The 10 Best Poker Tips for New Players

Older gamers remember the poker boom that occurred from 2003 until 2006. Males aged 18 or older were scrambling to learn the rules and set up games with their friends, while others went further and registered with online poker sites, including gambling brands in Canada. After a cooling-off period, there is now an even greater range of options, including the rise of live dealer poker at the leading online casino site. To get prepped, check out our top 10 poker tips.

Online Poker Brands to Benefit from Canada Legalisation

Although online gambling hasn’t been outlawed in Canada, we are yet to see the introduction of a system that legalizes the practice. When this does happen, popular gambling brands will get benefits from providing legal online poker services in Canada. Provincial licenses are available in the likes of British Columbia and Ontario. However, a wider regulator is needed for the nation.

Within Canada, three offshore gambling operators currently provide the highest level of service. These include Jackpot City Casino, Leo Vegas Casino, and bet365. As multichannel gambling brands, those sites are the most likely to provide live poker dealers for Canadian players to engage with. As for the software, it’s anticipated that Evolution Gaming in one step forward as a key partner.

Specialise in One Format

As a beginner, there’s work to be done on refining your strategy before you can ever dream of taking down intermediate or even expert players. With that in mind, it’s recommended that you begin by focusing on the rules for a single type of poker game. As a recommendation, it’s wise to start with Texas hold ‘em, as this is the most widely played format among online poker rooms.

Learn the Rules

By focusing on one format, you can learn the rules and poker hand strengths. Without knowing the hands inside out, you cannot hope to make quick and effective decisions. As poker is played based on the reactions of your opponents, your focus should be on them and not on trying to remember whether a flush is better than a straight, which it is.

Play with Smaller Stakes

In poker, you can only have a genuine experience by staking real money. However, you need to mitigate risk in the early stages while you’re learning. As such, it’s advised that you play with smaller amounts of money that you can afford to lose. This is to give you time to acclimatize to the experience. Fortunately, the best poker site will provide access to beginner tables that can enable smaller bets to be placed.

Know and Play Your Position

Position matters in poker and your potential will be limited if you don’t understand where on the table you currently feature in the hand. By learning the key positions at the poker table, you can know how to play them and maximize your overall chances. You cannot and should not expect to win every hand – that’s not what poker is about. Ultimately, you play to defeat all of the other players.

• Small blind – Pay half of the blind to enter;
• Big blind – Pay the full blind to enter. There’s no negotiation – you have to pay to play if you’re the small or big blind;
• Button – This is the last position in the round and that’s what makes it the strongest as the other players are forced to act first and this will give you more information on which to act;
• Cut-off – Seated just to the right of the button, the cut-off is the second-strongest position;
• Hijack – The hijack is seated to the right of the cut-off;
• Lo-jack – The lo-jack is seated to the right of the hijack;
• Middle – No we’re getting closer to the earliest positions after the blinds;
• Under the gun – Coming just after the blinds, you don’t take any risks when you’re under the gun. If you have weak cards, then you fold. You will have no idea regarding the strength of the other hands and you can’t take the risk when you’ll soon become the big blind and small blind.

Be Tight but Aggressive

When we play tight, this means that you don’t pay to play on every hand. When your cards are weak and your position is poor, you sit out and save your money for the next hand. This way you won’t bleed funds and you’ll be ready to capitalize when you do have a good hand. When that happens, you can become aggressive and either raise or re-raise on your opponents.

Stick to One Table

As a beginner, your focus must be absolute. Online poker sites can give you the option of playing on multiple tables all at the same time. For beginners, this is a mistake. In fact, it can also be a mistake for intermediate players to wager on multiple tables. Just because the option is available, it doesn’t mean that you need to use it.

Check Out Preflop Charts

With a preflop chart, you can look at all of the odds for every hand in the game. This way you can develop a sense of which cards are worth folding or betting on, depending on your current position. Obviously, this is a step up for the majority of beginners, but it can give you a tremendous advantage in improving your success rate.

Don’t Overdo Your Bluffs

Bluffing can be a good way of stealing blinds. However, you can’t just keep on bluffing and expect to win. At some point, you’ll encounter players who will be only too happy to call your bluff and take your chips. Bluffing will be the most effective when you have a stronger position at the table and witness lethargic betting from your opponents earlier in the hand. This can be a good call pre-flop if you don’t think anyone else has a good hand.

Wait for Good Cards

Patience matters in poker and you can’t just bluff your way to success. By folding the bad hands and saving your chips, you’re stretching out your bankroll to ensure that you survive for additional rounds in which you hope to get those good hands.

Don’t Get Emotional

The mental side of poker is what will bring about your success or failure, and controlling your emotions will be fundamental. Let’s say you’ve had a bad beat where you’re three-of-a-kind has been improved on by a superior three-of-a-kind. No matter how bad it feels, you need to clear your mind and play the next hand. So, if you need to play tight and fold – that’s what you do. Don’t go chasing and give away your funds.

If you’re the type of person who likes to do things for yourself, then Poker DIY can help you to find poker games in your area. And now that you know the 10 best poker tips for beginners, you can sit down in your next session and feel confident that you have the tools that you need to succeed.