One of the best pieces of advice I can give to a beginner poker player is to play their own hand. By this I mean that you should start off by focusing on what you have and not really worrying about what cards your opposition has. Obviously reading your opponent is important but if you’re a beginner you won’t be able to get an accurate read on your opponents straight away. To begin with you’re much better off simply focusing on what you have and playing that hand based on that. The problem is beginners who try and read their opponents too much often fail to play their own hand properly and this leads to them making mistakes and losing money. You will become known as a donkey on a table if you start making big mistakes because you tried to focus on what others had and you didn’t properly consider what was in your own hand.
Many new poker players drop out very quickly and stop playing for money because they lose early on. This is because they didn’t understand the basics and tried to rush into more complicated forms of the game too quickly. This is one of the problems with many poker guides and dare I say it poker sites. They give new players the impression that they can be experts right from the get go and I am afraid that this simply isn’t true.
Begin by betting when you have a good hand and folding when you don’t. While this won’t win you loads of cash it will allow you to stay in tournaments and games long enough to learn how to play more advanced forms of the game. One of the best ways to learn how to play poker is by watching more advanced players.