Hi everyone! My name is Ally and I was thinking about learning poker for fun.

I randomly fell into it last week when we had a game at a friends house and I won? I don’t know how that happened, so I assume if I have no idea what I’m doing I probably just won by pure luck and randomness lol.

I won $30 and I decided to put it on a poker site (wsop.com, I was told that was my only choice). I don’t know if I want to do the tournaments yet but the normal games look okay where you play for money and leave when you feel like it.

I googled how to get better at poker and good lord there was way too many ideas. One that was consistent was a program called PokerSnowie so I downloaded that and uh, wow. I’m sure it’s useful but I have no idea what to do with it.

Next piece of advice was to join a forum or learn in a group. It says to “study” which again I’m not sure what to study or how to study effectively.

I think I’m going to try and play every night. Someone did mention to have a number of hands goal as opposed to a win goal cause you can obviously lose and be there forever, which makes sense. So I was thinking about 150 looks like about two hours online, that sounds doable.

I see they have blogs here so I was thinking maybe just post big hands that I may win or lose Someone said post “all-in” hands is a good way to find leaks quickly. Actually they said post hands I am confused about and I felt like posting every single hand would be a bit much, lol.

I don’t know, I’m brand new but I’m willing to learn, I just have no idea where to start. Some people have said $30 isn’t enough to play the penny games? I don’t know I’m just gonna try a little tonight and see what happens, maybe make some friends and try my best to not to blow my $30 instantly, haha.

Thank you for reading my ridiculously long post.

Always remember that you matter,
Ally

Welcome! It can definitely be overwhelming as a new player. It sounds like you're starting in the right place by playing microstakes and starting to post here. The penny games online are generally quite soft, but most players are losing over time, and as a beginner there is a big learning curve to the game. Even once you learn the basics and improve enough to win at the penny stakes, there's a lot of variance, and even very strong players will have extended losing stretches. There is nothing you can do to avoid this - losing is built into the game, and sometimes it won't necessarily feel fair. Poker is not a game where you can expect to smoothly make money all the time, it's a game where sometimes you will get crushed, sometimes you will crush your opponents, and on any given night (or even over a week, or month) any player can win or lose. Skill is only realized over the long run, which can be tens of thousands of hands. All that said, if you keep working on your game and putting in the effort (and hands!), eventually it is possible to become a winning player over time. In this way, poker is fundamentally different from almost all other casino + gambling games.

As a brand new player, most poker tools (like snowie) will probably be over your head for now. That's completely fine. It's a good idea to note down or take screenshots of hands where you felt confused for later discussion and review (here on 2p2, or in a study group or with a poker friend). If you get into the game, in the future there will be other tools you can use for this, but you shouldn't worry about them for now. Also -- don't just get involved in the blog section. I would recommend browsing the Cash Strategy forums, and reading a lot, including the stickied posts. There are plenty of active winning players sharing advice and hands here, and there have been many great posts made over the years. Reading how more experienced players are thinking about hands and the game is definitely a good learning resource for a beginner.

Once you've learned the rules and have a bit of experience playing, it might be worth looking into some learning material. Guys like Bart Hanson, Pete Clarke, and Jonathan Little have tons of free videos (check youtube) aimed at lower-level players that can showcase basic poker thought processes and strategies. If you want some more structured content, you could look at something like Red Chip Core ($5/week) or RIO's From the Ground Up ($50 course, structured learning for beginners). These guys aren't the "cutting edge" of poker strategy content, but they make stuff that is approachable, directly applicable at the tables, and geared towards learning players. There are also plenty of poker books out there, though I'm not sure exactly what's best for a beginning player these days. Maybe people in the books + publications subforum would know.

Poker is a complex game, and getting seriously good is a long journey that involves multiple years of effort for most. But learning to play, and learning to become a winner at the lowest stakes, is a very achievable goal that doesn't take nearly as long. Not only that, but learning to play poker might cross over into your everyday life in unexpected and useful ways. Hope this helps give some direction, and good luck!

What state/country? I don't think WSOP.com is exclusive in any state, but possible.

$30 is not a very big start, but if you play small it may last. Try to look for first-time deposit deals to maximize your ability to play.

There are many 'play' chip sites. If you are so new to poker I would put some time into those just to get a better feel for the flow of the game on a computer/App. Don't necessarily try to copy how the Players play since it is probably not ideal, just use those hands to train your brain to 'see' things more comfortably.

