Beginners Luck Poker

4/13/2022 admin

Poker of all types, including Texas Hold'em and video poker, are easy to play, but difficult to master. Don’t take our word for it – just ask one of the world’s more than 100 million players! Although it is a card game based on luck of the draw, poker also requires thought and strategy.
Summing up best poker tips for beginners. I think these are by far the most important poker tips that you should take seriously when starting out. It will help you to learn poker strategy faster and protect you from many common mistakes that players do. Moreover, if you want to read more, you can find some good advice on poker strategy articles.
The World's Best Poker Player Has Beginner's Luck and $8.4 Million By John Walters On 11/6/13 at 2:02 PM EST Just a year ago, Ryan Riess had less than $400 in the bank.

Further Reading: My favourite poker book, Applications Of No Limit Holdem By Mathew Janda covers hand ranges in a huge amount of detial. I would recommend checking it out on our best poker books page to find out more. Good luck at the tables.

The concept of a hand range is often foreign to a beginner poker player, but once you understand the idea you will never go back to your old way of thinking. Keep reading to find out more.

How often do you try to put your opponent on a single hand? Do you often say ‘I think he has Ace King’? Nobody, not even seasoned pros, can consistently put someone on a single hand – it's just not possible given the amount of information at your disposal.

The Hollywood scene where the main character has the uncanny ability to read an opponent’s exact cards time after time is completely unrealistic; you shouldn’t hold yourself to such high standards as it will only lead you to make mistakes.

So the question is, what should we do instead of placing someone a single hand?

The answer: we give them a range of possible hands or in other words a set of hands. So instead of ‘he can only have AK’ in a particular situation, we think ‘he can have AK, AQ, AA and some bluffs’. Hand reading then becomes about working out the hand range more accurately; not about finding a single hand that your opponent is holding.

Table Of Contents

Putting your opponent on a single hand doesn’t work

Why doesn’t the method of putting your opponent on a single hand work? Well for one, there are a lot of hands your opponent can typically have; therefore narrowing it down to one hand based on limited information is difficult, if not impossible.

In addition, your opponents should play in a way that gives him multiple hands for the same line (series of actions). If you play a certain way or take a particular line with only ONE hand or hand type then you become very easy to play against. To take an example, it is very easy to play against someone who raises very large preflop with only AA or KK. We just fold!

Constructing ranges

In order to hand read correctly, we need to piece together the story that our opponent is telling us. With every action (bet, raise or check) our opponent is giving us a piece of information. We must piece this information together to build up a possible set of holdings our opponent may have.We called this constructing a hand range.

If we are on the river facing a bet we must take into account all the actions on the previous streets. In addition to simply what actions we both took, we must also take into account bet sizing and bet timing on EVERY street.

You begin with a wide hand range and progressively whittle it down as more information becomes available. Each opponent action allows us to remove more hands from his range. Sometimes we can narrow an opponent's range down to a few hands, but not always.

A common example would be that if someone calls your preflop raise you can typically exclude hands like AA, KK, and AK from their preflop hand range. We can eliminate these hands as they will almost always be reraised preflop. Very few players will flat call AA, KK, and AK versus a raise.

Piecing together all this information is a lot like a puzzle. It can be very difficult to keep all the information in your head during a hand; this is one of the key reasons that poker is such a difficult game to master. Although piecing the ‘puzzle' together becomes easier with experience as you will subconsciously work it out. Practice will make perfect.

Hand range example

The best way to explain a range is to do a full example.

One of the main benefits of playing online is that you get to use a HUD(heads up display). A HUD will give you information on what your opponent may be holding in a preflop scenario. So we can use our HUD to estimate what our opponent may be raising from early position – this allows us to make adjustments based on if he is raising a wide or narrow range.

Vs a wide range we should fight back and call or raise might often.

Vs a narrow range we should fold more often.

To take an example, we are on the BTN with AQ and face a raise from UTG from an aggressive opponent. We see that the UTG raiser is opening 17% of hands (if this was a live game we would use an approximation).

We estimate this to be the following (you can directly plug this into equilab): 22+,A2s+,K9s+,Q9s+,JTs,T9s,98s,ATo+,KQo

We choose to call in this situation and the blinds fold resulting in a heads up pot.

