[QUOTE]Pepperoni13 wrote
Does anyone have any links for stategies, betting techniques, tips, etc? [/QUOTE]
Where to start, lol, there are so many areas depending on where the holes are in your game and where you are at as far as your knowledge/skill level.
It also depends on what form of poker you are playing, which I'm assuming is Holdem, but also what particular game format, (sit and go, table, tournament, limit, no limit, etc)
The most basic general advice I can give is to start off reading some good books, for tournament play especially the best series of books by far IMHO are the Harrington on Holdem series, there are 3 books with the 3rd being a 'test yourself' workbook. The brunson super system, especially volume 2 is also a great book to start with.
Books will only get you a little of the way though, you need to add a boatload of experience before you will start to grasp the game to any decent level.
The number 1 piece of advice which every pro I know follows absolutely is KEEP ACCURATE RECORDS, you need to analyze the games you play if you want to improve your game, know what games you are winning money on, what games you are losing on, and then you can find out why. Also keep records of how you are playing, how many flops are you seeing, how often are you raising, even down to using programs which can tell you how much you are making on particular hands by each position over a long period of time, which you can use to find holes and weaknesses playing specific hands.
New players should definitely look very closely at how many hands they are playing, if you are playing more than 30-35% of hands that you are dealt, (ie not folding them preflop) you are definitely playing too many marginal hands, this is particularly important when you are still developing your post flop skills, you will lose a lot of money playing junk like A3, K8 etc if you don't have very well developed post flop and reading skills (and even then in most positions these hands are instant fold for most skilled players).
Don't over or under bet, another very common mistake for new players, overbetting is where you are putting in way too much for what you can win in the pot, going all in with a full stack preflop is a perfect example here, even if you have AA, (in fact especially when you have AA), there is no justification for putting 2000 chips in to win the 15 chips in the blinds, worse I see many people doing this sort of move with crap like AJ, TT, etc, sit down and work it out, you risk 2000 chips for a potential gain in most cases of 15, 9 times out of 10 when you get called you are going to be called with a big hand, and then you lose 2000 chips, you'll never win the 15 enough times to make up for it. Post flop again, it's things like betting 1000 into a 200 pot because you made top pair, your 1000 bet is almost certainly going to chase the other players out of the pot, leaving you with 200 profit, UNLESS someone has a big hand, like they've hit 3 of a kind or 2 pair, etc, and then you lose your 1000 again, whereas a bet of around 180 into a 200 pot gives you much better odds, you are forcing the other player to make a mistake if he wants to chase, getting yourself more potential profit, and if someone comes way over the top you can then evaluate what he might have, and if he's likely got you beat, get away from it cheaply. Poker is all about maximizing your profit when you have the best hand, and minimising your losses when you don't, over betting is the best way to do the exact opposite. Under betting is another good one, never make a minimum raise, or minimum bet, it serves absolutely no purpose, you are giving everyone in the hand great odds to draw out on you, and just sweetening the put up for when they do so that they can inflic more damage on you, the worst cases of this are in the blinds, you have 5 or 6 players who have called, and you make a min re-raise from the big blind, no way in hell anyone who has committed the blind amount is going to fold to a min raise, they have perfect odds to call no matter what cards they hold, in fact in many cases doing this you will face someone coming way over the top on you. |