• Log InLog In
  • Register
Liquid`
Team Liquid Liquipedia
EDT 04:18
CEST 10:18
KST 17:18
  • Home
  • Forum
  • Calendar
  • Streams
  • Liquipedia
  • Features
  • Store
  • EPT
  • TL+
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Smash
  • Heroes
  • Counter-Strike
  • Overwatch
  • Liquibet
  • Fantasy StarCraft
  • TLPD
  • StarCraft 2
  • Brood War
  • Blogs
Forum Sidebar
Events/Features
News
Featured News
Power Rank - Esports World Cup 202550RSL Season 1 - Final Week9[ASL19] Finals Recap: Standing Tall15HomeStory Cup 27 - Info & Preview18Classic wins Code S Season 2 (2025)16
Community News
BSL Team Wars - Bonyth, Dewalt, Hawk & Sziky teams4Weekly Cups (July 14-20): Final Check-up0Esports World Cup 2025 - Brackets Revealed19Weekly Cups (July 7-13): Classic continues to roll8Team TLMC #5 - Submission re-extension4
StarCraft 2
General
Power Rank - Esports World Cup 2025 RSL Revival patreon money discussion thread Jim claims he and Firefly were involved in match-fixing RSL Season 1 - Final Week The GOAT ranking of GOAT rankings
Tourneys
Esports World Cup 2025 Sparkling Tuna Cup - Weekly Open Tournament Sea Duckling Open (Global, Bronze-Diamond) FEL Cracov 2025 (July 27) - $8000 live event RSL: Revival, a new crowdfunded tournament series
Strategy
How did i lose this ZvP, whats the proper response
Custom Maps
External Content
Mutation #239 Bad Weather Mutation # 483 Kill Bot Wars Mutation # 482 Wheel of Misfortune Mutation # 481 Fear and Lava
Brood War
General
BW General Discussion ASL20 Preliminary Maps Ginuda's JaeDong Interview Series BGH Auto Balance -> http://bghmmr.eu/ [Update] ShieldBattery: 1v1 Fastest Support!
Tourneys
CSL Xiamen International Invitational [Megathread] Daily Proleagues [CSLPRO] It's CSLAN Season! - Last Chance [BSL 2v2] ProLeague Season 3 - Friday 21:00 CET
Strategy
Simple Questions, Simple Answers I am doing this better than progamers do.
Other Games
General Games
Stormgate/Frost Giant Megathread Nintendo Switch Thread [MMORPG] Tree of Savior (Successor of Ragnarok) Path of Exile CCLP - Command & Conquer League Project
Dota 2
Official 'what is Dota anymore' discussion
League of Legends
Heroes of the Storm
Simple Questions, Simple Answers Heroes of the Storm 2.0
Hearthstone
Heroes of StarCraft mini-set
TL Mafia
TL Mafia Community Thread Vanilla Mini Mafia
Community
General
US Politics Mega-thread Things Aren’t Peaceful in Palestine Russo-Ukrainian War Thread The Games Industry And ATVI Stop Killing Games - European Citizens Initiative
Fan Clubs
SKT1 Classic Fan Club! Maru Fan Club
Media & Entertainment
[\m/] Heavy Metal Thread Anime Discussion Thread Movie Discussion! [Manga] One Piece Korean Music Discussion
Sports
2024 - 2025 Football Thread Formula 1 Discussion TeamLiquid Health and Fitness Initiative For 2023 NBA General Discussion
World Cup 2022
Tech Support
Installation of Windows 10 suck at "just a moment" Computer Build, Upgrade & Buying Resource Thread
TL Community
The Automated Ban List
Blogs
Ping To Win? Pings And Their…
TrAiDoS
momentary artworks from des…
tankgirl
from making sc maps to makin…
Husyelt
StarCraft improvement
iopq
Socialism Anyone?
GreenHorizons
Customize Sidebar...

Website Feedback

Closed Threads



Active: 636 users

Playing Poker online for the first time

Blogs > Snuggles
Post a Reply
1 2 Next All
Snuggles
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1865 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-14 19:47:54
December 14 2010 19:46 GMT
#1
So I just deposited some cash into my PokerStars account, played 3 sit n go's, $1 buy-ins. Lost all 3 =(.

By some miracle I was able to make a a really good poker (the guy made some serious cash) friend I met playing Starcraft. He coached me for all three 3 Sit n Go's, telling what to do, why to do it, and yelling at me when I got too anxious and put out a stupid bets. Although I did lose all 3 games in a forgivable manner, being coached made me realized I still had a ton to learn about the game.

