New to the game and need general advice...
 

Yeah, so i'm new to poker... I've been playing chess the last three years and have acheived an expert rating/master strength...but...there is...well...no money in it. With the recent boom, i'm sad so say i'm a product of the current poker fad. But, i have an ability to pick things up quickly and there seems to be skill in this game. My previos perception of it was majorily luck, the more i read/see the more i'm wrong.

What would any basic advice be to getting better? Play a ton of hands? Read a lot? Get a strong player to teach me? (an online friend of mine has had very big success over the past year or so in poker which has more or less inspired my interest...i'm terrible at asking for things especially help, but i'm assuming his advice is my best way to go but in the meantime anything that can be given here would be great..)

I recently went to a casino across state and bought in for about 100 and cashed out with a little over 400 a couple hours later...I made an attempt to play agressively and just more or less made strong guesses at people's hands and a couple of my good hands got paid off... Any info/help is appreciated.

Re: New to the game and need general advice...
 

Welcome to the forum.

I'm fairly new to this as well, so I'll let you know what I've been told. First of all, spend a ton of time on this site. There are many players here who are very experienced and knowledgable, and are very free in sharing their knowledge.

Read books. You can find pretty much any worhtwhile book on Holdem right here on this site. A short list of the ones I see most often referenced on this site are Doyle Brunson's Super Systems (version #1 or #2), Dan Harrington's tournament poker boks (2 of them), and Small Stakes Holdem (referred to here as SSHE). There are many others, but these are the ones I have, or am currently reading.

Play a ton of hands, nothing can substitute for experience.

Get pokertracker.

I purchased Turbo Texas Holdem from Wilson software. It is a simulation game/learning tool that I found very helpful, especially in helping me learn what hands to play in what position. It's only around $90 and can be found all over the internet.

You can also just use the search engine on this site to access old posts. Go to the "Beginner's" forum near the bottom of the page and chekc it out. It's good for information on everything a newbie could need.

Finally, check out the "Internet poker" forum. Here you can learn about how to maximize your cash by taking advantage of the various bonuses offered by the websites out there. There's also an unmentionable way to gain extra cash, I can't say it here, but it has something to do with the garden tool used to collect leaves.

Good luck. By the way, I suck, so don't listen to me.

Re: New to the game and need general advice...
 

[ QUOTE ]
Welcome to the forum.

I'm fairly new to this as well, so I'll let you know what I've been told. First of all, spend a ton of time on this site. There are many players here who are very experienced and knowledgable, and are very free in sharing their knowledge.

Read books. You can find pretty much any worhtwhile book on Holdem right here on this site. A short list of the ones I see most often referenced on this site are Doyle Brunson's Super Systems (version #1 or #2), Dan Harrington's tournament poker boks (2 of them), and Small Stakes Holdem (referred to here as SSHE). There are many others, but these are the ones I have, or am currently reading.

Play a ton of hands, nothing can substitute for experience.

Get pokertracker.

I purchased Turbo Texas Holdem from Wilson software. It is a simulation game/learning tool that I found very helpful, especially in helping me learn what hands to play in what position. It's only around $90 and can be found all over the internet.

You can also just use the search engine on this site to access old posts. Go to the "Beginner's" forum near the bottom of the page and chekc it out. It's good for information on everything a newbie could need.

Finally, check out the "Internet poker" forum. Here you can learn about how to maximize your cash by taking advantage of the various bonuses offered by the websites out there. There's also an unmentionable way to gain extra cash, I can't say it here, but it has something to do with the garden tool used to collect leaves.

Good luck. By the way, I suck, so don't listen to me.

[/ QUOTE ]

Youve got it to a tee...well said.
Stick with that and you will be good to go.

Good luck on your new adventure!

Re: New to the game and need general advice...
 

Read this forum every day. Do not start a lot of new topics, instead reply to the ones already posted. Give your opinion on what the paticular player in the hand should do. Be prepared to lovingly get reamed out when you are wrong. Be prepared to learn from your mistakes.

You will be fine.

Re: New to the game and need general advice...
 

any books other than HOH or SSHE that would be good material for a noob such as myself?

Re: New to the game and need general advice...
 

[ QUOTE ]
any books other than HOH or SSHE that would be good material for a noob such as myself?

[/ QUOTE ]

"Getting started in Holdem" by Ed Miller

But if you have read (and understood)SSHE, it's a bit of a backward step.

Regards,
Ian