Poker How To Win
If both the dealer and the player have the same higher ranking hand like a flush or a straight, the one with the highest card in the combination wins. For example, a 7, 8, 9 straight beats a 5, 6, 7 straight, and a King-high flush always beats a Queen-high flush. Suits are never used to determine the winner in three card poker games. Yup, that’s right, I’m going to tell you how to “win poker”. Without knowing anything about you, your motivations, your current poker knowledge, or your learning style. Many of you likely subscribe to, or have somehow got placed on, email lists from multiple poker training sites and related companies. HOW TO WIN AT ONLINE POKER IN 5 STEPS. If you have spent much time playing free online poker, then you know that there are some strategies that separate those at the top of the game from the rest of the playing community. Some people attribute this difference to a sense of instinct, while others attribute it to the benefit of years of playing.
There are a handful of critical aspects when it comes to learning how to play poker. There’s learning the different poker hands and their ranks as well as learning to call, raise, and fold. But there’s also more to it than just that.
This post tries to capture some of the other aspects of how to play poker, including a few hints about general strategy that might keep you from losing too much money early in your career.
How to Find a Good Poker Game
It’s easy enough to find real money online poker, although if you live in the United States, only a limited number of websites will actually allow US players to compete for real money.
If you’re brand new to poker, though, I suggest getting started with the free, play money games on the internet. You’ll learn a lot about how the game goes.
The most important things to pay attention to begin with is what order everything happens in. It’s important to understand this, especially when you switch to live poker.
And I recommend switching to live poker as soon as possible. I got my start playing on the internet, but live poker has charms all its own.
Another option, which is a better option financially, too, is to find a home poker game. Why’s that a better option? Well, you can avoid paying the rake that way.
When you play poker in a casino, the casino has a dealer run the action. The casino also takes 5% of every pot as their “rake.” This is one of the ways they stay in business.
If you’re at a table with players who are equally skilled, you’ll eventually break even over time. But not if 5% of the pot disappears on every hand. To break even in that situation, you have to play better than everyone else.
How do you find a home poker game? Ask around at the office. If you hang out in a bar, ask around there. You can also find message boards on the internet where locals host poker games, but some of them charge a rake. Such games are “underground” games and are probably illegal.
How to Host a Poker Game
If you have trouble finding a poker game, you can always host. You’ll need at least five or six players to have a decent home poker game, so you’ll probably need to invite 10 people to get a decent game going.
You’ll also need the proper equipment to host a poker game. Obviously, you’ll need decks of cards. I like to have two decks going, so you can have a deck shuffled at all times. There’ll be no pauses in the game while the deck’s getting shuffled.
I also like to use plastic playing cards rather than ones made of cardstock. You’ll pay more for such a deck, but it should last you forever. Kem is a good brand for this.
You’ll also need a poker table. You can find cheap poker tabletops that you can just put on top of your dining room table online. They’re good enough to start with.
Finally, you need clay chips. These used to be expensive, but they’re not too expensive anymore. Don’t host a game with plastic chips. They’re just lame and lack gravitas. Also, don’t host a poker game with a lot of cash on the table. Have your guests buy chips.
Be sure to let everyone know what variant you’re going to play and for what stakes. It’s okay to host a poker tournament and charge an extra $5 toward the buy-in if you’re going to provide snacks and drinks.
You should, in fact, provide snacks and drinks. Just because it’s a poker game doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be a good host, and a good host offers refreshments to his guests.
Also, check out this blog I wrote on how to deal a home poker game if you need extra help on getting your game started.
How to Bluff in Poker
Since I’ve already written posts about how poker hands and hand rankings work, as well as how betting in poker works, I’m going to skip those subjects and get straight into the subject on most people’s minds—bluffing.
A bluff is when you bet with a hand hoping that everyone else will fold. In that event, you win the pot by default.
A true bluff is a bet where you’re almost certainly have a lower-ranked hand than your opponent. If you think you have a better hand, you’re value betting, not bluffing.
If you don’t play much poker, you might think that bluffing is a bigger part of the game than it actually is. But the truth is, bluffing doesn’t work often enough to be profitable, especially in lower stakes games. They call lower stakes Texas holdem games “no foldem holdem” for a reason.
You need a perfect situation to bluff successfully. Part of that situation is few competitors.
But if you bluff into a single opponent, your odds improve dramatically. Paying attention to your opponents’ tendencies also matters if you’re going to be bluff.
A better strategy is semi-bluffing. When you semi-bluff, you bet aggressively with a hand that probably won’t win, but might improve and be a winner later.
You have two ways to win in such a situation. You win if your opponent folds, but you also win if your hand improves.
