Beginners Guide

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Welcome to Liquid Poker's beginners guide. This thread intends to introduce you to poker and to our site. It's not our intention to teach you poker with this post, but to show a little bit of the poker world. This guide is organized in some topics that will help you to better understand how poker and our forum work. In case you are already a bit familiar to poker, feel free to skip any topic and read those that interest you. We hope this is helpful to you!


<font size="4pt"><b>About Poker</b></font>

<b>Poker Rules</b>:

Just like in any other game, knowing poker rules is the first thing you have to do. We have an article detailing how Texas Hold’em works. Hold’em is the most popular poker game in the world. After you learn it, it becomes much easier to learn other poker games. <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticle/699930/Poker_Rules:_Texas_Hold_em">Learn the basic poker rules</a>.


<b>How poker works:</b>

There are plenty of ways to play poker online. Apart from playmoney, usually we divide it in three categories that are divided in subcategories.

- <b>Playmoney</b> - Just as the name says, it's a playmoney poker game. If you are just starting out, we suggest you to <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/out/1">create an account on PokerStars</a> and play on playmoney tables for some hours so you can get familiar with online poker. This is a great way to get a feeling of the game without the risk of losing money, since you don't have to deposit a penny!

1.<b>Cash games</b> - Cash game is a poker game played with real money. It means the chips on the table represent money. There are cash games for every kind of bankroll, from the pennies to the grands.

1.1 <b>Ring-game</b> – Cash game with up to 10 players

1.2 <b>6-max or 6-handed</b> - Cash game with up to 6 players

1.3 <b>Heads-up</b> – Cash game One on one


2. <b>Tournaments</b> – Tournaments are played until there is only one player left. Most of the tournaments pay prizes to around 10% of the field of players. Those players who get to the money are said to finish the tournament “In the money”. Every poker room has a schedule of regular tournaments.

2.1 <b>Freezeout</b> – In these tournaments you only have one “life”. If you lose all your chips it means you are eliminated.

2.2 <b>Rebuys and Add-on</b> – Rebuy tournaments are usually a lot more aggressive than Freezeout tournaments early on. They allow the player to rebuy the initial stack and get another chance at the tournament. Add-on means you can pay the buy-in of the tournament and add the initial stack to your chip stack. Let’s say the initial stack of a tournament is 1500 chips. You can pay the entrance fee of the tournament and add those 1500 chips to your current chip stack.

2.3 <b>Satellite</b> – Qualifier tournaments for bigger tournaments. Usually they work as freezeout tournaments.


3. <b>Sit N’ Go</b> – They work as tournaments, but the big difference is that they don’t follow a schedule. For a SNG to start the only requirement is that all available seats are sold out. SNG’s can start with as few players as two, but you can find SNG’s with seats for 360 players out there.

Betting Limits

In every kind of poker game (Cash, Tournament, SNG), there has to be a rule for betting sizes. Games can have a pot limit, fixed limit, or no limit at all.

- No Limit is pretty obvious. There are no limits for betting values or number of bets, so you can go all-in on your very first act.

- In Pot Limit you can bet any amount as long as the number does not surpass the pot. If the pot is 100 you can bet up to 100.

- In Fixed Limit games, bets are capped to certain limits in both value and number of bets.

You can identify the betting limit of the game at the poker room lobby. There will always be a tab displaying the limit: NL, PL or FL.

<b>Bankroll Management</b>

This is one of the most important poker concepts out there. Often it can mark the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful poker player. Bankroll management means you should only play limits with a cashier that allows you to do so, protecting you from poker variance.

If you have $100 in your cashier, it would be wrong to play a $25 buy-in cash-game, because you can lose all your roll in a blink of an eye. Even though the concept is not really complex, many players fail to follow a correct bankroll management for some reason. Do not do this. We have two really good texts about bankroll management (<a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticle/146467/Bankroll_Management_Explained">Bankroll Managemente Explained</a> and <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticle/146441/The_bankroll_management_and_variance_guide">The Bankroll Management and Variance Guide</a> in our <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticles/">Poker Articles</a> section. Read them!


<font size="4pt"><b>Using Liquid Poker</b>:</font>

<b><i>Poker Articles</i></b>

Liquid Poker has a lot of features that will help you grow into a good poker player. Our articles section has lots of important instructions in every area of poker. Read the beginner’s articles and then progressively read the more complex ones. It's important that you also read our interviews, they usually have a lot of good information from some of the best poker players.

<b><i>Liquid Poker Dictionary</i></b>

If you want to learn the meaning of some poker term or abbreviation, this is the place. Our <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/poker-dictionary/>poker dictionary</a> is inside our <a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/pokerarticles/">poker article's</a> section and covers all the important poker terms. If you feel there is one term missing, you can also add it yourself by clicking on "add term".

<b><i>Hand converter</i></b>

We offer a simple and fast Hand Converter that allows you to archive your hands. Learn <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/poker-forum/471872/How_to_use_the_Hand_Converter.html>how to use our hand converter</a>!

