I would appreciate your help

Hy Toretri
First of all let me tell you that you should never doubt yourself about being a good poker player.Poker is a game of skill and skill is somthing that you need to develop over time by reading books and strategy articles and ofc watching videos.There are some players that are "smarter"and understand math and logic with ease but they also need to learn and practice evry day because like in any craft if u dont learn and develop your skills you will not move up anywhere.
If u want to find a game for you that u think u could beat then i suggest strongly play money options on any game.Try them out and see what is the most suitable for you.
I would suggest Texas hold´em limit if u are a total begginer cause in that kind of game u bet only on top hands but like i said before try playing with PLAY MONEY and read about that kind of game.
Now days evryone almost plays no limit so consider that also when u want to decide about games.
Poker has changed over the years and evry day it is filled with smarter players who also want to make money and stay positive on their respective WR.
I would give you next advices if u want to play poker for money:
1.)Play on reliable sites that have been "around" for some time cause u do not wish to have problems trying to cash out or being cheated!
2.)Books,articles,videos,forum disscusions,learning groups-A MUST for winning player!
3.)Self critisisim and constant self improvement(nobody is perfect and somtimeses we all make mistakes that can cost us our own money or tournament just because u think u know "stuff")!
4.)Emotional stability is a common problem that iv´e experienced and its not good when playing poker for money.Why?First of all it can cause u to tilt and get angry or dissapointed realy fast and realy hurt your thinking and in that case hurt ur game.U DO NOT want that to happen!
One example of this ES:You just had an argument with your girlfriend\boyfriend and you are stressed to the max.Angry or jealus or any of that bad emotions.How u gonna calm yourself???You decide to play poker and let of some "steam".Well u are angry and stressed and not conctretated and guess what.....You went all in with AK ofs and lost to a guy with 54.Are u happy??Even angryer than before??
My point is this!If u decide to play poker u need to be free of all negative thinking and posiblly sorroundigs that can influence negativley on your perfomance.
5.)Bankroll Managment:I think u now that when u are playing poker in a certain level u need a bankroll that can support negative swings and variance.I think that rule is 200 x buy in for a certain limit.For instance NL2 is a 400 $ BR.That is only a rule and it is not necessary to follow cause what if u can deposit only 50$.
Just stay in within your bankroll and please dont play with the money u cannot afford to lose cause it wont do you any good at all.!!!
6.)Ask your questions evry time u dont understand somthing or just need help im sure u will always get an answer.
I apologize for my english its not my native language and i hope iv´e helped you.
Learn,improve and don´t call a raise when OOP,call only with top 3 pairs ♦ ♦ ♦
Btw im a noob in this game so take my info with reserve but also try to get a response from a grinder who has pass trough the same sh...t ♦ !!
GL broseph ♦

Thank you for putting so much effort into this, I hope you will succeed in poker too

A question. So, my first step should be, is studying those basic strategies that are on this site? Or should I start with books , as I mentioned "crushing the micro stakes" ? Or would you recommend something else?

Also maybe I should also try MTT and SNG. Or it is better to start with cash games?

I can tell you that a cash game is a nice way to build your bankroll and alot of good poker players play only cash cause if u are skilled in a certain level u can make alot of money by implementing a well known strategy for a certain ammount of time.Ofcourse i would recommend you to sharpen your skills in a mico stakes games but also reading and watching videos.If u do well and be very comitted i think u could be a constant winner.
But if u want somthing safer i would recommend learning SNG and i will tell you why.
I play SNG and for me its the best kind of game cause i invest only a one time buy-in and have a chance to win big.Ofcourse in order to win u need to learn alot about mtt structure,blind,antes,icm and ofc blind stealing.
If u decide to play SNG wich are very nice game to build your bankroll then let me know.
I will try to help you and teach you evrything i know for as long as it takes and ofc for free.I am a student of the game and like you want to be better evry day that i play.
This forum is filled with PRO videos and articles so i would recommend you to read them and watch them all.Print them out and learn evrything you can.Remeber what i will say u now and remeber it well.Knowledge is power!To know somthing better then others is to have an advantage over them and in a long run a +EV.If u have book about microstakes then study it so hard until your eyes hurt.
If u need more help let me know i will do my best to help you.Im sorry if i made some mistakes im awake for too long ♦

Originally posted by Toretri
Greetings everyone,
For example one of my question is, do I have to try every single type of poker[1] , to find which one suits me best? Because I only know no limit hold'em, stud and pot limit omaha. Should I try for example limit hold'em? Or there is no difference?
Another thing. I have this book " crushing the microstakes". They say this is the best book in the world for beating microstakes, but I think it was written in 2011. Is this book still good, because I think over few years online poker changed a lot.[2] I have many more questions, and I hope there are people who are willing to help me.

