Basic Poker Strategy

The foundation upon which you build your game is a simple concept. You must play the strength of your hand. If you have a bad hand, then consider the weak actions of checking and folding. If you have a good hand, then consider the strong actions of betting and raising.

The reason that this is a basic winning strategy is due to the fact that it is derived from the rules of poker. The first and second person to act, the small blind and the big blind, are forced to place bets irrespective of their hand strength. People raise the pot because of the fight to win these blinds. If players were never forced to post a blind, then they could adopt a strategy of low risk by just waiting for the single strongest hand. There would be no risk of getting money into the pot against a superior hand. However, people are forced to post blinds so frequently that waiting for Aces to raise would lose money. Basic, low-risk strategy is to raise a collection of the strongest hands in proportion to how few people there are at a table.

Accurately evaluating the strength of your hand makes up a lot of poker. The strength of a hand relates to many subtle factors that you will need to weigh against each other, since they often conflict. Furthermore, a hand is strong or weak in degrees, and it is impossible to quantify the exact strength or weakness of a hand. Many poker questions cannot be rigorously solved using principles and logic because of these issues. You often need to add an element of judgment based on your experience.

Change how you play hands to take advantage of weaknesses in your opponent’s game. The strength of your hand depends on the specifics of a situation. Before you can adjust your game against an opponent, you must know that opponent.

Classify your opponents. The first distinction is between loose and tight players. A loose player puts many chips in the pot, whereas a tight player puts in few. A person who is too tight or loose loses money. In other words, people may play too passively or aggressively. A passive style is one that checks and calls often whereas an aggressive style is one that bets and raises when they have the chance. We recommend that beginners adopt a tight-aggressive style in order to succeed at their first attempts at Poker.