by James E. Fish

Created on: May 21, 2007   Last Updated: June 11, 2011

Hold'em is an easy game to learn to play. While you can learn the basics in a few hours, it takes a lifetime to perfect your game. As in every aspect of life, if you're not learning, you're dying.

Your first chore is to learn correct play. That requires study. Buy a few books on the game. David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth have written the best overall books on Hold'em, but for the beginner "Winning low limit hold'em" by Lee Jones is the best to start with. Memorize the starting hands, study basic strategy and position then try playing in low limit games. Play for real money and if at all possible in a casino card room. Forget learning on the Internet or by watching pros play on television.

During your first few sessions, play tight, get a feel for the game and observe how the other players play. In most low limit games watching the other players is a good guide of what not to do. Most low limit players are at the table to have fun, few have studied the game and their errors are obvious. As you gain experience, playing by the book, you will do too things, learn and build your bankroll. If you have losing sessions, don't get discouraged, even the best players have the same experience. Hang in there. Remember in poker, your good decisions beat their bad decisions. Your job when playing poker is to make good decisions. As long as you are doing that, nothing else matters. Poker is a long vacation, not a trip around the corner.

After a few months playing by the book, you will gain confidence and a larger bankroll. Now it's time to really get serious. Buy more books. Sklansky and Malmuth "Hold'em Poker for Advanced Players" and Doyle Brunson's "Super System" should be your first choices. Don't confine your reading to just hold'em books. Study poker theory and the mathematics behind limit poker. By this time you will have made friends with good players. Talk to them. Try and form a small support group that can discuss the various aspects of the game. Always keep learning, no one, not even the best in the world knows everything. The top professionals discuss the game; you should too.

As you become a better player and build a bigger bankroll it's time to consider higher limits. Move from 2-4 to 4-8 or 4-8 to 5-10. The competition will he tougher. Remember when you started out, you played tight and observed the other players? Do it again. This time you will be able to pick out the better players. Keep studying, playing and learning.

Eventually you will have the knowledge,

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