Just like starcraft, when I first started out I thought I had a lot of things figured out, and had most of the fundamental stuff down pat. Obviously after losing a few hundred games, and finally pushing myself to like 2100 - 2200 pts in diamond I realized how terrible I really was, and still am.

I'm assuming poker is going to be the same way, but losing a couple hundred hands before fixing my mistakes will actually really really suck. So to avoid making the same mistake, I'm looking for ways to practice without getting into the real thing.

Right now I'm playing sit n go's with play money, using the same strategy I had for the SnG's for real money. Which is basically just keep folding, and only play with premium hands + no monkey business with them. One of the things I realized about my play is the fact that I still do not have complete control over my emotions just yet. I don't know how much merit playing games with play money has, but I assume it can still help me somewhat with practicing and learning how to control my emotions during hands I'm in.

Does anyone have any tips for a beginner poker player looking to just build up a bankroll? Although I got beat out by bad beats in the Sit n Go's, I know for a goddamn fact that without my coach there, I would do a lot worse. I really want to be good enough to at least beat the weakest players in the game before I start really playing hard.

Divinek
Profile Blog Joined November 2006
Canada4045 Posts
December 14 2010 19:49 GMT
#2
1. dont use playmoney
2. take it slow and be very conscious of everything you do and why
3. tight son
Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.
Oh goodness me, FOX tv where do you get your sight? Can't you keep track, the puck is black. That's why the ice is white.
PaPaLung
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada51 Posts
December 14 2010 19:58 GMT
#3
Theres an article out there titled "Hellmuth's top 10 poker hands" that helped me become a lot better play by ONLY playing these hands untill i get to the final table, where the strategy starts to faulter. Always remember you want to make less mistakes then everyone else and only put money into hands you are pretty much sure you will win. Play super tight and highly agressive when you get good hands and you will start winning. You can start out with a 20 dollar deposit @ one poker website and if you can get yourself up to 200 bucks and re-deposit at another site for a free 200 bucks(100% match). You can keep doing this all the way up to about a 1000 bucks sometimes depending on what bonuses are available.
______ is OP and you would have lost so bad if i would have ________ , _______ing noob
Snuggles
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1865 Posts
December 14 2010 20:00 GMT
#4
So playing around with play money doesn't help at all? I'm still working on staying as tight as possible. My definitions of what is tight and what is loose got really rattled when my buddy told me what was what.

Getting accustomed to playing like 1 hand in an hour builds up a lot of anxiety and whatnot. I mean, once I do hit that AK, AQ, AA, or KK, it's tough to stay completely calm. Especially confronted with a nasty flop or turn =_=. Do I really have to just grind it out through hundreds of SnG's before completely solid against those lvl of players?

Well maybe I can look at it as an investment or something... lose my first $50 learning, and go uphill from there or something...
Puosu
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
6985 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-14 20:05:18
December 14 2010 20:03 GMT
#5
Imo. playmoney is fine if you are just trying to memorize all the basic hand ranges for each stack size and position, the basic stuff that you're supposed to be able to do without having to think for long each time.

When you start playing real money just have plenty of buyins available at your current level and don't take idiotic shots before you have the proper br for it. Multitable grinding SNGs can get incredibly tedious after a while and you'll probably find yourself stuck at a mindless robot state where you can grind a few dollars an hour but aren't actually improving, try to avoid that.

Seeing as you already have a coach you should have no problem crushing the micro stakes sngs, theres tons of profitable idiots there.
"Hellmuth's top 10 poker hands" that helped me become a lot better play by ONLY playing these hands untill i get to the final table

No

If you want to read something you should read something that teaches how to think and not what to think, Mossman's sng book is something that is oftentimes recommended to newbies but you'll probably find plenty of good information for free on the internet (twoplustwo, liquidpoker).
Ilikestarcraft
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Korea (South)17726 Posts
December 14 2010 20:04 GMT
#6
Teamliquid has its own site for poker.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/
You should def start posting and reading there. The articles in the beginning section is the best place to start reading. Also reason why you're starting with sng's first instead of cash games?
"Nana is a goddess. Or at very least, Nana is my goddess." - KazeHydra
jalstar
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
United States8198 Posts
December 14 2010 20:06 GMT
#7
On December 15 2010 05:04 Ilikestarcraft wrote:
Teamliquid has its own site for poker.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/
You should def start posting and reading there. The articles in the beginning section is the best place to start reading. Also reason why you're starting with sng's first instead of cash games?


haha the "articles for beginners" section on liquidpoker is terrible, not that LP is terrible as a site, it's actually pretty good as a whole.

read twoplustwo instead.
Snuggles
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1865 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-14 20:07:43
December 14 2010 20:07 GMT
#8
On December 15 2010 05:04 Ilikestarcraft wrote:
Also reason why you're starting with sng's first instead of cash games?


