Looking for some Good Tips

[GvegasTiger]

I got a home game coming up soon and am looking forward to using some of my new found poker knowledge (a little at a time). I have played for about 6 months now but have never played for money or have ever done any sort of poker learning (up until about 2 weeks ago). The home games I have played in have just been for fun without thought. Now that I have been reading some books and this site I figured I would play in a money game (very minimal buy in) this week and would love to have some good tips for a very novice player.

I would describe this game as being loose aggresive and very much full of amateurs. No one in this game has done any studying of the game. Nobody does odd calculations or game theory or anything like that, most are just playing without much thought.

So my question is, what tips would you offer someone in my position. Having never utilized any technique before where should my focus be? Is there an aspect of the game that I should focus on first?

[SheridanCat]

Play tight preflop. If you've been studying, you've seen the hand charts. If the table is loose and aggressive, you can make money by having the best starting hands.

If you find yourself at the river against one other player and it's a single bet to you to and your hand has a chance of winning, call the bet.

So, a) start out with the best hand and b) don't be bluffed for one bet on the river by a loose aggressive player.

If the game is really wild, you will experience severe swings. You might lose your buy-in. Don't despair.

Regards,

T

[college_boy]

So my question is, what tips would you offer someone in my position. Having never utilized any technique before where should my focus be? Is there an aspect of the game that I should focus on first?

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Also from my experience I would just forget about trying any weak bluffs. If they are bad they will call, so use that to your advantage and value bet them with medium strength hands like one pair.

[KenProspero]

If someone came to me and said "I'm going to play poker for the first time", and they didn't have a chance to learn a system through any of the fine books that are out there, I'd recommend the following.

1. Play tight. The following method of choosing starting hands, though far from perfect, can be memorized in a few minutes, and will keep you out of trouble.

Hutchinson Point Count

2. Play "ABC" poker. Bet when you hit your flops, or when you have a good shot at a draw. If it looks like you might have the best hand raise. Otherwise fold.

3. Don't be afraid to lose a pot. It will happen, and there's nothing you can do about it other than make the right plays.

4. If you're in a loose game, bluff rarely, if at all. It usually doesn't work.

5. If you don't know whether to bet or fold. Fold.

6. If you've decided to bet, and don't know whether to call or raise. Raise.

7. Unless you KNOW you've beaten it's almost worth calling one bet on the river.

[deacsoft]

Just gain experience and do what the others have suggested.

[Shilly]

Make sure that you read the board correctly every time, figuring out what the best hand is and your hand's strength in relation to the board.

[Diggslick]

I in limited experience, new players respond more to the size of the bet than the size of the pot. So if your playing no limit or any type of significant spread, a loose beggining player will usually call just about any small to medium sized bet even when drawing virtually dead.

[elmitchbo]

1. i highly recommend the hutchinson point system that was mentioned in the previous post. it was very helpful for me when playing in loose home games when i was first learning. it's simple and easy to remember, but actually does a good job of picking hands based on position.

2. don't bluff. someone will call it. seriously, don't bluff.

3. pay very close attention to the board and know what possible hands are out there. in loose home games people can play just about anything, so don't overlook that potential straight made with a 4 8o.

4. don't try to act like you know what you're doing. it will make people take you too seriously.

5. if you have any concept of starting hands and pot odds you will be way ahead of most of the people there. unless you get terrible cards all night you should do fine.

[Freakin]

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4. don't try to act like you know what you're doing. it will make people take you too seriously.


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Word. I improved my play for my uber-loose home game tournies and started winning fairly consistently. Within 2 months, half the guys there had read poker books (luckily they were TERRIBLE poker books) but they at least learned to tighten up preflop. None of that hat & shades bullshit, or talking about position or dominated hands; any indication that books have improved your game will decrease you winning chances in the future.

Freakin

[GvegasTiger]

My plan of attack is to use hutchnison (thanks for that link by the way) to determine which hands to play, bluff rarely which I was planning on doing anyway in this game, and work on my pot odds vs hand improvement odds calculation skills.

I am working on memorizing my hand rankings but huchinson is the way to go for Friday. I have told 2 of friends about the books I'm reading but neither one of them seemed interested so if I totally dominate, highly unlikely, I'll have to blame it on luck [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img]