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Here at Juicy Stakes Poker, we have recently been emphasizing helping new online poker players get ahead.  In this article, we will focus on a few more excellent tips for new players.

Tip #1: Poker strategy begins before the flop.

This is a really important insight that all players can say but beginners especially often (too often) ignore.

Strategy is a function of decisions and decisions are a function of strategy.  You might want to play suited low cards before the flop but correct strategy may direct you to fold instead.

Where are you with regard to position?  Has anyone called ahead of you?  Has anyone raised ahead of you?  How big is your bankroll compared to others’?

Some poker players see a hand as an edifice.  If that is a fair analogy, then the betting before the flop is the foundation.  Any edifice needs a solid foundation to stay upright in the face of high winds, earthquakes, and so on.

So, pay extra close attention to how you play before the flop.

Tip #2: Poker is a game of skill that requires a lot of luck.

You often have to make your own luck.  But, to state this differently, and to make the point more emphatically, you almost always have to prevent yourself from trying to make your own luck.  Luck is very important in poker but if you chase luck, you will likely lose a lot more than you win.

Making your own luck wisely means betting only when a bet is justified.  This relates directly to the first tip.  A lot of players, especially new players, chase luck because they want to see the flop.  You can stay in a hand to see the flop if you have a solid chance to hit something on the flop.

Tip #3: Learn to be observant.

We have spoken about this in other articles but it has extra significance here.  If you have a bettable hand in first or second position but ahead of you is a calling machine with a bigger stack than you, you might try to hedge your bet before he or she has the chance to raise you out of the pot.  Identifying the calling machine is a big part of being observant.  If you do identify a calling machine, you can use that information to raise the pot in a hand that you can’t lose.

Observant poker players can identify players who are very much afraid of taking risks.  When you can identify an opponent like this, you will always have the advantage over them.  Until you get bluffed out of a hand by a risk-averse player, you should assume that if they bet, they have something.

Being observant is a lifetime requirement for success.  If you are observant in poker, you will likely be observant in areas that are far from poker.  Being observant also relates to following trends.

Tip #4: Follow trends.

Here we do not mean do what everyone else is doing; we mean know what everyone else is doing and learn to take advantage of that insight.

The trends a good poker player follows are the tendencies of the other players at the table.  Trends are the main way we read tells in online poker.  Trends are not exactly how the cards play out.  That is the very powerful luck component in poker.  Trends are how the players play out, so to speak.

There are a lot of trends in any poker game based on all of the factors to go into an analysis of trends: how players play before the flop; how they play in the various positions; how often they bluff and lose; how they bet when they are on a winning streak; how they bet when they are on a losing streak; and if they tilt or not.

Tip #5: Do everything you can to keep your emotions in check.

This refers to tilting but also to the roller coaster of emotions that every player feels during a game.  Daniel Negreanu used to talk non-stop during a game.  That was probably his way of keeping his emotions under control.

There are hundreds of online sites that attempt to teach people how to stay on an even keel in general.  All poker players and especially new players can benefit a lot by reading the online literature on the subject of controlling your emotions.

The first thing that often happens to a tilting player is that he or she stays in a hand that they should have folded out of.  This can also be called throwing good money after bad.  This is the bane of many a gambler and we want our players to see themselves as players rather than as gamblers.

Tip # 6: Treat low stakes poker with respect.

First of all, you can lose a lot even in low-stakes games if you bet wildly.  More importantly, a lot of players at low stakes are looking to move up.  They may be ahead of other players in their understanding of strategy and poker math.

Even if the big blind is 50 cents, treat it as if it were $50.  That way you will learn to appreciate your understanding of poker a lot faster.

Tip #7: Learn how and when to be aggressive.

The calling machine is certainly aggressive.  But he or she has little understanding of poker and their aggression is misplaced.  Misplaced aggression is a common theme in many games from chess to Risk™ to Monopoly™.

Another way of expressing this tip is “stay within yourself”.  Baseball and football players are always telling themselves or being told to stay within themselves.  Not staying within yourself in sports leads to mistakes and can even result in a serious injury.  In poker, it leads to unnecessary losses.

The other side to this tip is that when you are being aggressive, it helps if the others don’t see it or if they think you are foolishly betting up the pot.

Tip #8: Get over your fear of poker math.

When we were in school, everyone who wasn’t heading for a math or science career, and how many kids know for sure that that is the direction they are going in, wondered why we had to learn geometry and trigonometry not to mention binomial equations.

That was then.  In the here and now, poker math has immediate applications.  So, if you hated math as a ten-year-old kid, you should get over it and learn at least the basics of poker math.

Poker math runs the gamut from calculating the odds of hitting one of your outs to much more rarified math air.  Even if you only get as far as pot odds, you will find yourself making decisions based on the odds and the math.  Poker math, when it is handled properly, is a great aid to poker players.

Tip #9: Pay attention to life hacks.

Some life hacks are just about how to use everyday items in inventive ways to save money, space, and time.  All worthwhile.  There are also life hacks that can make you a better person and that you can translate into improved poker.

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