As a NEW player, what things should you consider first?

I am not a poker expert so I would like an opinion, pair in hand, beats two pair ?. Thank you

Hi ninik,

You have 2 pairs : 10’s and 6’s
He has 2 pairs : 2’s and JJ’s, he has the strongest (highest) pair, so he wins this hand.

Good luck at the tables :slight_smile:

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@ninik
All cards a player can see are used to make their best hand in hold-em. In this instance there are a pair of 2’s on the table so you both have two pairs. Your best hand is 10.10.6.6.4 and opponents best hand is J.J.2.2.10. so they win with the higher top pair in their 2 pair.
Welcome to the forum are please feel welcome to reach out when in doubt.

I don’t know if this has been said or not. But here is my input -
Playing safe is always a good strategy - If you have cards that are in sequence of 5 , for example , 2 and 6 , 10 and ACE , 7 and JACK, they are worth playing the flop if the opponents don’t overkill on the raise .
Also- if you have a suited hand, make sure its not too low, i don’t recommend having a flush (for example on this board like a 4 and 3, there is a good chance your opponent has something better and if its a JACK and above high they might just abuse your chips.
Also-having pairs doesn’t mean you are the winner, if you want to jam an all in with 2 aces, and all the people from a 9 lobby call you, you will 90% lose to any two pairs or straight or flushes. Which is my you should manage your chips .
The last thing i personally do is - if you have almost a flush or straight ,and you are missing only one hand , you can definitely take a risk and try to go to the showdown, but if it’s two cards you are missing, most of times it’s better to fold .
That’s it, now i hope i don’t see you, the person who reads this in my games ! :sunglasses:

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Welcome, Mr Dorian, good luck and enjoy the games.

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So I enjoyed Daniel Negranu play poker and he is my role model when it comes to poker because he plays it with a lot of thought. He now has started a masterclass on how to play the game because there is a lot of thought that goes into this game than what most think

As a new player, the best things you can do would be to understand the order of hands and follow Negranu’s videos on youtube and twitch. They helped me a lot and they are free unless you want to get the masterclass from the man himself.

All the best!!!

Hi Puggywug,

I think your speculation is quite reasonable because I recall having the same thing happen to me. Of course, that does not mean the cards are not random, but it did give me pause to wonder whether the randomness was tilted or not (BTW, they were cracked on the river).

As a new player here is what you should do

  1. Log in every day even if you don’t want to play
  2. If you play cash games dont let the buyin of the cash game be more than 5% of your total bankroll
  3. Play only freerolls until you get to 100k
  4. If you really want to play tournaments with buyins, try playing the satiellite freerolls.
  5. Once you have 100k, play sat to 20k any day you can. If you play well you can get a ticket 50% of the time.
  6. Play tight and dont limp or bluff. Eventually as you become more expierienced you can add more bluffs, but honestly in the lower stakes they aren’t neccessary, if you play your good hands well, your opponents will pay you.
  7. Don’t let the tournament buy-in be more than 5% of your stack (And even that is somewhat risky I would go more with 2-3%)
  8. Read a book on poker or try to gain some knowledge from somewhere, I would suggest reading Yorunoname’s Comparing Simple Strategies forum and see what strategy would be best for you, especially if you are playing mostly ring games.
  9. Don’t play Sng’s unless you really want to. MTTs or Ring games will make you more chips in my opinion.
  10. Play in some promotions! They are fun and keep the drive in you to continue playing. You don’t have to play all of them but at least try a few!
  11. Lastly, have fun if you are tilting or not enjoying the site take a break and don’t lose all of your chips because you don’t care anymore. Take some time away from it and if the site calls back to you again you can resume without having to rebuild your stack again.
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  1. Make sure that, whatever stakes you play at, all of your chips are at the table
  2. Make really big bets, pretty much every hand
  3. Make more really big bets; show them who’s boss
  4. If you have outs to at least bottom pair, never fold
  5. If you have outs to at least bottom pair: that sounds like a good time for a really big bet to me
  6. If you do get a really big hand, slow play it to reel everyone in; don’t bet no matter what, unless you are the last to act at the river (then just a min bet is the way to go)

Ummm… I’ve been drinking, but I’m sure this will seem like great counsel even after I sober up.

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It’s great council for fish (if you’re not a fish!).

Of every 221 players, one of them got AA his/her 1st hand. There should be hundreds, if not thousands, of players on Replay that were dealt aces their first hand. So no, I would not feel like the luckiest player ever.

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My understanding of odds is that the odds of being dealt pocket Aces in holdem is 1 in 221 hands. Which doesn’t mean that at least one pair of pocket Aces is dealt with every 221 players. Using an average of 5 players per hand, that comes to about 44 hands being played at one time. And, each hand has a 0.45% chance of pocket Aces being dealt each hand being dealt. The next hand dealt (in a random setting) will also have a 0.45% chance of a pair of pocket Aces.

My contention is that a pair of pocket Aces (or any pocket pair) should be a rare event not in the hundreds or thousands.

We are veering off topic - please could you direct your comments to helping new players to consider strategy.
Thank you

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Any time you are dealt an ace, there is a one in 17 chance that your next card will be an ace, so it doesn’t happen a lot, but hardly a rare event.

Thanks for the reply but I’m not sure it was directed to the right person :slight_smile:

In any event, to bring the discussion back on topic, I would strongly advise new players to the game to play AA hard and fast … all-in works surprisingly well at the lowest stake tables!

My advice for players new to Replay but not the game of poker would be to bluff less than you normally would and take large raises on the turn and river as a very strong indication that your opponent has a strong made hand.

Regards,
TA

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right on

All of these are subject to preference, and you’re playing here for fun, and so if you enjoy it, you are doing it right. But assuming you want to build your very own dragon’s hoard of play chips eventually, and you’re just starting out at the game:

  1. Fold most cards pre flop (if there are 8 players left to act, you only have a 1 in 9 chance of having the best cards at the moment)
  2. Raise more than you limp
  3. Play more hands closer to the button, and fewer from early position
  4. Be patient… good hands don’t come around that often (both pre-flop and post)
  5. Practice bluffing; but don’t do it too often, and try to find good spots for it
  6. When you bet, ask yourself: “what hands do I think my opponent will call with”
  7. When you bluff, ask yourself what better hands you are hoping might fold
  8. Try not to bet when you think most hands that will call are better than yours, and most hands that will fold are worse
  9. Don’t try to put your opponent on a single holding, but think of the range of cards he could reasonably have given the way he has played so far
  10. Focus on the quality of your decisions, and ignore the result: you can make the best possible plays on every street and still lose a fair amount of the time
  11. Don’t get married to your hand… on each later street, ask yourself what parts of your opponents range is ahead of you, and what part is behind
  12. Be nice to people: we’re all here for fun
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All good advice, Yorunoame. If we aren’t enjoying the games, there isn’t much point in being here.

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Sounds like great advice, thanks!

Start off by considering the hands that you play. You want to play tight, so on average, you have better hands than your opponents. Hands that are good to play: pocket pairs, suited Aces, 2 picture cards, suited connectors e.g 87s 65s T9s
It becomes more complicated later on, become aware of the Dealer button, The player on the dealer acts last and therefore has an advantage. So you can get away with playing worse hands on the Button than other seats because of this advantage.
Try not to just call hands when no body has raised yet before the 3 cards come down. If you are not happy enough with your hand to raise then fold. If another player has raised then calling is fine

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