Liquor in the Front, Poker in the Rear…

First and foremost don’t go in scared of losing that money, as that’ll distract you too much throughout the game.

Make sure you know the game, and maybe google search some poker odds for making common draws, eg flush draws, and inside or open ended straight draws. With this you’ll have a much better idea of how strong your position actually is.

It’s good to play aggressive but don’t go over the top with your betting. A common mistake I see all the time is a new player gets a great hand preflop then goes all in. If you get AA preflop for example, you don’t want to lose everyone preflop, as you’ll just win the blinds or some early bets. You do want to reduce the numbers you’re facing, but be careful not to bet everyone out of a hand which could easily net you a nice haul on the flop. The standard raise I think is still 3x the big blind, and anything over that is pretty excessive for certainly an opening raise. In private games, against inexperienced players, you can scare people off with even minimal preflop raises, so vary what you bet depending on the circumstances.

Don’t be afraid to fold good preflop hands when they don’t hit, or the flop becomes dangerous. Good example is AA preflop vs a flop that see’s two Kings come out. If you raised and were called preflop, there’s a reasonable chance someone who called holds a King, so be wary in situations like this.

Try and figure out who the other new players are at the table and be wary of trying to bluff them. They often play stupid cards to the end and in all circumstances, so try and make your plays against them with reasonable cards, and milk them for as much as you can when they’re blindly calling.

Be aware of your position with respect to the dealer, and try not to play weak hands if your one of the first ones to bet preflop. If there’s not a lot of preflop betting going on in general, you can loosen up here though.

Don’t play too many hands, but concentrate on what’s happening when you’re not playing. Watch for patterns in peoples play.

Don’t show your cards, ever, unless you’re comfortable with winding someone up by showing a bluff (you don’t want to end up second guessing someone after you’ve provoked them in an earlier hand). Sometimes you can hit a run of cards on the trot where it can start to appear as though you’re bluffing, and occassionally I’d start to show cards under these circumstances if I wasn’t comfortable projecting that image.

Oh and of course, be aware of your table image and mix it up during the game. If you’re considered a tight player, you can loosen it up, and likewise you can tighten up if early bluffs were spotted.

I could go on, but I’ve the sort of length on this post where the forum really doesn’t like me typing, and is making it difficult to see what I’m writing. That should help though…and damn I want a game of poker now 🙁

and listen to lady gaga’s poker face on your ipod.. this will help you figure out what doc is talking about.

Turks, make yourself a rule to never play when drunk.

You’re doing the right thing playing small stakes games first, and well done on the initial success 🙂

Between 2 players, I think J-7 is the average hand (correct me if I’m wrong), which means it would win half of the time versus any two unknown cards. This makes a lot of junk hands like J-8, or Q-2, worth a gamble with, and also means that any high cards (as Doc says) are huge, especially aces and kings.

Also remember that any two cards can win in poker, so even if you have the chance to see a free flop for cheap with real junk like 7-2 offsuit, you still have a chance to beat hands like AK a 33% of the time, or something thereabouts. My memory’s a little hazy on stats though, so you may want to look up a few yourself, but junk cards are definitely worth playing in heads up occassionally. You can even be aggressive with them, so long as you don’t go overboard with your bluff if he makes a stand 🙂