My coach said I learn the fundamentals easier from SnG's and Cash games have too much stuff to learn for a newbie.

@Puoso - lol yeah, my buddy kept going on and on about how juicy my tables were.
PaPaLung
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada51 Posts
December 14 2010 20:08 GMT
#9
I find it alot easier to make money at a single table of 6-10 people with each person buying in for 3-10 bucks. Cheap tournaments are a grind and most people are there to gamble and not play poker. You should be seeing less than 25% of the flop, and I find playing two games at once will be less boring because youll get more than one hand an hour. I really reccomend you learn about pot odds and just play way tighter than you think.
______ is OP and you would have lost so bad if i would have ________ , _______ing noob
Ilikestarcraft
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Korea (South)17726 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-14 20:14:09
December 14 2010 20:09 GMT
#10
On December 15 2010 05:06 jalstar wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 15 2010 05:04 Ilikestarcraft wrote:
Teamliquid has its own site for poker.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/
You should def start posting and reading there. The articles in the beginning section is the best place to start reading. Also reason why you're starting with sng's first instead of cash games?


haha the "articles for beginners" section on liquidpoker is terrible, not that LP is terrible as a site, it's actually pretty good as a whole.

read twoplustwo instead.

Its a good place to start off from if hes a total newbie. Of course it has outdated stuff but it also has valuable information for you're starting off.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/unl-archives-memorable-strategy-threads-430489/
"Nana is a goddess. Or at very least, Nana is my goddess." - KazeHydra
PaPaLung
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
Canada51 Posts
December 14 2010 20:11 GMT
#11
http://poker-strategy.org/ is a good resource for noobs.
______ is OP and you would have lost so bad if i would have ________ , _______ing noob
Jh
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Finland151 Posts
December 14 2010 20:14 GMT
#12
sngs have higher variance than cash games. thus you need a bigger bankroll if you wanna grind sngs or mtts.

just play the .01/.02c games. play it real safe
what
Ilikestarcraft
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Korea (South)17726 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-14 20:24:15
December 14 2010 20:19 GMT
#13
On December 15 2010 05:07 Snuggles wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 15 2010 05:04 Ilikestarcraft wrote:
Also reason why you're starting with sng's first instead of cash games?


My coach said I learn the fundamentals easier from SnG's and Cash games have too much stuff to learn for a newbie.

@Puoso - lol yeah, my buddy kept going on and on about how juicy my tables were.

I actually think the opposite. Cash games nl 2 with a $50 bankroll is the best way to start. Its the only way to come out from the start as a winner. The players at that level are really bad that I see it impossible for you to lose your entire bankroll while you're trying to learn the game. Don't play play money unless you're really new with the rules or you just want to get used to the software for a few hands. The thing with sng's is that you're not going to win a sng with playing really tight. You're going to end up living longer but the blinds will eventually rape you and you'll be forced to all in with air. Sng's require you to adjust and loosen up as the blinds get higher. You'll end up losing your bankroll faster with sngs. With 2$ buy ins .01/.02 games you will just be losing a few cents here and there. While with sngs you're going to be losing 1$ each time you play.
"Nana is a goddess. Or at very least, Nana is my goddess." - KazeHydra
Snuggles
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States1865 Posts
December 14 2010 20:22 GMT
#14
Nice links guys, I really appreciate it.

In the game I'm in right now I've only played 4 out 64 hands (6%). I've won all the hands I played in, so it's lookin pretty darn good lol. 6% Seems really really low though... of course all the players are a bunch of crazy monkeys, but is 6% a bit too low or just right with the way I'm playing? Seeing how I'm having success, I assume that I'm playing it right, but I want to hear from you experts out there.

Still on the lookout for the situation where I'll think that I'm the favorite in the hand, when in actuality flop is really nasty and bad things can happen... because that where I think I will screw up and lose it all.

In the meantime time to check these links....
Firereaver
Profile Blog Joined October 2010
India1701 Posts
December 14 2010 20:24 GMT
#15
Another one bites the dust. Sigh... Oh well..
"They drone drone drone , me win" - JangMinChul(Iron/oGsMC)
Puosu
Profile Blog Joined April 2007
6985 Posts
December 14 2010 20:34 GMT
#16
6% a bit too low or just right with the way I'm playing?

