Quote:
Originally Posted by wazz
The best way is to play a lot and get a feel for what makes strong starting hands. Pay attention to showdowns, pay particular attention to those players you identify as strong and tight, pay attention to the hands that regularly seem to lose a lot like the old Q875ss or stuff like that.
One thing I did relentlessly for my first few years playing online for a living was look up equities, on all streets. These days you can even look up equities vs ranges. Comparing hands and ranges on various boards will give you a very good idea about playability.
Count your outs and nut outs as quickly as possible - don't waste your limited time bank staring at the board trying to work out if this or that is in fact a nut out, get systematic about it, i.e. count from bottom up, count flush outs before straight, get good at it offline so that you can as close to click your fingers on a complicated board and say '21 outs to improve to a straight or better of which 14 outs give me the nuts, of which 6 are shared nut outs but 8 give me the nut flush'. Sometimes the answer to this question feeds directly into the answer of whether to call, raise or fold.
Of course, poker training sites can give you a leg up, but I would prefer to use them to check my knowledge rather than build it, as you get a better feel for the underlying principles if you learn them for yourself.
One thing I wouldn't do is rail high-stakes players. The way they play is very different from the rest of us and they do so mostly with a very strong base and understanding of how their opponents' play and will give you a very false idea of what good starting hands look like.
.
Thank you for your well thought out reply.
