How can I win at poker?

[freeringo]

It has come to my attention that there are a few timid players here on NDN forum. They have a difficult time raising the bar, so to speak, to win poker tourneys. There are also some poker genii here that live breathe and sleep winning at poker.

What advise can we give our average playing members to better enhance their abilies to win?

[knowledge]

The best advice I can give is to be more like me!

[freeringo]

If we all played like you the game would be over for 9 players
on the first hand.

[micron1]

stop bluffing so much and start to fold more good hands pre flop and dont push so much pre flop because alot of crazy stuff happens try to play the other person good luck hope i helped some

[sloeddie]

i heard some where that it was wise to set your goal on 3rd or2nd money and when you reach it you feel looser or more at ease from there on is this true??

[ffcowboy76]

The best advice I can offer is to do a couple of things. First, read what is posted in the tips section. Most all of the information there is correct, or has a good debate running in the follow up posts. Second, if you are unsure if a play was correct or you just got donked on, post the COMPLETE hand history and let people post their thoughts. Despite people thinking that chips stacks don't matter in a history, THEY DO. I make different moves with different sized stacks. Another great thing to do is ask people for help. I will speak for myself, but I'm pretty sure I can lump eejit in this, I am more than willing to watch you play and help you out during a game. There are a few rules that I will tell you if you contact me. The biggest part of playing winning poker is to play a style that is comfortable to YOU, not me or any other member of this site. If you don't feel comfortable being aggressive, then find a passive system that works. My wife is very passive when playing poker, but she is way more consistent than I can be. I'm very aggressive and there are pit falls with that system.

The most important part of a strategy isn't the preflop or post flop strategy, it's the ENTIRE thing. It isn't easy to use an aggressive preflop strategy with a passive post flop strategy.

Once you figure out HOW you want to play, you need to train your mind to work a certain way. It's been published by many pro's that there are 3 levels of thinking. I can't remember them right this second, but I will look them up and post them. It deals with how you look at your hand and your opponents hand and what you think they think you have. The higher up the levels you get the better you will do.

The last thing I will touch on is about how to lose. To be a great winner, you have to be a great loser too. Unless you flop a royal flush every hand you play you are going to get beat occasionally by a draw. There comes a time in some hands that you have to fold you "big" hand to a "lesser" hand that connected better on the flop.

[kingsnthahole]

im sorry but i DO NOT AT ALL agree with tightening up your hand range when the blinds get to 100...this is where i make all my chips and accumulate a huge stack for the final table, when the blinds get bigger, i actually feel more comfortable because my thinking is this...65-75%(probably) of the players in this tourney are just like you, tight/aggressive longballers who look to get their money in and double up in one hand. Thats fine if you know how to pick your spots, but WHY RISK ALL YOUR CHIPS ON ONE HAND?I used to play this way and i also lost alot more from bad beats...and i used to get very pissy at people and walk away swearing, but in reality, i failed myself because i put too much pressure on one hand...even pocket Aces only wins 85% of the time! Obviously i get played back at more when i'm playing semi-loose, however, i view myself as a good poker player and all good poker players CRAVE ACTION. I love it when someone reraises me and im sitting there with complete garbage even and i have position on them.

1. To give all of our newbies a little tip, READ POKER BOOKS, read alot of different styles and mix them all together, winning a poker tournament takes knowledge and skills that sometimes can't be taught, only read and practiced! I started out with Doyle Brunsons super system(aggressive long ball), i then read Phil Helmuth's something-or-other(super tight aggressive), and then i stumbled on Daniel Negraneu's Power Hold'em(Small Ball), this book really confused me when i first read it, i couldn't grasp the fact about betting with air for the longest time, until i realized that specific and meticulous betting patterns can represent any hand you want from any number of positions at the table...take for example AA, KK, or AK..."the book" says from early position you are supposed to either limp/reraise or make a small raise preflop with these types of hands...well hell, if im hitting a slow streak of cards and i pick up a hand i want to see a flop with from under the gun or early position, im gonna represent that hand to cool off the people in late position either get them to smooth call or fold a hand they would normally raise with to an unopened pot. Through trial and error, this book is really responsible for my reading abilities that are priceless at the poker table.

2. Another tip i'd like to give to newbies is dont be afraid to get in there with baby cards in late position, one thing i really take notice of is that there are a sh!t-ton of pots in NLH that get checked down to the river, and if noone is betting, bet at it in late position,just dont bet min, it doesnt get you anywhere unless you have the nuts...

3. Draw cheap and make your opponents pay to draw at you! Think about it and utilize it...