question Brand new to poker — what actually matters early on?

I’m pretty fresh to poker and trying not to do the usual thing of jumping in, punting chips, then realising I had no clue what I was doing. I know the basic hand rankings, but once people start talking about position, ranges, pot odds, c-bets and all that, I’m a bit lost tbh.

If you were starting from scratch, what would you focus on first? Just playing tight and learning when to fold? Getting your head around position before anything else? Or is it better to keep it simple for a while and not overthink every hand?

Also keen to know if there are any common rookie mistakes that are easy to avoid. Stuff like playing too many hands, chasing draws when you probably shouldn’t, calling too much because you’re curious... feels like the kind of thing heaps of new players do. Any simple advice, study tips, or rules of thumb would be awesome, cheers.

First thing I'd drill is fold discipline. Most new players don't lose because they missed some fancy concept, they lose because they keep turning up with junk from bad seats and then get stuck in ugly spots. Learn position, play fewer hands early, and treat top pair like maybe-good, not auto-stack-off.

Mia TurboPokie wrote >

calling too much because you’re curious...

That bit is the leak I'd fix before anything else. Are you playing live or online? I reckon beginners get pushed toward charts and solver-ish stuff way too soon, when the real job is learning to make a boring fold without needing to see what the other bloke had.

I got better once I started doing a tiny review after each session, literally just a couple of hands I felt weird about. No spreadsheet, no massive study plan. Funny thing was most of my bad spots weren't big bluffs, just me paying people off with one pair because I hated feeling pushed around lol