New player --> Need some help

Hi there, I recently stumbled into this site and thought there are some people that are willing to help unlike other sites. I just started playing online poker again after a couple of tries before. If your wondering, I m an University student, soo I wont have alot of money to play. This is strictly recreational, but at the same time I don't want to lose money. Making a small gain is good enough for me. The questions i have are:

1) How do you build a bankroll? I normally play on the $ 0.10/ 0.25 blinds for hold'em. I tried the 5 cents ones before and thought it is all based on luck. Many people call with absolutely nothing and then catch some hands, so I get quite discouraged. I read the article on this site already about this topic, but it didn't help me out. I was hoping for some specific help in my situation.

2) I understand there is variance in online poker, but I don't know if it's just me or the program. I can be on a bad streak for a LONG time. Is there a way to stop this?

3) I consider myself a tight to semi-loose player. My reasoning is because I wont play the crap hands, but will consider playing some if I have that "gut" feeling. The problem I find with my strategy is that people fold when i have the big hands or even raises. Should I continue playing this way? Or should I consider loosening up? People online go in with junk and win, which really pisses me off.

4) What type of hands would you guys play?
- K or Q with low kicker (unsuited)
- Connectors (suited or unsuited)
I typically fold these hands because I fear it'll be dominated. Is this logic correct?

Thanks for taking the time to read this Long post. G'luck to you all.

Hey, welcome to FTR. Good first post BTW.

Are you in the U.S? Makes a big difference right now.
What is your current bankroll (BR), has a big affect on advice.

If you're serious about getting better you need PokerTracker or PokerOffice (often referred to at PT or PO).

1) If you have $500 then you're fine at 25NL. I would stay there. The fact that people call with nothing should give you a clue that it's not all luck. If you are starting with the best hand 75% of the time you should have an advantage right?

Maybe post some HHs (or even better look through old Beginners forum posts). You'll start to notice a trend between "bad beats" and poor play. If you're not raising AA/KK pre-flop, or 3betting (re-raising) if someone else has raised, then you're allowing people to suck out on you. You may also not notice/remember the times your KK beats A5 on a 52Q8x board and you laugh at the villain.

It's good you didn't use the R word.

2) Ummm. I had a 5000 hand break-even streak. Mostly cold-decked, no action when I had hands, some spewage. Nothing to do but wait through it. Your streak is probably in the range of an hour? That's nothing. Maybe start playing 2 tables if you're getting bored.

3) Don't ever play by "gut feeling". Read the whole starting hands thing and Renton's 169 hand guide to poker. Little to nothing is gained by paying garbage hands at 25NL.

If people fold too much start raising more. If the whole table folds too much leave and find a new table. $5 avg pot (that's 20x the blind), 40% player to flop are good stats for a table.

The tighter you are pre-flop the easier your decisions.

4) Kxs, Qxs are bad hands, toss until you learn when/why you should play them (FYI a gut feeling is not a valid reason ).

Suited connectors should be part of your repertoire, down to 65s. If you're struggling with them, play less (i.e. only down to JTs, then add T9s, then 89s, etc). This is discussed in Renton's guide I believe.

Also, open raise everything. If you aren't comfortable open-raising the correct decision is fold, not call. Your raise should be 4xbb + 1bb per limper in front of you, minimum. Yes, even with AA/KK.

Read the stickies:

http://www.flopturnriver.com/phpBB2/...oker-36037.htm

Originally Posted by RebornSky

Hi there, I recently stumbled into this site and thought there are some people that are willing to help unlike other sites. I just started playing online poker again after a couple of tries before. If your wondering, I m an University student, soo I wont have alot of money to play. This is strictly recreational, but at the same time I don't want to lose money. Making a small gain is good enough for me. The questions i have are:

1) How do you build a bankroll? I normally play on the $ 0.10/ 0.25 blinds for hold'em. I tried the 5 cents ones before and thought it is all based on luck. Many people call with absolutely nothing and then catch some hands, so I get quite discouraged. I read the article on this site already about this topic, but it didn't help me out. I was hoping for some specific help in my situation.

2) I understand there is variance in online poker, but I don't know if it's just me or the program. I can be on a bad streak for a LONG time. Is there a way to stop this?

