What is required to be a good poker player?

[Emmeline]

By that I mean online player and a reasonably good one. Just some basic stuff, please don't go into details, I won't understand it

If anyone considers suggesting a sex change, please post at this thread:

And now I can't find it....damn

[BingoT]

Just watch what is going on at the table.
One thing you can't do is show a poker face.LOL
Just play smart.
~T~
I want to play poker with......

[rockycatt]

By that I mean online player and a reasonably good one. Just some basic stuff, please don't go into details, I won't understand it

If anyone considers suggesting a sex change, please post at this thread:

And now I can't find it....damn

ok ill take a stab at it im going to recommend full tilt poker forum on line
and sence the FTP client is attached to link you direct yo the forum

read the strategy forums there i know for a fact the players there are
self learned from sharing gazillions of poker situations and they discuss them in detail [pay no attention to occasional wise guy remarks ]

then play free money till you can win a million in play chips going through the ranks

also use the note's on players to ferret out the bluffers ,position raisers ;
and to also mark the real tight ABC players

by now your ready to play micro stakes and never stop learning to hone your skills on position hand values pot values

with respect if this is to much to under stand dont play real to you do understand
good luck on the felt R C

[rainmaker]

When playing poker, patience is one of the most important things to have.

Newbies at the poker table often calls and later fold. Don`t call unless you are pretty sure you can go "all the way" with your cards.

I would say it`s necessary to fold about 70-80% of your dealt starting hands. (Just a rough estimate from my own experiences of course)

[Pulver]

I would start out with reading a book or two to get to know the basic concpets like pot odds, which starting hands to play, position play and so forth. You can never be a good player without understanding the basics.

When you have done that, there are several good forums where you can read A LOT of analyzis from hands and other tactics. The twoplustwo.com forum is a very good one.

The most important thing is to play a lot of hands and get a feel for the game though. But don't play a lot of hands without basic understanding of the game, that will end up costing you a lot of money.

[johnsteed]

***


a) Bankroll Management


b) Understanding how much to bet at various levels/stages of a tournament


c) Patience


d) Tilt-control


e) Putting people on hand ranges (and taking notes - specifically w/regulars)


f) Understanding when to open up your hand range (but this could be lumped in with 'b' above)


g) Trying to finish in the money (even folding a premium hand just to make it)


i) Keeping things simple at first, and adding things later



With 'Bankroll Management', depending on what game you're playing, it's best to play with 100 buy-ins. For example, if you have $50, it's best not to play in a $4.10 tournament, b/c you basically have 12 buy-ins which is playing with scared money. The swings in poker can be quite extreme, so it's best to go in where you can play comfortably.



If I'm playing at any Sit & Go NLHE tournament with seats of 6/9/18/27/45 or 90 players, I think 100 buy-ins is best. But if I'm playing in the 180-seat tournaments (FullTilt or PokerStars), I would ideally stick with 200 buy-ins b/c of the cruel swings. Some people believe that 30 buy-ins is good enough, and I would only tend to agree with that if it's another game besides NLHE - like Omaha - but you're putting yourself in a dire situation where you MUST run well. Even the grinders go on major downswings, and have days where they drop tons of buy-ins.



Here are a couple of useful links on Bankroll Management -


[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGJkjnZ3EwQ"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGJkjnZ3EwQ[/ame]



[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKlN0ceNYLk&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKlN0ceNYLk&feature=related[/ame]


The most useful book (for me) on understanding how much to bet at various levels of any S&G tournament would easily be 'Sit 'N Go Strategy' by Collin Moshman. I hadn't read it until I'd been playing for a few years, and after putting it down, I was kicking myself for not getting it years before. Cash games are a completely different beast altogether, so if you're going that route (not an easy route), get something else. For someone who knows very little about poker, I suppose that Doyle Brunson's Super System I & II are okay, but the chapter on NLHE is VERY outdated (the chapters on the other games are fine though). You'd get yourself in a whole heap of trouble following the NLHE chapter for S&Gs (on par with those only gathering knowledge from watching HSP on TV and going out to conquer the world Tom Dwan/Dario Minieri style).



Being patient is HUGE. Remember that even though the same player keeps shoving on you, stealing your blinds (even in the later stages of a tournament), and you can't call b/c your hand stinks, wait... I'm at the point these days, that it's okay, as long as I still have 3 BB left (one last bullet in the chamber).



People tend to give up when they're down to their last 6-10 BBs, but never give up. I've come back on won a number of S&Gs when I was down to 3 BBs. If you're lucky enough to double-up once of twice (depending how much money is in the pot), you're back in the game (and the other player is probably on TILT and ready to donk off his/her money).



