If you’re a true beginner poker player who’s looking for a good poker room, you’ll want to think both big and small. Let’s start with the big.

By big we mean the size of the poker room. The more players at a poker room during peak hours the better chance there will be a bunch of other fish just like you trying to go from student to masters of the game too quickly. Another good thing to do is try out one of the more heavily-advertised rooms. Poker rooms like PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Bodog get more traffic because the less-knowledgeable poker player knows they exist due to their large number of advertisements on TV, in magazines and online.

Now that we’ve covered the big, let’s talk about the small. When we’re referring to small we’re talking about limits and buy-ins. If you’re trying out online poker for the first time do not play over your head. This is one of the more common mistakes that poker rookies make, and the end result is their bankroll gets chewed up quick.

Look for rooms that offer cheap limits like 5 cent/10 cent or less, if you can find it. Don’t step up to $1/$2 table and think you’re going to start hauling in the big bucks. First of all, those limits aren’t where you win the big bucks. And, second you won’t make money as a rookie at those tables; you’ll simply lose it all faster.

If you’re more into tournament play, then look for rooms that offer cheap tournaments where you can improve your skills without having your entire bankroll decimated in one fell swoop. Most rooms also offer introductory freerolls for new players. If you can money in one of those, you can offset some of the cost of your first deposit.

Lucky You departs from previous poker-themed films like the wildly impossible final hand from The Cincinnati Kid and the cookie-cutter tells from Rounders, but unfortunately it forgot a key component those films included: Great casting, great acting, and characters you actually liked and cheered for.

I was expecting a lot more from Lucky You since it was directed by Curtis Hanson, of L.A. Confidential fame. What drags the movie down is the horrible casting of Eric Bana in the lead role and Drew Barrymore as the woman he chases. Also along for the ride is Robert Duvall, who actually gives a good performance in stark contrast to the rest of the deadweight.

In the film Bana plays Huck Cheever, an overly aggressive poker player who constantly lets his emotions get the best of him resulting in him ending up broke, over and over again. Barrymore plays the horribly-named Billie Offer, a Vegas lounge singer who – thanks to Barrymore – can’t sing to save her life. Duvall is Bana’s estranged father, a poker legend who everyone in the world loves, except Bana who’s never forgiven him for walking out on him and his mom. The usual jaded father-and-son clichés ring true (yes they meet up at the final table, who didn’t see that one coming?), with only Duvall’s lively performance adding any real life to the story.

The poker scenes in Lucky You are actually well done and demonstrate that the filmmakers really did know something about poker when they were filming it. Having cameos by poker pros like Doyle Brunson and Barry Greenstein probably helped, as well as a bit-part by Jennifer Harman. Unfortunately they didn’t pay as close attention to the plot or the characters, or maybe Lucky You would be worth a look instead of being a poker film that fails in every aspect expect the poker.

In case you didn’t already know, Lucky You has been gathering dust on the Hollywood shelf for almost two years. Movies that go through long delays like that usually aren’t worth wasting 11 bucks to go see on the big screen, and Luck You is no exception.

There’s an old adage in poker: You can’t win if you don’t play. A similar piece of advice states that you can’t win the big bucks unless you’re willing to risk them too.

It’s not too hard to figure out that if you play for pennies you’re going to win pennies. It logically follows that if you play for thousands, you’re going to win thousands. That’s not entirely true, though. As the WPT and World Series of Poker have clearly demonstrated, you can play for thousands (or $10,000 to be exact) and win millions.

It’s true that by playing high stakes poker you’ll get more bang for your buck. But here’s the catch: You have to make sure your gun is loaded. What we’re referring to is that your game has to be good enough to actually win at that level. Unless you can find a game full of uber-rich millionaires who play poker even worse than the standard poker room fish, most high stakes games are going to be filled with players performing at an elite level.

Basically, playing high stakes poker will get you one of two things; either a big payday because of the huge amounts of money on the table, or a big loss because of the huge amount of cash you’re dumping on the table for the more skilled players to take from you.

