Help for a noob? Book(s), Sites?

[Trix]

Hi
Ive been playing cards for the most of my life and recently started playing holdem for fun at yahoo.
I wanna start playing lowstakes at some point but dont think im good enough yet. Ive searched the web and it seems like the good players all have read alot of books.
I think ive played for 5-10 hours or such, so i understand the very basics. So i was wondering which book(s) would be best for me?
And is there a better way to practice for free than yahoo? (maybe a site where people cant go other games and make money and then back to a 2/4 holdem game with 2 mill when u start at 1000.)
Or maybe something else?

Thx. -Trix

[Clarkmeister]

Hi,

Ultimate Bet has play tables that increase in limits.

But I'd recommend just getting a PartyPoker or ParadisePoker account and playing .50-1.00 to get a better feel.

[crockpot]

unfortunately, you're not likely to find a play money game anywhere with lower than 90%/flop, unless you have some other friends who are looking to get experience too.

you're better off going to a site like party or ub and playing the .50/1 tables, which are at least semi-sane. for a listing of poker sites and their various pros and cons, check out my site here (http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/cardclub/onlinepoker.htm) and pick one.

as for books, your best combination is probably Winning Low Limit Hold 'Em by Lee Jones and The Complete Book of Hold 'em Poker by Gary Carson. these deal almost exclusively with the types of loose games you'll likely find at low limits. if you want to play in a tighter game like Stars or Paradise, go for Hold 'em Poker by David Sklansky. my site below also contains some book reviews if you want more elaborate details.

[Thalcor]

[ QUOTE ]
unfortunately, you're not likely to find a play money game anywhere with lower than 90%/flop, unless you have some other friends who are looking to get experience too.

[/ QUOTE ]

Try pokerroom.com. If you look at the tables closely, you can occasionally find some tables with a flop percentage running anywhere from 50 to 75 percent. Play in the play-money, single-table tournaments ... most players on the tournament tables are experienced, and it shows.

[TazQ]

I would not recommend .50/1 tables. You can easily lose $20 a session at those limits. I don't know if you have money to throw around, if you do thats cool. But personally I'd recommend starting a PokerStars account and play at the real money .02/.04 or .05/.10 tables. People will actually fold preflop at these limits. Also, if money is a problem you can practice with $1-2 a day easily.

For books I'd recommend Winning Low Limit Hold'em by Lee Jones and Hold'em Poker by David Sklanksy. WLLHE will give you many examples of what to do in various positions. It'll also talk about basic ideas like playing decent cards preflop, look for reasons to fold postflop, and charge people to draw cards basically. Hold'em Poker will actually give you some insight into basic strategy, better to bet than call, semi-bluffing, free cards, and things of that nature. Those two will make a good combination.

[Trix]

thx for the help all..
ive actually ordered all of them O_o (WLLH, Holdem by Sklansky,The complete book of holdem by Carson plus TOP by Sklansky), just waiting for them 2 come in the beggining of next month.
Looking forward to reading them, till then practice, practice, practice...hehe /images/graemlins/smile.gif
See ya later
-Trix