The Flop

The flop comes down Q♦ 5♣ 2♥ (rainbow board) and as a result, we have a very strong hand. Villain bets half pot and we call. Raising is not an option here because raising would fold out all his weak hands and only leaving strong hands. A large proportion of these strong hands are stronger than us – not an ideal situation.

We expect villain's betting range to be all top pair, overpairs such as AA and KK, and sets. He doesn’t have any two pair on this board texture.

So we expect villain to bet with this range: QQ+,55,22,AQs,KQs,Q9s+,AQo,KQo

That will be his ‘value’ hand range. A value range is the range of hands he will bet hoping that he is betting to build a big pot. He will also have some bluffs such as AK, KJs, JTs and possibly AJ. However, the number of bluffs is very dependent on how the opponent plays. The exact number can be sometimes difficult to estimate and comes with practice:

How did we arrive with theses ranges?

Well first, we expect villain to continuation bet all of his top pair (we are assuming he is quite aggressive). We also know from past experience that this particular villain will not bet hands under top pair for value. So he either bets top pair or better, some bluffs or checks.

The Turn

The turn comes a 2♦ bringing a flush draw and villain bets ½ pot again. We can apply the same logic but expect villain to slow down with some of his weaker hands: QQ+, 55, 22, AQs, KQs, AQo, KQo
In some cases, the villain will check QQ on the flop or turn but for simplicity's sake, we assume he will bet the two streets. For bluffs, we think villain will bet all of his flush draws and some AK: AK, KJdd, JTdd, AJdd.

It can be difficult when first starting out to determine what villain will do with each hand. This just comes will practice and experience.

The River

The river comes a final blank (not very exciting hand example but makes the range work easier to explain) 7♥. We think villain will again slow down (stop betting) with some of his medium strength hands (KQ) and only continue betting with AQ+:

So our opponent’s final range, including bluffs (busted draws and AKs), may look something like this after opening UTG (under the gun) and betting three streets: QQ+,55,22, AQs+, AdJd, KdJd, JdTd, AQo

With AQ we can then decide to call or fold based on how much he bets.

Vs this range AQ has 33% equity (from equilab). Therefore, if we are getting 2:1 pot odds (villain makes a pot sized bet) we can call, and if he bets larger we should fold. If our opponent bets smaller we should still obviously call. For more on pot odds see Pot Odds, Equity And Expected Value.

Improving hand reading

One quick method of improving hand reading skills is to play without looking at your hole cards. Playing live this is easy, but online this might mean putting a sticker on your screen over your cards. When you can’t see your own cards you have to focus on figuring out what your opponent may be holding as opposed to how your hand matches up with the board. This focus improves your skills rather quickly and is a great drill to perform even if you’re a seasoned poker player.

A word of warning, however: you are obviously at a great disadvantage when you can’t see your cards so play the lowest stakes possible to avoid large losses. Any loss can be seen as the price of your education.

Otherwise you could check out Splitsuit's course: The hand reading lab. This course is focused on one single objective: improving your hand reading ability.

Closing words

Once you have understood what a hand range is and how to apply it on the table, you won’t go back to the ‘beginners’ way of thinking. The concept of putting your opponent on a range starts as almost a guessing game during the early poker career; but as your skills improve so does the accuracy of your hand range estimations.

Strive to improve your hand range construction skills as this is in essence how you will exploit your opponent. Ultimately, with the best hand reading skills, you will come out the biggest winner at the tables.

Good luck at the tables.

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“I don’t need a lesson on how to beat beginners at poker. They don’t know what they are doing!” Unfortunately, in poker that same inexperience can be to the new players’ advantage because in a single session of poker, luck can work against you.

It’s important to remember that just like in any session of poker, you should be making decisions based on expected value. You can sometimes get unlucky against a beginner because they are not playing poker “correctly”, and this can be frustrating at times. However, when you’re playing against inexperienced players, who make many mistakes, in the long run you will make major profits.

Typical Beginners Tendencies

New poker players have easy to recognize tendencies in their play that you can captialize on. For this lesson, we will identify those tendencies using information from other lessons on Pokerology, such as our list of typical beginner mistakes. Then we’ll provide some effective poker strategies that you can use against these players, which should yield major profits.

