Poker Rules Hints Tips & Strategy

There are a number of variations of poker that can actually be played and therefore different poker rules apply. One of the most popular poker variations is Texas Hold’em.

With regards to the poker rules of this game, it is much easier to understand as you play. Some of the key words that you will come across include; blinds, burn card, check, flop, river and turn card. The basic poker rules start when you receive your first set of cards. As a player, you must decide whether to continue playing or to fold your cards and wait for the next game. This obviously depends on what you have! If you decide to play, you will either ‘call’ or ‘raise’. Once everybody who is playing has decided, the ‘flop’ will happen. From these cards, you again determine whether you continue to play and if you do, you either bet or call. When all betting is done, the ‘turn card’ is revealed, repeat as above, and then the ‘river’ (last card). Another round of betting and then all is revealed.

In any game of Texas Hold’em, poker hands are obviously of the utmost importance so if you are new to the game, you are going to need to know exactly what beats what in poker.

The top poker hand you could have would be a Royal Straight Flush. This would beat any hand. Following on from that is a straight flush then four of a kind. A full house, flush and straight come next in that order followed by three of a kind, two pairs, a pair and lastly, a high card.

If you end up heads up in a tournament, or play a 1 on 1 cash(ring) game you must understand that on average 1/2 the time you will have your opponent beat – this means that you must not discard hands you normally wouldn’t play on a 10 handed tournament.

In heads-up(or 1 on 1) play you have to remember that unlike full tournament tables, even a really bad hand may have your opponent beat.

An A-7 offsuit is not really a good hand, in tournament play, especially in an early position. In heads up play, it will often have your opponent beat(infact, you will win almost 58% of the time, when all’s said and done). With a mid-pair(e.g. 7-7), you will have the better hand when all’s said and done, over 2/3rd’s of the time.

Beginners playing head’s up games for the first time, often making the mistake of folding hands that will actually win. So remember the above advice.

A tell is usually associated with an offline poker game – this is where you can read your opponent by analysing their body language, amongst other things. But did you know when playing online you can also get valuable reads on your opponents?

Top Online Tells
1. Speed of Reaction – How long does opponent normally take to make a decision. Do they normally act fast, and are now deliberating longer? Be aware very fast play, may just mean they have auto-played(players can often make a decision before it’s their turn in many online poker rooms, by checking the relevant box).
2. Size of Bets – How much do they raise by? Are they raising by more or less than usual? A big raise may be a ploy to get you to fold by scaring you, and they are bluffing. A small raise may be a trap, as they are inviting your call, so they can check-raise you, by which time you’ll realise your beat(and lost valuable chips).
3. Chat – Watch the chat box for anything relevant, and especially to spot players on ’tilt’ – i.e. players who are complaining at a bad beat or cursing their luck, may play the next hand recklessly.

Remember the REVERSE – Don’t let others read you!
Use these tips to spot tells, but also not to give away any of your own – be consistent with your reaction speed, be consistent with your raises, and don’t give anything away in the chat. This way opponents can’t put you on any hand.

7 Card Stud requires a lot of patience, as only the best hands(often the nuts) can win.

1. If the cards you need to improve your hand are visible in one of your opponents hands, you are unlikely to receive them.

2. Fold if another player’s face up cards beat your whole hand.

3. Fold often – this is a game where patience is required.

It seems almost every poker pro has a written a book. Some of them are actually really good – with 3 in particular recommended by many experts.

Hold’em Poker: For Advanced Players
David Sklansky, Mason Malmuth

Play Poker Like the Pros
Phil Hellmuth

Pot-Limit & No-Limit Poker
Stewart Reuben, Bob Ciaffone

Blinds are forced bets – without them there would be no game(as no one would bet, unless they had the best hand!) To be successful in poker, you must know when someone is attempting to steal your blinds. Of course, if you are clever you can learn to steal other players blinds too.

Blinds are forced bets made at the start of each hand by the 2 players on the left of the dealer. The player on the left makes the small blind, and the player on the small blind’s left makes the big blind. The small blind is usually half the big blind. Please note blinds are different from antes used in some games(an ante is forced bet made by every player).

At the start the blinds are small to have no real effect, but in the latter stages of tournament play blinds become huge in comparison to a player’s remaining chips. Also, any time you chips have started to dwindle, you may find the blinds are big in comparison to your remaining chips.

Knowing that 2 player’s have been forced to make bets without knowing the strength of their hands, other players in late position may try and steal them with sub-standard hands, by perhaps making big bets indicating they have big hands. The player’s on the blinds then have the decision of folding, and losing this forced bet, or calling or raising.

What you do of course, depends on what you know about the other player. If you don’t know much about them, it might be worthwhile seeing the hand through(if the price is low), to see if they were on a steal, so you’ll know for next time. If you have a goodm but not great hand, again it may be worth playing, on the chance he is on a steal. Your exact decision of course is bases on the implied pot odds, how much you have to lose if you are wrong and what you know about the other player.

