Still a losing player? Do these two things

Bencb with a quick guide on how to solid up your poker game right away, which should be enough to beat low stakes.

Want to become a winning poker player? There are two things you must do first.

Once you fix these major holes in your preflop and postflop game, you should be well on your way to beating lowstakes.

Let's dive in.

1. Learn Your Preflop Ranges, and Stick To Them

Preflop is the foundation for a good poker strategy, and without adhering to a somewhat reasonable strategy there is no way you’ll ever be a profitable poker player.

When you’re first starting out, take a few hours and learn your preflop ranges.

A solid preflop game is vital to a winning poker strategy, and will make you a lot of money.

As you’re just learning the game, it’s important to remember that your advantage (or edge) on your opponents won’t be as large, so you’ll want to tighten up your range a little bit and play safe, conservative poker at first.

3-bet when you have very strong hands, call tight ranges, and only raise or fold preflop - no limping!

Remember, you have to tighten up your range even more when people limp in front of you, so stick to very tight ranges in situations where you have more than one limper already in the pot.

Once you’ve got your preflop game down, you can move on to postflop.

2. Bet Big With Big Hands, Small With Bluffs

Now that we’re moving on to postflop, things are going to get a bit more complicated. However, we’ll try to keep the concepts simple, so you can apply them immediately into your game.

When you’re new to the game, you shouldn’t really be bluffing that much.

Especially if you’re playing micro stakes online (anything $10NL or below) or low stakes live cash games ($1/$2 or under), you can just bet big for value when you have a good hand and shut down with your bluffs after the turn.

Now, this strategy should not be used as much against opponents you’ve played with for a long time, or against very strong opponents, because they’ll eventually see through your strategy. But, if you’re facing an unknown player, you want to take advantage of their lack of knowledge by losing less with your bluffs and getting more value from your strong hands.

Now, what size should you bet?

If you’re not comfortable mixing up your bet sizings yet, sticking to a simple strategy of only betting 1/3 pot size on the flop, 2/3 pot size on the turn and river can be a decent default strategy.

Can you get more or less value in some situations?

Sure.

But we’re focusing on a simple, default strategy that will take you from a big fish in your games to a breakeven or even winning player. Most players would probably beat lowstakes poker games by studying preflop ranges and applying them.

Add in a good postflop strategy of betting for value and shutting down with bluffs, and you’re well on your way to profitability at the poker table!

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While checking out the most popular courses on our dedicated Raise Your Edge page, you should also have a look at their unique interactive studying tool Pairrd that is coming with engaging video quizzes, range drilling and hand review quizzes, all based on the most up to date GTO ranges out there.

An essential part when learning poker is the ability to think in ranges and understand the why behind them. Raise Your Edge does a great job of getting that across to their students, meticulously breaking down ranges and explaining the reasoning behind them.

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Key Features of Pairrd by Raise Your Edge

• Interactive Weekly Quizzes: Comprehensive library of interactive training spots covering preflop, postflop, GTO and Exploitative. Train in-game scenarios so they become second nature at the tables!
• GTO Preflop Ranges: Preflop tournament ranges included that will immediately step up your game. Accompanied with built-in practice functions, Pairrd will make you a force to be reckoned with.
• Exclusive Video Content: To ensure you fully understand the concepts being trained, quick and easy to digest video explanations are included in the interactive quizzes.
• Study With Friends: Practice and compete with your friends using Pairrd, including sharing hands, private leaderboards and a built-in chat function!

Find out more about Pairrd by Raise Your Edge