The beginner who plays too many hands

This type of beginner is very easy to spot. They will often show down easily dominated hands like Ace-rag, K-8, Q-5, or any suited cards. They will limp into lots of pots and call a raise “just to see the flop”. Calling a re-raise out of position with a hand like K-J or A-rag is commonplace. Depending on if they are capable of folding or are a calling station, there are different ways to play them pre-flop:

Capable of folding – if you have position, raise with a wide range of hands and bet the flop if they call pre-flop and check to you. If they call, they usually have a piece or a draw and you can slow down depending on your hand
Calling station – consider limping behind pre-flop with hands you might raise other people in order to keep the pot small since you shouldn’t be bluffing them much pre-flop.
Open up the range of hands that you would normally put someone on. Because they are new, you can’t assume they are always playing a standard hand for the situation.

The beginner who gets committed to a hand

Beginners tend to be calling stations and table sheriffs so look for them to call bets on all streets with easily beaten hands. For example, calling all the way with a hand like 7-7 on an A-K-T flop or calling large bets with middle pair.

NEVER bluff a calling station – they will pay you off enough when you have a hand.
If you have a strong hand, don’t slow play. Bet as much as you think they will call.
If they ever do raise, beware, they usually have a strong hand so play cautiously. Often times, this occurs when they have sucked out to hit two pair.

The beginner who chases

The beginner who likes to chase can be easily identified. They will consistently call bets on draws without getting the proper odds (even gut-shot draws). They will chase over-cards and Ace high and will call quickly on a draw.

Charge them to draw – as much as you think they will call. Don’t bet just to “protect your hand”. They will miss their draw more than they will make it, so make them pay for it.
Tread cautiously if a flush or straight draw hits.
If they seem to be chasing and make a big river bet when a draw misses, consider making the call if you have a decent hand.

The beginner who bluffs too much

Keep an eye out for the beginner who makes large bets or raises that don’t make sense. This type of beginner will continuously make plays at pots without regard to his table image. This player will typically try to appear aggressive and show strength with physical poker tells (if playing live).

If you see a pattern, be prepared to go with your instinct and make calls of oversized bets that don’t make sense. While advanced players can often make a large bet representing a bluff, but this is not typical with beginners.
Also note that beginners will often make large bets when they have a big hand as well, but the important thing here is observing a pattern of bluffing.

The beginner who plays passively

Be aware of the passive beginner who doesn’t play many pots and will often just call pre-flop. If they do raise pre-flop, they often check it down if they missed with over cards (i.e. Ace-King). They will often raise the minimum with marginal hands for fear of losing chips if they get beat – and will often fold to scare cards. Due to a lack of experience they play with a fear of losing and will only stay in a pot if they have a strong hand.

If they have not shown aggression, bluff them at will.
If they limp pre-flop or bet small, raise with a wide variety of hands.
Stay out of the pot if they are betting strong or raising unless you have a very strong hand yourself.
Bet scare cards (i.e. Ace on board or made flush).
Use scary bet sizes that represent monsters (this could be overly small or big bets).
If you are in the blinds, you can call a raise if they are in late position and bet any flop. You will know immediately where you stand and can often bluff them out of the pot.

The beginner who bets based on hand strength

Beginners often bet larger with stronger hands and smaller with their weaker hands, especially on the flop. They will often limp or raise small with Aces, Kings and Queens because they think it’s smart to build the pot with a lot of people.

Watch for predictable patterns and simply play poker based on the value of your hand vs. the hand you put them on.
If they are betting weakly, they are likely weak and you can decide if you want to bluff or bet for value based on their psychological tendencies.
Watch for a small raise pre-flop followed by very large bets on the flop. This is often a sign of a big pocket pair.

Hand Example

No Limit Hold’em Tournament Play
Blinds: 25/50
You and your opponent both have 3,000 in chips.

Reads

Your opponent has been involved in a lot of pots, limping into most and raising with his big hands. He’s already been going up and down in chips in the early stages of the tournament. Based on how many pots he’s limped into and the types of hands he’s shown down on the river after calling every street (i.e. top pair/low kicker, bottom pair, missed draws) you can tell he’s a beginner. The pots he has won were because his opponents were misplaying their hands by trying to bluff him or because he’s hit a draw to a flush or straight. When he did catch a card to make a draw, he immediately pushed all-in.

Pre-Flop

Your opponent is under the gun and, as usual, limps into the pot. Based on how many hands he’s played, this could be a wide range. One other player with 1,500 chips limps in middle position, and in the cut-off you look down to see :

Figure 1

How should you play this hand?

