Online No-Limit Texas Hold'em Poker for Beginners - Part 3

Playing Online

So here it is. I am finally going to get to it. Online Poker playing is by far the easiest way to play. No schedules to coordinate. You don't have to get dressed. You don't need to smell good, or hope that the guy next to you doesn't, literally, stink when you finally sit down at the casino tables.

Playing poker online is a great hobby. Granted, there are inherent risks, such as losing all your money to better players. But once you finally "get it" and play well, you always expect to win when you sit down.

Let's get started.

There are two sites that I currently recommend. PartyPoker.com and PokerStars.com. Both of these establishments, from what I've seen, run fair, easy to use sites. I primarily play at PartyPoker, and all my references will be for that site.

I would love to play at PokerStars.com though. If you get some luck, and play well, they have MANY satellite tournaments for WSOP qualifying. As said earlier, 316 players of the 2600+ at the WSOP qualified through PokerStars.com. The past 2 WSOP winners play, and qualified, at PokerStars.com.

If you are looking for a relatively inexpensive way to "maybe" qualify for the WSOP, PokerStars is the site you should check out.

They also have $.01/.02 (one cent/two cent) games of limit Hold'em. It's like playing for play money, only there is a bit of cash on the line, so it's a bit more realistic. The stats they keep are awesome too. It is a great site, and fast becoming the #1 site for poker.

Which leads me to PartyPoker.com.

PartyPoker IS the #1 site online for Poker. Any and ALL poker. 24/7/365 you can find a game, especially at the lower buy-ins. This site is simple on the eyes, and runs, pretty much, glitch-free.

There are only a couple of things I dislike about PartyPoker. I dislike that their lowest end sit 'n go (SNG) game is $5+1, and their lowest limit game is $.50/$1. At PokerStars, you can literally play for pennies while you learn. Plus, PokerStar's SNG games are all right in line. The $5 is $5+.50, the ten-dollar is $10+1. PartyPoker is $10+1, and the five-dollar game is $5+1. What that means is that you are giving $1 to the house in the five and the ten-dollar SNG's at PartyPoker, whereas PokerStars only takes 10%. Plus PokerStars only has 9 people at a table, whereas PartyPoker has 10. One less guy to knock out makes a BIG difference. That ends what I dislike about PartyPoker.

As you can see, it isn't much.

Sit'n Go (SNG) with Play Money

Since SO many beginners start at PartyPoker, it is a great place to make money.

You know that at the lower levels, you have a fighting chance, even if you picked up the game yesterday. Odds are, 2 or 3 others at your table did too. I highly recommend PartyPoker as your first destination.

The next thing you do when you get there is hit the PLAY MONEY area. Go to their tournaments, and play a whole bunch of No-Limit SNG's. The SNG I will be referring to most often is a No-Limit, one table, everybody pays the same buy-in and gets the same amount of chips, tournament. The SNG ends when one guy has all the chips.

Play a LOT of games here. Not just to get used to the interface, and where the buttons are, and what they do, but also to work on the gameplay you will learn through this book. Work on your game. Work on your techniques. Pretend that you care. Pretend that it is real money.

I say this because once you play with real money; you won't be able to go back to the play money. Not because it's so "fun" to play with real money. It's because the gameplay becomes more "real" and predictable the higher up you go. The more money the folks at the table pay in, the more they care about the outcome. You will notice as you switch games, up and down the ladder, how different it is at each level.

Don't take too much stock in the play money games. If you know what you are doing though, you should flat-out win most of them. Even with the erratic betting you will see. You will take more bad beats at the play money area than anywhere else; so don't let it make you gun-shy.

Fortunately for the play money games, the end game is the same regardless of how much money you paid, or didn't, up front. People still want to win the game when it gets down to 3 or 4 whether it's at $100+10 or 0+0. Thankfully, this will give you a LOT of practice that is universal to SNG games. I will guess that you won't be able to get away with stealing the blinds, uncontested, for as long in the $100+10 games as you do in the $5+1.

In the play money SNG games, some asshole is going to go all-in on the first hand every time. You are welcome to chase him and take his chips if you have AA, KK, AKs or QQ. These are the only hands I would suggest going in with, as there will be other callers also. If you don't have any of these, don't even play the first hand. Fold it away, and watch to see who has the large stack when it's all sorted out.

The only thing good about this is you get to practice against a larger stack. With his 1600-2400 against your 800, you should still be good enough to take him by the end of the game. Maybe sooner.

If folks think the players in the $5+1 games are bad, imagine how bad the players are playing for free? If they were any good, they'd try to win money.

Spend a few hours to days down in the play money SNG area. Once you are winning, or finishing top 3 just about every time, except when you take a bad beat, then you are ready to move up and make some money.

That is how I advise cutting your teeth. Read the rest of this book, and then hit the play money area. If you win your first 3 or 4 SNG's, you know it's time to move up.

The competition gets a lot stiffer, and the players a lot tighter, the more you move up.

A friend of mine got sick of playing the lower buy-in games because the play was still so erratic. So, he tried out, just for fun, the $200+20 table. Everything he did on that table made sense. He would raise to get someone out of the pot, and they would fold. He'd represent something, and folks at the $200 would respect that, and bow out to fight again later.

At the lower levels, SOMEONE will almost always call you to "keep you honest". Playing the $200 SNG's, he won 3 times that first day and was up over 2 grand.

I am not saying to go straight to the big money because it's an easier game. It's a more "predictable" game. At the $5 level, you still have a lot of fish, and they will catch crappy hands against you. There are a lot of rules to live by at the lower levels that you don't need to apply at the higher levels.

It's a different game.

But, hey, it's only a $6 entry fee, and an hour later, you could have $25 to show for it. That's $19 per hour. If you could do it every time, you'd have yourself a nice little side job.

No-Limit Hold'em Core Strategies

The Basics

Well, you've read this far and haven't learned a thing about strategy, technique, what a flop is, etc. etc. etc. Now it is time to impart some knowledge. I am going to assume that you know how to play. If not, I will touch on it briefly.

Actually, you should just head to the Play Money area mentioned above and learn the game. Or turn on ESPN or ESPN2 and look for WSOP re-runs. For those that still don't know, here is a very simple way of explaining Hold 'em.

There are up to 10 people at a table. The dealer "button" goes around the table in a clockwise motion. The player sitting to the left of the player with the button is in the small blind, and the player to the left of him is in the big blind. The small blind, and the big blind pay in. The small blind is ½ as much as the big blind.

Everyone is then dealt 2 cards face down. There is a round of betting starting with the player "under the gun", or, to the left of the big blind. Once all bets are made and called, three cards are dealt face up on the table. This is the flop. All the cards face-up are community cards and can be used by all players.

Another round of betting. A fourth card is then turned up. This is the turn card. Or 4th street. Another round of betting. Then the 5th and final card. This is the river card, as in; your hopes just went down the river. Also known as 5th street. Another round of betting.

If there are any folks left with cards, they turn them over to see who won. Simple game.