Here at Juicy Stakes Poker, we welcome poker players of all skill levels and all stakes levels. We write a lot of articles for beginners and here we will talk about a few main points that beginners should know. This is a follow up to our recent article for beginners in which we started from the very top.
In this article, we will talk about inexperienced players who are chafing at the bit to move up to higher stakes levels.
Leave Your Ego at Home
Would Phil Helmuth be an even better player if he could for once leave his ego at home? Most players will never come close to Helmuth as a player and they should certainly leaver their ego at home.
A poker player’s ego is often his worst enemy. No player can be absolutely certain of his opponents’ hand every time. We make calculated decisions based on the information at hand and even the best players get the hand wrong from time to time.
Ego thus becomes an impediment to generally good poker decisions.
Your Cards Might be Second Best
This statement leads to an important conclusion in poker: never fall in love with your cards. There might be a better hand with unthinkable hole cards. Really good players save a lot of money and mental anguish by correctly folding what appears to be a great hand.
Accept Wholeheartedly that You Need to Gain Experience by Playing Low Stakes
Experience in real life often costs money. In poker, we can minimize the cost of experience by playing at low stakes. This also follows from the advice to leave your ego at home and to fold the second best hand.
A lot of new poker players think that they are ready to play at higher stakes when they are not ready for that level. There is a huge skill difference between low stakes and intermediate stakes. A player who is driven by his or her ego will try to move up to higher stakes before they are ready to make that move. Similarly, a player who has not yet learned how to fold the second best hand cannot hope to compete successfully at higher stakes.
A lot of players at higher stakes have already gone through their own growing pains at lower stakes. They were ready to advance and have success at higher stakes. An inexperienced player or a player who has not yet learned the fundamental strategies and tactics of poker cannot reasonably hope to compete with more seasoned players.
Winning Regularly at Low Stakes is a Good Sign
We advise new players to track every hand. Are you folding as often as you should? Are you treating being out of position with trepidation? Are you paying attention to the other players in the hand after you fold? Are you observing any patterns in the other players’ play?
We return to the need to gain experience. At low stakes, the risk for a mistake is small. the benefit of paying attention and learning as much as you can from other players in invaluable.
Even after you start to win regularly at low stakes, we suggest that you continue to play at low stakes for these reasons: the risk is small, the experience has no exact value but it is high, you learn how to read opponents, you learn how to stay focused, and so on.
Treat Position Carefully and Wisely
You should fold before the flop at least 70% of the time. If you are not one of the blinds, the risk in folding is exactly zero money. If you are in very early position, there is more danger in staying in the pot. As you get closer to the blinds, you have more information on which to make a decision to stay or fold.
That means that a borderline hand in early position is very weak while the same hand in later position or as a blind may be playable.
It is especially important to pay close attention to opponents who call or raise in early position. They will reveal themselves either as sharp poker players who you should be leery of or they will reveal themselves as poor players who you can take advantage of.
Learn How and When to Bluff
This is a major skill in poker and very few players ever truly master it. Still, we can all get a lot better at bluffing or at recognizing a bluff over time. The keys are everything we have said so far plus adding everything we know about people in general.
A great novelist once put it in this way, to paraphrase. After you outline the plot, put in everything you know about people. Go to an outdoor coffee shop and observe people. Go to a sporting event and observe people. You will learn different things about people at a baseball game, a football game, or a wrestling match.
Visit a small town and watch the people. Go to a museum; a park; the beach; or just go for a walk. When you consciously observe people in order to become a better poker player, you will discover a lot of things you never saw before.
Learn How to be Aggressive and How to be Passive
We are told that there are passive and aggressive players. Few people are entirely passive and few players are entirely aggressive. You will be a more successful player if you can vary your aggressive play and your passive play in ways that confuse your opponents.
Always keep in mind that your opponents are either trying to size you up as much as you are trying to size them up or they are not doing so at all. The players who are not observing the action and paying attention are players whose money you should be able to take.
The Turn and River Cards Give Away a Lot of Information
At every level, these cards will tell players different things. At very low stakes levels, a raise on the turn usually means that the player has a great hand. If he or she raises on the river card, it almost always means that they have the best hand.
A lot of new poker players seem to think that it is unmanly to fold on the turn or river after they have put money in the pot. There is absolutely no reason to stay in a hand that you are pretty sure is a losing hand. This gets us back full circle to the idea that we should all leave our egos aside when we play poker.
Juicy Stakes Poker Offers Great Poker for All Players
We might talk a lot about beginners’ play, but we cater to all players from neophytes to experienced players. You will have a great time playing poker at Juicy Stakes.