The first thing you need to learn when you’re playing poker is that the amount you can possibly win at the tables doesn’t depend upon the limits at the table – it depends on how good you are. So polish your skills and gain your experience before stepping up to compete for the pot of gold.

There’s plenty of bang for your buck in high stakes poker. It’s up to you whether or not that will be a bang in your wallet, or the bang of your palm smacking your forehead after another loss.

So you want to play in the World Series of Poker main event, but unfortunately you don’t have an extra $10,000 just lying around? If you really are a skilled poker player you don’t need $10,000 to play in the WSOP main event. Out of the 8,773 players that took part in last year’s main event, how many of them do you think came up with $10,000 of their own cash to play? Less than half would probably be a good estimate.

Your best way of earning a seat in the WSOP is to win your way in through some kind of satellite tournament. There are so many different pathways to the WSOP through satellite tourneys that it would be impossible to list them all. The most popular are of course the cheapest available. If an online site is offering a WSOP qualifier for $2 or $3, then every poker player from the fish to the sharks are going to give it a try to see if they can become the next Chris Moneymaker. (This site offers WSOP online qualifiers.)

If you really want to have a chance of being one of the few that makes it from the qualifier stage to the grand WSOP stage, you should do a little research before automatically signing up for the cheapest qualifier. This tournament may be dirt cheap, but actually getting to a satellite and winning it is more difficult because of the large number of levels you have to go through to get there.

What you’ll want to look for is a middle-of-the-road qualifier. Not too cheap, but not too expensive either. You still want to end up with a good deal, after all. If you really have the skill to win a WSOP bracelet then winning your way into a WSOP seat through these middle-of-the-road tourneys should be a breeze.

You’ll still need a little luck, but it will still be much less than you would need to get through the large masses in the cheapo tourneys.

The great thing about poker is that even though it’s a game of skill you can sit down at the tables and beat any other player at any given time – if you play well and the cards fall right. If you went one-on-one with an NBA professional you’d probably get destroyed. Sit down with a poker pro and even though you’ll probably still end up on the losing end, you’ll at least have a better chance than you did against Kobe Bryant on the court.

If you find yourself in a poker tournament and your table is full of poker pros, the fist thing to remember is not to panic. Keep your cool and don’t let them intimidate you. Remember, a scared player is a losing player.

One of the big things that separates poker pros from regular poker Joes is aggressiveness. The pros are super-aggressive and to match wits with them you have to be aggressive too. If you’re not, the pro will simply push you around until all your chips belong to them. Don’t play stupid and take too many risks where the odds are against you, but make sure you’re not running scared every time one of the pros plays at you or makes a big bet.

To hang with the pros you have to play smart and play as perfectly as possible. This means limiting your mistakes to none, if you can. If you follow pot odds and implied odds you should make out all right in the end. The occasional bad beat will find you (they find everyone – you can’t hide), but hopefully the poker gods won’t be against you all day long. If they do keep knocking you down, don’t lose your cool. The worst thing you can do when facing a pro is go on tilt. They’re like sharks, except instead of smelling blood they smell tilt. Once they sense it on you, they’ll find a way to end your tourney pretty quick.

Poker pros may have millions in winnings, championship bracelets and possibly a poker site paying some of your bills, but they’re still beatable. If you can beat them on the right stage, perhaps you could climb into that echelon too.

Most people don’t mind taking on the short stack when they’re in a poker tournament, but actually you need to put a little more thought into these battles. Think of it this way: If you’re constantly rushing in to take on the short stacks because you think you can eliminate them, you’re in fact giving them a better chance of adding to their stack and improving their position. By doing this you’re more likely to switch places with the small stack than send them packing.

A lot of players tend to go all-in quite often once they have the short stack. When they go all-in they could have a monster or it could be a bluff at the pot – most likely it’s a monster. If you want to avoid feeding them your chips, you should avoid calling an all-in by a short stack unless you’re holding premium cards.

