Learning poker

[INsTeP]

Can anyone suggest good books to learn poker from? Looking for books which make sense to intps ie should be scientific and sum up the probabilities and give thumb rules arising from these probabilities. Also hopefully discuss the psychology of people and different kinds of players and how they tend to behave. Thanks!

 

[The Oracle]

Super System (doyle brunson)
Super System II

Theory of Poker (Sklansky)

 

[INsTeP]

Thank you. I am reading sklansky right now.

 

[Helvete]

Dan Harrington

 

[Teffnology]

Getting the best of it by Sklansky is my favorite of his but all of his books and his publishing company 2plus2 are top notch. The poker section is good at how to self analyze your game and your mistakes, for more intermediate/advanced strategy.

For basics the above are good. Dan Herrington is mostly for tournament poker. Doyle Brunson is a legend and his methods still work but those books are massive and more an autobiography than anything. I love them, along with Chris Moneymaker's bio, but not real in-depth applicable strategy in the modern game.
Negreanu and Helmuth are entertaining to read but can pigeon hole the reader with contrarian plays and leave an inexperienced player making mistakes.
Phil Gordon is really good, a really nice guy too-I play with his brother-in-law.
Barry Greenstein is great.
If you have trouble finding any, I have a vast poker ebook collection.

Honestly watching Rounders on Netflix and All In: The Poker Movie on youtube is the best most efficient way of absorbing a compilation of all these methods. Also Poker After Dark and WPT final tables with mostly pros are chock full of useful information, also on youtube.

In the poker game of life, women are the rake.

 

[Teffnology]

Can anyone suggest good books to learn poker from? Looking for books which make sense to intps ie should be scientific and sum up the probabilities and give thumb rules arising from these probabilities. Also hopefully discuss the psychology of people and different kinds of players and how they tend to behave. Thanks!

To start out:
Master the hand hierarchy. A lot of players don't know what beats what most of the time.
Master starting hand selection. Rounders, when Mike is in the restaurant with Petrovsky.
Master position poker. Don't play anything but AA, KK, or QQ out of position unless you can for sure outplay your opponent.
Master bankroll management. Chris Ferguson's testimony to congress is the perfect model.
Master your own emotional responses to stimuli. Practice betting in front of a mirror and your stare.

If you do those things you will have a significant edge at the poker table. Any other strategy or system is prone to errors and exceptions but any player who actually generates the majority of their income has those 5 things on lock down before anything else is layered on top.

Relying too much on probabilities and math doesn't go very far at all. Neither does pure intuition and winging it. Finding the balance is what levels the playing field. Intuition married to probabilities. Knowing the odds and probabilities in various common situations is very useful when making decisions but they are only a single variable in a much more complex algebraic equation that is a hand of poker. Other variables are your own temperment, your opponents temperment, positions of strength and weakness in regards to chip stack, the flow of the table, certain promotions by the casino that change expected value numbers significantly, and a lot has to do with how the other players are perceiving you.

Memorize some common statistics for various situations and learn/train how to do some mental math on the spot and that should be the extent of statistical analysis in poker. Sklansky and others have countless posts on these statistics on the 2plus2 forum and website. Statistics are a useful and neccessary tool but you need a tool belt with other tools also to actually play well consistently.

 

[Teffnology]

Thinking on my posts now, sorry if my poker nerdism spam is too much to handle. Just very passionate about the subject. Like I said I would be more than happy to pass along any material you are interested in. If there is a poker book worth reading, I likely have an ebook version that I can forward to you. One is even called The Psychology of Poker. PM me with your email if you interested.

Reading is nice to learn some basics but the only way to learn is to actually use real money and try out the strategies that are discussed in the books. Absorbing information on how other's play the game can help to shape your game but the only way to actually develop your game is to play and learn from your mistakes.

 

[Helvete]

Going to leave a really airy post now, but; it's only as complicated as you want to make it, or are ready for. As you learn the basics and master them, then you build and layer your game. teff's posts is good and offers solid advice which will be exceptionally useful to a beginner, but you will soon realize it can become way more complex than he makes out. And yes, the only way to learn is to apply what you've read into real money games and profit from experience.
This is probably true to a lot of subjects.
Good luck.

 

[RandomGeneratedName]

Super System (doyle brunson)
Super System II

Theory of Poker (Sklansky)

+1

I owned Super System II. Good stuff for a beginner.
Read 20+books since then though.