Remember with clever player, holding nothing, you too can steal other player’s blinds…

Winning tournaments requires a great deal of skill, and some luck. Unlike cash games, you can play well for hours in a tournament, and then play one hand wrongly, and you will have nothing to show for your trouble!

Winning tournaments requires different skills from ring games. To win a tournament with say 1500 players, would require 1499 players to be knocked out. Even the best players in the world cannot guarantee to win a tournament. To win a tournament you will need your fair share of luck. However, given an average dose of luck, and employing good strategy you should be able to enter into the money winning positions.

The best piece of advice we can give you is to be patient. At the start of a tournament the blinds are low. You do not have to play bad hands, or even hands with a coin-flip(i.e. one where you could win, or you could lose, in almost equal chances). Only play hands where you have good implied odds(i.e. the value of the pot you could win, is worth the bet you are making). Never bet on a coin-flip unless the implied odds are excellent, instead wait for a better hand. You can play hundreds of hands in a tournament game, so there is no need to take unnecessary risks.

In the latter stages of the tournament, when the blinds go up, then you may find other players trying to steal your blinds. You should see our section on Protecting Your Blinds, to see how your strategy should change here.

If you are dealt a four 3s in Omaha don’t jump for joy, as only 2 cards can be used from your hand!

Remember you need to use exactly 2 of your pocket cards and 3 of the board cards. Thus even though you may hold an A,K,Q, and J this is not necessarily a strong hand as you can only use 2 of these, for example to complete a straight

It is important to stress that there are many ways to make excellent hands in omaha because 5 from 9 cards are being used by each player, so an average hand will probably not win when it could have in hold’em.

Any poker player has a chance to play with the pros and appear on TV in the process, and it needn’t break the bank – some people have achieved this with a few dollars of their own money, never mind $100s or $1000s.

You can be a TV star & play with the pros for a few dollars. Even if your childhood dream is of becoming a sportsman like a tennis player, it is unlikely that you will be able to play alongside the pros, and shown on television to millions. However, any poker player has a chance to play with the pros and appear on TV in the process, and it needn’t break the bank – some people have achieved this with a few dollars of their own money, never mind $100s or $1000s.

The power of satellite tournaments – Normal buy ins for these TV tournaments, are usually $10,000(e.g. WPT events). Of course, not everyone can afford to pay $10,000 to enter a tournament. This is where satellites come in. A poker room will typically buy a $10,000 seat on behalf of its players, and hold a mini tournament, where the winner receives the seat. For example it can operate a smaller tournament with 1000 entrants who each pay $10 each to enter(thus covering the costs of the seat, although typically it will charge a bit more e.g. $11 to give it a profit margin). Thus for $10 you have a chance of winning the seat.

Feeder Satellites & Super Satellites – Many poker rooms now operate a system where they have a final poker tournament called a ‘super satellite’, where the winner receives the seat for the TV tournament, say at a buy in of $10 per entrant(as in the above example). But, for those who want to pay even less, you can qualify for this $10 buy-in tournament, by winning any of the many feeder satellites they will also run, which say costs $1 to enter, with 10 players, and the winner gets into the super satellite. Thus for $1 you have a chance of winning the seat! One word of caution is that you must understand, that you now how to beat more people to win the ultimate prize – you will have to beat everyone in your feeder satellite, then everyone in the super satellite, then win the TV event itself. People who enter the TV event directly, don’t have to beat the people in the feeder and super satellite tournaments. But what do you expect for $1?

Ring games are the easiest games to play. These are basically cash games that you can drop in and out of as you please, playing as many or as few hands as you want.

Winning ring games requires different skills from tournaments. A ring game is one you can sit down in and start playing immediately, and leave anytime. You bet with you own cash, and each win or loss add or depletes from this cash(unlike tournament poker where you pay a set buy-in fee, and get a set number of chips in return which aren’t yours to keep, only if you do well in the tournament do you receive a prize).

Thus the best tips are:
(1) Choose the correct table. You will find tables from $0.25/$0.50 to $50/$100 or even more. The higher tables offer greater payoffs, but also greater losses! As well, as this expert players who know exactly what they are doing, are more likely to be playing at the higher tables. So, start off at the smallest table, and work your way up one step at a time. If you start losing at a higher table, go back one step down until you feel ready again.

(2) You will not win every hand. Thus you should have enough chips in your bankroll to cover 30 losing bets. e.g. if you choose to play on a $2/$4 table, you should not come to the table with less than $4×30=$120. Why? (a) Even if you play totally correct strategy, you will be outdrawn many times, but over the long term you should do well if employing correct strategy. Thus a sufficient bankroll to ride through any losses is a must (b) If you do lose more than 30 bets, it’s time to stop. Things clearly are not going right for you, and the table isn’t right. Move down one level.