Attempting a bluff versus a short stack may seem like a good idea, but it’s not always so. If you’re pretty sure a short stack has missed their draw or they’re also holding junk cards, a bluff is a good way to steal the pot. However, if your bluff is called by a short stack, you’re usually better off folding because they probably have something that you won’t be able to beat. Remember rule No. 1: Don’t feed the short stack chips.

If you’re playing against an aggressive player who has a short stack you should use this to your advantage. If you believe that your opponent is on a draw and the cards just dealt did not improve their hand, you should check and allow the aggressive player to bet into you with a bluff. An aggressive player will usually do this in an attempt to steal the pot. Now’s your chance to pull off a check raise and steal the pot from the short stack.

If the opposite is true and you’re playing against a short stack who is a tight player, you can use this to your advantage. If you know they’re not going to play until they hit a monster hand, you should continually pepper them with bets and raises. If they truly are tight you should be able to steal a number of pots. But watch out when they call because they likely finally stumbled onto their monster hand.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a World Series of Poker champion or if you only play poker once a week – every poker player goes through a bad stretch every once in a while. Everyone runs into bad cards, bad luck, or bad beats sometimes. You have to be able to deal with it and ride it out until the money starts coming your way again, instead of running away from you.

The first thing you need to do once you notice your bankroll in a constant decline is to re-evaluate your game. Is it all bad luck and bad cards or have you fallen into a bad habit that had been costing you money? Do a quick review of some of your recent losses and see if you’re actually beating yourself without even knowing it.

If you’re on a real bad stretch you should take a break. Get away from the tables for a few hours, or even a few days if you’ve been pulling some really long sessions. While on your break, clear your mind of poker and of your recent losses. What you’re trying to do is avoid going on tilt. No matter how in control of your emotions you think you are, everyone has a breaking point. If you cross and go on tilt there’s no chance of you ending your losing streak.

Here’s what you don’t want to do while on a losing streak. Don’t yell at the computer screen every time you lose a hand. Remember, tilt. Don’t dwell on bad beats. If you’re still fuming about how your pocket Aces got busted by that guy holing 7-2 for over an hour, you’re going to play horribly for that whole hour. Once again, tilt.

Don’t play for even. Never say to yourself, “I’ll just keep playing until I get back to even.” There’s a good chance you’ll never get there. If you’re not playing to win every chip at the table, you’re not playing your best. Playing for even is like playing for a tie in any other sports. Only losers tie.

Every poker player out there has a bad beat story. There’s one problem though: Many of those “Bad Beat” stories are really “bad strategy stories”. The guys telling them just aren’t good enough players to know the difference.

Here’s an example of a bad beat. You’re dealt pocket Aces and beat three times the big blind pre-flop. Only one player, the big blind, calls you. The flop hits Ac-Js-3d. The big blind bets the minimum and you drop in a nice-sized raise. He calls and the turn card hits Ac-Js-3d-3h. You’ve got a Full House and feel unbeatable. Statistically speaking you practically are, so when your opponent goes all-in you’re surprised. Unless he’s holding pocket threes you’re golden, so you call. He flips over Jc-3c, giving him a full house that doesn’t measure up to yours. His only out of the river is the remaining three – the three of spades. The river cards hits the table and you can’t believe it – it’s the three of spades. That, my friend, is a bad beat. You played well, but unbelievably bad luck gutted your chip stack.

The exact same outcome could have been a case of bad strategy, if played differently. Say you simply call instead of raising before the flop. Now the big blind checks with his J-3 and has a reason to play it, instead of stupidly hoping to get luck like he did in the bad beat example.

Here’s a bad strategy example to illustrate further. You’re on the button when you look down and find pocket Kings staring you in the face. Five players call the big blind before it’s your turn to act, and you follow suit and also call. That’s mistake No. 1 – not raising to eliminate the field.

Now the flop hits Ks-5d-4d. Everyone checks around to you and you think you’re going to slow play your three Kings and also check. Mistake No. 2 – giving your opponents a free card, especially with the flush draw on the board.

