The key to being a successful poker player at any level is to discipline and patience. You’re going to need discipline in your starting hand selection and how you play any given hand. You’re going to need patience to wait for the right situations at the table and take advantage of them.
Firstly, your most important job as a beginning poker player is to develop a strong set of starting hand requirements. You need to know which hands to play in which situations. As Texas Hold ‘em, especially in No-Limit form, is the most popular and available variation of online poker, that’s what we’re going to focus on.
A great tool for beginners to start with is poker literature. There are many books available from proven poker pros that can start you off in the right direction. Popular authors and players include Doyle Brunson, Dan Harrington, and David Sklansky. Most beginner poker books will provide you with their recommended set of starting hands and in what position at the table you should play them. When you’re starting out, it is probably wise to stick to their advice while you gain experience and form your own standards.
Position is power in Hold ‘em. The earlier position you’re in, the more of a disadvantage you’re at because you still have a number of players to act after you. Position rotates clockwise at the start of each hand. Because your goal is to become a tight-aggressive player, you should only play premium cards from early position (1st – 3rd) such as high pocket pairs like A-A and K-K. A-K, often referred to as “Big Slick”, is also playable from early position.
When you do pick up one of these premium hands, you should usually raise it. If you’re playing no-limit, the standard raise is 3-4 times the size of the big blind. This is a good standard because if you always raise the same amount preflop, your opponents can’t get a read on your hand. You raise with premium hands for 2 reasons. Firstly, you want to thin the field. When you’re holding a big pocket pair, you don’t want to let a lot of players see a cheap flop and outdraw you. You should raise to make trash hands think twice about calling. Secondly, when you’ve got such a big hand, you want to build a bigger pot. When you’re holding pocket Aces, you want to make your opponents pay to play with you while at the same time increasing what you expect to win in the pot.