Check out the local library for poker books .. They may be older, but will be plenty good for some 'starter' reading. GL

Duncelana's post is very good. Welcome to the forums and GL at the tables, Ally.

Your main goal should just to be to have fun and learn what you can. Whether you go into MTT, SNG, or cash games, I'd plan on losing 100 buy-ins before you start turning a profit if you're very new. I'd add on to make sure you don't chase losses and play higher games to try to martingale any money back as well.

Thank you all for your feedback!

I didn’t get a chance to play last night as I had hoped, I deal with a lot at work and had a huge headache when I got home.

Someone asked, but I live in Las Vegas few miles away from the strip. I moved out here about 30 seconds before the town shut down for Covid, that was fun.

So that game I won the other day was for $30 and that was why I put it online, so technically I have nothing invested in this. If I lose it, it’s fine. If I’m having fun or feel better about this in general, I wouldn’t mind putting more. Someone had told me two hard rules: don’t play higher than the $10 games, and try to have at least 20 times the buy in in the account, so I guess like $200 to play $10 games, but I’m way off from that yet.

I’m trying to set a goal of learn something new every day. Last night I read on betting, and this is how I understand what I read, so bear with me.

So there’s 9 people playing, I guess any number divisible by 3. If you are in the first three spots, you should bet two big blinds, if you’re in the next three you should bet 2.5 big blinds, and in the last three you should bet 3 big blinds. This is assuming everyone passed leading up to you. It then said something like if you want to raise someone who bet in front of you to “bet pot”. So you bet little when no one’s around but then if someone does bet you want to make a much larger bet than you would have. On paper I guess it makes sense, I just don’t know about it in practice.

Hopefully get to play a little tonight if work isn’t super crazy today (Mental Health Advocacy, it’s always kind of crazy)

Thank you again for the feedback everyone!

~Ally

You should probably focus more on ranges + position (which hands to play preflop in which situations), basic poker math (odds, equity, etc), and understanding postflop basics.

That said, the advice is generally correct. 3bets are much larger than opens, and varying your open size by position is technically accurate. It's just that minor shifts to your preflop sizes (for example, raising 2 or 2.2 or 2.5 or 3x the bb) are not super important. As long as you're in the ballpark, it's fine. Opening 2.5x from every position and 3betting to 3x ip and 4x oop is definitely "good enough" as a starting point.

It doesn't matter how much money you keep in your online account, as long as it is enough to cover the amount you want to play in a given session. As long as you have more money that you are willing to put toward poker, and it is easy to get it onto the site quickly, don't worry about it. If you think you would like to cap your losses at a certain amount (let's say $300) - then make sure you have $300 available - but it doesn't matter if it is in your account, your bank, your wallet or anywhere else. As long as it is readily available and it is easy to add it to your poker account, then that is fine.

What you posted about betting looks more like a tournament suggestion than a cash game one.

I agree you should work more on what 'range' of cards you 'should' play from Early, Middle and Late positions at the table. Each cash game has it's own dynamic, which is typically displayed by what the most common opening bet happens to be. You won't see too many Players who are paying attention to what position you are at the table when you bet/raise, other than UTG (Under The Gun = First to Act Pre-Flop).

The one thing you should avoid is betting Pre-Flop based on the strength of your cards. That is one thing Players do catch onto fairly quickly and will use it to better judge whether or not they should continue. If you bet AA/KK a certain way 'only' then it is pretty easy for the other Players to defend their cards against you.

Do you walk through any casinos? You might want to just walk into some poker rooms and take in the 'scenery'. You may even be able to watch a table for a short time .. from a respectable distance. LOTS of poker Players don't like it when anyone stands behind them, so be very aware of this if you choose to walk through.

I've never really told this story to my live Regs .. but the first time I went to Vegas I was all fired up to go to the Bellagio. I wasn't expecting a seat as soon as I walked up but the Floor almost took my hand and walked me to a table. It had big stacks .. Players were talking loud and I didn't even know how to buy chips. I didn't even take a hand as I just got up and left the room. I went over to Planet Hollywood where I was staying and found their room, Players, set up and everything else just felt way more comfortable and that's where I ended up taking my first poker hand in Vegas .. and ended up winning about $500 that night. (I was a genius .. poker is easy!)

It really shouldn't be, but it almost seems surprising that someone would 'just' live in Vegas and not know anything about poker. It's just like someone not having a clue who certain sports or entertainment stars might be. But even within the casino there are Dealers who swear to know nothing about table games, winning cars or any other Promos that the casino might have going .. and yet the patrons 'live' that stuff.

