Alright so I've been playing Hold em for about 9 years now. I started playing real money online back in late 04 on pokerroom.com Then after Bill Frist passed his stupid port security act and pokerroom left the US market I switched to full tilt. For the full tilt players my sn is mattiedashark83 (my old CF SN).
It would take me forever to explain theorys and calculations as you should know by now the game is very mathematical. Feel free to rail me (watch me) sometime if you like. I've slowed down the past few months but I think I may be starting back up shortly.
But now on to some basic principles.
Position This is one of the most important factors of the game. You know the dealer button then to the left is the small blind and then the big blind. The following seat is early position then obviously as you go around you have middle position and late positions.
Since your new I'd recommend the following.
Early position: AK,AQ,AA,KK,QQ which you can raise the pot I wouldn't get excited with hands like aj,a10,kq,JJ because your in a early spot and there are still a lot of people left in the pot to act. I'd recommend limping in with hands like that or even folding preflop in NL but limit a call is fine.
Middle position: If there was not much action IE any early position people in the pot through in a raise with any of the hands from early position and add hands in such as kq,aj,a10 and JJ, 10,10 etc. Pairs smaller then 10's I'd mostly recommend limping since your a new player and also playing limit and not NL. Also suited connectors IE 67, 78, etc of the same suit can become profitable.
Late postion: All of the above plus hands like jq,10j,a,9, 88,77 etc raise!
Again hands very a bit in limit so the more people that enter a pot preflop before you the greater the value your getting to call with oddball hands.
Thats just basic recommendations for starting hands.
Next up lets talk a little about odds. I'll use a simple example here. You hold AK of spades. The flop comes 2,5 of spades and a 9 of diamonds. You assume there are 9 spades left in the deck.
So on the flop you take 9X3 which gives you 27% of the time you will hit your flush.
On the turn if you miss you times it by 2 IE 9X2 = 18% you'll catch on the river.
Always know what your after to make your hands and how many outs you have. This formula will help you decipher pot odds and how likely you are to make your hand.
This becomes useful to decide if a call is plus EV or -EV. IE +EV = estimated value in the long run is profitable and - means long term you'll end up losing more than you make. So lets do a example hand to help you with Estimated value.
You have the AK of spades the flop comes 2,5 spades and a 9 of diamonds. Your playing 1/2 Limit. The pot is $8 dollars. First person bets out $1 so the total pot is $9 and you have $2 invested into the pot preflop. So you know you have a 27% chance of catching your flush not counting your ace and king as live. Meaning if you catch a ace or king you also win the pot. If you assume you win with a ace or king as well you would add another 6 outs for a total of 15 outs 15X3 45% of making the winning hand. Its going to cost you $1 more dollar for a change of winning $7 dollars. This is plus ev!
God I'm just going to confuse you explaining this plus I'm being lazy and I'm tired. I tell you what sometime if you want download full tilt and get on AIM. I'll play a game and explain why i'm doing what I'm doing hand by hand. Much easier to explain rather then typing stuff out. Just rail me in a game sometime.
Here are my overall multi table stats at full tilt. My ROI (Rate of Investment) should be higher but I play a lot of games just to screw around. Cash games are were I make most of my money. Multi's are for fun.
Also here are some Sit & Go stats from pokerroom.com. I've got my Full Tilt stats blocked through sharkscope so people can't see them. My Id there was widgetman101 same as the photobucket account i'm using for these pictures.
