A Winning Poker Strategy – Check the Odds
by creating a poker strategy
Since the time poker was born, the players trying to make money by pushing hands all in against poor poker hands have been trying their luck. Developing a poker strategy is one of the most important facets of the game. Every time you play, the game will be moving towards a degree. You’ll be able to predict what the other players are trying to achieve, if you can work out what the best hands are, and if you have enough of a stack to trade them in.
These are just two factors that you need to consider when playing, but as you develop a sense for the game you will be able to spot other approaches. Like the game of chess, poker is also a game of preparations. If you have a moment to analyze the game, you’ll be able to realise what move to make for each situation, but it isn’t easy to do. However, you can come up with a few good poker strategies of your own, which will help you to increase your stack over time, without having to resort to playing poor cards and trying to push players to fold, which is common when a strategy is not planned.
Room at the Poker table
When choosing a table, make sure it has enough space. If everything is full, you’ll be sitting next to the dealer, which is ideal. This way, you’ll be in earlier position than the dealer and other players, which is ideal. If you can’t get into your game in the middle of the shuffle, take yourself out of the game altogether, or wait for the dealer to complete the shuffle.
Take into account the number of players at the table and the frequency of betting. If the game is slow and there are a lot of players, you’ll be better off playing on a table where betting is minimal. If there are fewer players and they bet infrequently, then you’ll play better poker here.
Hand selection
Texas Hold’em is a game of hands. You’ll need to learn what hands you should chase and which you should fold. You’ll also need to decide whether to go after two pair, or just one pair. Most players are fans of the full house and want to see the flop no matter what their hand. However, this is not always the best strategy.
If you have a high pair, you’ll want to see the flop. Stop bluffing yourself and try to make the other players believe you have a real hand. Your poker strategy has to include using statistics and mathematics to come to a decision as to whether you should pursue the continuation bet or not.
Slow playing the hand and letting other players take the lead
When you’ve had a few rounds to “remipoker” the opponents, or hone your poker strategy, you can decide to slow play the hand. When you know you have a very strong hand, you can do this in two ways. One is to pretend you have a drawing hand, such as two of a kind. The other is to tell the other players at the table what you have and then bet under the gun or for free. This is a semi-bluff, but a strong semi-bluff at that.
You’ll have to decide when you want to slow play a hand. At that point, you should put in a bet equal to the pot on the river. Don’t be afraid to make a bet there, since the last thing you want is a re-raise from your opponents, since that would mean a likely loss of the hand.
Just remember that while you can often slow play stronger hands, you should not slow play weaker hands. Your opponents will call you down with a lot of so-so hands. Their goal when playing against you is not to win the actual hand, but to call and see a flop or a turn.
Widen your range
While you should consider slowing down some hands, you should not stop rotating your hands between slow playing and aggressive. You want to keep changing the way you play, since opponents will never know what you’re holding. Changing gears requires more practice, and you’ll do it naturally when you’re playing at play money tables.
Of course, you should only slow play with premium hands, such as high pairs, or premium hands and medium pairs. Slow playing is generally not recommended in lower limit games, since small stakes players often play a wide range of hands.
You’ll want to follow the rhythm of a table before deciding to call or raise. When deciding to call, you want to sound like your voice has been captured by an electronic keyboard rather than a human. This is because the automated calls will often repeat itself, and make a ridiculously high number of calls. It’s much better to mimic human voice when deciding to call, than it is to shout out random numbers.
