10 Beginner Poker Strategies EVERYONE Should Know

What's going on guys, Nathan here. Today I'm going to give you the 10 beginner poker strategies that everyone should know if you are new to the game or struggling to win at the lower limits. This is the video for you. I'm going to tell you what hands to play, when to bet, raise, shove, and so on, including charts, diagrams, everything you need to know to get you quickly winning at the game of poker. So let's jump into it.

Counting down from 10 to 1, here we go. Alright guys, so first things first, let's just jump into the basics of the game. It still surprises me that with many of my students in particular, they don't actually have the hand rankings memorized. Guys, I put the image on your screen here of the top 10 poker hands from Royal Flush, Straight Flush, Four of a Kind, all the way down to High Card.

You absolutely have to commit this to memory, guys. You should never be guessing at the poker table if a Flush beats a Straight or if Three of a Kind beats Two Pair. Yes, they both do. If you still struggle with this, especially for you total beginners watching this video, memorize this chart, pause this video, screenshot this, whatever, study this chart. You should never be guessing about this at the poker table. All right, enough said about that. Let's jump into number nine now and get you

playing the right poker hands. This is the next thing that I've noticed again and again, especially with my students that they struggle with the most. you need to know exactly what hands to play from each position at the poker table. So I put an image on your screen once again for exactly what hands to play in both a six-player poker game and a nine-player poker game.

And as you can see there, in a six-player game, I suggest playing roughly the top 20% of your hands and roughly the top 15% of your hands in a nine-player game. Now, let me explain why. The reason why, guys, is because when there are three additional players at the table, The chances simply go unnoticed.

That somebody has something good so you need to have better starting hand selection basically you need to have higher standards for what hands you're playing so in a nutshell guys here as you can see on your screen all hands in red we're talking about roughly all pocket pairs in both games so that's pocket aces all the way down to pocket twos you're also going to be playing almost all broadways in

both games so that is any two cards 10 and above for example ace king king queen Queen, Queen, Jack. I'm playing all these hands in both games. I'm also playing a bunch of suited aces. So if it says ace, three, ass, for example, that means both cards have to be the same suit. So for example, ace of hearts and three of hearts. I'm also going to be playing a couple suited connectors, like a 10-9 suited.

Anyways, guys, if you play a tight range, like I suggest in these two charts, you're going to give yourself a strong mathematical advantage when you enter the the hand because a lot of people are playing a lot worse hands than this and you're simply going to put yourself in a position where before you even go to the flop you are 70 80 to win the hand as i always say you can't fight the math in poker and expect to win so study these charts commit them to memory

and only play these strong hands you're gonna have a lot more success at the poker table all right guys let's move on to beginner poker strategy number eight that you need to know and that is position.

Now, this is something that I still see even good poker players that have actually moved up the stakes and are winning and successful. Even they still struggle with this. Guys, you absolutely need to understand that not all seats at the poker table were created, not by a long shot. I put the image of a six-player poker game on your screen here, once again, to help you understand.

Six-player poker games are the most popular online. So the The six seats you're looking at are EP, which is early position, MP stands for middle position, CO stands for cutoff, BUT stands for the button, that's the one with the dealership in front of it I'm sure you're familiar with, and then you've got the two blinds, the small blind and the big blind. Guys, the key takeaway here is that the two seats where you're going to make the majority of your money in poker are the cutoff and the button.

The cutoff, by the way, is the seat directly to the right of the button. So it only stands to reason that you want to play the majority of your hands from these We just talked about what hands to play. When you're on the button and the cutoff, you want to play even more hands. And when you're at the other seats at the poker table, you want to limit the amount of hands you play. Now, let me explain why this is the case.

Why do you win more at these two seats? Is there something magical about them? Guys, the reason why you're going to win more in poker from the cutoff and the button is because you get to act last on the flop turn and river, which is a massively proven statistical advantage because you get to see what they do first and then you can react to them.

Them information is power in anything in life and of course it is at the poker table as well when somebody makes a decision first they make a bet they make a check they call a bet that gives you information about the strength of their hand and therefore you can adjust accordingly you can decide to call yourself you can decide to raise you can decide to make a big bet and so on so that is why you want to play more hands from these two seats and you're going to have a lot more success

Let's move on to beginner poker strategy number seven, and that is to always raise preflop. Guys, it is very important that you understand that the best way to win at poker

is to take control of the pot immediately. It still surprises me that a lot of people don't get this. You see it especially in live games. You play in a casino. You see a lot of people just limping, and limping is when you just call the blind. For example, you're playing a $1, $2 cash game. Somebody just calls the big blind of $2. Guys, you never want to do this because you're putting yourself in a passive position to start the hand.

You're basically announcing your weakness to the entire table and you're letting other good players push you around. So what you want to do instead is you want to raise with any hand you decide to play. I would use three times the big blind as a default strategy. So once again, $1, $2 cash game, you've got a hand like ace king, for example, we already discussed that we're going to play that hand.

