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Poker Strategy

Winning Poker Strategies

Winning at poker involves an element of luck, but most poker games are won by the player who uses the best strategy. The best poker strategy combines mathematics (understanding the odds and probabilities) with psychology (understanding your opponents but not letting them understand you).

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"Know When to Hold 'em"

The goal in any poker strategy is NOT to win every hand. That's an impossible dream — too much depends on the luck of the draw. Once you understand that you cannot win every poker hand, you can see that the true goal of poker strategy is to win a lot of money on the hands that you do win, and to lose only a little money on the hands that you lose.

In order to do this, you must be able to make an objective analysis of your cards, and then make a realistic appraisal of your likelihood of winning with them. If you think you are likely to win, bet big. If you are likely to lose, bet small or fold.

Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. There are times when you will want to bet big on a bad hand — that's called bluffing. And there are times when you will want to bet small on a good hand — that's called slow-playing. But bluffing and slow-playing are effective poker strategies only if most of the time — on the majority of your poker hands — you bet normally according to the strength of your hand. Bet big on a winning poker hand; fold on a loser. That is the way to come out ahead over a long night or day of playing poker.

Understand the Poker Game

There are many variations of the game of poker. In fact, there are probably more poker variations than there are for any other card game. This means that you must adjust your strategy to suit your particular game. The best Texas Hold-em strategy is not the best 7-card stud strategy. So before you can even start thinking about poker strategy, make sure you understand the particular poker game you are playing. Learn the rules, the terminology, and the betting limits, and then learn the strategies that apply to your particular poker game.

Understand the Poker Players

Poker is a lot different from blackjack. In blackjack, you are playing only against the dealer. Even if there are five players at the blackjack table, each one is playing his own individual game against the dealer. It is possible for all five to win, or all five to lose, or some to win and some to lose. Poker is different. When you play poker, you are actually playing against the other players at the poker table. At the end of each hand, one of you will win and the rest of you will lose.

The other difference is that the blackjack dealer plays like a robot. With 16 or less, he hits; with 17 or more, he stands. There is no variation in his play. Your fellow poker players are definitely not robots. Each one comes with his own psychology and his own way of playing the game. Some players hate to fold; they insist on seeing every poker hand through to the bitter end. Bluffing is not an effective strategy against this type of player. There are other players who give their hands away through small gestures or facial expressions that tell you if the player is happy or unhappy with his cards. The more you know about your fellow players, and the more you understand how they play poker, the better you will be able to refine your own poker strategies to beat them and the more you will win at poker.

Be an Inscrutable Poker Player

You want to understand them, but you don't want them to understand you. That means you should be unpredictable when you play poker. If you have a weak hand, you can bluff, but only occasionally, and only when they're not expecting it. If you have a winning poker hand, you can call instead of raising. They will think your hand is weaker than it really is, leading them to throw more money into the pot. It's an effective poker strategy, but only if it is employed occasionally and unpredictably.

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In short, your opponents should never know what poker cards you are holding. Neither your betting behaviour nor your body language should reveal your poker hand.

Online Poker is Different

If you are playing poker against other people on the internet, you can still use psychological strategies, even though you cannot see your opponents' facial expressions or body language. But some online poker games, such as Poker Pursuit, Poker Ride, and Cyberstud Poker, are games of you-against-the-computer. In these games, psychology is irrelevant. Your online poker strategy must instead be based strictly on mathematical considerations of the poker odds and poker probabilities. After all, you can't bluff a computer. It is important to keep this in mind when you play poker online.

Don't Draw to an Inside Straight

If your poker hand contains a 4, 5, 6, and 7, you can complete a straight by drawing either a 3 or an 8. That is called an outside straight. If you have a 4, 5, 7, and 8, the only card that can help you is a 6. This is called an inside straight. Obviously, you have only half the chance of drawing to an inside straight as you would have drawing to an outside straight.

As a general rule, it is a mistake to draw to an inside straight. Granted, it is possible that you will succeed to draw that 6 and win a big pot. But it happens so rarely, and the odds against it are so daunting, that you are usually better off folding and saving your money for another hand.

Of course, every rule has exceptions. There may be some circumstances in some poker games in which drawing to the inside straight would be a good move. But in most circumstances, the best poker strategy is to stick to the general rule: don't draw to an inside straight.