12 Tips for Beginning Poker Players
	If you have just started playing in a home poker game it is going to take some time to learn and develop the skills you need to be a winner. Here are 12 tips to shorten the learning curve.

1. Read. It seems to me that few players actually read any books or articles about poker and I find that surprising. I am not sure what the reasons are for neglecting this, but reading is an important method of improving your play, especially as a beginning player. You should first focus on general poker information like the rules of play, hand ranking, probabilities, pot odds. Next should come learning about tactics and strategies and when and how to apply them. Finally, you can focus on specific poker game variations at a more advanced level. Yes, it will cost you money to buy some books, but playing losing poker will cost you money, too.

2. Observe. Observe the players in your game and learn from them. You must observe the good players as well as the bad ones. The better players will teach you what to do right. The bad players will show you what not to do. This is especillay important if you play in a home game with the same players session after session. You must develop a sense of their tendancies in specific situations. Careful observation over time is the only way to accomplish that.

3. Learn the tendencies of the others. When you play with the same group of players it is very important to learn their tendencies. An important example is to learn what each player will consider a playable hand in each of the games you play. That will give you an idea of what kind of hand you will need to beat them. If Joe will only show down a 7-low or better you now know not to play an 8-low against him.

4. Develop your own standards. The first decision you make in any poker game is deciding if your starting hand should be played or folded. You should not be making this decision on whims and hunches. You should be doing this based on objective criteria that you have set for each game. For the mainstream games like hold’em and stud you will find criteria for starting hands in books and articles. For the odd poker variations you may encounter in home games you will have to develop your own standards based on your observations and analysis of each game. As much as possible try to select starting hands that give yourself multiple ways to win, especially in high-low split games. Use the technique described in the section on practice to help you.

5. Think. Think about the games you play for a few minutes prior to each session. You needn't obsess over it, but do give it some thought, perhaps during the drive. Imagine scenarios in your mind and then consider the different things you might do if this situation arose. Analyze the options you have identified and determine which is the best and under what cercumstances. This is sort of like creating contingency plans. It will be a lot easier to make the right decision during the game if you’ve thought about it beforehand.

6. Discuss. Success in poker requires the development of critical thinking skills. Critical thinking skills involve assessing situations, identifying a goal, formulating a plan of action, implimenting the plan and analyzing results. These skills are difficult to develop by yourself. They are more readily developed by discussing poker with other players and getting their feedback and point of view. You and your discussion partner should focus on proding one another to explain not only what you did, but, more importantly, to explain in detail why or how you arrived at the decsion to do it.

7. Practice. This is also something you can do for a short while every so often. Deal yourself a starting hand. Look at it and think about it. What would be the best hand you could make with it? What are the chances of that happening? What’s the most likely hand you’ll end up with? Would it be good enough to win? Should you toss it away or play it? Do this several times so that you can more easily recognize what a great, good, average and poor hand looks like. Then deal out the rest of the hand and see what happens. Did things happen the way you thought?

8. Learn to play 5 card draw. It is no longer one of the most popular poker variations, but 5 card draw can help you a lot in other poker games. Since there are no exposed cards you need to make all your judgments based upon your hand and the actions of the other players. It is an excellent learning tool for matching drawing probabilities with pot odds, estimating the type and strength other players hands simply from their actions, recognizing how strong your hand has to be to win, as well as many other poker concepts. Take the time to memorize the common drawing probabilities. It will help you estimate your chances for improvement in many other poker games.

9. Play. This is the best way to learn and improve. Try to apply the lessons you learned elsewhere to actual game situations as best you can. After the game think about what went well and what didn’t. Try to be objective and analyze it. Just because you won does not mean you made good decisions. Just because you lost does not mean you made poor ones.

10. Learn from mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes in all the things they do. It is part of life. The redeeming feature of mistakes is that we can learn from them, if we take the time to reflect upon them. Try to do this with your poker experiences. Don’t overlook the opportunity learn from other peoples mistakes as well. Watch the other players and try to recognize when they have made an error and why. Learning from your own mistakes will cost you money. Learning from others is free.

11. Keep secrets. If you tell the other players that you are reading, thinking and preparing for playing poker against them you are doing yourself a disservice. Don’t do it. If you want to win money from them you do not want them to know or think you are an improving player or might be getting better than they are. They might start playing better.

12. Keep records. Keep a record of each time you play and how much you win or lose. This gives you an objective measure of your progress and improvement over time.