Rookie Poker Tips

Tips for Rookies

It is entirely natural for rookie poker players to seek out the advice of a world renowned expert such as Floyd Manning when it comes to finding ways in which to improve their chances for success of the green felt. You may think that I’d get somewhat weary of the incessant barrrage of questions I receive from these wide-eyed hopefuls (which arrive in the form of e-mail, snail mail, fax, and on a few rare occasions, smoke signals naturally arising from some participants at a nearby Native American-owned casino) but you would be wrong to make that assumption. There are few activities in this life that mean more to me than providing some useful pointers which new players can use to advance up the rungs of the global poker ladder.

Let’s face it, poker is not the easiest game to master. It calls upon each player to display remarkable levels of skill, tenacity and sheer heart. And after all, no single poker hand is like any that came before or will come after it. Every time the cards are dealt, you are faced with an entirely new set of challenges and opportunities. Therefore, my first bit of advice to rookie poker players is to always keep an open mind and recognize good opportunities in whatever form they may assume.

But let's get a little bit more specific about advice for novice poker fans. The first thing I would impart is that a good poker player will never fall in love with the hand he or she may happen to be holding. This is actually more difficult in practice than it may sound in theory. Because it is entirely possible that your starting hand will be so strong that you will be overwhelmed with a feeling of invincibility. How you react to this feeling of may vary, but your tactical maneuvers are irrelevant unless they are made from a strong strategic foundation. In other words, you can never allow yourself to be carried away with the thrill of emotion when looking down at a strong starting hand.

Furthermore, rookie players must always remember that any sort of sign or giveaway "tell" must be snuffed out from their own performance if they wish to be successful at the poker table. This is a skill which frankly not enough players engage at the earliest point of their careers, and it always comes back to haunt them. So I always advise new players to spend quite a bit of time studying their own habits, because this will not only help them to refrain from telegraphing their hand, it will also be of tremendous value in learning to recognize the tells exhibited by other players. Even when no money is on the line, maintaining a solid poker face at all times is of paramount importance.

Lastly, I always urge new players to take it slowly, at a graduated pace. We can all find ourselves getting excited after we win a few big hands, either by luck or by skill. It's all too easy to lose perspective and throw away more money than we can afford to part with on the green felt, especially in the early stages of learning poker.