Guardian Series: Why not Give That Second Pair a Go?
Other articles byVicky Coren You are here: Home Poker Articles & Features Vicky Coren Guardian Series: Why not Give That Second Pair a Go? Victoria Coren It’s quite fun, this Guardian experiment. They’re having a games slot every day – bridge, chess, that sort of thing – and I’m doing the poker one. It’s aimed at the fairly new player, who might have watched a bit of poker on TV and just started playing with their friends and wants a few tips. So for the moment in the column I’m generally advocating caution and covering basics – it’s a way of trying to help people avoid losing all their money in their first few weeks or months playing the game! If the links are going up on the Hendon Mob page, I hope I don’t get a flood of people shouting at me on the forum – ‘What do you MEAN, pass A9 before the flop?’ and that kind of thing. This isn’t complex stuff to be debated by people who have already been playing for years – it’s just start-up tips and ways not to go broke. Whatever I tell the Guardian, I’d probably stick the lot in with A9 cos I came here to gamble…” Vicky… x (Vicky is sponsored by PokerStars.com. Her poker column appears every Thursday in the Guardian G2 section) Newest Article by Vicky Why not Give That Second Pair a Go?, 6th of December 2011 Vickys other Guardian Articles Bite your tongue, 25th August 2005 Introduction, 23rd September 2005 Poker on TV, 30th September 2005 Poker Clothing, 7th October 2005 Money, 14th October 2005 Raising, 21st October 2005 Aces, 28th October 2005 A Single Ace, 4th November 2005 Ace King, 11th November 2005 Breaking the Rules, 18th November 2005 Playing Kings, 25th November 2005 Poker Chips and Christmas, 2nd December 2005 Pocket Pairs, 9th December 2005 Christmas Winners, 16th December 2005 Suited Connectors, 30th December 2005 Drawing Hands, 6th January 2006 Televised Poker, 13th January 2006 Luck Versus Skill, 20th January 2006 Bluffing, 27th January 2006 Bluffing Situations, 3rd February 2006 Semi-bluffing, 10th February 2006 Beyond Your Two Cards, 17th February 2006 Position, 24th February 2006 Taking a Card, 3rd March 2006 Mix It Up, 10th March 2006 The Tournament Trail, 17th March 2006 Online Tournaments, 24th March 2006 The Perfect Balance, 31st March 2006 It’s only a game, 7th April 2006 Women and Poker, 14th April 2006 Celebrity Poker, 21st April 2006 A Different Sort of Hero, 28th April 2006 Counting Your Stack, 5th May 2006 You Must Feel a Greed, 12th May 2006 Accounting for Your Opponent’s Stack Size, 19th May 2006 Half a Hand, 26th May 2006 Poker is Cruel, 2nd June 2006 Home Games, 9th June 2006 Poker Literature, 16th June 2006 Strategy Thoughts, 23rd June 2006 Strategy for Multi-table Tournaments, 30th June 2006 Maniac at Your Table, 7th July 2006 Online Behaviour, 14th July 2006 World Series of Poker, 28th July 2006 Back in Vegas, 4th August 2006 Poker Celebrities, 11th August 2006 12 Million Richer, 18th August 2006 Hold Your Tongue, 25th August 2006 No Limit Cash Games, 1st September 2006 No Limit Cash Games Part 2, 8th September 2006 All-In…, 15th September 2006 The European Poker Tour, 22nd September 2006 How to Win 500,000?, 29th September 2006 Poker Ban, 6th October 2006 EPT Baden, 13th October 2006 Poker Robots, 20th October 2006 Betting on Poker, 30th October 2006 Meddling in Things They don’t Understand, 6th November 2006 Analysis is a Long-Term Profitable Strategy, 13th November 2006 Poker Variants, 20th November 2006 The Do-Re-Mi of Poker, 27th Novermber 2006 The Benefit of Omaha, 4th December 2006 Position in Omaha, 11th December 2006 (scroll down to poker section) Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, 