This is an impossible to answer question when you give no other information, also 64 hands sample size is incredibly small and thus hardly tells anything. Stack sizes, position, how close to bubble we are etc. all affect your ranges a ton. This makes sngs a very math oriented type of poker and as a result often considered boring as fuck.

I definitely agree with ilikestarcraft, cash games might be easier to start with but more importantly in my opinion they are just a lot more fun to play. I figured your coach was an sng specialist himself and if thats the case then its of course sensible to learn sngs from him so you can build your br before becoming a true warrior of online poker.

Also you might want to take advantage of the free trial offers by different training sites, DeucesCracked offers one week for free and they have a ton of valuable content that you can watch during that time.
Ilikestarcraft
Profile Blog Joined November 2004
Korea (South)17726 Posts
December 14 2010 20:38 GMT
#17
For me I liked sng's better at first when I got started. And the reason was just because I could play more hands lol.
"Nana is a goddess. Or at very least, Nana is my goddess." - KazeHydra
_KiM_
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
Canada498 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-12-14 21:09:39
December 14 2010 20:57 GMT
#18
As a poker player who uses winnings to survive in college, I have to say a couple of things.

1. Don't use play money, it's a waste of time. Throw up like $10 to start with, play micro funds and work your way up.
2. Choose right away if you want to be a Sit N Go player, or Cash player. It's really hard to transition from one to the other, as the styles are very different when blinds are $5/$10, or Buy In's are at $500
3. I would recommend reading Doyle Brunsons book Super System. It helped me improve my game a ton. I went from a good player to a solid player by reading this book, as it helped me tighten up in certain situations and loosen up in others.
4. Don't rage after you donk out of a tournament and play some super turbo game and lose a shit load of money. If you donk out, cool off and do something else. Play again after you feel okay.
5. Since you are a beginner, I would recommend playing 9 man SNG's, and play at a very micro level while learning the game. Play tight, while taking opportunities to check out your bluffing game and your aggressiveness as the money amount allows you to find your style of game.
6. Play on fulltiltpoker.net, my personal preference hehe
7. READ DOYLE BRUNSON'S BOOK. PM me if you don't want to go spend $50 on it, I have a pdf copy of it - o-. Learning odds is huge, and learning how to play certain hands is also huge. A consistent way of playing is important since bad beats will occur. LEARN ODDS/PROBABILITIES.


Feel free to PM me any questions, I have made over $10,000 in the last year or so just by solid play.
jalstar
Profile Blog Joined September 2009
United States8198 Posts
December 14 2010 21:21 GMT
#19
On December 15 2010 05:09 Ilikestarcraft wrote:
Show nested quote +
On December 15 2010 05:06 jalstar wrote:
On December 15 2010 05:04 Ilikestarcraft wrote:
Teamliquid has its own site for poker.
http://www.liquidpoker.net/
You should def start posting and reading there. The articles in the beginning section is the best place to start reading. Also reason why you're starting with sng's first instead of cash games?


haha the "articles for beginners" section on liquidpoker is terrible, not that LP is terrible as a site, it's actually pretty good as a whole.

read twoplustwo instead.

Its a good place to start off from if hes a total newbie. Of course it has outdated stuff but it also has valuable information for you're starting off.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/69/micro-stakes-pl-nl/unl-archives-memorable-strategy-threads-430489/


It's a specific system to beat the micros that worked in 2007 when almost all microstakes players were terrible. Twoplustwo has more up-to-date resources, and you shouldn't use a specific system anyways.
Liquid`Drone
Profile Joined September 2002
Norway28665 Posts
December 14 2010 21:24 GMT
#20
1: it's too late to start playing online poker now and expect to make a significant amount of money, unless you live in a development country where making $4 per hour is a significant amount of money. even $4 per hour is gonna take you a fair amount of dedication to accomplish if all you've played is 3 tournaments.

2: you won't need a couple hundred hands to learn poker, or even a couple hundred sitngos. you'll need thousands of tournaments/sitngos and tens of thousands of hands.

3: there's no way to actually learn playing the stake of your choice without playing the stake of your choice, because online poker is about identifying patterns and exploiting these patterns. patterns your opponents follow depends upon several factors - what is trendy at the moment, is this player a good or bad player, and what stakes does he play.