The classic example is when you’re heads up with someone and you have four cards to a flush on the flop. You have a roughly 1 in 3 chance of making your flush. If you bet aggressively, though, your opponent might fold. You have two ways to win.
Poker Strategy Tips for Beginners
You can find plenty of strategy tips for poker beginners online, but the biggest and best involve your overall approach to the game.
Most people agree that, especially for a beginner, a tight aggressive approach is the best way to play. There are two concepts to understand in that sentence:
- Tight
- Aggressive
I’d like to address tightness first. Poker players can be categorized as tight or loose. This refers to how many hands they get involved in.
A tight player doesn’t get involved in many hands, while a loose player gets involved in lots of hands.
This implies that a tight player has a better hand going into any situation than a loose player. The better hands don’t come along as often, so the tight player obviously only plays when he has good cards or better.
A loose player, though, plays too many hands and sticks with them too long hoping they’ll improve. Some loose players think of themselves as some kind of sheriff with a responsibility to keep the other players honest.
Being tight or loose is a separate concept from aggression, though. An aggressive player might play few hands or a lot of hands, but when he plays a hand, he’s usually betting or raising with that hand.
You’ll rarely see an aggressive player just call a bet. The opposite of an aggressive player is a passive player. And passive players call bets to stay in a hand.
You want to be the kind of player who usually bets instead of checking, who usually raises instead of calling. The goal is to only play when you have good cards. When you do play, you want to bet and raise. You want to get money into the pot when you’re likely to win. This is called being “tight aggressive.”
Tight passive players lose money because they don’t bet and raise enough, so they don’t get any value from their winning hands.
Online Poker How To Win
Loose aggressive players sometimes make money in games with poor players because they get a lot of their opponents to fold. Still, when they face someone with some discipline, it’s easy enough for them to win just by waiting for good cards.
Loose passive players are the best opponents. They will call your bets with lousy cards all night. Don’t be a loose passive player when you’re gambling with real money.
Conclusion
There are some of the basics of how to play poker, including how to find poker games and how to host poker games.
I also included some poker strategy tips appropriate for beginning players. You will definitely learn more as you go and put all these tips into practice. So good luck and have fun!
HOW TO WIN AT ONLINE POKER IN 5 STEPS
If you have spent much time playing free online poker, then you know that there are some strategies that separate those at the top of the game from the rest of the playing community. Some people attribute this difference to a sense of instinct, while others attribute it to the benefit of years of playing the game. However, you do not have to have a special “sixth sense” or years in the game to improve your free poker play and build your winnings. Take a look at five steps you can use to upgrade your own play.
Make your decisions easier
It doesn’t matter if you play for real cash or if you only engage in free poker action, there are times when the game gets overwhelming, because you just have too much information flowing in at the same time.
When that happens, it’s easy to go with your gut and follow your emotions – and that’s when mistakes can happen. Don’t let the pressure of the clock push you into decisions, and don’t worry about irritating your fellow players. They’re not going to feel sorry for you if you lose, so take the time that you need.
Consider what possible hands you could get in your situation and what the other players might have. After you’ve thought about that, then make the play. Feel confused? Just take a breath, analyze your hands and consider your options. Don’t just bluff to bluff – and don’t just call to see what the other players have. Take the time to think clearly.
Adjust your poker game to your opponents
Different players have different tendencies, and an important part of winning involves taking advantage of the tendencies at your online poker table. How aggressively do they play? How quickly to they get frustrated? What types of hands do they show down? How often do their plays go against what they have shown down? Understanding the answers to these questions will help you in your decision-making. As you pay attention to the hands that your opponents put down and evaluate their pre-flop decisions, you’ll be able to manage your own decisions more effectively.
Choose the right game for you
Here are some good games to start: games where the house does not take a rake; poker games with lots of recreational players who are after some fun; games where players are drinking; games where several players are making a lot of action. All of those choices involve potential openings for you. You might want to up your game by taking on some more advanced players, but while those lessons can be helpful, they generally end up costing your bankroll.
Keep your holdings in disguise
If you watch a player and notice that he only opens pocket tens or better, you can take advantage of that over time.
You don’t want to be predictable, so you can use some strategies to make your own choices more difficult to see beforehand: using similar action post-flop with a lot of your hands; playing some of your strong hands the same way you play your weak ones; keeping cards covered until you have to; raising to the same size with almost all of your hands. If your opponents cannot figure out what you have based on what you do, that’s a big advantage.
Know what you will play
Poker How To Win Heads Up
When you play poker for real cash, understanding what hands you will play, on the basis of your position, makes a huge difference with respect to overall success. The closer you sit to the button in free poker, the more you should play your hands. If you take the time to map out which hands you will play ahead of time, based on where you are sitting, then choices become easier in the game.
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