Things You Wish You Knew When You Started Playing Poker

If I had a dollar for each time I heard someone say “If I knew then what I know now” I’d be very rich. I’m sure you would be rich too if you had a dollar each time you’d heard. Everyone says it, and in today’s article I am going to take a walk down ‘hindsight lane’ and think about what I wish I had known when I started playing poker over 15 years ago.

I first played poker 16 years ago in the year 2000 during a quiet night whilst a student at the University of Lincoln. I didn’t drink alcohol, and not being wealthy enough to have a computer of my own meant I looked forward to spending as much time as I could in the university’s computer rooms, even if it was just to fend off the boredom. Looking back, I should have studied my subject in great detail as I had the time and the isolation to do so, however, as an 18 year old quiet guy, I was more at home browsing the more primitive Internet and where I vociferously read the news, searched for fun games to play, and posted on forums.

On this particular evening my good friend Gareth, whom I had some amazing adventures and road trips with during my time at University travelling all around Lincolnshire, introduced me to a new game I could play on my computer called poker. I had seen it on TV (Late Night Poker circa 1998) and found the allure of the cards, the sound of the chips and, of course, the money, fascinating and exciting. I recently reacquainted with Gareth via Facebook and he might even remember the night where, on the second floor ,we played some Limit. Little did he or I know the enjoyment I would find from the game many years later.

The site he had found was a very early version of Ultimate Bet (booo!), but this was long before their scandalous future actions and as a student I enjoyed playing a bit of Limit Hold’em on the free tables. I was rubbish at it, but then so was everyone. Little did I know I had found poker before the boom of 2003. If only I had learned the games, stuck it out, and gotten good at No Limit, who knows, I might have been a millionaire by now.

I wish I had known that hands like JJ are not that great

The first thing you learn when you stop playing every hand because you are losing is that you need to focus on the stronger starting hands. As a new player I liked hands that “looked nice” like AA, KK, QQ and KA. Obviously these strong hands are not dealt to us every time and we all go through spells of being card dead. As a new player, the excitement kicked into overdrive when I looked down and saw a strong hand like JJ. I thanked the poker gods and thought this is my moment to cash in and win some chips. Often I overplayed the hands and ended up bust or nursing a large hole in my stack.

As a new player I refused to be knocked off hands like JJ even when the flop presented me with Aces, Kings and/or co-ordinated cards. The signals were there for me to make a good fold but no, I didn’t. I either couldn’t or wouldn't listen. I paid the price of that particular learning but I wish I’d learned it without all the pain.

I wish I’d known about the value of rakeback

When I started to play poker, I knew bonus schemes existed where my poker room would refund me a portion of the rake, but I did not pay much attention to them. Then later, I learned from a friend that some players played so many hands that they only looked to break even at the tables and then they used the rakeback to form their “wage”. I had never even thought about it. Had I known about this, or more accurately had I been sensible enough to pay attention to it, I would have searched around for the best deals. I definitely lost some poker equity by being blase about searching for bonuses and offers, instead I just picked out a poker room I liked and deposited. I would make a better decision today and wish I’d known better.

I wish I had maintained my bankroll

I’m pretty sensible as a general rule, so bankroll management and playing within my means was something I brought with me from other areas of life, but where I missed a trick was not maintaining my bankroll in the event of a win. I remember winning a tournament in 2006 for around $529 dollars, a big win for me at the time, but by no means a life-changing event. I withdrew $500 of it! I spent that money on ‘something,’ but today I cannot even remember what it was. Looking back, I should have left the money on the site and played slightly higher tournaments. In comparison to 2016, the games were easier but I fell into the trap of thinking about the ‘now’ and not using my win as the bankroll booster it could have been. Even if I withdrew a percentage of it, that would have been better than withdrawing the lot which felt great when it hit my account, but then as quickly as it arrived, it was gone.

I should have kept better records

As I mention my regrets, you might ask how far have I actually progressed since beginning to play? The truth is, I don’t really know, other than feeling I have more knowledge, as I’ve never been good at tracking my results. I wish I had known when I started to play how important it was to keep my hands in a poker database. Not doing so was a bad error on my part and one you should not repeat. If you are playing hands, keep all the data so you can use that information to help you get better. If I could nip back in time I’d get this sorted straight away and have loads of valuable data to review today.

In poker terms, I am reminded to play my hands now, before it is too late. Even if it turns out online poker is going nowhere and I sincerely hope this is the case, at least I am getting my hands played now. If our dreams come true and we return to a global player pool again in the future, will you be better or worse off for having survived in the shark-filled waters of 2016? Absolutely 100% better off.