I've studied 'The Eightfold Path To Poker Enlightenment' at 'DeucesCracked.com' (under the poker videos section), and I'd highly recommend it to anyone (literally everyone) who has problems mastering 'Tilt Control'. It's easy to understand, and a very useful tool.



If you're playing everyday, and you recognize some of the other players (regulars), I'd implore you to make use of the 'notes' option. Gather whatever information that you can on the player and his/her tendencies. I'd suggest giving them a ranking (poor/fair/good/excellent or tight/aggressive/maniac/donk etc), and maybe write down the type of hands (range) that they play with. It could be a very helpful tool. Most regulars that I know use a HU display, but I'm not crazy about them.



Because you're new to poker, you're likely going to meet other people who'll recommend such and such sites, where people will tell you that in order to be a serious player, you MUST use a HU display, and Turbo Ninja, using an X-Box controller, playing 15-20 tables at a time, making sick rake-back... That's fine, if you're damn good. But keep things simple and add only if you're comfortable enough to do so. I added too many things trying to get better, and all I did was lose my shirt trying to keep up with all of it.



I could barely keep up with two tables when I first started, and now, adding additional tables over time, I can play 10 tables very comfortably (provided that I'm using the 'stacking' feature at PokerStars). I've played 20 tables at once a few times, but that's just not for me (mind goes numb by the end of a 2-hour session). Playing multiple tables has its advantages, specifically if I get sucked-out on at one table, I still have enough games going on at once that I probably won't go on TILT. Nevertheless, there's absolutely nothing wrong playing 1 table. Some regulars (that I know) only play one table at a time, and have been doing so for years, and make a monthly profit.



Remember, if you're playing NLHE, EVERYONE is playing it too! Most tournaments that you enter (specifically with S&G tournaments), are filled with players who are very knowledgeable. People tend to think that micro-stakes are filled with new players, but that's not really true. The less glamorous games like PLO, Omaha Hi/Lo, 2-7, stud games, Badugi, etc can be very exciting as well (with a softer field b/c the training sites focus primarily on HLHE and not the other games... though PLO has a solid following).




I hope that this info can help.



***

[Emmeline]

Thanks to all of you for the great advice!

I find the parts about patience a bit worrying since I'm somewhat challenged in that area. It's more related to the learning process than the actual game though. I'll give it a go

Cheers
Emme

[Rambeno]

By that I mean online player and a reasonably good one. Just some basic stuff, please don't go into details, I won't understand it

If anyone considers suggesting a sex change, please post at this thread:

And now I can't find it....damn

Well, I'd have to say 3 things that I'm proud of when I play online poker:

1. I have developed great restraint and no longer try to punch out the monitor.

2. I have developed control of my emotions and no longer make the dog pee on the carpet because of the low inhuman sounds I am emitting from my throat.

3. I found great peace in learning that I do not have Tourette syndrome, and can now control the eye twitches; I no longer blurt out 'BITCH!' directed at one of the avatars on the table (that proved dangerous to do when the wife is sitting 3 feet from me and there are only 2 of us living in this house).

Play your AA to the hilt, because its the only way to nudge out the 83 waiting his turn to go all in (thus the reason for #1 above). Don't expect your king high flush to stand up because dufus with the 52 of hearts has just made a straight flush and your cards are toast (thus the reason for #2 above). Don't expect your kings to hold up because the guy with the 94 (all in preflop) has just hit a fullhouse on the flop and nothing hits for you (thus the reason for #3 above).

However, all in all....I absolutely love to play poker online. Play at FullTilt mostly, and sometimes you really do get to play a good game of poker. Just enjoy it, have fun with it, and remember not to tilt (you can't win playing on emotions). Sure does provide my old bones with a little more adrenalin for the day!

[Emmeline]

Thanks for the good advice, and funny it was too...

[PlayersJet]

Full Tilt also has an online Poker Academy that looks pretty interesting. I've been playing FT for a few years now and did poorly early on, then learned just enough (hand selection, betting strategies, etc.) that I was winning regularly, after that, got more interested and learned more and started loosing my shirt. Not sure what the moral of the story is, maybe something like a little learning can go a long way or something like that.

Has anyone else gone through the FT Poker Academy, is it worth it for more "seasoned" players?

Someone else mentioned playing the play money tables until you reach 1M chips. I would only use the play money tables as a way to get familiar with the software and get comfortable with the speed and game play. Playing against free money players (loose and aggressive) is nothing like playing for real money, so I think it would be easy to mess up your game playing for too long there.