Well, based on past behaviours you know the UTG opponent wants to see the flop and will call most raises. At the same time, while AK is strong it will often times miss the flop and you will have a hard time pushing your opponent off if he catches any piece. Because of that, limping is an option as it will disguise the strength of your hand and control the pot size. So should you limp? In some cases, this might be an okay way to mix up your play, but “disguising” and “mixing things up” only have value against someone who is paying attention to how you are playing. In this case, the UTG player is a beginner and is only playing his cards. Another reason not to limp is the presence of other people in the pot. Your limp will encourage others behind you to limp and they can easily catch a hand. Ace-King is also too good of a hand to not raise for value.

So the decision is to raise, but how much? In this case, we know the beginner will likely come along for the ride but we also want the other players to fold. We would much rather play this hand against one person if we can. We also want to exercise some element of pot control because AK could easily miss and a continuation bet on the flop may not be as effective against the beginner. With the blinds at 25/50 and with another limper already in, I would raise to around 250. The button and blinds fold, the UTG beginner player calls and the middle position player folds. Perfect.

The Flop

Beginner S Luck Play

The pot now has 625 and the flop comes . Then our opponent bets out 200:

Figure 2

This should be a good flop for us. He’d probably have raised pre-flop with AA or JJ and may have raised with AJ, so if he has us beat now it’s only with 44 or AJ. Based on the size of the bet, it’s most likely that he has a small piece of it. It’s enough to confidently proceed as if we have the best hand. Because of the flush draw, he would more likely have bet around the size of the pot with a set of 4’s or AJ. He could be betting on a flush draw, but most beginners with his tendencies would more likely check/call with a draw after facing a raise pre-flop. We can safely narrow his range to any Ace or a pair of Jacks (J8-KJ is most likely unless it’s suited).

Now, how do we extract the most from this situation? Pushing all-in at this point might scare him off so let’s eliminate that. Slow playing might be best against some players, but not against a beginner. Again, he’s not thinking about what we have. If he’s only thinking about the fact that he has a pair, he will likely call a raise. He’ll call thinking two things: 1. this guy is trying to push me around, 2. even if I’m beat now, I could catch another card to win.

So let’s raise. Based on the range we are putting him on, we know he’s likely drawing to anywhere between 3 and 5 outs (3 outs if he has an Ace with a smaller kicker and 5 outs if he has a pair of Jacks). In poker, we win if we can cause our opponents to make an incorrect decision. In this case, if he calls any raise it would be incorrect because he needs at least 8.17 – 1 odds. In this situation, I would raise to around 800. After his 200 bet and our raise, there will be 1,625 in the pot and it will cost him 600 to call giving him about 2.7-1 odds. Remember though, he is not thinking about odds; he’s thinking about how reasonable the bet size is to call and we want him to call the maximum.

The Turn

The turn is a and the pot has 2,225. Our opponent immediately pushes all-in for his remaining 1,950:

Figure 3

Wow! How can we get away from this hand? Well, it’s not as hard as it seems. First, we are experienced enough that we aren’t getting attached to our hand, right? Okay, so forget the fact that we have top pair, top kicker. Let’s keep narrowing down our opponent’s range of hands. We know he most likely has A-rag or a pair of Jacks. In previous hands, our opponent has not shown aggression unless he has a big hand or hit a draw and he has just called with his marginal hands. Also, because he’s a beginner there is no reason that we should think he is running some sort of advanced bluff.

Taking that all into consideration, there is a high likelihood that he has sucked out and we are now beaten. His most likely holdings are A9, J9 and 99. We still have outs vs. A9 and J9 and we are drawing dead to 99. There is now 4,175 in the pot and it costs us 1,950 to call, giving us 2.15-1 odds. Clearly, we aren’t getting the right price to re-suck and we should fold. We fold, confident in our read and our opponent shows us for two-pair.

Conclusion

Next time you’re playing against a beginner; make the effort to observe their actions. It shouldn’t be difficult to get a read on them, because as we’ve shown in this lesson beginners have easy to recognize tendencies in their play. They won’t be making advanced plays on you, and what you see is what you get.

Beginners Luck Pokefind Quest

It’s very important to realize that they are not playing you; they are only playing their cards. Therefore you should play “ABC” poker against these players because they in turn won’t realize that you are running some advanced play on them. Be careful not to get caught up in fancy play syndrome. Beginners don’t think about what you are thinking or what hand you are representing – they just know that they have a pair and that could be good, so they will call any bet.