Keep It Simple

• Holdem Poker Strategy
• Simple Poker Strategy
• Simple Blackjack Strategy Chart
• Simple Video Poker Strategy

When you start to play poker, you will more than likely be playing low-limit games. Beating these games does not require you to become a masterful poker player, it primarily entails that you are able to outplay poor opponents. Beating good players at high limits can be incredibly difficult, entailing many complex moves. However, winning at low limits is pretty straightforward.

Learn the rules, positions and poker hands ranking. Naturally, this is the first step you want to take. Know Your Position. The best position in Texas Hold 'Em is 'on the button.' When you're on the. Don't Play Every Hand/Do Fold More. Probably the number one mistake beginning poker players.

What do I mean? Basically, other players won't be paying attention to you. They only care about their own cards; they don't care about you or your cards. They will play their hand as they always play their hand, regardless of whether or not you are in the pot. You are basically a ghost to them... but hopefully you will be a ghost that's slowly taking their money! If you want to beat these types of players, you simply need to a play a straightforward game that will win in the long run. For example, play tight, don't do any fancy bluffs, bet aggressively when you probably have the best hand, and utilize pot odds for your drawing decisions.

When it comes to deception with these players, slowplaying can work. These players are easily fooled into thinking they have the best hand when they hit a pair on the turn, so giving them a free card when you hold the stone nuts can be to your advantage. However, bluffing is simply an exercise in futility. These guys want to see if they have the best hand. They'll pay to see your cards just so they can see them sometimes! Don't expect to scare any fish at lower limits with an extra $2 bet.

Master the art of choosing starting hands, employing pot odds, and aggressively betting your winning hands. However, psychological strategies are generally useless. Your opponents are not thinking too deeply, and attempting any fancy plays will only hurt you.

Think For Yourself

A disturbing trend I've noticed in the poker community is that people seem to want to follow strict guidelines when they play poker. Many want to treat poker like blackjack, where there is an optimal strategy in every situation.

This is simply not the case. Any and all advice are just some general hints that can never take the place of proper situational judgment skills. Poker is a game of people and a game of situations. It is not a game of optimal, pre-planned strategy. All of the best poker players vary their play and make decisions on the spot. Poker players that rely on a ready-made recipe are doomed to fail because they will play very predictably, and they won't take into account many important situational factors when making decisions.

There really is no way to teach someone situational judgment skills. The only advice on this topic that I can give is to practice and pay attention to your flaws. What are some situations that could be played differently? How often do you correctly place opponents on their hands?

Something that may be helpful is online poker hand histories. Some, but not all, poker rooms will display the hands of all the losing players who called a showdown (the screen will show mucks but the hand history will show the opponents' hands). Some poker rooms that do this are Party Poker and Titan Poker. When you beat someone who called you to the river, request the hand history and see what your opponent had. This will help give you an idea of how often you correctly judge your opponents.

If you are going to play poker, have confidence in yourself. Think for yourself. Don't worry if your play may be violating textbook guidelines. A winning poker player's arsenal combines general poker knowledge with situational judgment skills. Losing poker players don't think for themselves or simply don't think at all.

Evaluating Your Own Plays

To improve at most activities, a simple trial-and-error approach works well. For example, if you are playing basketball, you can improve your shooting through practice. When you make a basket, you pay attention to what you did with that shot. When you miss, you avoid what you believe caused you to miss.

This sort of trial-and-error method does not work as well with poker. In a poker game, the right move may actually cause you to lose money in any given hand because you might get unlucky. Also, the wrong move might end up working out because you get lucky.

In this example, there is $10 in the pot, and the bet is $8. Clearly, in this situation, you should fold. You do not have anywhere near the pot odds to call.

However, let's just say you call anyway. The turn is a miracle 9 and the river is a harmless 2. You end up holding the nuts and win a big pot. Does this make your original call a good call?

No, it was clearly a mistake. However, this mistake ended up winning you a decent-sized pot. When looking back at your decision, you should not focus on the actual results of the hand. Instead, you must realize that in the long run, this type of decision will cause you to lose money.

In this example, there is $10 in the pot and someone goes all-in for $5. Everyone folds to you. You decide to call. The turn is a Q and the river is a K. Your opponent flips over A Q and takes down the pot.

You may be upset that you lost the hand, but you made the right decision. You are only contributing 1/4 of the pot, and you have a roughly 1/3 chance of hitting the straight. You have pot odds and should make the call.

When you evaluate your plays at the poker table, do not focus on whether the play resulted in a win for that given hand. Instead, consider if that move will be effective in the long run. In the end, the luck evens out and the players that make the best plays are the ones who end up with the most chips.

Ego

Poker can be an exciting game. Because it is played against other players and not against the house, it is also possible for a player to win at it in the long run.

However, always remember to keep your poker ego in check. First, the vast majority of people who play poker lose. For someone to win at poker, someone else has to lose. Also, the house takes a rake. If everyone at the table were of equal skill, everyone would expect to lose in the long run because of the amount of money paid in rake (of course, this doesn't apply to home games). So to win at poker, you need to be more skilled than your opponents, and you need to be skilled enough to beat the rake.

