19 hands or not

Let's see where you all stand. Now mind you, we are in the beginner forum, so not all the more experienced will weigh in. But it should be interesting, none the less.

I was hoping to get some names attached to the votes. especially the ones who vote for another strategy. What would some of you consider beginners. Maybe we can end this with some more opinions about when does a beginner start to move from "19 hands". What is the next step. Don't go on about suited, connectors, position and stack sizes all at once. We are talking rank amateur here. He learns the "19 hands" and does well, maybe even starts to multi table for a profit. When and what next? What is the next, natural progression to becoming a 100NL player? No 3 month experienced poker player can learn it all at once, no matter how easy you guys think it is.

I think 19 hands is an EXCELLENT way for beginners to learn to play. It makes you only play good cards, so that when you do hit something on the flop you have a good chance of winning the pot. Beginners are for the most part entirely too loose, and will play anything because it's fun to be involved in pots. So if you use 19 hands, you will be getting into pots with good cards, and not getting outkicked because you decided to play Ax and hit an A on the flop, only to get outkicked .

As far as when it is time to move on, if you play for a long time using 19 hands, you will begin to see how people play and will get better at putting people on hands, stealing pots, etc., and then you can loosen up some and play your own game.

My next four steps (bear in mind I'm still in the beginner phase) would be 1) Telling/reading betting "stories", 2) c-betting, 3) pot contr0l and 4) rough sense of odds. There's no reason to add more (drawing/speculative) hands until you can quickly/cheaply determine where you are in a hand.

From reveiwing my own play, I lose the most when I take speculative hands too far.

I chose "There's a better strategy" because to not do so would be to claim that AOK's 19 hands is the best strategy a beginner can take.

I believe that other strategies are better, but that doesn't change the fact that I believe 19 hands is excellent (and for the price it has to be exteremely good value).

19 hands is great for the new poker player

I voted for it being a 'good' strategy, however that is not to say it is the best, undoubtedly it is a solid starting block (as your playing the best hands).

However this is exactly what it is a 'start', my worry is that some (obviously not all) will get crazy wrapped up in this and then their own learning might suffer, as a result- by not 'seeing what works for them' in another way--> not sure if that makes sense- but i just mean that you might lose out by not experimenting yourself... just a thought. As said- solid starting point.

I would say that the next stage on from the 19 hands is position- in my view this is the single most important factor in poker- knowing when to raise based on the players behind you actions, then in co-ordination with position i think: betting patterns/ reads is next...

I'm a n00b.

Last night I was playing about the 19 hands in a $4.40 180 player game when there were 24 players left (payof is 18 and below). I drew a KT with position, thought it was time to pick on a short stack, and tried bluffing a guy out of the pot. Ended up pushing him all-in, and he called with A2 (A on board). Checked my notes after the hand and yep, he was a total noob calling station who didn't know how to fold.

He made the money. I didn't.

Stupid mistake? Yep. It's what us folks new to poker do on occasion as we start to think we know more about the game than we do.

I find that more often than not, tight is right. And the 19 hands strategy is pretty much the best definition of tight that I've seen.

dzeanah, the 19 hand strategy is not for tournament play.

And I voted for "a good strategy for beginners" because, well, it is.

This has all been said in about a million other threads now.

19 hands is a very good beginner strategy but you can start expanding on it pretty quickly.

Obviously there will be more effective strategies, but they will necessarily be more complex so it really depends how you define the "best beginner strategy".

19 hands is a very easy and simple way to put together a steady foundation for you to float on while you learn the basics of the game.

It can also be adapted pretty easily by throwing in some SCs, blind steals etc. to allow you to play a game that makes money by playing a large volume of hands (e.g. 9 tabling) rather than by trying to play perfect poker.

I voted for it being a 'good' strategy, however that is not to say it is the best, undoubtedly it is a solid starting block (as your playing the best hands).