Keep us up to date (not daily please ..lol) and hopefully we can help you be more comfortable with wherever you want to take poker. GL

So, you started by playing a live home game and immediately shifted to online? While live and online are similar, they are also very different. Additionally, home games are different from public casino games.

Before taking the next step, you should decide which ecosystem you want to be in. Everything else will follow from that decision.

That's fair, I moved out here a few years ago... long story short: met a guy, moved out here with him, didn't work out almost immediately, and was too proud to go back east. Found a job I love with co-workers who are awesome and pay well, found a nice apartment, and here I am.


In regards to moving online, I ended up doing so just because you could play for pennies. I got peer-pressured into playing with some co-workers and just happened to win the tournament we each put $5 up and there were six of us. I couldn't do much else with the $30 so one suggested playing online for pennies if I wanted to practice some more.

This leads me to Friday/Saturday...

After roughly 750 hands of playing .01/.02 no limit holdem I won $8.73!!!



I have no idea how to show hands on here so I guess I can just write them out? I found the hand history stuff, but there doesn't seem to be a way to put it on here. So just for fun, this is a hand I played and I fooled around with Snowie just to see what it says (took forever to plug all the information in for one hand). Anyway, this was the biggest pot I won.


So there was 9 players including me,

first guy calls .02 ($4.35 in his stack)
second guy raises to .08 (.74)
third calls .08 (1.83)
fourth folds
fifth calls .08 ($2)
sixth folds
I have Ace of Spades, and Queen of Spades and I raised to .45 ($2.58 in my stack)
small blind folds
big blind folds
First player folds
Second player calls
Third Player calls
Fifth player folds

Flop is six of spades, king of spades, five of diamonds

They both check and I bet .45 again the pot is $1.40 before I bet
First player folds and the second bets his entire $1.46 and I called

He had King of hearts, ten of hearts.

Turn was a Jack of Spades
River was a Jack of hearts

And I won $4.16

Snowie was mad at me, it doesn't like that I played at all, and then didn't like me betting on the flop.

One of the things I heard a lot was trying to play pots with only one other player, so I thought raising was a good way to do that. Maybe Ace Queen isn't as great as I think it is? Then on the flop a lot of people played draws aggressively so I tried to do that as well. I also thought maybe an ace would win too since the highest card on the flop was a king. I'm probably thinking way deeper than I should be, I tend to do that in life in general. Sometimes I just checked with a draw and hoped it would come, I didn't have much of a rhyme or reason as to why I did one or the other.

It was fun and I might try to play some more today (Sunday), it was nice.


Thank you for your feedback and kind support!

~Ally

First, as played, calling the shove to get over 2:1 is an easy call with the NFD, and an overcard gives you more than enough equity (which is really close to 2:1).

As to the flop bet, it looks like a standard C-bet. It depends on why you made it. Personally, I would make the bet most (but not all) of the time because of the equity I had in the hand. I might check it if I knew I was against very aggressive opponents.

In short, welcome to "it depends".

Looks like you were on the Button? I've never used Snowie, but how can AQs be a fold to an open? It's a perfect hand to raise/squeeze OTB with .. perhaps online it's not (but how)?

Once you reach the Flop you're pretty much committed to the remaining stacks .. so a nice C-bet is fine, but be ready to GII (get it in).

Yes, there's a lot of 'It Depends' in poker. You may have wanted to raise a tad smaller since it's probably prudent to fold if you get pushed back at from more than one stack before the Flop comes out. GL

Pokersnowie is not going to be useful to analyze hands of this nature... and by "this nature" I mean in situations that occur that are "fishy"... starting with the limp.

There is something we call GTO or "optimal play" that is not super relevant to the kinds of games you're playing for the time being (where everyone is in the learning stage and making tons of mistakes) because it's trying to model how you should play against players that play really really well.

A lot of these learning tools are trying to calculate these "optimal" strategies.

You shouldn't completely discard what those learning tools output, but you should start off with the basics and allow yourself to learn from experience by observing how people play different hands and trying to take advantage of it.

The best resources for new players in my opinion will be some kind of guided learning process like a course or a subscription to a website with poker lessons, like maybe upswing poker, for instance. Trying to teach yourself poker at the start can be done but it will slow you down massively.

