ThePokerTest.com

Basic Poker Strategy and Concepts

Learning how to play poker is the easy part. Learning how to be a winning poker player is what will challenge you and your game for the rest of your life. The game of poker is more popular today than it has ever been. It seems like everyone is playing the game from friends and family to casual players. The learning curve is not nearly as steep with the advent of various poker web sites and video learning materials available to players around the globe. How you go about harvesting that information is up to you. It all depends on how you learn. In the mean time we are going to cover some basic concepts and principles of how to play poker. All references are pertaining to Texas Hold'em.

The Cards

In Texas Hold'em poker each player is dealt 2 hole cards. You are then dealt a flop of 3 community cards and then a fourth and fifth card making bets after each card in turn. In poker cards are how you measure the strength of your hand. The strongest hand you can be dealt is [A][A] and the weakest hand is [7][2]. When you place a bet before the flop you are telling your opponents that you have something worth getting involved with. This does not always mean you have a premium hand or even a good hand. The cards are more like a tool to be used when necessary. The most important thing about understanding the cards is to be able to put your opponent on a hand based on how he/she is responding to your betting. Remember, you know what cards you have. You need to learn how to put your opponent on a hand and play the pot from there.

Protect Your Hand

One of the most common mistakes you see in both online and live poker is when players do not protect their hand. This happens when you have a made hand pre-flop or after the flop with some kind of a draw on the board.

For example: You hold [As][Ks] on the button and your opponent holds [8d][7d] with blinds of $50/$25. Each of you has $1500 in their stack.

The flop comes down [Qc][Td][Jd] and you flop a straight.

Your opponent checks and the action is on you. In order to protect your hand you are going to have to make a large bet to discourage your opponent from drawing at the flush. If you bet too small he will likely be priced in and call to see the next card.

You make a bet of $350 and your opponent folds. Had you made a bet of $200 or less it is likely you would have gotten a call and it is possible you may have lost the hand had he hit the flush on the turn. This is why protecting your hands is extremely important in any form of poker because if you bet too little you invite trouble from other players that you do not want to get involved in. Always bet strong when you have a made hand. If you receive some resistance you can always re-evaluate where you are at and shut down.

Control Your Emotions

Fun as it may be to talk and be expressive and social at the table you may want to re-think that kind of approach over the long term. Many players give off tells as to how strong or weak their hands are at the poker table. You do not want to be one of them. In order to avoid this kind of scenario you need to control your outward emotions. Lighting up like a Christmas tree each time you get a premium hand will only lead to you winning small pots because people will have an idea that you are on to something more often than not. This is not to say that you cannot have fun and socialize at the table. I am simply pointing out that you have to pick your spots to be serious and when to have fun.

Follow those simple tips and your game will continue to grow and success won't be far away.