Poker Strategy Guide Back to Basics Â
Justin Kuraitis
Poker isn’t a complicated game. Learning the basic poker rules and understanding which of the handful of hands is best can be picked up in minutes. That’s the easy part. It’s truly mastering the way you play – and turning poker into a a way to make money consistently – that can take a lifetime.
Be More Aggressive than You Might be Normally
The only way to win at poker is to bet – and the only way to win a lot is to bet a lot. Poker is a game of timed, focused aggression. And as you master the basics of the game, you’ll learn when you need to up the aggression at the table.
But You Must Also be Patient
Being aggressive doesn’t mean throwing money away on bad hands, and going all-in on the hope of catching a great card on the river. That’s a surefire way to quickly cut down the size of your chip stack.
One of the most basic smart poker tips is to fold far more hands than you play. For many players, this sounds like an awfully boring way to spend an evening – just sitting at the table while everyone else is in the game.
Watch Like a Hawk
There’s an old saying in poker: Play the player, not your cards. That’s a fancy way of saying that poker is based on the situation. Your hand is usually good or bad only in relation to what the other guy is holding. K-K is a fantastic hand, but if another player holds AA, your kings are losers 82% of the time. Imagine the reverse situation: You hold A-10 while the other guy’s on J-J. The flop comes up 10-8-6. Suddenly your two 10s have only a 20% chance of winning.
Play for the Long Term
As a novice player, you’re going to lose some of the time. At some point, you'll go all-in with a pair of Aces, then lose to another player holding a pair of 9s who catches a third 9 on the river. Don’t let these types of losses (known as “bad beats”) discourage you. The odds won’t always fall in your favor, but over the long term, those Aces will win more than they lose against the 9s.
Develop Your Skills ď ˝
While you will learn a lot from both wins and losses, poker isn’t just a game you master at the table. You can also learn a lot more by reading blogs and books about poker strategy.