Tips For Low-Stakes Poker

I’m no poker pro but here’s a few pointers that might be helpful on your “poker journey” at the low-stakes level:

• Pick premium starting hands
  King-2 off-suit (K-2o) is NOT a premium hand in any game! But Ace-King suited (A-Ks) is! I know you’ve seen K-2o hit K-K-2 on the flop and you’d have a full-house, but most of the time that never happens and you’ll lose more playing K-2o than hitting “lightning in a bottle”.
• Position is everything
  Playing from the Dealer Button is the best position to play a hand since you get to see everyone make decisions before you have to. You can often raise from the button and get many of the “limpers” to fold and steal the pot. Playing from the small blind and big blind positions are the worst positions since you have to make a decision and everyone else gets to see what you do. In general, play stronger hands if you’re closer to the left of the button, play looser hands closer to the right of the button.
• Don’t let the Blinds play for free
  The small and big blind hands could be very dangerous if you let them limp or check for free. If you let them limp or check for free pre-flop, then there’s 7-4-6 on the flop, how do you know one of them doesn’t have 8-5 that you let them in the hand for free? 8-5 would normally be a folding hand pre-flop, but if you have Q-Q and just called and limped in pre-flop and one of the blinds checked pre-flop for free and hit a straight on the flop, you only have yourself to blame for letting them in for free. Raise pre-flop to make the blinds fold or pay for their hands! Raise at them pre-flop!
• Bet and Raise for Information
  How else will you know if your hand is any good and how strong are your opponent’s hands? Bet and raise to get information! The experienced players know how to throw you off the trail, but in general you’ll get good information when you bet and raise. Hint: the cheapest bets to get information in Limit Hold’em are the pre-flop and flop bets and raises.
• Don’t be a “Calling Station”
  There’s a derogatory name for the player who just calls everyone’s bets and raises hoping to catch a card or see if their weak hand holds up at showdown — that player is a “Calling Station”. Also known as “donkey” or “fish” or “donkeyfish”. Calling gives you no information. Calling does not make your opponents fold. There is a time to just call: When you have the nuts or have good odds to catch the nuts and you want to let your opponents keep betting and raising to build the pot and dig their own grave. There’s a few other times to call, maybe if you’re heads-up with a medium hand and the pot is large relative to the call amount.
• Fold, Fold, Fold
  If someone bets or raises at you… When in doubt about what to do, Fold. If a bluff-raise isn’t going to work, Fold. If you think you’re beat, Fold. If you have to call a bet with 9-high, Fold.

IMO one of the best low-stakes poker books ever written is “Play Poker Like the Pros” by Phil Hellmuth, Jr.