Some Poker Strategies
It’s difficult to address the subject of poker strategy in a short space because entire books have been written on the subject. In addition, professionals conduct classes that might last several days, all with the intention of providing tips, tricks and strategy to make poker players more successful.
In the last couple of decades, a lot of players have turned to professionals and strategists like David Sklansky. He has given us what is widely known as the fundamental theorem for the game. This is general knowledge, available in all of Sklansky’s books.
Basically, this theorem states that you gain if you play your hand as if you could see the opponent’s cards and you also gain if the opponent plays the cards differently than he would if he could see your hand. The bottom line here is that a player should not only play his hand based on all the information available on the table, such as up cards, but should also make an effort to determine what the opponent has, based on how he plays his hand.
A few basics of strategy are possible here, though we have to tie some of them to particular games to make them clear. Every player should understand the concept of card odds, no matter what the game. For instance, in Texas Holdem Poker – if you have two hearts in the hole and the flop (first three cards on the board) contain two more hearts you need only one more to make a flush.
Your playing strategy should be based on the chances of you getting another heart. The odds in this case are about 2 to 1. How do we determine that?
There are 13 cards of each suit. You can see four hearts, which means there are 9 more somewhere in the deck. In our simple example, you subtract the five cards you can see from the 52 cards in the deck. This leaves you 47 cards unseen. Nine of these will help you and 38 won’t. The card odds are 38 to 9 or about 4 to 1. You have two chances to get another heart so you divide 4 by two and get 2 to 1 card odds we originally mentioned.
Your decision to stay in the hand should compare these odds with the pot odds you have in front of you. Again, this is just a simple example but if it will cost you $10 to stay in and the pot will contain $20 that is 2 to 1 and you should stay. If you have 2 to 1 card odds there will be few times when you shouldn’t give it a try. Of course, if the pot has $40 in it, that’s 4 to 1 for your money. Stay in.
That is poker strategy, in its simplest form.
Other key elements of poker strategy include raising instead of calling if you are the first player to act in a round. If you have good cards, such as A-K or a pair, your strategy should probably be a raise. This can eliminate a player or two and give you a better chance to win. It also signals others that you are serious about staying in the hand.
Other elements of poker strategy include bluffing, which is the subject of books and classes. This strategy is intended to get opponents to fold a hand that might be better than yours. Good poker players also consider position at the table in their strategy. If you will act last in a hand, you have a lot of information about what other players are doing before you have to make a decision.
There is much, much more to poker strategy, some of it specific to certain types of poker. Learn as much as you can about the game you choose and develop a solid strategy. The best way to practice poker strategy is to play on Poker Sites.
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David Sklansky, Poker Strategy
