Poker tips and tactics
They say poker is easy to learn but hard to master. On this page you will find some tips to help you become a successful poker player. These include general poker advice and strategies for players new to the game, as well as some more advanced concepts to consider once you've mastered the basics.
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Basic poker strategy considerations
Tip 1: Decisions for the new poker player
You can either take a serious approach to poker and gain knowledge about it, or play it for fun, or do both at the same time. Whichever you choose, playing well enough to make consistent profits over the long term takes both time and effort. In other words, it takes work. There's nothing wrong with playing poker for fun, but there's no reason to plan on losing, even if you're playing for fun. However, if you decide what kind of poker player you want to be before you start playing, your decisions and sessions will be easier.
Tip 2: Familiarise yourself with the terminology and jargon
It goes without saying that there are a lot of unique expressions in poker lingo. To avoid getting confused at the tables, you should know what the most important terms and phrases mean.
The best place to start is by taking a look at our poker glossary, where a variety of poker terms and definitions are explained. Whilst there is a lot of jargon in the game of poker, after a few games you will certainly become more familiar with the language and the context in which terms are used.
Tip 3: Make good decisions - the results will follow
Even the best poker players in the world have a losing streak. Don't make the mistake of expecting to win every time you play. Your goal should be to get the best out of yourself in every session. If you do that, the cards and winnings will take care of themselves as you improve.
Many players make the mistake of judging their poker game by the results of each session. Try to make the best possible moves each time. The closer you get to this, the better your results will be.
Tip 4: The maths of poker
Poker is a mathematical game, and it is a game of incomplete information. That may sound complicated, but it's not. At a very basic level, winning at poker starts with choosing the starting hands to play. If you enter the pot with the best hand more often than your opponents, you are likely to win more often than your opponents.
Tip 5: Beyond the starting hands
Starting hand selection is essential, but it's only one piece of the poker strategy puzzle. Once you've mastered solid starting hand guidelines and understand how they change based on your position at the table, you should next work on your play for the rest of the hand. The difference between professional players and amateurs is that professional players tend to play much better than their opponents in the rest of the hand after the starting hand decisions have been made.
This is especially true for the decisions made at the very end of each hand. These skills include calculating pot odds, recognising betting patterns, bluffing and taking advantage of position. The years of practice required to master the game in the middle and at the end of a hand are well worth the effort, as even small improvements in a player's skills can have a huge effect on their lifetime winnings.
Tip 6: Avoid Tilt
Another important skill that should be part of a successful player's poker strategy is avoiding tilt. Your opponents will use your emotions against you, but only if you let them. Emotional play leads to bad decisions and losing money. Tilting can happen to anyone, and sometimes the only cure is to take a break from the game. That's okay, the game will still be there in ten minutes. It will even be there tomorrow.
More advanced poker strategy considerations
Tip 1: Learn the different styles of play
One of the things that makes poker such a fascinating game is the sheer variety of different approaches, styles and ways of playing. Most styles can be categorised into a combination of the following elements:
- "Tight": an approach in which caution is exercised, relatively few hands are played and not too many risks are taken.
- "Loose": the opposite of "tight", i.e. playing many hands and a greater willingness to take risks.
- "Aggressive": an approach that involves betting a lot, opening pots and placing large bets in order to put others under pressure.
- "Passive": the opposite of "aggressive", calling more often than betting, letting the opponent decide how to proceed.
Think about your own approach to poker. Do any of the above terms apply to you?
If your answer is "all and none", you have achieved something. The ability to shift gears and change styles at the poker table is extremely useful, as an overly strict style of play will make you predictable. However, we recommend that players starting out should try to focus on a "tight-aggressive" combination.
Adopting this style will make you comfortable with aggressive betting, which is essential for long-term success. Trying to play mostly good hands preflop will help you learn discipline and prevent you from getting into too many difficult situations with weaker hands. As you gain more experience and improve your game, you can loosen up and vary your style, but you should always try to stay aggressive.
Tip 2: Familiarise yourself with the importance of position
The player on the button, also known as the dealer, is usually the last player to act in a betting round. Being the last to act is a tactical advantage, as you already know how your opponents have acted. The dealer's position changes after each hand, so this advantage is shared between all players to keep the game fair.
To use this tactical advantage in your favour, it is generally advisable to play more hands in a "later" position (i.e. after most players have already acted) than in an "earlier" position. Good players often relax their star hand requirements in late position, as the added advantage of position gives them greater flexibility and more options as the hand develops.
When playing against opponents who must act before you, you are said to be "in position" while their opponents are "out of position" or "out of position". This advantage can be significant.
Tip 3: Make sure your bluffs make sense
Good hand selection is always important, as is realising that the more players you are up against, the more likely it is that at least one of them will have a strong hand. However, there are also situations in which a well-timed bluff can win you a pot that you would otherwise lose.
What does a poker player want to achieve with a bluff? He tries to get his opponent to lay down the best hand. It's as simple as that. In most poker games, most of your hands are junk, so you should fold before the flop, or marginal hands that you shouldn't bet too many chips with. If this is the case, bluffing becomes more important because it gives you a second chance to win.
A successful bluff will convince your opponent that you have cards to beat them with, so it's important to consider what your play looks like to them. Would you have played the hand the way you played it if you really had the cards you led them to believe you had? Is the "story" you tell with your actions at the table coherent and logical?
If you're bluffing, make sure you think through the whole hand to see if the story you're telling makes sense. If you simply make a bet as your last hope for the pot, the chances are high that a clever opponent will see through it.
Tip 4: Know your odds and outs (probabilities and favourable cards)
The term odds describes the probability that something will happen. For example, when flipping a coin, there is an equal chance that the coin will land on heads or tails - we could express this probability as one to one (1 to 1, or "even") - for every time it lands on heads, it is likely to land on tails once. Now consider the probability of rolling a six with a six-sided die: for every time a six is rolled, it is likely that a different number will be rolled five times, so we can express the probability of rolling a six as 5 to 1.
Now let's look at a common situation in a poker game: you have four clubs and are waiting for the last club to fall on the river, which will complete your flush and secure you the pot. A 52-card deck contains 13 cards of clubs, two of which are in your hand and two of which are on the table (the board). Apart from the two cards in your hand and the four cards on the board, there are 46 cards that could come on the river, nine of which could win you the pot - these nine cards are known as your "outs".
The odds of you getting a flush are therefore 37 to 9 (37 of the 46 cards do not make a flush, while nine cards make a flush). This ratio of 37 to 9 means that the chance of making your flush is about 4 to 1.
Tip 5: Calculate your pot odds
Using the example above, let's explore the idea of 'pot odds' - the ratio between the chips you can win and the chips you have to pay into the pot.
Let's say you're heads-up with an opponent, waiting to hit your last cross on the river. There are already 10 in the pot, and your opponent bets his last 10. You can call and hope you hit the cross, or fold. What is the right course of action? The maths behind this is simpler than you might think.
In this situation, you are being asked to pay 10 to try to win 20 - so your pot odds are exactly 2 to 1. But as we know, the odds of you hitting your flush are more like 4 to 1. Taking a 4 to 1 risk for a 2 to 1 payout is a bad play, so you should fold your flush draw.
But what if there are already 90 in the pot when your opponent bets his last 10? In this case, you'll be asked to pay 10 to try to win 100 - that's pot odds of exactly 10 to 1. If you're offered a payout of 10 to 1 while taking a risk of 4 to 1, that's a good play - in which case you should call.