You want to raise it up to $6. Now, if you find that you're getting way too many callers, three, four people are calling you every single time, raise it up more, guys. Make it $8. Make it $10. Make it $15. Find out whatever amount works in your poker game to ideally get you one caller. But, guys, key takeaway here, always, always take control of the pot immediately before the flop in poker, and you're going to have a lot more success.

And we're going to talk about, by the way, in just a sec, the reason why that is so important. Now, before that, I want to talk about number six, punishing the limpers.

So we just talked about people limping, just calling the blind preflop. What you want to do versus these players, guys, is you want to raise it up even more. You want to make these players pay a price for entering the pot in a passive manner. So if I'm looking down at a hand like king, queen, once again, we already talked about we're going to play that hand and I'm on the button, which we already discussed is the best seat at the poker table.

And I see three limpers, guys, I'm going to raise it to seven times the blind in a situation like this. So once again, $1, $2 cash game, raise it up $2. $14 here. And the reason why guys, we already talked about three times the blind as a default strategy. And I'm also going to raise an additional one or two big blinds per limper. This is a huge mistake that a lot of people make here is they will still just make it three times the blind here when there's three limpers.

The problem is guys, everyone's going to call you here because once one person calls, it's a domino effect where everybody is getting an unbelievable price to call. And then you're going to go to the flop with your king queen versus five people. And you're you're going to be a statistical underdog. So guys, when there are multiple limpers in the pot, you always, always want to raise it even more.

Once again, you want to ideally get just one color and you want to let people know, guys, that there is no way in heck that they're ever going to be limping your button. When you are on the button at the poker table, you are in control of the hand. Raise it up seven times, 10 times, 15 times, whatever is going to get you one color. Let Let people know you're in charge of the hand. Let's now go see the flop.

All right, guys, so we've already talked about what hands to play, position at the poker table, and how using your aggression is so vital in order for us to win the hand. Let's talk about exactly why that's the case now.

So now we're on the flop, okay? So the flop, turn, and river. The flop, as you're probably familiar with, are the three community cards that the dealer places in the middle of the table. And then after that, we're going to discuss in a second the turn, which is the fourth card, and then the river, which is the fifth card. But let's talk about the flop right now. Now, so you've got Ace King, you raise it up preflop, of course, and you got just one color.

Perfect, right? So the flop comes down with a 10-5-4 rainbow. Now, rainbow means three different suits. And the biggest thing we need to know here is we don't have anything at all. We have absolute squad-oosh. We've missed this board. We technically have a backdoor straight draw if it came with a queen and a jack on the Turner River. Yes, we would make a straight. But for all intents and purposes, guys, we don't have anything here.

So if they have any kind of pair at all they are ahead of us however the good news is what you need to know is that an average hand in poker will miss the flop roughly two out of every three times so most of the time they don't have anything either and the other thing that i hope you guys notice is that ace king actually is the best no pair hand possible on this board so if they don't have a pair either which again is going to be

the case two out of three times we are still a large statistical favorite here. For example, if they have a hand like Queen Jack on this board, we are roughly around 70-80% to beat that hand. So guys, you want to be making a flop continuation bet here. This is called a C bet in poker, and I would recommend making it around 50% of the pot. So for an example, the pot's $10. You bet $10. Dollars. What this is going to do is it's going to give us a cheap price to make them go away.

And we're going to talk about how we're going to bet more, by the way, on the turn and river. But I liked betting just around half pot on the flop here. It's just enough to make all of their crappy hands go away. And sometimes they'll even fold a hand that is currently ahead of us, like a pocket threes, for example, or an ace four. Remember, we don't have a pair. So if they have any pair, they're well ahead of us.

Sometimes if we make a bet here and they've got a really crappy pair like that, we can make them fold as well, which is a huge victory for us. So guys, versus one opponent in particular, you want to be making a flop continuation bet here, regardless of whether you hit the flop or not the vast majority of the time. And of course, if you did hit the flop, if it came with an ace or a king, of course, you want to be betting as well.

And yes, I would be betting around 50% of the pot in that situation also. All right, guys, Guys, let's move on to beginner poker strategy number four now, and that is to float the flop sometimes. So let's talk about a situation where we're not actually the preflop raiser, where we just called preflop because we are going to be doing that sometimes as well. So guys, it's important to understand that you need to call sometimes even when you technically have nothing.

So for example, you've got ace queen, ace of hearts and queen of spades, and the flop comes down with a 10, eight deuce rainbow. And once again, we're going to assume that you called pre-flop. Now, what you need to know, guys, is that aggressive poker players are going to make a flop continuation bet here the majority of the time. We just talked about how we want to be doing that. I'm teaching you how to play an aggressive style of poker.

And so we need to understand that other good players are going to be doing the exact same thing. They're going to be betting here with their hands like a queen jack with a five six, all of these hands that we beat.

