Poker News Blog

Introduction

Many experts won’t admit this, but there are some huge mistakes that many beginners make that they feed off of to win their pots and make the final tables (and even win first place.) If you can’t learn these mistakes and learn how to avoid making them, you can increase your chances at winning and become a better poker player every day.

3 Beginner Mistakes That Can Really Hurt You

1. Don’t Play Drunk – This may sound really funny, but it’s not. If you play after drinking, you’ll feel more relaxed and as though things aren’t just as bad as you used to think. This is not the case in poker. You can’t just underestimate all the bad things in poker. You need to keep a straight mind and be able to take down any road bump that interferes on your way to winning that 1st place pot.

2. Don’t Stay In A Hand Because You Feel As Though You Should – You should never just keep on staying in a hand because you are already in it. You always need to think straight and use you mind, not your gut. Consider all possibilities of winning hands, and if yours doesn’t have that good of a chance, re-think if you should fold or not.

3. Don’t Bluff Just To Bluff – You need to make sure you’re not bluffing because you saw someone on T.V. bluff and win the pot. Those hands that you see on T.V. are hand picked by the producers to show the most action and pot winnings. But really behind the scenes, nine out of ten times, a bluff doesn’t work. You need to make sure that you’re not going to throw away your money and that you actually have a chance at winning. Take the game seriously, especially when your money’s in the pot.

Introduction

So you want to score the big money in No Limit Texas Hold’em Poker, eh? Well, first you need to get some things straight. First off, you need to ask yourself, are you in it to win it or just here for kicks. If you want kicks, do as you please, but for the real players, this is where it’s at.

The Importance of Your Pocket Cards

Most people underestimate how important your pocket cards are. Do you think you’d have a better chance going into the flop with a strong, common hand, or a bad, off-suit hand? You need to train yourself to have patience and play your cards right. If you can’t wait for good cards, why are you playing to begin with? With that said, let’s get to know these hands.

What Are The Hands?

The “Top Ten” hands in No Limit Texas Hold’em Poker without a doubt have to be:

1. A-A
2. K-K
3. Q-Q
4. A-K
5. J-J
6. 10-10
7. 9-9
8. 8-8
9. A-Q
10. 7-7

Why, Why, Why?

Great pocket cards are the key to success. As said above, would you rather go into the flop with a strong, common hand, or a bad, off-suit hand? This is an incredibly obvious answer. You want the strongest hand you can get, so you can win more hands and take home more winnings. The better the starting percentage of winning, the better chance of actually winning you’ll have. If you’d like, you could even raise the blinds and scare away a couple people just to collect a small pot (if you need to get your stack up by a fraction, although I don’t know why you wouldn’t want to go for the gold to begin with.) Having strong cards is half the battle; the other half is knowing how to use them.