Winning at poker does not mean winning more pots, but winning more money. You can do this by winning more and bigger pots and losing less money. Here are some tips on how to do both:
Do not call with any old card!
Some people will call with anything, believing that any two cards have the same chance of winning. This is essentially true, but some are much more likely to win the pot than others – why waste money over and over, paying to see the flop when you can hit a straight? Save that money and watch other players waste theirs! You will be ahead just by not calling! See the section on ranking starting hands for good starting hands. Remember that checking is free, so unless you’re playing speed or turbo hold ’em, always check, no matter what cards are in it.
If you’re playing speed or turbo and you don’t have a lot of chips left DominoQQ Online, it’s probably better to give up bad hands than check, so you can place better hands before the bets go up.
If the flop doesn’t fit ….
If you decide to call and the flop doesn’t serve (if the flop doesn’t help your hand), fold.
Don’t call with the hope of hitting that third ace on the turn, you’ve seen three cards and it didn’t show up, so what makes you think it’ll show up when only one card is dealt? A good starting hand means nothing if the flop doesn’t improve your hand! Also remember that calling the flop gives you three cards for the price of one.
Say you have two aces (say diamonds and spades), so the flop comes, and it’s like 2 clubs, 7 clubs, 8 spades. Someone at your table may have hit two pair on the flop, or be far from a flush or straight. There may be someone with a pair of two who is eager to take your money after you have flopped a set!
You don’t have to defend your small blind!
When you call the small blind and have the opportunity to call, don’t think of it as just paying another 50% to see the flop. In fact, it’s an opportunity to save 50% on bad hands. Give up if you don’t have a pair of high value cards. You will soon see your chip level increase.
Bluffing doesn’t always work!
Don’t bluff thinking it will always scare the other guy. I’m not saying to never bluff, just be wise about it. If the flop has three diamonds and you have two spades, it is likely that someone has flopped a flush. And if you bluff saying that he has the same amount of money, you better hope he doesn’t have an ace of diamonds in his hand, because he knows he has the nuts, and it won’t make a difference to him if you’re ‘bluffing or have two diamond cards – he knows he can’t be beaten!
Of course, this also works in another way: let’s say that three club cards are flopped and you suddenly pass the table in the first hand to go all-in, people will assume that you hit a flush on the flop and most will fold.
Or let’s say you check the flop and your opponents too – this indicates that everyone has bad cards. Then the turn turns out to be a king, you can raise at this point, pretending to have a pair of kings, or a set, and the others can fold. Another good time to go all in is when a pair is revealed on the flop. This may suggest to people that you have a set, maybe even quadruples or a full house.