4: even if you are theoretically strong at poker (which it is to some degree possible to become without having played a lot), there's no way of knowing how you deal with inevitable swings and whether you end up tilting. (Consciously or not). These factors are much harder to master than the theoretical aspect of poker, especially if you have some understanding of math, and more importantly, these aspects are largely ones where you actually can't improve. I have friends who know how to calculate pot odds, who know what amount of hands they should open from different positions, who know proper betsizing, but whom are still losing players after putting in a couple thousand hours on pokerstars. why? they tilt after badbeats or grow impatient after some period of play leading to them no longer following the theory they know. then, what is worse, they

5: become unbearable human beings because they refuse to accept blame for their own shortcomings, constantly saying that they lose because they are unlucky, talk about the badbeats they have received, and how poker sucks. and then they ask me if they can have money on pokerstars because they got sucked out on and went broke and they don't want to deposit (giving back money in real life of course!), and then I say yes because I am not their mommy, knowing that they're going to lose.

if you somehow decide to completely ignore my advice here, which I find it likely that you will, then please visit our sister site www.liquidpoker.net, which has plenty of interesting hand discussions going on, some articles that might be of some use, and an odds-calculator. good luck and have fun.
Moderator
1 2 Next All
Please log in or register to reply.
Live Events Refresh
Next event in 1h 42m
[ Submit Event ]
Live Streams
Refresh
StarCraft: Brood War
firebathero 1591
Hyuk 320
Leta 304
ToSsGirL 168
Zeus 127
Dewaltoss 116
JulyZerg 51
sorry 45
Sacsri 32
soO 25
[ Show more ]
NaDa 23
ajuk12(nOOB) 22
ivOry 1
Britney 0
Dota 2
XcaliburYe168
BananaSlamJamma114
Counter-Strike
Stewie2K529
Other Games
ceh9583
Happy203
SortOf97
Fuzer 89
Organizations
Other Games
gamesdonequick1232
StarCraft 2
Blizzard YouTube
StarCraft: Brood War
BSLTrovo
sctven
[ Show 14 non-featured ]
StarCraft 2
• Sammyuel 45
• AfreecaTV YouTube
• intothetv
• Kozan
• IndyKCrew
• LaughNgamezSOOP
• Migwel
• sooper7s
StarCraft: Brood War
• iopq 5
• BSLYoutube
• STPLYoutube
• ZZZeroYoutube
League of Legends
• Stunt736
Other Games
• WagamamaTV141
Upcoming Events
Esports World Cup
1h 42m
Reynor vs Zoun
Solar vs SHIN
Classic vs ShoWTimE
Cure vs Rogue
Esports World Cup
1d 2h
OSC
1d 5h
CranKy Ducklings
2 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
2 days
CSO Cup
2 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
2 days
Bonyth vs Sziky
Dewalt vs Hawk
Hawk vs QiaoGege
Sziky vs Dewalt
Mihu vs Bonyth
Zhanhun vs QiaoGege
QiaoGege vs Fengzi
FEL
3 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
3 days
BSL20 Non-Korean Champi…
3 days
Bonyth vs Zhanhun
Dewalt vs Mihu
Hawk vs Sziky
Sziky vs QiaoGege
Mihu vs Hawk
Zhanhun vs Dewalt
Fengzi vs Bonyth
[ Show More ]
Sparkling Tuna Cup
5 days
Online Event
5 days
uThermal 2v2 Circuit
6 days
Liquipedia Results

Completed

CSL Xiamen Invitational
Championship of Russia 2025
Murky Cup #2

Ongoing

Copa Latinoamericana 4
Jiahua Invitational
BSL20 Non-Korean Championship
Esports World Cup 2025
CC Div. A S7
Underdog Cup #2
IEM Cologne 2025
FISSURE Playground #1
BLAST.tv Austin Major 2025
ESL Impact League Season 7
IEM Dallas 2025
PGL Astana 2025
Asian Champions League '25

Upcoming

CSLPRO Last Chance 2025
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #1
ASL Season 20: Qualifier #2
ASL Season 20
CSLPRO Chat StarLAN 3
BSL Season 21
RSL Revival: Season 2
Maestros of the Game
SEL Season 2 Championship
uThermal 2v2 Main Event
FEL Cracov 2025
HCC Europe
ESL Pro League S22
StarSeries Fall 2025
FISSURE Playground #2
BLAST Open Fall 2025
BLAST Open Fall Qual
Esports World Cup 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall 2025
BLAST Bounty Fall Qual
TLPD

1. ByuN
2. TY
3. Dark
4. Solar
5. Stats
6. Nerchio
7. sOs
8. soO
9. INnoVation
10. Elazer
1. Rain
2. Flash
3. EffOrt
4. Last
5. Bisu
6. Soulkey
7. Mini
8. Sharp
Sidebar Settings...

Advertising | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact Us

Original banner artwork: Jim Warren
The contents of this webpage are copyright © 2025 TLnet. All Rights Reserved.