Spending time in forums and talking to people about poker is also a great way of learning the language of poker, which you will need to develop your own thought process for the game

Hey man,

I think AnerÂ’s answer above is very accurate. IÂ’ve been starting to play more serious a few weeks ago, but playing poker and did some studying for a longer time.

For me the older videos of the YouTube channel “thepokerbank” were very accurate and useful. They explain well animated basic concepts in 10-20 minute videos, such as EV, odds and hand ranges.

Hope it helps you somewhat, goodluck on the journey, and looking forward towards updates :-)

Howdy everyone!

So it’s been about a week since I started playing and I think it’s a lot of fun. I’ve been trying to play as much as I can. I do work full time so I don’t have a ton of time to do this but what time I found I played.

I stayed at mostly .01/.02 and did really well early in the week, was up over $10 in profit. I decided to try .05/.10… and lost $8 lol. Went back to .01/.02 got my profit over $10 again, went back to .05/.10 and lost $9 that time.

After about 10 days of my little experiment, hand count is rough guess:

.01/.02: 3,750 hands +$21.07
.05/.10: 300 hands -$17.30

Overall: $3.77 profit

I’m at work right now, so I don’t have access to my hands and it was kind of a pain trying to write down all of them or look through endless hand history. I did make a straight flush and got all the other guys chips, same result when I flopped four 8s with two in my hand.

So takeaways from this week:

People love the bet pot button and the all in button. Some guy would bet .10 and then the next guy would go all-in for 2.57 or something. I found playing only “good hands” (which is eye of the beholder I have learned), is the way to go for now at least. I didn’t feel like I had too many confusing decisions, big hands tend to either flop bigger hands or miss entirely. Some people have said to play all the pairs but I just didn’t find a lot of good ways to use them, so I was tending to fold 22, 33, and 44. Also people like Aces with a card of the same suit, I wasn’t really feeling the smaller suits like A2, A3, and A4. It just seem to make the game easier and a lot of times I was just calling and folding so I feel like I was saving money.

Not really sure what happened at .05/.10 seems I wasn’t making any real hands. Lots of folding and the flop wasn’t helping anything I had. Someone said you can’t judge anything until about 100,000 hands so I’m guessing my 300ish hands at .05/.10 isn’t something worth noting.

Moving forward, I was thinking of trying the sit and goes for $1. Problem is they don’t seem to get a lot of people and you have to wait until you have 9 players. So maybe I’ll stick to penny cash games and maybe if I hit something again I’ll try nickels.

Thank you for your support and feedback!

~Ally

You should primarily be only playing 2nl for the foreseeable future... if you're not concerned about adding more funds, then you can play whatever you want though.

A bit late to the party, but for a true beginner, you are best off not trying to get too cute and just playing only starting cards that are among the premium and near-premium. This will tend to make your post flop play quite a bit simpler. It is not optimal, but playing mostly “fit or fold” on the flop would work well for a beginner. This means you play only hands like AJ, AQ, AK (maybe AT and KQ especially if suited) plus most pocket pairs. You should be raising pre flop with all of the hands you play.

If the flop completely misses your hand, donÂ’t be afraid to check and not try to take the pot with a bet. This is especially true if you are up against more than one opponent: it is much tougher to bluff when not heads up. If you flop top pair or better, then (depending on pot size and how your opponents react) you should be looking to build a pot. Start by betting the flop. If you donÂ’t get pushback and no obvious draws hit, then bet the turn. Repeat for the river. Keep betting unless your opponents give you a reason not to. You may not always win, especially if all you end up with is one pit, but given your starting hand selection, you should win more often than you lose. For example opponents at this level will often (mistakenly!) call preflop with any hand with an ace. If you only ever have AJ or better on an ace high flop, you will win quite a bit and quite often against such players.

If you happen to flop a flush or straight draw, it gets a bit trickier. You do want to have some bluffs when you bet the flop. Draws like this are good for that purpose. You are fine with it if a bet wins immediately, but you at least have some winning chances if your bet is called. If the flop hits your draw, bet, and if not consider betting anyway. The same logic holds.

Most pocket pairs (99 and lower) are best played by set mining. That is you are looking to bet mainly flops where you hit your set and give up otherwise. Low flops with one or zero overcards to your pair can be an exception. There is a good chance your hand is best now, but it is vulnerable. For example if you have 88 on a 752 flop, you should probably bet and try to get players with aces, kings and queens in their hand to fold. You really donÂ’t want to check and see an A or K on the turn. Even a flop like a 9 or T high flop might be good for your 88 hand. If you get called, in that case, though you probably should be prepared to just check it down and probably fold to a turn bet or a flop raise.

