more on strategy though it's different from online as you are not capable in seeing your opponents physical gestures, you are more in leaning with luck less strategy.
Only part that experienced helps is when the time for you to stop either you are winning or losing your money.

You should learn the basic rules first. Google it and learn. You shouldn't just jump and in and start playing with real money. This is the reason why you are losing.
Poker requires some skills, but also remember, it depends on your luck too. You should learn how to bluff and understand your opponent and make your plays.
But don't just rely on "strategies", after-all it is a game of chances, so strategies won't always help you win.

I think online poker is a great way to start learning poker. If you can survive online tournaments or cash games you are definitely ready to play offline games. You are right that it's a completely different setup when playing in a real casino with real people on a table. At home no one can see you, you don't give away tales, but in a casino everyone is watching you. Without a good "poker face" it's going to be hard to survive at high stakes tables. At lower stakes tables it's not so important in my opinion, better to stick to your strategy thatn trying to bluff too much.

Watch videos first of those highlights on YouTube about bluffing or interesting moments. You'll have the idea on what you should with those moments.
Playing poker isn't that hard but your decision making in the table is what makes it hard.

how is playing online gonna help you hide your tells at the casino? :P

throw on some sunglasses, a hoodie, maybe some headphones---just imagine you're phil ivey---you'll be okay. :D

live games (at least at low stakes which is relevant to 99% of people around here) are much softer than online, at least in my experience. that's also what i've heard from other players.

Obviously he know nothing about playing poker in casino  :P . Even Daniel Negreanu has terrible time to deal with online poker on ggpoker, I saw his livestream from youtube ( probably for a week already ) and he admitted that it is hard to really play online poker. Everyone seems pro at a glance and he cant really translate how he normally play into his online experience though

did you see doug polk troll negreanu into an online heads up grudge match a few weeks ago? :D

https://twitter.com/RealKidPoker/status/1288602794665025536

i was really surprised to see DN accept the challenge. indeed, online is not his game at all as he himself will acknowledge, and tbh i don't think NLHE is really his game either. it almost makes me wonder if he set things up so he could explain away losing.

i rarely pay attention to the poker scene or watch live streams these days, but this is one i intend to watch. it should be pretty interesting. polk is obviously not in top form. he's recently been getting crushed at low stakes HU tables. https://www.parttimepoker.com/doug-polk-daniel-negreanu-heads-up-challenge

I think when playing poker it requires 99% luck and 1% skill, because it is difficult to guess the cards held by the dealer and some other players because every few rounds of cards will be replaced with new ones that have been shuffled so that it will make the calculation become chaotic and can't be used to guess correctly.

I dont, a week ago I dont even know who DN is  :D . He just happen to livestream on youtube and for some reason it shows up on my recommendation then I watched him play. I get to know alot more in depth stuff about poker from his livestream then I researched about him and found out that he won 6 WSOP bracelets. No wonder he is that good in his livestream but he could be so much better in real poker instead of online poker


I used to think like that before I learn more in depth about poker but relying on luck alone means you need to keep getting pocket pair then shove all in . Not to mention that each time your shove might not be called and there is no guarantee you might win those shove  :P

I doubt it's 99% luck and 1% skill. I've been playing poker for a while now and I can't count how many times my bluffs had worked even when I have a bad card. although, I can't deny that I too have fallen to bluffs of the players.

Same as you OP, i'm beginner and im finding this type very hard for playing, probably im not putting too much effort into it lol.

Yes, I agree with you in principle.

But you also have to play at real tables to train your facial expressions!
Bluffing is a powerful tool... ;)

Well poker itself have many games inside it ; I do think most of the people here already explained you about the basics of the game.

I do think you would be benefited by card counting if you are able to keep up with the numbers ; it's a perfectly legal way to calculate the odds in your favour.

So I do think it would be helpful for you to check that out.

*_*

At the same time I saw that there are numerous videos on youtube that would help you out ; instead of words The videos and hands on experience would help you.

- play with your family members
- practice
- play against software
- more practice!!

I do think it would take a lot of time and effort because I think it's more of a experience+strategy and a lot of mind goes in this game.

( Best would be to learn from your grandpa :P )

If you are also watching big poker plays, you can't even say what facial expression they are portraying, that is because they strive to make it so unpredictable that there's no feeling in it.

That is the best strategy that a poker player can do to win the game, but aside from time, you also need a quick mental skill to quite memorize the entire deck to increase your odds of winning.

Here are some strategies that could help you increase your chance of winning in poker matches

Resource (https://www.pokernews.com/strategy/7-tips-take-your-poker-game-from-meh-amazing-27103.htm)

Although I think that luck plays big part in poker games, I wouldn't say it's 99%. Definitely not. Overall, it breaks down like this. The more games you play, the lesser part luck plays in the outcome. Not in the outcome of a particular game, but in the sum total outcome of all your games combined. But here's the trick: it all depends on who you are playing against. If you are skillful and your opponent is not, it can take like 20-30 games for you to beat him/her. But if your opponent is more or less on the same level as you, even when hundreds of games played, your overall performance will depend mostly on luck.