Basic Poker Tips for Beginners

Poker is one of the oldest card games and has quite refined rules. These rules are easy to learn but difficult to master. If you don’t know what to do and what to look out for, you can lose pretty often. Playing poker is not like playing slot machines. For example, new wms slots can be played by every level of experience: Professionals and beginners have the same chance to win. In poker, however, a professional player can increase his chances of winning and is much more advantageous than beginners.

So what are the best poker tips for beginners? Below, you can find them and learn how to become a more skilled player.

Keep Watching Other Players

The secret of professional poker players is that they focus not only their own hands but on their competitors too. Even gamblers who have been playing poker for decades cannot fully control their body language. Your opponents will give you some hints based on the rank of the cards they have. They may be leaning back when a good hand comes. Or, when they get a bad hand, they may start coughing. This is the most important advice that we can give you: Learn the habits of your competitors by following their body language. If you’re playing poker with a new group, just watch them along with a few hands and try to find out the “tips” of their bodies. Getting to know your opponents will help you understand when you need to bluff too.

Don‘t Bluff Just for Fun

However, do not bluff continuously. Unnecessary bluffing is one of the most common mistakes made by beginners. Keep in mind that your competitors pay attention to your body language too. If you bluff continuously, it will be soon understood that you are not “serious”. After that, your bluffs will become useless and completely ineffective. Bluffing is something that needs to be done only after you fully recognize your competitors and in very rare cases. Professional poker players hardly ever do bluffing because if it is not done at the right time, it does not give any benefits. In fact, it may cause harm.

Play Aggressively

It is almost always best to follow an aggressive game style. An aggressive game is a poker game in which you continuously increase the stakes and do not fold. Increase stakes instead of checking or calling: If you’re playing with beginners, you’ll get most players to fold from the game. When you follow an aggressive game style initially, it will allow you to recognize your opponents too. Don’t be afraid to lose: You will learn the style of your opponents when you lose. For example, players who play as aggressively as you are the ideal candidates for bluffing. The poker table is similar to a wild jungle and the player who shows that he is “stronger” usually wins in the long run.

Learn Card Counting

One of the most useful recommendations is to learn how to count cards. We don’t expect you to be as good as a savant, but you should be able to count cards at the basic level. Calculate when it is your turn and make sure you have an idea of ​​what cards remain in the deck. In this way, you can also make a guess about your opponents’ hands too. You will not be able to reach certain conclusions and you will often be wrong, but even the worst card counting is better than playing only by “luck”. If you’re really bad at this, just try to count picture cards. They are fewer in number and can be more easily tracked for the same reason. Remember that by counting cards you can really increase your chances of winning. If done correctly, it will allow you to know what card your opponents hold. As can be guessed, this is a huge advantage. In fact, this is the “secret” of professional poker players: They are perfect at card counting. This is also why most of the poker tournaments use more than one deck – to prevent card counting.

Prefer Simple Variants

Poker is probably the card game with the most number of variants. All of these variants use the same card hierarchy, but the rules are different and complex. In the beginning, choose the simplest and most pure poker variant: 5 card stud poker. This is the closest variant to the original poker game, and the rules are very simple. For the same reason, even simple strategies work. In complex variants, you must use complex strategies. And to do that, you need to be able to play at a semi-professional level. In short, if you’re just starting out, don’t search for adventure: Choose simple and easy poker variants. This way, you can fully learn the basic tactics and move on to complex ones when ready.