18th December 2006 New Year’s Resolutions, 8th January 2007 Seven-card stud, 15th January 2007 (scroll down to poker section) Lowball, 22nd January 2007 Seven-card high/low split, 29th January 2007 A Secret About High-Low Games, 5th February 2007 Poker Nicknames, 12th February 2007 Teacup…, 19th February 2007 Group Hugs Don’t Win Poker Trophies, 26th February 2007 A Monkey Could Do Better…, 5th March 2007 Poker Tells, 12th March 2007 Women at Poker, 19th March 2007 H.O.R.S.E., 26th March 2007 GUKPT, 2nd April 2007 Poker Is a Slippery Game, 9th April 2007 Desperate Housewives…, 16th April 2007 Charity Tournaments, 23rd April 2007 Charity Tournament Part 2, 30th April 2007 Could Be the Perfect Play, Could Be Suicidal, 7th May 2007 Bigger Deal, 14th May 2007 Characters in Poker, 21th May 2007 The Old Principles of Craftiness, 28th May 2007 Mental Focus, 4th June 2007 Bet With a Bad Hand, 11th June 2007 Bet Reasons, 18th June 2007 The Message is Clear, Boys, 25th June 2007 Crazy Games, 2nd July 2007 Playing Against “Donkeys”, 9th July 2007 Do Not Try This at Home, 16th July 2007 Brilliant or Goddamn Lucky, 23rd July 2007 What is She Doing?, 6th August 2007 Rule of Three, 13th August 2007 That Buys a Lot of Oven Gloves, 27th August 2007 World Series Comes to London, 3rd of September 2007 Super-satellites, 10th of September 2007 Head and Shoulders Above the Rest, 17th of September 2007 Annette Obrestad, 24th of September 2007 It’s Hard to Win the Same Tournament Twice, 1st of 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24th of March 2008 Chasing Rainbows, 31st of March 2008 But Human Nature Hasn’t Changed…, 7th of April 2008 A Remarkable Pot, 14th of April 2008 Flying Blind, 21st of April 2008 The Domino Effect, 28th of April 2008 Long-term Winning Strategy, 5th of May 2008 China Looks Like a Soft Touch, 12th of May 2008 Bluff Gestures, 19th of May 2008 Local Rules, 26th of May 2008 Detective Work, 2nd of June 2008 World Series of Poker 2008, 9th of June 2008 Poker Shrewdies Round the Wheel, 16th of June 2008 Betting on WSOP 2008, 23rd of June 2008 Another Factor the Bookies Haven’t Considered, 30th of June 2008 Each Hand Should Be Treated Like Each Night of a Marriage, 7th of July 2008 Slow-rolling, 14th of July 2008 It is Going to Cause Some Pain, 21st of July 2008 November Nine, 28th of July 2008 Complicated Decisions, 4th of August 2008 One-night-stand, 11th of August 2008 The Secret of Winning Online, 18th of August 2008 Is Poker a Sport?, 25th of August 2008 A Timely Run-Through of Appalling 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of Its Own, 19th of February 2009 Know Your Limits, 26th of February 2009 The Dangers of Slow Playing, 5th of March 2009 A mixed-up world, 19th of March 2009 Mind the Red Herring, 26th of March 2009 The Momentum of a Card Game, 2nd of April 2009 Stunning Chutzpah of a River Bet, 9th of April 2009 Private Room at the Vic, 16th of April 2009 Curious Tradition of the Live Game, 23rd of April 2009 Charitable Spirit, 30th of April 2009 Tindall has the Knack, 7th of May 2009 Losing streak, 15th of May 2009 Turbo Tournaments, 21st of May 2009 All About Going All-in, 29th of May 2009 Think twice before playing in the World Series of Poker, 5th of June 2009 Finding Your Level, 12th of June 2009 Brits Triumph at the World Series, 19th of June 2009 Poker Tournaments are a Masochistic Pursuit, 26th of June 2009 2009 World Series of Poker – Judge Opponents by Their Game, 3rd of July 2009 The Most Exciting WSOP Final Table in Years, 24th of July 2009 The Dragons’ Den Investors Got It Wrong About 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