just started playing online poker and I’m already confused af 😅 where do I begin
Jumped into online poker for the first time and wow, there’s a lot going on. With slots and roulette, I pretty much know what I’m getting. This is like a different beast, though. I keep losing track of all the hands and who’s doing what, and the betting is way more complicated than just hitting a spin or drop. I’ve tried watching some YouTube vids but it all goes over my head after a couple of minutes.
For now, I just pick random hands to play, but I know that’s not gonna fly for long if I wanna stop donating chips to people. Is there a good starting point for figuring out what to do besides “don’t play trash hands”? I like stats and all that with my usual games, so I’m wondering if there’s like a beginner stats way to pick hands or something. Pretty sure I’m missing some basic strategy, just not sure where to look for a simple version that’s not a giant wall of text. Anybody got advice that isn’t just “study for 100 hours”?
opportunity cost is everything here, just like picking smart bets in sports betting versus shotgun wagers. start by only playing strong hands in late position and fold the rest, then track which hands make you wish you’d waited for better.
Respect for spotlighting opportunity cost, but what about blind spots in player psychology? With roulette, knowing the minimum bet just sets your baseline, but in poker it's missing how swings mess with your judgment.
I’d focus on one table at a time and write notes after each orbit about what actually confused you most, not just what hands you played. In roulette I learned quick that tracking only wins hides my real leaks, so where do your biggest poker “black holes” show up?
Try capping your buy-in per session, not just hand selection, if you want a stats-based safety net while learning. What’s tripped you up the most, reading hands or tracking bet patterns?
Honestly, I blew way too much on side pots early on, so now I just chart my chip swings per hour to spot leaks. If tracking is your jam, graphing results from each session in a simple spreadsheet feels less like “studying” and actually helped me notice which patterns cost me most.
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