Poker is a game of bluffing, betting, and strategy. It requires a lot of focus and concentration, especially in preflop. If you’re not thinking strategically and following your hunches, you’re going to lose money. Even low stakes players can get lucky a few times, but that doesn’t make up for the losses that keep piling up. The key to poker is understanding that you need to bet when the odds are against you, and that you need to stop betting when you’re certain that your hand won’t win.
The other key to poker is knowing that your hands are only good or bad in relation to the other player’s. A pair of kings is great, but if your opponent holds A-A, your kings are likely losers 82% of the time. This is why it’s important to play the player and not your cards.
In addition to this, position has a huge impact on your starting hand range and strategy. Generally, the earlier your position, the more risk you take because you have less information about the other players’ hands. But the later your position, the more you can use the information you have about the other players’ bet sizes and your own stack to make better decisions.