In fact, let's go through all the hands here that they're going going to be making a flop continuation bet with that we beat ace jack ace nine king queen king jack queen jack nine seven pocket nines pocket sevens pocket sixes guys i could go on and on well a few of these hands like their pocket pairs are technically ahead of us most of these hands we are a strong statistical favorite against and also guys especially if you're in position remember we talked about that before if you're on the

button or the cutoff and you're acting last last, you often want to make a call here, even when you technically have nothing, because a lot of times they will just check on the turn and give up and we can just make a bet. We're using our position to win the hands. I hope you're seeing why now I talked about the importance of position so much earlier on in the video. The other thing is, guys, is we could catch an ace later on.

We could catch a queen later on. And once again, we have a backdoor flush draw here. If it came with with a Jack and a King, for example, we'd make a straight. So guys, sometimes when you have some reasonable equity like this, especially two high over cards and you're in position, you often want to be making the call, especially versus an aggressive player. All right, guys, let's move on to beginner poker strategy number three now,

and that is to double barrel the weaker regs. So let's talk about the turn now. Okay. So that's the. Card in the middle. And let's talk about the situation once again, where we're in control of the hand, which is going to be the case the majority of the time. So that means we raised preflop. So we got ace king once again, and we're going to assume this time that a weak tight regular calls you on the flop of 10, 5, 4.

You bet they call. So we already talked about how we're going to be c-betting on this flop. But guys, let me explain this player type in particular, because this is going to be one of the most common players that you face in today's games. Most people these days in small and mid stakes games, they play pretty tight, similar to the hands that I suggested before, and they also play weak. And what I mean by that is they're looking for reasons to fold.

Often on a flop like this, they're going to call you with a hand like pocket sevens or pocket eights. But if the turn comes with another big card like it does here, the jack of diamonds, they're going to look for a reason to fold. If we can make another bet here, we can often make those hands fold right now, which is a big victory for us because we don't technically have anything at all right now. Remember, we still have ace king, but we have picked up a little bit of additional equity here.

There's four queens remaining in the deck, and we can catch one of those on the river to make the unbeatable Broadway straight. Now, the other crucial aspect here, guys, is that I would suggest betting 75% of the pot this time. So for example, the pot's $40, you bet $30. And the reason why is because I want to turn up the heat. I want to give them even more reason to fold. I don't want to ever give anyone a reason to call me down.

I want people to know that if they want to find out what hand that I have, that it's going to be very, very expensive for them. And it's very important to understand that I'm also going to be doing this when I have a very strong hand like Pocket Kings as well. And what I mean by that is I'm also going to be betting big with that hand. So if they decide to call me here with a hand like pocket seven, sometimes they're going to get stung and it's going to be a very expensive lesson for them.

All right, guys, let's move on to beginner poker strategy number two. And I was just talking about this and that is betting big on the turn for value. So we just talked about bluffing on the turn when you pick up some equity. But if the turn comes with a safe card and I have a really strong hand like top pair top kicker, I'm going to be betting big again. Again, for example, you've got Ace-Jack, and by the turn, the board reads the Jack-4-8 deuce. Once again, guys, bet 75% of the pot here.

Let them know that you're betting big here with both your bluffs and your really strong hands. So for example, once again, $1-$2 cash game, pot's $40, you bet $30. Guys, once again, what this is going to do is it's going to sear it in their memory that if they decide to call you down here, sometimes it's going to really, really hurt because because we're also doing this with really strong hands as well.

Pair. All right, guys, let's move on to my number one beginner poker strategy, guys. And that is accepting bad beats. Guys, this is an absolutely crucial aspect of the game. Everything that we've talked about before, you can literally throw it out the window if you don't learn to accept this vital, crucial facet of the game. And that is the simple fact that you're going to lose sometimes with the best hand. This is why most people don't want to poker. They can't get over this.

They can't get over the fact that they've got pocket aces on the jack seven deuce board which is 76 percent to win yeah i looked it up versus eight nine and the player with eight nine catches the lucky 10 on the river and makes the straight guys you need to understand that sometimes stuff like this is going to happen again and again at the poker tables and i'm sorry i can't give you a simple solution to fix it this is the math that is built into the game bad players

almost always have some some sort of chance. They've got 24% chance to win in a situation like this, and we need to make peace with this. Guys, this is the reason why the bad players keep coming back for more and more is because they have a chance to get lucky sometimes.

I call this the fish tax that we all pay in poker. You can call it whatever you want, but guys, it is unbelievably important that you get the mental side of the game down and do not fly off the handle and get emotional when bad beats like like this happen to you. This is simply a part of the game. Learn to embrace it, learn to smile, and don't take the game so seriously, and I think you're going to have a lot better results.

I hope you enjoyed this poker podcast episode. If you want to know my complete strategy for beating small and mid-stakes poker games, make sure you go grab a copy of my free poker cheat sheet that's available on my website at blackrain79.com. And also make sure you hit like and subscribe here to the podcast, because I'm putting out new episodes every single week to To help you guys quickly get beating your poker games. I wish you guys all the best at the poker tables. I'll catch you next week.

This has been Nathan Williams with BlackRain79.com.