Part 5: First Steps

Five Things to Learn First

With just these, you can sit at a table

1 The order of hands

Be able to say the 10 kinds from strongest. At first, this alone is enough

2 There are only six actions

Nobody has bet → check or bet. Someone has bet → fold, call or raise

3 Later position has the edge

The BTN has the most edge. UTG has the least. Change how you play by seat

4 Just waiting for strong hands does not win

The blinds keep taking chips every time, so if you do not play, you naturally lose

5 Folding is not losing

You fold most hands. The skill of folding is your first weapon

Once these five come naturally to you, that is soon enough to start on strategy.

10 Common Beginner Mistakes

Everyone makes all of them at first

Playing too many hands	If you enter with weak hands, you are in trouble every time from the flop on
Always taking a strong hand to the end	Even AA loses when it loses. You need the courage to fold
Folding when you could check	You could see the next card for free, and you are just throwing it away
Not thinking about position	Even with the same hand, the right action changes when the seat changes
Not thinking about your opponent’s hand	A state where you decide only on the strength of your own hand
Thinking in money	Think not “because it is $50” but “what % of the pot”
Trying to win back losses	Chasing losses. The biggest cause of decisions falling apart
Thinking winning = correct	Short-term results are luck. Judge by your decisions
Bluffing too much / never bluffing	Either way, you get read. Only make bluffs that have a reason
Playing when you are tired	A state where your judgment has dropped turns straight into losses

Why Position Has the Edge

While you are a beginner, understand at least this

Being able to act later means

• You can decide after seeing your opponent’s action
• If you know your opponent is weak, you can make them fold cheaply
• If you know your opponent is strong, you can fold cheaply

The disadvantage of acting first

• You end up giving away information first
• Even with a strong hand, you do not know how far you should bet

“Which seat” comes before “which hand.” This is the center of Chapter 1.

In numbers

• Hands you can play from UTG: 16.1% (est.)
• Hands you can play from the BTN: 47.6% (est.)

Even with hands of the same strength, whether you play changes just because the seat is different.

The 3-times difference is the value of position itself.

Just “Waiting for Strong Hands” Does Not Win

The first wall beginners run into

• At a 6-player table, the SB and the BB each come around to you one time in every six hands.
• Even if you do not play, 1.5BB is taken automatically in one orbit.

What happens to someone who only waits

• In one hour, dozens of hands, and your chips go down while you do nothing
• When a strong hand finally comes, everyone else folds
• It is easy to tell you have a strong hand, so nobody pays you

So what you need is

• Even when weak, play when the conditions fit
• Even when not strong, bet when you can make them fold
• This leads to the ideas of bluffing and position

If you think of it as “a game of waiting for good hands,” you will quietly keep losing.

Cash Games and Tournaments

The rules are the same, but the strategies are different things

	Cash game	Tournament (MTT)
Joining	You can come and go at any time	The start time is fixed
Chips	Worth money as they are	Converted into prize money. Not equal
Blinds	Do not change	Go up over time
Stack	You can bring it back to 100BB at any time	Once it shrinks, you cannot bring it back
Strategic core	Maximizing chip EV	Maximizing prize EV, including ICM
Time needed	As long as you like	From a few hours to 10+ hours
For beginners	Easy to learn (repeating the same conditions)	Very large variance

All of this material uses 100BB cash games as the standard. Tournaments are covered in Chapter 9.

Handling Money

Decide this, at least, before any technique

Decide first

• Use only an amount you can lose without it affecting your life
• Keep that amount in an account separate from your living expenses
• Decide in advance the most you will lose in one session

Things not to do

• Raise the stakes to win back losses
• Keep going past the limit you set
• Play with borrowed money

This is not strategy; it is about the premise.

Why decide first

If you try to decide while you are losing, you will always go easy on yourself.

Poker has large variance, and even good players can keep losing over tens of thousands of hands.

Managing your money is not “being timid”; it is the precondition for keeping going.

If you feel yourself getting absorbed in it, step away.

How to Start Practicing

You do not need to bet money right away

1 Get used to the controls with free apps or play money

The goal is to get used to where the buttons are, the speed of play, and how hands are judged

2 Check your hand out loud

Every hand, say “what hand do I have now.” You get used to it in 10 minutes

3 Play using only the preflop chart

Fix the hands you play, and focus on the flop and after

4 Record just five hands in one day

Not wins and losses: write down the spots where you were unsure

5 Go on to Chapter 1

Once you can do this much, studying strategy starts to mean something

The order has a meaning. Even if you study strategy before getting used to the controls, you cannot use it in real play.

What to Read Next

A map of all the material

Material	Content	When to read it
Chapter 0 (this material)	Rules, hands, terms, flow	Now
Map of preflop ranges	Entry standards for all 169 combinations	As soon as you are used to the controls
Wallpaper chart	A quick-reference chart to look at during play	While you are playing
Hand chart design notes	A record of how the chart was made	When you start wondering “why”
Hold’em method	Every strategy from the flop on	Once your preflop is solid
Default action chart	A quick-reference chart of actions for every street	Alongside the method

The recommended order

• This material →　the preflop map →　one week of real play →　Chapter 2 of the method
• Please do not read everything at once. Playing and opening only the chapters you come to need is the shortest path

With This, You Can Sit at a Table

If you understand the hands, the kinds of action and the flow of one hand,

the rest is the stage of learning while actually playing.

For your first few dozen hands, do not worry about winning or losing.

What to do today

Be able to say the 10 hands in order

What to do this week

Try playing 100 hands with play money

What to do next week

Take the preflop chart and fix the hands you play

If a word you do not know comes up, look it up in the Glossary.

Check

Which of these does the text give as the reason a seat that acts later has the edge?

• Because you are more likely to be dealt strong hands
• Because you can decide after seeing your opponent’s action
• Because you do not have to put in blinds

See the answer

Because you can decide after seeing your opponent’s action (the section “Why Position Has the Edge”).