Table of real beginners

Hi - I love this site. It will take a long time to peruse all the info here. ;)

My question is, how should I play a table of real beginners with no experience? These are generally intelligent people that know very little about poker. They'll need a poker-hand chart to know how their hands rank. Some have watched poker on tv but not with an intent to play themselves.

I would also describe myself as a beginner, but I probably have a much better understanding of poker than they do. My first poker chip set will arrive in a few days :) and I'm just getting a handle on the order of play, blinds, betting rounds, etc. I have gotten my friends interested and my first game (NLH with $10-$20 buy-in) will happen shortly. I also plan on playing in a free weekly game at a local bar. They play 3 days per week and it should be good experience.

My idea is that the overall poker strategy and betting strategy that one would employ against semi-experienced players won't be of any use against players with no knowledge of poker concepts.

Thanks

Watch some of Spendas vids on this site here

http://www.flopturnriver.com/poker-videos

You will learn fast and get the hang of some things, but you may need to pause and ask questions in the forum. Just sit at some free tables on Poker stars or whatever site you choose, and learn the game. The home game against beginners, just enjoy it, the time will come to make money, for now learn to fold, learn to bet and love hanging out. You will be bitching about the bad beats soon enough, when you learn what they are. For now play for the fun, not the win.

value bet, dont bluff past a c bet. its really hard to do, but it saves you lots of money trust me

A lot of newcomers play face up - they don't bet draws, they don't call bets if they haven't hit - they are almost too easy to knock off pots. On the other side of the coin, when they do decide to play, whether it's with the nuts or third pair, they aren't folding, ever, so when you hit resistance, slow right down without a monster.

Occasionally they will become serial bluffers and/or calling stations, which makes them slightly harder to play, but invariably they won't play *good* poker and caution + observation means you should be able to deal with them fairly easily too.

Don't be in a hurry to win and don't donk off chips unnecessarily. You will have a such an advantage that the concept of "picking your spot" will have more meaning, so avoid overplaying marginal hands.

when you can beat the top pair on the board, bet your ass off. when the board puts 3 of a suit up, get ready to fold to a bet if you didnt hit your flush.

dont play the smaller cards. dont play one big card and one small card, unless they are suited and there is no raising. by big here i mean the A, K, and maybe Q.

play all your pocket pairs, but dont give the smaller ones much credit unless you hit 3 of a kind on the flop. if you do hit your 3 of a kind, try to find the best way to get all the money in the pot as fast as possible...even if the flush is up there, you may hit your full house when the community cards pair themselves.

play almost everytime you have two big cards. and, raise with them if no one else has yet.

most of your "friends" WILL love to bluff people off pots. dont stick around in a pot past the flop unless you hit something like top pair or better. fold most of the rest because your buddy is planning to push all in on the river when he misses his hand by then.

by the way, big cards are 10 and higher, to me.

another thing...be ready to take a lot of bad beats when you had the best of things. thats poker. you will likely only be playing about 30 hands per hour. your "bad runs" could last not hours, but weeks. keep that in mind. dont change your game because you had a bad night and lost to T7 of spades that hit its flush against your AK. it will be easy to get bored when you are doing all that folding, but stay the course. tight is right.

most players here play online and see about 75 hands per hour, conservatively. plus, they have the ability to play between 2 and 12 tables at the same time. that gives them anywhere over 150 hands an hour, minimum. they will play in one hour what you will play in 5+ hours. and THEY go on "bad weeks," too.

just remember you will be playing FAR less hands, and it will be easy to get discouraged when the deck is running cold to you and hot to your friends. start out slow, read everything you can here, and gain your experience. you will be outplaying your friends very quickly.

good luck!!

Thanks for all the advice. I'm looking forward to playing.

one last piece of advice. When you do play a hand play it hard. Most beginners tend to call waiting on that gutshot str8 draw or their Ace to hit, etc.

If you play your hands aggressively it will accomplish two things. You will make more money to compensate for the times when they suckout on you and secondly you will be able to tell when they hit their hand because they will go from calling mode to raising mode.

Good Luck and welcome to FTR