I am Confused?

I am very new to poker but I have been playing some play money games of texas hold em recently and it has been great. But I have a few questions. On preflop what cards do you fold on right away and what hands do you decide to stay with? I am really confused when it comes to this. Do you basically just raise with high cards or pairs suited/un-suited and fold on anything else? I am so lost here, I really have no idea when to do what.

What I would suggest is to go through the hand histories here on the site and take a look at what hole cards players here stayed with, what they folded, when they raised, etc.

I did this and it improved my game a bit to get a handle on exactly what to expect from online strategy. (I just started playing seriously online a few weeks ago, it's different than in a live poker room)

Overall, it depends on what type of player you are, which you will only learn to mold after playing thousands of hands. I'd suggest playing tight at the beginning of any tourney (High pairs, High connectors suited, etc).

I've also found the replay function of Poker Stars to be helpful as well as far as being able to focus a bit more on what other people around me are playing.

In conclusion, there is hardly any single way that's best. Only through playing thousands of hands will you truly learn which cards are good to play. Play freerolls if at all possible and do some testing. Learning through first-hand knowledge will be your best bet (pun intended )

My $0.02 on the subject

When I first started out i used Phil Hellmuth's 15 hand strategy. It is extremely tight, basically you only play the following starting hands: any pair, AK AQ. come into the pot with a raise of like 3x the BB and throw out a continuation bet (about half the size of the pot) after the flop no matter what comes down. Do this until you start feeling more comfortable playing hands after the flop then you can "widen your range" of hands up a bit because you'll be more expierenced. For example, I often raise with marginal hands like JTs from early position because I know how to outplay my opponent after the flop even if I miss. But this would be more difficult for a less expiernced player to do.

So basically, play very tight until you start feeling more comfortable playing other hands.

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Mulchick

Thats a good book. It is also available on audio tape download from Itunes.

Hi Acid
I use poker odds calc' and with it i can evaluate, in precentge, my chance of winning compard to the opponets. this way you have a bigger picture of yoor play.

Phil hellmuth 15 hands is ok, but these are not the top 15 hands, so do not get married to it. He overemphasizes pocket pairs.
Anyway great start but then you have to find out the real top 10,15,20 hands.

A better reference for starting hands can be found in Mike Caros' Most Profitable Hold'em Advice