Poker strategy – a crash course in the basics

Poker is a complicated game but a few simple guidelines go far in preventing beginner mistakes. Later in the guide we will recommend good poker books and web sites where you can learn the finer points of advanced strategy, but for now keep these ideas in mind:

Be patient. Fold early and often. Top holdem players might fold 80% of their hands before the flop. The idea is to only play when you have an advantage. The sad truth is, most of the time you don't have an edge and you can tell just by looking at your first cards. If you're going to fold at all during a hand, the earlier you fold the better, because you will contribute fewer chips to a pot that someone else wins. By folding a lot early, you give yourself a stronger average hand when you do play. That makes it easier to follow the second rule.

Be aggressive. Don't be afraid to raise. The fewer opponents that are in the pot with you, the more inclined you should be to raise instead of call. Often the best choice is to raise, next best is to fold and the worst choice is to call. The exception is when there are a lot of other players in the pot. Now the odds are that somebody has a pretty good hand. In this case you can fold your medium-strength hands and call with good draws. But when you make that draw, don't slow play it. Raise!

Know when you're beat. Okay, so you started with a strong hand and have been doing a lot of raising. But now this other guy just won't quit reraising you and your hand hasn't improved. Well, it may be time to give up. Don't be afraid to fold when you know you're beat.

Keep an eye on the pot. The smaller the pot is, the stronger your hand needs to be to continue. Even a good draw in a tiny pot is not worth the cost. But conversely, a long shot draw becomes profitable in a large pot. When it's your opponent that is drawing, remember that his profit is your loss. You're happy to let them draw against you when the pot is small, but be sure to make them pay the maximum to draw when the pot is large. In short, don't draw in a small pot and don't slow-play in a large pot.

Get inside your opponent's head. What do you think he has? What do you think he thinks you have? What does he think you think he has? If you can outsmart your opponent on this level, you have the advantage. But it takes practice. New players tend to concentrate too much on their own hand. It's just as important to understand what your opponent might have as well. A good start at developing this skill in holdem is to imagine what is the strongest hand anybody could have given the current board. For example, maybe a pair of aces in the hole would make three aces. Then think back over the play of the hand so far. Is your opponent's play consistent with holding two aces? If not, he probably doesn't have that hand. To go to the next level, look back over your own play so far this hand. Is your play consistent with holding two aces? That gives you an idea what your opponent might think you have.

The low-limit holdem tutorial and tournament tutorial at PokerRoom.com have good, solid advice that takes you a bit further than the five simple rules above. Pacific Poker has a similar primer at their poker school (click on the Poker School link when you arrive at the site).

When you're ready to move beyond the beginner level, see the section on polishing your game.