Beginner questions

Pappy o' daniel

Hi I have nothing to do for the next 2 months. I'm wondering how long it would take for someone who knows nothing about poker to become proficient enough to make a profit from online poker.

What books or websites would you recommend for beginners, and are there poker sites that allow practice matches(ie. no money involved at all)?

zuutroy

I started last June and it took me about 6 months to go from not knowing the rules to being able to turn a profit, and that was playing most days and reading a lot. All sites have play money games but you wont learn much at all from them as they aren't a good simulation because no one cares! There's a sticky at the top of the forum with lots of info...have a read!

Hank Scorpio

Your best bet is to pick a site you want to play on, stick to it, then practise on the play money tables. But beware, play money tables are 100% different to real money tables which is understandable.

Learn how the blinds work, how to fold , call, bet and raise.

Learn the hand rankings and make sure you no these off by heart.

1 thing that strung me was playing Aces and Kings with poor kickers, i.e A 5 or K 4 etc. It really cost me big when i began and now i wouldnt dream of playing them(Except in heads up or last to act in certain circumstances)

Neways, pick a site, learn the basics, and learn the hand rankings.

Then build yourself up from there.

oh btw to answer your actual question, 2 months is simply not enough imo, 6 months would be ideal but even still it may not be enuff , depends on how much time your gona put into it

H8GHOTI

Yes all sites have practice tables, where you can play with fake money. They're handy for learning the basics and getting used to the software of a particular site i.e. the layout of the table, what the different buttons do etc...........

But I wouldn't spend too much time on them becuase like zuutroy said no one cares and you'll only pick up bad habits. Just play low stakes first, after a while you should quickly get the hang of it. I say if you do nothing else for 2 months you should be able to make profit


Good selection of videos here:
https://www.skypoker.com/secure/poker/sky_lobby?action=show_static&page=school_videos
From the very basics onwards. It makes more sense watching it than reading about it!


If you have any specific questions, ask them here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055286540

Some good articles here:
http://www.pokerplayermagazine.co.uk...ettingstarted/
http://www.pokertips.org/strategy/strategy.php

Thread on Poker Books here:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055334598


Good Luck!

Slash/ED

Yeah honestly play money will just make you worse if anything.

You can play cash games for as low as .01 .02 blinds, where buying in for two dollars is more than enough. And though the play at those levels is obviously bad, you'll still learn alot more than at any play money table.

Playing freerolls, if you don't wanna deposit at all, is your best bet. They're tournaments that are free in, but have real money pay outs, they're small but it's something to aim for and again it's alot better than play money. I think Boyle used to have loads, dunno if they still do. Stars run one every sunday if you listen to their pokercast thing to get the password that iirc has a quite decent prizepool for a freeroll, so that could be worth playing.

5starpool

I have nothing really to add, except to say that you have to be realistic about this. If you are a beginner you might not even like it and get sick of it after a few hours/days. If you start out playing the wrong levels you might well lose way too much money early to make it viable to play again depending on your bankroll. Also, if you learn the recommended way and start initially in freerolls/micro stakes etc then there are a varieaty of reasons why it might not work out as well, but the key thing will be patience. I highly doubt that after 2 months you will be making any sort of profit to speak of unless you are some sort of prodigy.

Also, I love the username, class film that.

Ramiriquez

I'm going to make my foray into the world of the poker 'depositor' sometime this summer with a view to playing MSNL and the odd tourney. This is after months of reading and trying to learn the game. To get you started make sure and take advantage of the non deposit bonuses out there, $50 at Titan Poker for example. Just google 'no deposit poker bonuses' or some such. Use this cash to get used to playing micro stakes but make sure you do a good bit of reading first though. Good luck

Fatboydim

Most of us started off playing tournaments. Sit n Gos. I'd suggest pick something to suit your pocket SnG wise and go from there.

Pappy o' daniel

Thanks to all. I'm going to check out the library first and read everthing I can find.

I can't get a summer job anyway, so learning poker is as good a waste of time as anything else.( and I might turn out to be good)

And to 5starpool, "I ain't one at a timing here, I'm mass communicatin' "

Slash/ED

All the same it's good advice. Please, please don't expect this to work out in any way from the short to medium term, turning a profit even at the microstakes from complete beginners knowledge will be very tough. From a skill point of view for one, and from an understanding and adapting to the variance inherent in the same and how to deal with that for another. It'll take alot of discipline and some thick skin. Good luck with it though.

Tight Ted

nuxxx wrote: »

1 thing that strung me was playing Aces and Kings with poor kickers, i.e A 5

Are you a tournament player? I raise A5s UTG in 6max.

TommyGunne

Tight Ted wrote: »

Are you a tournament player? I raise A5s UTG in 6max.

well done