Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Winning at Hold'em!
Who are we?
We're just your run-of-the-mill smart guys who play poker on the side and do quite well at it. We each started our poker career with about the cost of a moderately priced dinner, and we've made several thousand dollars playing low stakes hold'em as a hobby. We've played leisurely in our spare time for the past couple of years, not to make money, but because we like the game. It's a very intellectually deep hobby.
We're also fairly eloquent writers.
Who is this site intended for?
Hold'em beginners. We'll expect that you know all of the rules, and have played enough to be comfortable with the structure and flow of the game. We expect that you know to play good cards and fold bad ones. We expect that you do NOT understand how to properly apply squeezes, resteals, and stop and gos. If you do, you probably know most of the stuff on here already.
Why a guide for beginners?
Well, it's more a guide for low stakes games than a guide explicitly for new players. Small stakes games are much different than the expensive ones. Players are a lot looser, and make mistakes which are larger and more fundamental. Advice you read in poker books or hear from pros is often not very applicable to these games. You don't need to master squeezes, resteals, or stop and gos to play small stakes hold'em. You also don't need Johnny Chan telling you to "trust your instincts." You need to learn how to play good solid poker, and how to exploit the types of basic mistakes you'll frequently see your opponents make. Your game doesn't need to be complicated, and it's something you can get a handle on within a reasonable length of time.
What games will you cover?
Mostly no-limit hold'em ring (cash) games. We'll occasionally discuss limit hold'em, and we'll occasionally discuss no-limit tournaments.
Why are you sharing all this information with everyone?
First of all, we're not. We're sharing it with those people who want to learn it. Those worthy of education are those who seek it. The main reason for this blog is that it's what we wish we had when we were learning to play. We learned slowly, through a lot of trial and error, without an experienced mentor to walk us through the important concepts. Having an actual mentor is ideal, but hopefully this blog can help fill that role as much as possible.
