6 Simple Tips for Novice Poker Players
April 12, 2010
When you are new to poker, all you think of doing on the table is get the cards, make your bets and keep raising and calling till you lose. You think that it’s all about luck because after all, it’s gambling and gambling is based on luck.
This is where you go wrong. Poker is a card game which has a wide range of strategies which should be wisely used by a player to make his odds better. Making your better matters a lot because without that, it’s almost impossible to win the big pots.

So, to win in poker, you have transformed your self from a novice to a pro. Lets look at 6 steps in which you can do that:
- 1. Prepare yourself mentally: Poker is not a physical sport, it’s a mental game. You mind has to fir and alert all the time you are on the table.
You have to keep an eye on everything that happens around you. You should know your cards well and more importantly, you should have an idea of other players’ cards, their moves, their strategies. Don’t just sink into the chair. Keep a sharp look and keep doing your math on everything that is happening on the table.
- 2. Learn the rules: Every game has its rules and without thorough knowledge of these rules, it is stupidity to expect a win.
Value of cards, use of cards of the hand and of the table, raising, betting, the ways of proceeding with different rounds, the role of the dealers and a lot many other things need to be known before you can even make a claim for the pot. You need to read these ways and practice them repeatedly.
- 3. Start learning the strategies: Strategies are ways in which players try to improve their odds. Now a day, there is no winning without strategies.
Most of the players on the table have their strategies worked out. The result of the game depends on the quality of the strategy and its implementation by the player. Start with the basic strategies like choosing the right tables, taking the right positions, making the right calls etc. As you learn, take up the more complicated ones like bluffing, playing on the long term etc.
The basic strategy that every poker player must learn is patience. Be patient when you aren’t getting cards and be patient after a bad loss and you will do much better overall; but it sure can be boring folding the cards each time.
- 4. Budget up: No matter what gambling game you are playing, you have to realize that you are gambling and know that their is a good possibility that you won’t win.
If you are playing at Sit & Go tournament online, you can usually employ a good strategy that will get you past the initial wave of betting; but this doesn’t always work out. And how often can you go to your friends’ poker tournaments and be one of the survivors that takes home money?
But when you are making your budget don’t even think about these few wins. You have to plan your gambling budget as if you are going to lose it each and every time. Think in terms of how much you can afford to lose.
Then, don’t get upset when you do lose it. This is how people compound their problems and become addicted and in debt because of gambling. You are not an expert, you are a novice, if you lose too much now, you will probably not have enough courage and cash to gamble with, so keep a cap on things.
- 5. Watch the pros: The best way of learning anything is watching the expert to do it.
The way they do it is better than what others do and that’s why they win. You should observe their expressions, the movement of their hands, the way they hold their cards, the way they make their bets, the way they flop the game and gather the chips.
When you watch the pro’s you think about playing like a pro, but remember that pro’s like icebergs, there a lot of unseen knowledge that makes their playing so confident and elegant. You have to not only observe their ways, but also keep your mind open for knowledge, that you can make your core stronger.
- 6. Think: Think about the games you play. Think about every practice session you took. Think about the strategies that went right and those which went wrong. And most importantly, believe that you can win. If you don’t think like a winner, you can’t be a winner. You have to ‘know’ that you are going to win the game, whenever you take a seat on the table.
Here’s one thing that I would avoid doing for practice. Don’t play in the Free Play sections of any online poker rooms. When people don’t have money on the line, there is no incentive to play like people would normally.
You could get lulled into thinking that the game of poker is much more about luck than it is about skill and you will get eaten up by the players waiting for that type of attitude.
One problem that I have found with a lot of the poker video games is that a great many of them end up trying to teach you by punishing you when you make a bad bet. That isn’t real poker. People can bluff and play bad cards and still get lucky, and the video games I have played do not reflect this as much.

A typical Texas Hold’em poker game can be divided into 3 phases, the start of the game, the middle and the end of the game. In every phase, you have to make the right choices for your starting hands as this choice can make you win or loose the game.
Texas Holdem is a popular poker game played in casinos especially across North America and Europe and is a great way to make some fast cash. The game is also played online supported by many gambling websites. It is based on the community card game. In this game, each player makes a poker hand by using a combination of five community cards and also the two personal hole cards.
Employing an effective strategy is the key to winning at poker. Texas Hold’em also involves developing and following a good betting strategy if someone really wants to win the game.
Winning in poker is not only about mastering your own skills and strategies. It’s not only about having a good hand and making the big bets. It’s also about knowing other players’ strategies. It’s about knowing who is strong on the table and who is weak. Not only wars are won by striking on the weak links, poker too is a game of exploiting weaknesses of other players.