<b><i>Room Reviews</i></b>

Our staff wrote very good reviews of the most known poker rooms. Those reviews will help you decide which room you should deposit your money in. Liquid Poker sees PokerStars as the best poker room for every poker player, from beginners to experts. <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/out/1>Download PokerStars</a> and create an account.

<b><i>Bonuses</i></b>

Liquid Poker offers both deposit and no deposit bonus. We strongly suggest you to make your first deposit on sites such as <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/-pokerstars>PokerStars</a> and <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/-full-tilt-poker>Full Tilt Poker</a>. Click on the links to know more about our deposit bonuses.


<b><i>Rakeback</i></b>

First, let's define what rake is. Online poker rooms are like a virtual casino. This means they need profit, just like any other business. Rake is the way we pay them for their service. At pretty much every cash-game hand a small percentage of the pot, usually up to 5%, goes to the poker room. In tournaments the rake is a fee added to the buy-in. In a $3+0.30 tournament, the rake is 30 cents.


Rakeback is a refund to the players. Poker players get back a percentage of the rake they pay to the poker room. It is a deal between the player and the poker room, which allows the player to receive part of the amount raked by him during certain period. Usually these rakeback deals refund the player in around 30% of the rake. Say you raked $100 during a month. If you have a 30% rakeback deal, you have the right to get $30 back.

Liquid Poker offers the best rakeback deals of the internet. <a href=http://rakeback.liquidpoker.net/>Check out our rakeback site</a>!

<b><i>Our forums</i></b>

Our forum is organized in several sections:
- Texas Hold’em hand discussion forums, divided in Low, Mid, High Stakes and Tournaments;
- Other poker games hand discussion forum;
- Main poker, that involves all poker discussions;
- General forum, for general discussion.
- Rail Heaven, for watching high stakes games online and cheering our users in tournaments.

You can surf our forums either by individually clicking on each section, or clicking on the tab “Forums” in our top menu, for an overall view of all forums. If you got a doubt you can ask it on the forums, this can boost your knowledge. The responds can be blunt though.

<b><i>Liquid Poker Store</i></b>

We sell Liquid Poker merchandise and Poker Tracker 3 in our <a href=http://www.liquidpoker.net/store/>poker store</a>. Visit us and see if there is anything you like.

<b><i>Blogs</i></b>

Blogs are a very useful tool for every poker player. You can list down your hands and follow your progress meanwhile receiving comments from fellow users. To create your blog you just need to click on "My blog" in our top menu and then set it up.

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add glossary of common terminology imo, like 3bet, ptbb, all that jazz. :O unless i missed one. (unless i missed notice of a glossary in the post, i mean :O)

bet sizing and good flops not to cbet

cool post

nice this helped me fix some leaks at microstakes!

Hi fellow players

Just learned how to play Texas Holdem ,, and i am loving it. All excited to join this forum

how could someone be stupid enough to not know everything in this thread. mind boggling.

On October 02 2009 17:11 TJ Cookier wrote: how could someone be stupid enough to not know everything in this thread. mind boggling.

um, maybe someone who is a BEGINNER at poker?

how could you be to stupid enough to not know that? Mind boggling.

Mind boggling indeed , Was wondering how bet structures can be used to you advantage in the game of poker

kewl

Hi you all ,i like playing poker and usually i play at Heracasino . has anyone any thoughts on building a roll from HU sngs.

Using the principles like that off doubling up on red in casinos on roulette. But with poker HU SNG. Less variance of course because it's pretty hard to lose more than 5 HU sngs at once. Unless ur really bad.

Any thoughts?

ie. $1, $2, $6 , $10 , $20 etc

On December 29 2009 14:41 ELTON JOHN wrote: Hi you all ,i like playing poker and usually i play at Heracasino . has anyone any thoughts on building a roll from HU sngs. Using the principles like that off doubling up on red in casinos on roulette. But with poker HU SNG. Less variance of course because it's pretty hard to lose more than 5 HU sngs at once. Unless ur really bad. Any thoughts? ie. $1, $2, $6 , $10 , $20 etc

omfg nice graph

Roflgraph. What happened? Epic runbad or had a few too many shots of jack daniels?

On December 29 2009 14:41 ELTON JOHN wrote: Hi you all ,i like playing poker and usually i play at Heracasino . has anyone any thoughts on building a roll from HU sngs. Using the principles like that off doubling up on red in casinos on roulette. But with poker HU SNG. Less variance of course because it's pretty hard to lose more than 5 HU sngs at once. Unless ur really bad. Any thoughts? ie. $1, $2, $6 , $10 , $20 etc

if you are talking about martingale strategy (always betting just enough to get slightly ahead) or another betting strategy, it doesn't work

most of them are structured such that they will maximise your chance of having a winning session, but at the same time making your losing sessions so severe that you end up with the same longterm results (as in the graph)

hey nice tips u got there....

Hey guys thanks for this beautiful explanation, actually i am also looking for some more detail info about poker

On January 27 2010 02:42 carlcebosky wrote: hey nice tips u got there....

stop lookin at my tits u perv

Thanks for the post. Looking around on some sites in the beginning was certainly overwhelming. I hope that people starting out check out this post. The links/articles/etc... are great.

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