It’s important to be selective when playing poker.  the old saying may go, “you can’t win if you don’t play,” but it’s also true that you can’t lose what you don’t put in the pot.  Playing mediocre hands that lose most of the time when up against premium hands will destroy your chip stack.  By playing too many hands, you’re tipping the odds in your opponent’s favor.

If you’re really a beginner, play at a beginner table.  Many rookies think they have the game down cold just because they watch the WPT on TV all the time and they clean up while playing their poker buddies in the basement.  Start out small and if you dominate those levels, move up.  it will save you lots of money if you play below your level instead of over it.

This is another rookie symptom brought on by watching too much poker on TV.  You’re not a poker pro yet, so don’t think you can act like one.  Throwing in the occasional bluff is fine, but don’t fall in love with trying to dupe the table, or the players who know that they’re doing will fleece you.

If you’re going to play poker then play poker.  Don’t listen to your favorite tunes while watching TV and catching up on some of that work you missed while slacking off at the office.  If you’re not totally focused on the game, you’ll make that one big mistake that sucks you dry.

Rookies who get monster hands tend to play them out no matter what happens.  When they do pull in a monster hand and it gets beat, that usually means a lot of chips just went to their opponent.  Remember, no matter how good your hand is, it is beatable, so don’t be afraid to fold if you know you’re beat.

To play winning poker, you have to be able to determine what hands are playable on the board as soon as the cards come out.  To be fair, it might not actually be important that you analyze the board in that split second, but you must be able to analyze it quickly enough that you won’t get burned by betting against a possible hand you missed.  let’s do a quick test on reading the board:  Qd, 10d, 4c, 8h

What is the best hand you can make on that board?  The correct answer is, of course, a queen-high straight.  To make that hand, you would have to have 9-J as your hold cards.  Let’s add a river card and see how that changes things.  The river card drops and the board now shows: Qd, 10d, 4c, 8h, Ad

Now what is the nuts?  If you said ace-high flush you are partially right.  Since the ace is on the board, the actual nuts is the ace-high flush with the king of diamonds in your hand.  Since anyone who makes the flush would have the ace in their hand, the next-highest card would decide a winner between two flushes.

This example shows how one card can dramatically change the value of your hand.  After the turn card fell, anyone holding the 9-J hand a great hand but once the diamond hit on the river, their once-powerful straight is vulnerable to anyone holding two diamonds.  By reading the board and spotting this possible flush draw on the turn, a smart player would be able to protect their hand with a strong bet.  Being able to read the board not only allows you to pick out the best hand, it also helps you make better-informed betting decisions.