5 Simple Poker Tips for Beginners

As you might have guessed from the title of our site, we’re all about poker.

We love the game, and while we’re poker pros now, we were beginners once upon a time.

That’s why we decided to create this post for poker beginners. Here are five tips to get you started mastering the world’s best card game.

Learn the Odds

Unlike other real money card games, poker is a skill-based game which you can win by developing yourself as a player. One of the most important things to learn is how to calculate odds in poker.

Each poker hand has a mathematical probability, and you need to be able to calculate your odds of getting that hand based on the cards on the table and what’s in your hand. If you can do this quickly in your head, you’ll improve your chances of winning dramatically. Leaving poker to chance is a foolish approach.

Try Different Variants

When you play poker online, the first thing that comes to mind is Texas Hold’em. That’s natural, because it’s the poker game most are familiar with. However, you have lots of other options. You could play Omaha, Red Dog, Caribbean Stud, and lots of other casino poker games.

All of these games have different house edges. The reason we mention them is that some video poker games have a negative house edge when you play with a perfect strategy. That means that you have an edge over the house. See our guide on how to win video poker [3] for more information.

Get a Cheat Sheet

While you’re still learning the poker hand ranks and odds, you can take a shortcut with a cheat sheet. These sheets will allow you to quickly remember the strength of each hand and the probability of making it without complex calculations.

There’s even free poker software that can do this for you. When you’re playing online, nobody can stop you from using this technology. There are hundreds of free versions supported by ads if you don’t want to pay.

Play in Tournaments

At the end of the day, you can read about poker, study it, analyze it, and learn the theory inside out, but all of that theory means nothing if you don’t put it to use in real poker games.

There are endless numbers of poker tournaments online. You can play against other players from all over the world at all levels of ability. Just look out for  the sharks [4] who come into beginner’s rooms pretending they’re newbies. What they really want to do is clean you out and take your bankroll.

Utilize Poker Bonuses

There’s perhaps no better poker tip we could give you than doubling your bankroll before you get started. Almost all the top poker sites offer deposit match bonuses which are paid in increments as you rack up poker points.

Not only this, but lots of world-class poker sites offer freeroll tournaments with guaranteed pots. These offer you the chance to win real money without risking your own cash. They’re a great way to dip your toes into the world of real money poker online.