Questionaire
5 Simple Rules To Stop Losing Money,
And Start Playing Winning Poker
And Start Playing Winning Poker
It only makes sense that if you start with better cards than the other players in a given hand, you are more likely to win the hand
than if you are starting behind in the hand with weaker cards. When you watch poker on TV notice how they show the percent chance
that each hand will win the pot.
Of course any cards can win a hand, as long as there is a 1% chance that means that sometimes the 1% will happen. But if we're trying to stop losing money, or to win more money, then limiting our play to stronger starting hands where we have a better chance of beginning the hand in the lead, is a very good place to start to turn around or improve your game.
Of course if we have AA we know that this is the most likely hand to win with, so we are going to play the hand. If instead we have 72 we know this is the weakest starting hand and so we aren't going to play that. But somewhere in between these two hands we need to draw the line of what cards we'll play and what we won't.
Situations matters a whole lot - are we first to act, or are we on the button? (covered in Rule #2) How many players are at the table? (Rule #3) How big is our stack as opposed to the other players? Is this a tournament or a ring game? And on and on. These things we'll get to later.
So one of the best places to start laying a foundation for winning poker is to limit our play to the top 24 starting hands. Are these the only hands I play? Or the only hands I think you should ever play? Of course not. For some it may be all they'll ever play, but for most this will be just a starting point. In another article I'll talk about adding hands to other hands the top 24 starting hands.
There are two problems that you can get into when you play weak starting hands. First you are putting money into the pot when you make the call that you are highly likely to lose. If several other players just call the big blind you may have the weakest or one of the weaker starting hands and be at a disadvantage from the start.
Second, if a player to your left raises, your most likely to fold, and not even have a chance at the pot. In either case you're giving away money, not much of course. But giving away a little here and a little there over the course of a session adds up over time and can by itself be the difference of winning or losing money.
So to start only play the top 24 starting hands. The top 24 starting hands are in this order;
Are you surprised by the hand rankings? Most people who've never seen this kind of table are surprised by some of the hands.
Remember if you consistently have good starting hands, probably better than your opponents, you are consistently putting yourself in good positions, with a good chance to win, and your decision making is much easier.
Now assuming that there are nine players at the table, when you are in the first 2 positions to act (first two positions left of the big blind) I suggest that you only play the top sixteen hands.
There are two main objections I hear to this approach.
"If all I play is the top 24 hands I'm folding so often that the game is boring". Well I think winning money is exciting, and losing is worse than boring, it Sucks!
It's true that if you only play top hands the game can be rather slow. But first, take advantage of the time to watch the other players and see what they are doing. What kind of cards are they playing, what cards are they raising with, what they are calling with, etc. Most online players make very little effort to truly pay attention to what the other players are doing, and it's costing them money.
Once you have the strategies down that are making you money, if you want more action, play more than one table at a time. Try playing two tables. That makes things a lot livelier. I often play as many as 6 tables at a time (you need a big monitor). But I do find that 2-4 tables at a time is where I make the most money. Any more than that and I think good decision-making slips, and it's hard to watch the other players to see how they play and you don't do as well.
The second objection I often hear is "conservative players don't get any action". Now that's mostly BS. Players come and go too frequently at the tables to notice. Half the players are gone from the table by the time they've seen enough to know your playing tight. A quarter of the rest will never notice, and most of the others won't know what to do about it. So maybe one player sees what you're doing and knows when to avoid you, but there is a whole table full of players that are blind to what you're doing.
Now this is not an article about how to bet, but it would be a mistake to suggest what hands to play without talking about pre flop betting.
Big hands can get run down of course, and the more people in a hand the more likely it is to happen. Remember a lot of players are playing any kind of garbage they get their hands on. Someone wants to play that 34s(suited), someone likes their JT, another has 55, and Daniel Negreanu want to play his T7 because it's his favorite hand. If your sitting on KK and all these players are in the hand there is a good chance one of them will hit something and beat you. But lets say your only up against the guy with 55, your 80% chance to win!
So we usually want only one or two other players in the hand so our hand has a better chance of holding up.
With some hands such as 88, I really only want one other player in the hand. With more players it's far to easy for someone to hit a better pair. With some hands I may not mind 2 or even three players in the hand, particularly hands with flush potential.
So first we need to think about how many players we want in the hand, and then bet accordingly. How much you should bet depends on how people at the table are betting, and your position at the table.
First let me say that with any of these hands I'm not going to just call the big blind, if I'm the first to bet I'm going to raise, except for an occasional call just for a change up. Remember that we know how many players we want in the hand. If there is very little pre flop raising at the table, you may only want to bet 2 to 4 times the big blind to get the right amount of players, and not scare everyone off. At a more aggressive table you may need to bet 3 to 5 times the big blind or more.
In general in early position it's best to bet a little more to make sure you don't get too many players in the hand. In later position if no one has bet in front of you don't want to bet too much that you won't get called by anyone, but enough to discourage more action than you want.
If you're in later position and two players have limped in to the pot with a call, and you still have a player or two and the blinds yet to act, again think about what bet it's going to take to get the number of players in the pot your looking for.
I'll be writing an article on pre flop betting sometime soon. So for more, look for that article on my site. I will also be adding a follow up article about playing other starting hands, and what situations to look for to play them.
So Rule #1 is Play Good Starting Hands. And learn to play them well.
Of course any cards can win a hand, as long as there is a 1% chance that means that sometimes the 1% will happen. But if we're trying to stop losing money, or to win more money, then limiting our play to stronger starting hands where we have a better chance of beginning the hand in the lead, is a very good place to start to turn around or improve your game.
