Hi. I am one of the thousands of players that have caught on with the poker craze sweeping the US. Until the past month or so I've really had no experience playing poker. But I managed to win a couple freerolls on a backgammon site that also has poker, and decided to transfer my miniscule amounts I made with BG to poker.

I had played with play money for a week or so before that, but decided people were too 'loose' with their play money, and the constant all-ins were getting annoying.

So I played about 12 hands of NL holdem and was done. But I managed to win a few more $$ in bg, and entered a $1 entry fee tourney with $500 added, and somehow managed to place 9th. I've entered this tournament once a week since then and haven't placed higher than 40th (of about 170-180 entrants each time). Obviously my first time was beginners luck. Anyway, I've probably had about 8-10 hours playing experience (not counting play money games).

Sorry for the boring background... just wanted to get that out before I started my lame questions. :oops:

But from what I see here, it seems that more people play fixed bet, rather than NL? Can somebody explain why?

I'm also unfamilar with alot of the terms and acronyms, but those seem to be coming along slowly. Like I think I've learned that I am what you call a fish

Which online sites would be well suited for a noob to learn and hone his/her game?

Are there any books that are considered 'bible', that could help me improve?

Are there some spreadsheets out there that tell me what my pre-flop winning percentages are?

I apologize if these questions are quite lame and noobish, but we all had to start somewhere, right?

But from what I see here, it seems that more people play fixed bet, rather than NL? Can somebody explain why?

NL has greater variance swings, and fixed bet limit hold'em allows for a more stable income when playing. It is a much more interesting and complex game. The reason is simply because with set betting increments, the edge you have over less skilled opponents is far less. That, in turn, makes it much harder to beat weaker opponents in limit hold'em. It is extremely easy to run over an opponent in NL hold'em if you know what you are doing and they do not. You can actually become quite bored with NL hold'em after a while.

I'm also unfamilar with alot of the terms and acronyms, but those seem to be coming along slowly. Like I think I've learned that I am what you call a fish

Meh, you might be a fish currently (I'm not going to lie, you probably are), but hopefully you will improve. Visit the strategy section of the forum, you will improve your game in all likelihood by doing so.

Which online sites would be well suited for a noob to learn and hone his/her game?

PartyPoker is widely accepted as having horribly weak competition, but they do not have microlimits like Pokerstars. I recommend signing up with Pokerstars and playing at their lower levels until you have a strong grasp on the game. Then, transfer that money over to PartyPoker and clean up.

Are there any books that are considered 'bible', that could help me improve?

Supersystem and Supersystem II (very recently released) are extremely good books (Supersystem has been called "the bible of poker"), but they also require higher level thinking in certain respects and you need a pretty good knowledge of the games before fully understanding these books. Read "Small Stakes Hold'em," followed by "The Theory of Poker." Both are a must to improve your game. "Small Stakes Hold'em" focuses on limit hold'em though, not NL.


Good luck.