3) I consider myself a tight to semi-loose player. My reasoning is because I wont play the crap hands, but will consider playing some if I have that "gut" feeling. The problem I find with my strategy is that people fold when i have the big hands or even raises. Should I continue playing this way? Or should I consider loosening up? People online go in with junk and win, which really pisses me off.

4) What type of hands would you guys play?
- K or Q with low kicker (unsuited)
- Connectors (suited or unsuited)
I typically fold these hands because I fear it'll be dominated. Is this logic correct?

Thanks for taking the time to read this Long post. G'luck to you all.

Nice start, right attitude.
We can help you build a bankroll from scratch, but if you could find $500 you would be in an excellent position to put together $2500 over the next few months via being a rock (i.e not playing many hands) and bonus whoring plus maybe a little casino whoring too.

Yeah, welcome to FTR. You have the right approach to go far in poker. Good replies above. All I'll add is to emphasise that when you're starting off, err on the tight side. Your opponents are so bad that all you have to do is make a strong hand and take their money. Don't bluff, don't keep drawing when you don't have the odds and DO read the stickies.

It's all here, don't wait for anymore responses. read the stickies that were linked in the above post. Grind out your BR thruogh proper bankroll management (in the stickies ). And practice tight preflop hand selection. Even at $2NL you can win consistently with tight aggressive poker. It's not luck, It's just 9 against 1, someone is going to get lucky. You need to learn how to get 1 or 2 against 1. My best advice, and it's been said here already, Read, read, read, get poker tracker or poker office (there are ways to get it free), read, read, then post some hands that confuse you.

GL, and welcome.

Hey, thanks for all the help. I'll try to stay tight and hope for the best. My Cold streaks can last a week sometimes, with each day playing about 3 hours. I don't know if it's my luck or the program just doesn't like me. I've actually read all of the articles on the site already, and found them all pretty useful. I have another question though:

1) I was watching poker on TV and heard them say the best hand to crack AA is 5 n 6 connectors. Can someone tell me why this is? Or is this just a probability thing?

Originally Posted by RebornSky

1) I was watching poker on TV and heard them say the best hand to crack AA is 5 n 6 connectors. Can someone tell me why this is? Or is this just a probability thing?

Probability. Download pokerstove, it's free.

The best hand to crack AA is actually 78s (different suit from either of the aces). Probability says so. It also logically makes sense. against AA, it generally doesn't matter how high or low your cards are... no matter what they are, they're both smaller than an ace (if you have Ax, you are really screwed obviously). You basically need to pair both of your hole cards to win... (without paired board...) and any and every hand has an equal opportunity to do this. So it turns out that hands that have the best drawing capabilites can have that much more an edge. Suited connectors are the best. The high ones (QK, JT) have a piece of their straight-making possibilites limited (2 aces are out). 9Ts (and 89s) would seem the best then- except that a straight of 9-K (QJK) leaves the door open for the AA to make a higher straight w/ a ten). 78s then turns out to the be the best, as the highest of the suited connectors- which can make 4 distinct straights, the highest being 7-J (910J) which will be unaffected (and unlikely beaten by) the rockets being out.

Fuck this is splitting hairs. It can't be 78 because you could flop the 9TJ, then he could hit runner-runner KQ for the higher straight.

Hand 0: 76.944% 76.76% 00.19% 1314307 3207.50 { AcAh }
Hand 1: 23.056% 22.87% 00.19% 391582 3207.50 { 6s5s }

Hand 0: 76.967% 76.81% 00.16% 1315168 2749.50 { AcAh }
Hand 1: 23.033% 22.87% 00.16% 391637 2749.50 { 7s6s }

Hand 0: 76.979% 76.83% 00.15% 1315602 2515.00 { AcAh }
Hand 1: 23.021% 22.87% 00.15% 391672 2515.00 { 8s7s }

Originally Posted by RebornSky

Hey, thanks for all the help. I'll try to stay tight and hope for the best. My Cold streaks can last a week sometimes, with each day playing about 3 hours. I don't know if it's my luck or the program just doesn't like me. I've actually read all of the articles on the site already, and found them all pretty useful. I have another question though:

1) I was watching poker on TV and heard them say the best hand to crack AA is 5 n 6 connectors. Can someone tell me why this is? Or is this just a probability thing?

Ten way all in. AA is not the favourite to win.

Originally Posted by Miffed22001

Ten way all in. AA is not the favourite to win.

It's favored vs the field, but it's still more likely to win than any other hand