I hope you understood what I meant to say, because I don't speak english very well.

Hi, Toretri,
Welcome to PokerStrategy.com!
First off, your English is fine

I've marked a couple of things in your post.
[1] I don't think it is necessary to learn many different varieties of poker. In fact it might cause problems by filling your head with too much information. Stick to one variety and learn it well. I suggest that NLHE is the best for beginners simply because there is so much more information on it.

[2] I can't say how good the book is, because I've not read it. If you have played a bit online though you probably already know some poker. In the strategy article "No Limit Hold'em lessons overview" is a suggested reading list to lead you through the game from the very basics to some advanced strategies. Compare the strategy articles with the book. I'm guessing that at the NL 2 and NL 5 levels the basics are the same. But in 2014 we have zoom poker, and Mid-Stack and Short-Stack strategies have all but gone. Open raise sizes have dropped, and blind stealing has gone way up. Full ring games are not as frequent now, and short-handed (6-max) games are more normal.

Be sure to check out the free money offers to see if any of them are available to you.

If you're unsure about which room to play on, have a look at https://forums.pokerstrategy.com/forum/thread.php?postid=852929#post852929. Reply to that thread and give answers to the questions. Someone will reply with a suggestion that suits you.

Best of luck,
VS

Greetings,

Today I received free money from pokerstrategy to my netbet poker account. After playing for a few hours, I have a few questions to ask. I got 10$ free and I made I think a decent profit of 3.25$. But I want to know did I just got lucky and I should immediately go and study every basic and bronze strategy there is on this site, o I should try to play as I play now.
What I did was, I played completely by following basic strategy and I think it worked. I played completely by the book, and blindly followed the starting hands chart. When situation is getting difficult I just fold even if I think that opponent is bluffing ( because I just don't know how to handle that at all)
Another hard thing for me was to fold strong hands like AK and QQ, because strategy says, if you get reraised big pre-flop you can only call or go all-in with AA and KK. Do I really need to play this safe even if I am a beginner?
Also, at first I played only at one table. But I don't know, maybe it was just too slow for me, so I opened four tables total. I did enjoyed more playing like this, but the thing is that I can't see what happends at each table and I don't know anything about my opponents. But as I said I did got lucky playing like this, but maybe this is wrong? Should I play only one table at first so I would learn how do I actually need to play and how to spectate my opponents?
And I wonder, If I play this tight and safe, won't my opponents eventully notice that. and will take advatage, because I just follow the rules and I'm basically not thinking for myself. Or this is normal for NL2?

I did, of course, some very bad plays, and after this one I stopped playing

Seat 1: HERO (€1.97 in chips)
Seat 2: TGA600 (€2.00 in chips)
Seat 3: Radzio89195 (€2.30 in chips)
Seat 4: GrandNinjaP (€3.06 in chips)
Seat 5: pedromfsl (€3.35 in chips)
Seat 6: maverick4730 (€1.20 in chips)
Seat 8: protynochi (€2.28 in chips)
Seat 9: Nucho6 (€1.00 in chips)
Seat 10: titan4uk (€0.28 in chips)

Nucho6: SB €0.01
titan4uk: BB €0.02
HOLE CARDS
Dealt to HERO [S10 C10]
HERO: Raise To €0.08
Radzio89195: Call €0.08
GrandNinjaP: Fold
pedromfsl: Call €0.08
maverick4730: Raise To €0.16
protynochi: Fold
Nucho6: Fold
titan4uk: Fold
HERO: Call €0.08
Radzio89195: Call €0.08
pedromfsl: Call €0.08
FLOP [C6 H4 D6]
HERO: Check
Radzio89195: Bet €0.20
pedromfsl: Fold
maverick4730: Fold
HERO: Call €0.20
TURN [C6 H4 D6 DK]
HERO: Check
Radzio89195: Check
RIVER [C6 H4 D6 DK D2]
HERO: Bet €0.53
Radzio89195: Call €0.53
SHOW DOWN
HERO: shows [S10 C10] (Two pair)
TGA600: shows (mucked) [] (None)
Radzio89195: shows [CJ SJ] (Two pair)
SUMMARY
Total pot €1.99 Rake €0.14
Radzio89195: wins €1.99

I changed my name to HERO so it wouldn't be counfusing.

