Most people who play poker lose money over their lifetime. Many of them are incapable of winning do to character flaws or deficiencies in intelligence. Many play for recreation and have profitable sources of income that enable them to do so. They are not concerned with winning, although they of course enjoy it. Playing well is simply not enough fun, and they also do not have enough time to invest in it. These players are not who I am targeting with this article. If you are a proven winner, these articles may not have the sort of information you are looking for either. This article is geared towards the player who loses or breaks even and wants to improve. Improving takes a lot more work than reading a few tips that I've put together, but hopefully I will be able to show you what you need to work on and how to profitably think about the game.

The first tip an experienced player always gives a novice is to play fewer hands. I'm not going to include a starting chart of hands as there are many good ones out there and I have little to add. For a novice player, it is almost impossible to play too tight in a limit environment. Hold em is a very situational game and its difficult for a chart to encapsulate all of the possibilities. That does not mean that they are not useful when you are learning to recognize the different situations. Sklansky has a chart in Hold em for Advanced Players that is excellent (although is a little loose for some novice players), and Bob Ciaffone's advice in Middle Limit Hold me is also excellent (and appropriately tight).

Hands like suited connecters are widely overplayed especially out of position. For a hand like that to be profitable many criteria need to be met and it is impossible to know enough to play these in early position. Even in late position these hands are usually unplayable unless there are many limpers. If you shouldn't be playing suited connecters very often then it should be clear you should not be playing unconnected suited cards like J6s or T5s. These hands are almost always junk and should be treated as such.

While playing fewer hands in general is very important there is one scenario that deserves special attention. When you are playing limit hold em making too many cold calls is one of the worst mistakes a beginner can make. A cold call is when there is a raise in front of you, no one else has voluntarily entered the pot and you call. You can't make a cold call out of the blinds. In these situation if you can't raise you usually can't call. Habitually making these calls, with dominated hands, is devastating to your bottom line.

Preflop play is one of the most important elements of strong play at the lower limits where many of your opponents will make many preflop mistakes. As you progress up the limits the emphasis shifts more to play post flop but a solid grounding in good preflop play will always be important. This does not mean that you can simply memorize a starting chart and you'll be on your way to poker riches. While playing correctly preflop will give you an advantage over your opponents, and help to minimize your losses, you still need to play well post flop to be a winner of any consequence. Part 2 of this series will address some ways you can improve your post flop game.