Big pockets are the moneymakers and they are pretty straightforward to play. Just be careful not to overvalue them. Pay attention to your opponents reaction to your bets. If you have AA and they are raising you when there is an obvious flush or straight possibility, be careful.

Just to be clear: these suggestions are overly simplistic and meant to keep you afloat and maybe making some profit while you learn. They are by no means optimal play and you should certainly continue to study and learn better strategy. The important thing to learn (and one of the reasons a program like Snowie probably is not going to be too helpful right now) is not what you should do in a given spot, but why the correct action is what it is. After all, you may experience similar spots, but generally not identical oneÂ’s going forward. Even seemingly small changes to a situation can change the correct action. Knowing the why is critical to spotting what features of a spot are important and helping you make correct decisions going forward.

Good luck and donÂ’t be hard on yourself. Poker is an easy game to learn how to play but a ridiculously hard game to learn how to play well. Also donÂ’t judge too much based on your profits, at least in the short term. The nature of poker is such that you can win a lot of money for a while (and sometimes a long while) by playing badly. Conversely you can lose a lot while playing well, again sometimes for a fairly long stretch. Be prepared for both upswings and downswings. There will be times that it feels like you canÂ’t lose and other times where you canÂ’t win no matter what you do. DonÂ’t get too high or too low - if you manage to stick with it, it evens out in the (sometimes extremely) long run.

Welcome too the poker world. Hope you had a great Xmas and New Years. Some good advice above. Some of it good for after you get some experience and move up stakes.

Personally if I was brand new and starting at micro/low stakes with little knowledge I'd get some preflop charts for the tables you play 6 max or full-ring. Just use goggle you'll find plenty. $30 isn't much $50 would have been better to start at 2nl cash tables. In my opinion play full-ring(8-9 player tables) I don't about WSOP.com but a lot of grinders, daily regulars and most winning players play 6 max. For them volume is king that won't be the case for you starting out against them with only $30. And 6 max tables have a much higher variance whish again with your $30 will likely kill you.

To start I'd learn a Tight Aggressive style(TAG) and play full-ring 2nl. This should get you the most playing time(experience) outta your money and hopefully keep you outta the toughest spots with marginal holdings. Which will lose you tons of money quite quickly as a new player.

I don't know if WSOP allows HUD's or not but even if WSOP don't if you decide you wanna keep playing online I'd get a HUD regardless whether you can use it at WSOP. They make a great study and hand review tool. In my opinion I have no idea how why everyone who plays online doesn't have one. Great easy for studying with if nothing else. You should be able to download hands or somehow get hands off the site and import them into your HUD. I prefer Poker Tracker 4. Again just google it.

A few more things you can work on is patience, mental toughness/tilt control and bankroll management. These 3-4 things are just as important as being good at poker when it comes to being a winning player long term. You can be the best player in the world suck at bankroll management or any of them things above......you're not likely a long term losing player.

Best of luck at the tables. Hope you do well or at least you get to play on your $30 for awhile so you can get as much experience as possible outta it. As it takes time to learn the player pool and their tendencies.

^My 2cents as a 20+ year micro/low stakes winning player on Pokerstars full-ring tables. Not a brag as I'm at best a okish poker player on talent/knowledge. Bankroll management, mental toughness/tilt control, patience and experience does the rest.

EDIT: Don't waste a single dime on any courses/books at this point save that money or any money and deposit it. There's plenty enough good free info and knowledge on google that will help you beat micro/low stakes. It's not hard as some think it is. I haven't finished reading or doing a new course in 15 years old now(only brought 2 new course). Not even half finished. Good courses but for me waste of $200. I can still win up too 50nl full-ring.

If I was to buy any book YOU don't need to and some may give me crap for plugging this book but **** it. Mason has a new book coming out about micro/low stakes. Mason's an OG and former owner of these forums. I only plug his new book because I own most if not all his old books and 2+2 publishing old books. Some of the best books poker books of their time and a reason I'm the player I am today. I'll be buying Mason's new book and may not even read it all. It'll simply go great with my collection.
https://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/2...money-1828744/

Cheers!!!

I think you should consider buying a notebook and filling it out with thoughts of poker and strategy. Map out how to win, bring that to the forums for tinkering, repeat.