Don't play poker if you're dealing with emotional problems or developing F function.
No matter how skilled you are.... tiiiiiiiiiiiilt
I've had to permantly walk away from Poker, since being in an relationship with an INFJ. It's just too much.


Goodluck on the tables though, INsTeP

 

[INsTeP]

Thanks all. I have since also read crushing the microstakes. Some of the stuff doesn't make sense if you are not playing online, but it's been great as a guide.

 

[RandomGeneratedName]

Thanks all. I have since also read crushing the microstakes. Some of the stuff doesn't make sense if you are not playing online, but it's been great as a guide.

Some basic advice:

Best thing to do in microstakes is just play solid or Tight-Aggressive and premium cards, until you gain some decent experience.
When you're new to poker, you should focus on playing your cards ultimately, when you miss, fold, when you hit, play it aggressively.

Table selection - if you're playing with a lot of calling stations and average players, you can use it to your advantage by playing on 9seat tables, where there are a lot of people seeing the flop, and you're playing connected cards/1 or 2 apart, because when you hit it, straight, you'll typically get a big pay off. Flushes gotta be careful with, if you don't have the Ace or it's not on the board.

Top pairs/face cards are worth less the more players there are.

If you know there is an aggressive player, try to sit to their left (act after them)

Premium cards UTG (small blind/blind/+1)
Middle pairs higher - from middle position.
Lower starting card requirements allowed at the back/on the button, because you can see how everyone else acts and respond appropiately.
(say everyone folded to you, but s/blind still up, you could try raising and steal the pot. Helps to know the general style of everyone at the table first though.
If you're played back at, you can call (if reraise isn't too large) and see the flop, if they check, bet! Could knock them out then. Look at the board/flop though, take into consideration if there's a higher chance they might call, say if there were 2same suited/straight, and will play for that.

You should try out different games types if you haven't already: Cash, SnG/DoN and MTTs and see what you prefer/are best at.

Remember, different types of games = different strategies.

Tight-Aggressive wins overall in the lower stakes, but it's best to learn to adapt to the table. "table dynamics" is a skill you should develop too. (assessing before you sit down, if you can)


I played all 3, decent at all 3, ended up with MTTs though, Cash/SnGs were just too slow for me, and multitabling bleh, I like to be involved, not botting myself out.


Sorry to overwhelm xD
Stick to playing strong cards at the beginning though. A-B-C poker.

 

[Neckbeard]

Play aggressively and randomize your bets while still following a strict betting average for each situation. Don't stack your poker chips.

 

[Cognisant]

I begin playing conservatively, only betting on good hands and focusing on the other players and their attempts to bluff, then when a few of the more aggressive players have knocked each other out I'll make my move. By this time everyone's learned that I only bet on good hands and they haven't seen me bluff yet so they don't know how to read me, but if they don't call me out they won't learn whether I'm bluffing or not and when there's fewer players having a good hand is worth more.

When someone misreads you that's when you get a big win
So being hard to read is most important.

Of course if you're just playing with ten chips per player the drawn out strategy doesn't work and it becomes more a game of luck than anything else.

 

[Helvete]

I begin playing conservatively, only betting on good hands and focusing on the other players and their attempts to bluff, then when a few of the more aggressive players have knocked each other out I'll make my move. By this time everyone's learned that I only bet on good hands and they haven't seen me bluff yet so they don't know how to read me, but if they don't call me out they won't learn whether I'm bluffing or not and when there's fewer players having a good hand is worth more.

When someone misreads you that's when you get a big win
So being hard to read is most important.

Of course if you're just playing with ten chips per player the drawn out strategy doesn't work and it becomes more a game of luck than anything else.

Do you tend to play live or online?

I just got to Sydney yesterday and am really tempted to head on down to the casino to play some live... But I should probably find a job first lol

 

[Cognisant]

Live, there's no point playing it online.
And there's some sketchy people in casinos.

If you're in Queensland let us know and I'll host a game.

 

[Helvete]

I only ever play SnG's and tournament play online and live. That way I can control possible losses and don't have to worry about sitting down with mr mega bucks at the casino...

Is Queensland safe atm? I'd like to see Brisbane as I'v not been there before so I'll let you know if I end up there.