Poker, let’s be completely honest is a stressful game that many, many newbies get nervous about – especially on their first game.  However, there is no real reason to get nervous exactly.  Although, if you feel your nerves getting the best of you, make sure that you keep these tips and tricks in mind because they totally helped me when I was first starting out!

Firstly, do not compare yourself to any other players.  They might have the skills, but you could have some natural talent – however, practice does make perfect and if you are playing with professionals, you might feel even more nervous, but don’t worry about it.

Next, relax – that is going to be the biggest thing that you will need to work on – after all, you want to make sure that you calm down enough to pay attention to the game.

Now that we have explored a little bit about poker … let’s talk about how you can really read your opponents and how you can truly get inside their head.  To me, this is the skill that all poker players need to have.  After all, the entire game is based off of how much you know about your opponents and how you can truly get them to give up their hand without giving up their hand.

The thing you need to do?  Well, you need to pay attention.  That is the first skill that you need to learn.  Paying attention to every single detail regarding the people that you are playing with is truly going to become a fantastic skill.  A simple smile, a crimp of the brows or even a sigh can be very, very telling, you just have to be able to read it!

Poker is all about reading people and when you really want to make sure that you know how to do it before you enter into a game!

Whenever you are dealing with poker – there are things that you need to think about, one is going to be your actions.  Think back – some of the things that we have talked about in this particular blog all have to do with watching other people’s actions and being very aware of what your players are doing – do you not think that they are doing the exact same thing?

To be perfectly honest, every action that you make is probably being critiqued by many, many different people.  They are constantly going to be wondering why you raised, why you called, why you folded – remember that whenever you are playing poker, you are constantly being judged.

While you are constantly being judged, remember – you are going to be doing the judging as well, so make sure that you keep that in the back of your mind.