Of course if we have AA we know that this is the most likely hand to win with, so we are going to play the hand. If instead we have 72 we know this is the weakest starting hand and so we aren't going to play that. But somewhere in between these two hands we need to draw the line of what cards we'll play and what we won't.
Situations matters a whole lot - are we first to act, or are we on the button? (covered in Rule #2) How many players are at the table? (Rule #3) How big is our stack as opposed to the other players? Is this a tournament or a ring game? And on and on. These things we'll get to later.
So one of the best places to start laying a foundation for winning poker is to limit our play to the top 24 starting hands. Are these the only hands I play? Or the only hands I think you should ever play? Of course not. For some it may be all they'll ever play, but for most this will be just a starting point. In another article I'll talk about adding hands to other hands the top 24 starting hands.
There are two problems that you can get into when you play weak starting hands. First you are putting money into the pot when you make the call that you are highly likely to lose. If several other players just call the big blind you may have the weakest or one of the weaker starting hands and be at a disadvantage from the start.
Second, if a player to your left raises, your most likely to fold, and not even have a chance at the pot. In either case you're giving away money, not much of course. But giving away a little here and a little there over the course of a session adds up over time and can by itself be the difference of winning or losing money.
So to start only play the top 24 starting hands. The top 24 starting hands are in this order;
| 1 | AA | 9 | AK | 17 | 88 | ||
| 2 | KK | 10 | KQs | 18 | QTs | ||
| 3 | 11 | ATs | 19 | A9s | |||
| 4 | JJ | 12 | KJs | 20 | AJ | ||
| 5 | AKs (suited) | 13 | AQ | 21 | JTs | ||
| 6 | TT | 14 | 99 | 22 | KQ | ||
| 7 | AQs | 15 | OJs | 23 | A8s | ||
| 8 | AJs | 16 | KTs | 24 | AT | ||
Are you surprised by the hand rankings? Most people who've never seen this kind of table are surprised by some of the hands.
Remember if you consistently have good starting hands, probably better than your opponents, you are consistently putting yourself in good positions, with a good chance to win, and your decision making is much easier.
Now assuming that there are nine players at the table, when you are in the first 2 positions to act (first two positions left of the big blind) I suggest that you only play the top sixteen hands.
There are two main objections I hear to this approach.
"If all I play is the top 24 hands I'm folding so often that the game is boring". Well I think winning money is exciting, and losing is worse than boring, it Sucks!
It's true that if you only play top hands the game can be rather slow. But first, take advantage of the time to watch the other players and see what they are doing. What kind of cards are they playing, what cards are they raising with, what they are calling with, etc. Most online players make very little effort to truly pay attention to what the other players are doing, and it's costing them money.
Once you have the strategies down that are making you money, if you want more action, play more than one table at a time. Try playing two tables. That makes things a lot livelier. I often play as many as 6 tables at a time (you need a big monitor). But I do find that 2-4 tables at a time is where I make the most money. Any more than that and I think good decision-making slips, and it's hard to watch the other players to see how they play and you don't do as well.
The second objection I often hear is "conservative players don't get any action". Now that's mostly BS. Players come and go too frequently at the tables to notice. Half the players are gone from the table by the time they've seen enough to know your playing tight. A quarter of the rest will never notice, and most of the others won't know what to do about it. So maybe one player sees what you're doing and knows when to avoid you, but there is a whole table full of players that are blind to what you're doing.
Now this is not an article about how to bet, but it would be a mistake to suggest what hands to play without talking about pre flop betting.
Big hands can get run down of course, and the more people in a hand the more likely it is to happen. Remember a lot of players are playing any kind of garbage they get their hands on. Someone wants to play that 34s(suited), someone likes their JT, another has 55, and Daniel Negreanu want to play his T7 because it's his favorite hand. If your sitting on KK and all these players are in the hand there is a good chance one of them will hit something and beat you. But lets say your only up against the guy with 55, your 80% chance to win!
So we usually want only one or two other players in the hand so our hand has a better chance of holding up.
With some hands such as 88, I really only want one other player in the hand. With more players it's far to easy for someone to hit a better pair. With some hands I may not mind 2 or even three players in the hand, particularly hands with flush potential.
So first we need to think about how many players we want in the hand, and then bet accordingly. How much you should bet depends on how people at the table are betting, and your position at the table.
First let me say that with any of these hands I'm not going to just call the big blind, if I'm the first to bet I'm going to raise, except for an occasional call just for a change up. Remember that we know how many players we want in the hand. If there is very little pre flop raising at the table, you may only want to bet 2 to 4 times the big blind to get the right amount of players, and not scare everyone off. At a more aggressive table you may need to bet 3 to 5 times the big blind or more.
In general in early position it's best to bet a little more to make sure you don't get too many players in the hand. In later position if no one has bet in front of you don't want to bet too much that you won't get called by anyone, but enough to discourage more action than you want.
If you're in later position and two players have limped in to the pot with a call, and you still have a player or two and the blinds yet to act, again think about what bet it's going to take to get the number of players in the pot your looking for.
I'll be writing an article on pre flop betting sometime soon. So for more, look for that article on my site. I will also be adding a follow up article about playing other starting hands, and what situations to look for to play them.
So Rule #1 is Play Good Starting Hands. And learn to play them well.
Rule #1
Play Good Starting Hands
Play Good Starting Hands
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