Hi everyone, new to the forum and kinda/sorta new to online poker.

So I guess I'll give my backstory and then ask my question:

I found this site called Bovada and played with one of their deposit bonuses for their slots. I am 19 and thought it might be fun to try and play some casino games since I went to a casino for my birthday.

So long story short I won a good amount and cashed out and kept the "change" on there. I wanted to learn to play poker since it seems fun and since I already have cashed out with a profit I thought this would be a good time to start.

I looked at some posts and some youtube videos and I found a thing that tracks your play and stuff and found it super confusing....way too many numbers.

So...my question is....where do I start?

There are a lot of different games and some are tournaments and some are money games. I guess it's a bit overwhelming.

I have $42.19, is that even enough?

Any help would be super awesome.

I don't know if I said enough so I would be happy to answer any questions that need an answer!

~Brooke (ShadowKatana)

P.S. Sorry my profile looks sketchy, they won't let me add anything yet

With $42 I wouldn't advise playing cash games just yet. The lowest limit is 2c-5c, which you have less than 9 buy ins for. You should play some $1.10 and $2.20 sit and goes while you learn the basics.

Exactly how much of a beginner are you? It's not clear from your OP if you've played poker before or not.

the most basic idea is to play tight and aggressive. tight, as in selective about the hands which you play, and aggressive as in choosing to bet or raise mostly when you do play. good luck.

I have played a long time ago with my dad and his brothers and parents but it was like draw and some stud games. I don't know a lot about Holdem or Omaha, but I am eager to learn!

I will take you advice about the $1.10 and $2.20 sit and goes. I think I would like to play about 20 before I report back my findings? I don't know if that's too much or too little, but I shall return with something!

Thanks!

That sounds like a winning plan to me! I think I know good cards from bad, I do have a chart to help me out a bit, so I hope if I get stuck it will tell me if it's a keeper or not.

I will try my best to click the bet or raise button as often as I can!

Thanks!

Read a book called Crushing the Microstakes (google it). A lot of what it says is wrong, but it'll stop you losing at the smallest stakes, which I suspect you are at the moment.

read books. study the math. if the books and numbers aren't interesting to you then the game probably won't be interesting to you. you have to learn to develop a passion and obsession for bettering yourself at poker and that requires massive amounts of study if you're going to want to catch up to where todays players are.

I will look into that and if I can find it start reading it right away!

Thanks!

I think this is something I could get into with a little bit of practice and reading, someone else had mentioned a book I will look into.

Thanks!

http://imgur.com/yiP8XV5
Okay, so I just finished 20 sit and goes. I just took whatever was at the top of the $1.10 and $2.20 as someone suggested.

Some of these are Super Turbo and some are...not super turbo? Normal I guess. A few were 3 or 5 table beginners.

I had 4 cashes, 2 wins, 1 2nd place and 1 3rd. None of those were the 3 or 5 tables.

I will try to post other stuff when I am able to.

Thoughts, comments, ideas, etc are all greatly appreciated.

Really enjoying talking to you guys so far!

I forgot to mention I was playing with another suggestion from someone. It's called Tournament Indicator and it keeps my statistics on things if this helps anyone help me:

Hands: 935
VPIP: 20
PFR: 12
3Bet/F: 10|0
Steal/F: 27|82
AF: 0.57
CBet/F: 13|61
WSD/W: 50|57

I don't know what most of that means, just thought it might be helpful.

935 hands is a very small sample, but it looks like you need to play more tight/aggressive. Playing 19-20% of hands is fine for 9max (which I assume the SNGs you're playing are), but 12% preflop raise is a bit low, you probably should be stealing more from late positions, and limping less (if you are limping first in, stop doing that completely). Granted, it's a small sample like I said, and in fishy low stakes SNGs there may be alot of limping and not as many spots to steal, so your low PFR might not be a concern just yet.

You AF (aggression factor) is low, you're apparently doing alot of checking/calling as opposed to betting/raising. However. again, the sample is small, and there are probably alot of multiway pots in those games (which will bring your AF down). But we can see that you probably should be more aggressive, and call/chase draws less postflop.

I am not used to the other stats being in that format so I wont comment on those. But they wont be accurate over 935 hands anyway.

Play a few thousand more hands and then you can start to begin to look into stats and stuff, but for now just keep reading up on strategy and try to get the fundamentals down. Also, you should post hands here that you had trouble with or have questions about.

Good luck

P.s. There are regular, turbo, and super turbo SNGs, as well a other types like triple-up, double-up, etc. I would play 9max turbo or regular if I were you.

All sounds reasonable and will work on in the next run. Won't be able to work on this until next weekend because of college stuff, but am looking forward to making changes and comparing the two runs.

Thanks!

6 days into learning poker and I thought I was playing a little better, but I guess according to my records I'm playing worse.

http://imgur.com/jlcZHht
I took some advice and made the following changes a few days ago:

1. Only stick to single table sit and goes.
2. No more open limping
3. Stealing more
4. Bet more often on the flop and beyond

So my old stats were

Hands: 935
VPIP: 20
PFR: 12
3Bet/F: 10|0
Steal/F: 27|82
AF: 0.57
CBet/F: 13|61
WSD/W: 50|57

My updated stats are:
Hands: 1471
VPIP: 20
PFR: 13
3Bet/F: 12|0
Steal/F: 30|78
AF: 0.80
CBet/F: 19|56
WSD/W: 55|56

I dunno....I really thought I was doing better and maybe I am taking some steps in the right direction and I don't really care if I lose this money on here because this was just to see if I could actually play, but I am a bit discouraged. I'll still keep trying though!

Thank you to all the people who have been helping me with tips, and things to look at and websites and all that good stuff, you guys rock!

I'm not sure I know what that is?

hey! drop me a add on skype and i'd be willing too take a little of my time to
show you a few basics if you'd like ? PvmEthan