Furthermore, don't be naive and think you can be a guaranteed winner overnight. Poker is a tough game. Some people have played poker for years and still cannot become winning players. You are not going to just read a few articles and become a dominating poker player right off the bat. It takes skill, practice, and patience to become a good poker player.

Also, just because you do well at one type of poker does not necessarily mean you will do well at other forms of poker. For example: someone who dominates his home poker game may very well lose in a more competitive setting such as a casino or online. Another example: many good ring game players are horrible tournament players and vice versa. Keep track of your poker statistics so you can analyze which form of poker you play the best. If your statistics have shown that over a fair amount of time you have consistently lost at a certain poker game, you need to be cognizant of the fact that your poker skills are not good enough to beat that game over the long run.

Poker can be fun, exciting, and potentially even profitable. However, always have the right mindset when you are playing at the table which sometimes means admitting that you're a losing player.

Common Beginner Mistakes

Mistake #1: Playing too many hands

When people sit down in a game, they want to play. Often, this means they even will play hands like J 4. This is a cardinal mistake. Hopefully, the articles on this site will help improve your starting hand selection.

Mistake #2: Playing above your bankroll

This goes without saying. Sometimes the gambling and money aspect of poker gets to people too much. They become greedy and play in games they cannot afford or games where the competition is simply too stiff.

At first, stick to a consistent, low limit. Learn how to play and beat the game before you play in higher-stakes games.

Mistake #3: Becoming too emotional at the table

Bad beats will happen. Losing sessions will happen. Annoying opponents will happen. Live with it and do not let your emotions sway your judgment at the table.

Mistake #4: Not using pot odds

If your hand needs improvement, the concept of pot odds can help you determine if you should call to see the next card on the board. Few beginning players understand pot odds, and they often call too much. This site has an article about pot odds in the Poker Fundamentals for Beginners page to help you better understand this concept.

Mistake #5: Using a two-color deck

When most people think of cards, they think of two colors, red and black. The suits are displayed like this:

Well, I have news for you. Most online poker rooms give you two display choices: the traditional two-color deck and a four-color deck. A four-color deck has a unique color for each suit, like this:

While this may seem unusual at first, it will make things much easier on you with time.

Believe me, if you use a two-color deck, there is a good chance that, at some point, you will misread your hand. You might think you have a flush when in fact you do not. Using a four-color deck is a simple way to prevent yourself from making stupid mistakes.

Holdem Poker Strategy

Mistake #6: Not following etiquette

This is a mistake that brick-and-mortar beginners make. When you want to make a raise, you should not say, 'I call your bet and raise you $X.' Your initial action is considered your final action. So if you say, 'I call ...' it means you just want to call. If you want to raise, say 'raise' and state the amount you want to raise. If you're playing a limit game, a simple 'raise' is sufficient since there is only one amount you can raise to.

Mistake #7: Imitating other players

A lot of people learn how to play poker by playing in a fashion similar to other people. They may just imitate others at the table, or they may try to play like a professional they saw on television. This is the wrong way to go about playing poker.

Many people who play poker are simply bad at it. Imitating a poor player means copying a lot of their bad habits. Furthermore, trying to imitate what one saw on television is also a recipe for disaster. What is shown on television is almost always a tournament, and their hands are highly situational. The reasons for the professional's decision probably has little applicability to your own game.

It is important to understand how to make decisions at poker. Succeeding at poker is not done through imitation; rather, it is done through understanding the complexities of the game.

Mistake #8: Superstitions

All gambling involves luck. While luck tends to even itself out over the long run, people naturally focus on the short run and on their fluctuations.

Because gambling involves randomness, people will often blame or chalk up their luck to some random event that coincided with how they fared at a certain gambling session. This may be as innocent as believing in a lucky shirt. However, some people take these superstitions too far. They start to believe that if they constantly move seats or change their socks that they will somehow become the next WSOP winner.

You cannot affect the 'luck' factor of gambling. Luck evens itself out over the long run. The only thing you should concern yourself with at the poker table is playing well. If you play very well at poker, you will win over the long run. If you do not play well, you will lose. It's as simple as that.

Mistake #9: Overvaluing Suited Hands

Simple Poker Strategy

Having a suited hand is a plus. However, you should not play a hand just because it is suited. The first two things to consider about a starting hand are the ranks of the cards and whether the cards are paired. These are by far the most important factors in the value of a hand. After this, you should consider if they are suited or connecting.

Simple Blackjack Strategy Chart

A hand like A K is much, much more valuable than a hand like 10 3. A K is a top starting hand, whereas 10 3 should be thrown in the muck.

Simple Video Poker Strategy

This may sound obvious, but many beginners make the mistake of calling to see the flop with any two suited cards. The probability of flopping a flush or a flush draw with two suited cards is just under 12%. This is fairly low; you need other reasons to play a starting hand besides the fact that your cards are suited.