Online poker for beginners

Once you know the rankings of hands and the betting structure for Texas Holdem and you are ready to play, you need to know which two cards (known as your hole cards) you should stay with or fold before the flop (the first three communal cards).

Before the flop

One reason people lose is simply because they play too many hands before the flop. Then before they know it they are sucked in with the second best pair and lose their money. Many hands should not be played.

In fact they say that you should be seeing roughly 10% of the flops. Obviously high pairs in any position (aces down to jacks) should be played, but you should be more cautious playing lower pairs in late position, especially if there is a raise before you. Even pocket jacks are not as great as you might think. Did you know that if you are holding Jack Jack, you will see at least one over card 50% of the time