The reason why I have posted this hand is that I want to know was there any possible way for me to win this hand? Now I know that I should have folded when I got reraised pre-flop. But maybe I could have won this if I would have reraised on flop, or bet on turn instead of river?

I hope that someone with experience will give me some advice, thank you in advance.

And again, for the last time, sorry for my english.

Originally posted by Toretri
I got 10$ free and I made I think a decent profit of 3.25$. But I want to know did I just got lucky and I should immediately go and study every basic and bronze strategy there is on this site,[1] o I should try to play as I play now.
What I did was, I played completely by following basic strategy and I think it worked. I played completely by the book, and blindly followed the starting hands chart. When situation is getting difficult I just fold even if I think that opponent is bluffing[2] ( because I just don't know how to handle that at all)
Another hard thing for me was to fold strong hands like AK and QQ, because strategy says, if you get reraised big pre-flop you can only call or go all-in with AA and KK. Do I really need to play this safe even if I am a beginner?[3]
Also, at first I played only at one table. But I don't know, maybe it was just too slow for me, so I opened four tables total. I did enjoyed more playing like this, but the thing is that I can't see what happends at each table and I don't know anything about my opponents. But as I said I did got lucky playing like this, but maybe this is wrong? Should I play only one table at first[4] so I would learn how do I actually need to play and how to spectate my opponents?
And I wonder, If I play this tight and safe, won't my opponents eventully notice that. and will take advatage[5] , because I just follow the rules and I'm basically not thinking for myself. Or this is normal for NL2?

Hi, Toretri,
I highlighted some parts of your post.
My comments are:
[1] If you did what was recommended and you won -- then congratulations. You could have done everything exactly correctly and lost -- so perhaps you could say you were lucky. And yes, it is important to read the lessons, but not too much at once. Start small, and build skill on skill. If you try to learn too much too quickly, you end up forgetting it all anyway.
[2] Playing simple by-the-book poker is fine for a beginner. You will know when to deviate from the basic plan when you know WHY you are deviating from the plan.
[3] Yes. ♦
[4] If you can play more than one table, and keep track of everything that is going on, then go ahead! Add tables till you miss a hand or get confused, then back off one. As you progress, you will be able to manage more.
[5] Yes, eventually they will notice. However at first you won't notice that they did. When YOU notice that THEY noticed, then you will have reason to deviate from the plan see [1]

It is really hard to read hands posted raw from the hand history file.
Most members seeing a hand posted like that will just pass on by. If you use a hand converter it will be in a human-readable format.
I use the one from Feral Cow Poker but there are others.

I tried to put your hand through the converter, but parts were missing.

As far as I can tell, you just got unlucky on that hand. I didn't read it all that carefully.

Best of luck,
VS

There are a lot of great books out there, get a few and read! play the free sites to build your confidence, then play small stakes for a while to see how u do. I try not to play Tournaments much more than $60-80, although the higher the stakes the better the players, and I dislike playing with all new bees, they gamble too much and get lucky. I have put in a few thousand hours on the free sites and have done well, put still not too good at the casino. It is much different live then on line.

Hi Toretri,

Glad to see you give it another go :). i'm not good enough to comment on what you should do to become good :). i'm just here to give my "comment" on ur play. I think you played it good, maybe you could have won it if you bet the turn but the problem is you were oop so you need a very good read on the hand ur oponent has. In this case i think you lost almost the minimum maybe you could have checked the river but i know people that would end up in all in at the flop so ....

Hi Toretri,

First of all you need to know that no one is destined to fail,you only need to work harder try stuff(when i say try stuff i don't mean go and play $100 heads up ) but rather read books,watch videos,read other people blogs some if not all have been in your exact situation.Mental stability is most important for me if you can have that there is nothing that can stop you... so don't give up and remember hard work beats talent