Poker Tips

Introduction.

If you’ve got a really great killer hand in poker it’s always tempting to automatically raise the stakes. This is usually done in an attempt to bring other players with you, getting them to pay in higher stakes resulting in a bigger pot for you to collect with your killer hand. Of course the opposite also happens when you’re dealt a poor hand; you’ll quickly fold seeing no point in contributing to a pot that someone else will surely collect.

The result of raising too soon.

Who wouldn't be tempted to raise with a hand like this?

The net result of raising too early is that the other players will inevitably sense that they are on to a loser with their hands. Your eagerness to raise ‘flags’ up to them that you’ve got a good hand, if not a great one; so in their minds there’s no point in continuing. By, in effect, forcing their hands and getting them to fold too quickly – you’re actually penalizing yourself. Yes, OK so you’ve won the pot – but how big is it? That’s the important thing to remember – that a consequence of you raising to early in a game, or perhaps even just too enthusiastically, will alert your opponents to the kind of hand you’ve got, encouraging them to fold – reducing the pot you could win. I’m sure you’re already there ahead of me now – the smart thing to do if you’re dealt a winning hand is to just play it a little cool initially.

Just like in fishing – reel them in slowly.

If you’ve any experience at all of fishing – you’ll know that with most fish the last thing you try and do is simply reel it in, in one go. You have to reel in and relax a bit, letting the fish tire itself – which will ultimately make landing the fish more of a certainty. There’s an analogy here with a poker game. You’ve got to reel in your opponents, let them commit to bigger plays, before you finally land that bloated pot. This is of course also tied in with the whole sphere of ‘bluff’ in poker. Making your opponents think you’ve got a weak hand, only to eventually reveal the winning hand.

Why you shouldn’t fold too quickly either.

You might think it strange but just as you shouldn’t be too eager to raise the stakes – don’t be too eager to fold either. This might sound completely mad to you – but one important aspect of the game of poker, just mentioned above, is bluffing, or even bamboozling, your opponents. If you are dealt a hand that you instinctively feel isn’t going to get you anywhere, it is only a natural reaction to think that you might as well fold. However, even if your opponents suspect that you might have a poor hand – by occasionally playing on with it may well disrupt their thoughts and opinions about you as a player. It’s as simple as this – an unpredictable player makes it very difficult for opponents to be confident they’re ‘reading’ correctly any ‘tells‘ that they perceive you to give off. Following on from that is that the less confident they are about reading your game – the more likely they are to make mistakes, from which you can profit.

Win consistently by seeming inconsistent!

The real key behind both of the above pieces of advice about raising and folding is to never be consistent in the decision you make on whether to raise or fold with the best or worst hand. You need to vary your play to the point of making yourself seem to be an inconsistent player. So you should never not raise as soon as you can with the best hand and nor should you never fold immediately if you’re dealt a bad hand. Think about how the pot odds are stacked according to your hand; with a great hand you’re going to win anyway and with a poor hand, well who knows you might just bluff your way into some money anyway.

Raise and Fold against beginners.

Sometimes you just need to calculate your pot odds.

An extra point to consider here is the opposition you’re playing against. Generally speaking beginners at poker will raise and fold far too quickly for their own good – but they also won’t appreciate/understand the subtleties of your play. In other words they will simply play their game, without any regard to what you’re doing. If they want to raise or fold they will do so, based purely on their hand – rather than anything happening around them. In this instance only raise when you know you’re going to win as putting in a raise against someone who isn’t going to fold anyway will simply cost you in the long run.

Bet size and whether to raise or fold.

Regardless of the hand you’re dealt the size of the bet will heavily influence your decision to raise or fold. Early on in a round the bet size will be small so, especially in the case of a round where you intend to fold, letting the game run on and putting in some stakes isn’t going to hurt you. As the stakes rise then you need to decide the point at which you will fold, by which time others might well have given in, leaving you in a surprisingly stronger position than you probably were according to the cards you were dealt. Of course bet size also affects the ultimate pot size, another factor for you to consider.

Pot size and whether to raise or fold.

Everyone thinks they can win a large poker pot.

The bigger the pot – the less inclined anyone is to fold. This is a universal truth whether you’re playing a high stakes thousands of dollars game or just for nickels and dimes. So, relative to the pot to be won, it actually becomes less important to protect your hand for a bigger pot – as your opponents won’t be in any mood to fold anyway, whether they’re complete beginners or hardened pros. The same applies to yourself too, with or without the winning hand, so the whole concept of bluffing becomes irrelevant with a big pot. Instead, work out the pot odds and decide what to do from there.