The turn card is a 4c. This time someone bets the minimum and everyone calls. Still slow playing, you call as well. Mistake No. 3 – giving a cheap river. The river card is an Ad. The first player to act bets big and everyone folds to him except for you. You go all-in. You’ve got your powerhouse Kings, after all.

Your opponent quickly calls and shows Qd-8d which gives him a winning flush. You’re left with your new bad beat story about how your three Kings got beat by a rivered flush, when in fact your bad play sunk you from the start.

The old question ‘what’s better, luck or skill?’ may apply more closely to poker than anything else. If you were to ask most people if they’d rather be lucky or skilled at poker, most of them would probably say skilled. Lefty Gomez did say “I’d rather be lucky than good”, and he’s one of the best pitchers ever to wear Yankees’ pinstripes, but with that attitude I’m guessing Gomez wasn’t a great poker player.

Anyone who picks luck over skills is a fool, plain and simple. The reasoning is quite simple if you can break away from your lucky rabbit’s foot long enough to figure it out. Luck can and does fade, while skill is yours forever.

If I still haven’t converted you to the sensible realm, think of it this way: Would you rather know that you have only a 10 percent chance of hitting one of your outs on the river, or just hope you get lucky? I’ll take the skill, which would likely cause you to fold and keep the money you would have lost while putting your money on pure luck.

Luck is for losers. Anyone who wants to argue that, “hey, I watch poker on TV all the time and the pros are always getting lucky” simply doesn’t have a case. It’s all right that the pros get lucky every now and then, though. You know why? Because they’ve also got incredible skill. If you want to throw together a little luck with your immense skill, that’s the panacea. In fact, that’s the formula for winning the now over-populated World Series of Poker main event. You need a big load of skill to make sure you’re making the right decisions during the week you’ll be playing, but you also need a little luck for when your immense skills fail you.

I think the great Doyle Brunson puts it best in his classic book Super System. “Everyone gets lucky once and a while. But no one is consistently lucky. So it has to be something other than luck to account for the fact that I’ve been a consistently big winner through the year.”

If you want to argue with the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner, go right ahead. I’ll be over here working on improving my skills, while you keep relying on dumb luck.

If there’s one thing that will kill you at the poker tables it’s falling into a pattern. If you’re playing with skilled players and you play every premium hand in exactly the same way, you’ll end up broke pretty quickly. The same applies if you play your junk cards the same way every time. It’s even worse if you do both. You might as well write fish across your forehead and start passing out your chips to the rest of the table right after you sit down.

A lot of poker books talk about being consistent at the poker tables in order to be a winner. That’s a truthful statement but that doesn’t mean you should consistently play K-J the same way every time it’s dealt to you. Consistency at the poker table refers to consistently making the right decision, not consistently making the same play.

Professional poker players are able to make a living at the game that befuddles so many of us normal people because they’re so good at mixing up their play. Some people refer to this as switching gears. You have to be able to switch from tight to loose or from aggressive to passive in the blink of an eye. This way you can use your table image to your advantage instead of allowing other players to use it against you.

Here’s a quick example. Let’s say you’re playing in a multi-table tournament and for the last half-hour you’ve been playing extremely tight. You haven’t even seen the flop unless you’re holding two face cards, that’s how tight you are. If there are any good players at the table, they would have you labeled as a big tightwad and unless they were holding the nuts they are probably going to fold to any bet you make. Now it’s time to mix up your play. Switch from extremely tight to extremely loose and you should be able to steal a few pots. Go ahead and make a big bet with nothing and watch the rest of the table fold the pot to you.

The same applies if you have been the loosest player at the table for the last half-hour. Mix it up. Stop tossing in bluff after bluff and go for the pot only when you’ve got big cards, for a while. Not only will this throw off your opponents who thought they had a read on your, but it will keep you in the game longer because loose reckless play most often leads to an early exit.