Top tips for a beginner from the oldest whore on the block
Welcome to the friendly world of online poker. Poker players are some of the friendliest people around (when there's not money on the table) and as an old (withered) hand at this I feel it's my fatherly duty to give you a few tips as you take your first tottering baby steps into the world of online gaming. I hope you young guns will be kind enough to forgive me if I concentrate on the early stages of online poker tournament strategy, because if you can't master those, then end game / final table strategy will be as much use to you as a wheel on a tomato.
Forget the big scores they'll come along on time but if you want to be there for when they arrive you have to play the long game, and that means obey the three Ds Discipline, Discipline and Discipline. Don't fret and don't worry about fancy plays, just start with solid sensible poker and take advantage of the cards you're dealt.
Discipline #1 don't play every hand, obvious enough but as an example don't play every hand you get just cos it's got an Ace in it. Single aces with small kickers will often leave you chasing leprechauns, by that I mean going after something that doesn't exist. Play like a grown up, this IS NOT high school you are not after some king of cool nickname; you are here to play cards. If you have a strong hand played it in a straightforward manner with raises and re-raises, don't bother with tricky play, slow-playing or cheap theatrics. Leave this to the final tables.
Remember you need a reason to call, as in "is your hand good enough" – but a great early tip is if our hand is good enough to call, ask yourself is it good enough to raise. Either your hand is tough enough for a raise or it is not played at all. This discipline very swiftly separates the men from the boys.
Grow balls early (this is similar to the aggressive tip above), make continuation bets. By that I mean raised pre-flop, it scares off those players trawling for good hands and protects any bluffs you'll make later. Learn to bounce back, and by that I certainly don't mean fly all in on the very next hand. It's true that tha takes heart but show me a cardsman who was nothing but heart and I’ll show you a man waiting for a beating. Be sensible, after you've lost a big pot wait for something with showdown value, something worth playing. Best piece of advice I ever heard was when a man said to me, "Going all in after a bad beat, you might as well be throwing in a towel. Those players are looking for an excuse to be beat". Look a little harder for your excuse; make your beating work a little harder.
Come back soon for more tips from Grandpa.
