Things You'll Need:
- Computer
- Internet Connection
- Patience
- A willingness to learn
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Step 1
In order to get better at poker, you're gonna have to practice playing. Download one of the many poker software applications on the internet. Ive provided a link below under resources to the one that I use most frequently. It is great for beginners all the way up to experts and best of all its completely free!
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Step 2
As with anything you want to be competitive at you have to build a foundation of knowledge before you move onto strategy. The way I got started is by reading a book or two on poker for beginners. This helped me grasp the basic concepts of etiquette, poker terms and hand ranks. While doing this I also played at least two hours of online poker per day to cement the things I learned to memory. After that I moved onto basic strategy.
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Step 3
Basic strategy dictates that you should only play the best hands possible. If you constantly call everything with weak hands like Kd5H or small pairs under 6, you are almost guaranteed to lose in the long run. The best players out there usually play less than 25% of their hands and are aggressive when they have a good hand usually raising their blinds right away. Strive for this and be patient, everyone has dry runs. The best players lose little on their downswings but capitalize on upswings.
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Step 4
If your interested in playing with real money but don't want to risk your own then I suggest using bonus's. Almost all online casino have some kind of bonus program where they match your first deposit 100%, some even offer a 400% deposit bonus. For example, say you deposit $100 at an online casino, they will give you $100 for free, same goes for if you deposit $500. Bonus's are a great way for you to build your bank roll with little risk. When I first started playing i deposited $300, giving me a $600 starting bank roll. I quickly doubled it and haven't looked back since.
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Step 5
If your just beginning I also recommend downloading/purchasing a poker odds calculator. Ive provided a link to the one I use below under resources. I cant tell u how many times this thing has saved my butt from making a bad choice. It also keeps track of how other players tendencies which is priceless in itself. I highly recommend it if you want to get serious about playing. Learn how it works and what everything means in order to fully utilize it.
Comments
judymasse said
on 10/14/2009 Cool! I didn't know you could play for real money. Thanks for the links too Mr. Hinkle!
amylaine said
on 10/11/2009 Interesting.