As a poker player, you might have read about quite a few specific tricks on how to win in your game. What is more important though is to be able to apply your mind to create your personal strategies through your understanding of the game.
There are some points that need to be emphasised while talking about poker strategies. Once you get a hang of these, you will be able to smoothly walk through any poker game like a pro.
Be it Omaha, Texas Hold’em, Seven Card Stud or the High Low Chicago, every poker variant requires a few general strategies that can be applied to the overall game. Looking at it from a birdseye view, you would want to have some general guidelines to follow while playing any game of poker.
In this guide, we will go over top poker strategies that can be life-saving when you are in action. Remember, you will meet many players, come across many ways of playing the game and learn from your experience. The more you diversify your gaming arena, the wider your horizon will be.
Before starting with the strategies, let us go over the game basics. Poker is a card game which is played in betting rounds. It has four rounds namely, pre-flop, flop, turn and the river. Every round requires you to place some amount of money into the pot and bet based on the strength of your hand.
Strategies for Winning the Poker Pot
Hand reading is one of the fundamental skills in poker. For advanced players, hand reading becomes even more important as they have to put the opponent on a range of possible hands by looking at their actions.
Every player will have a range of hands that they can make, by having adequate knowledge about the card deck and the hand probabilities, you can exactly narrow down the range of hands a player can have.
This way, you will be better equipped to understand the opponent’s moves and make informed decisions about your next action.
For example, if a player raises pre-flop and then bets aggressively on the flop
they most likely have a strong hand like a top pair, a set or a straight draw.
Top Pair means when you have a hole card that matches the highest ranking card in the community cards in the flop round.
Set means when you make a three-of-a-kind hand with two hole cards and one community card.
A Straight Draw means when you have four of the five cards needed to make a straight.
Positional Advantage in Poker
Every player has a certain location on the poker table which influences their gameplay. Advanced players know how to exploit the position of their opponents to increase their chances of winning the pot.
Instead of simply playing on the strength of the hand, which many novices do, you have to look at the relative strength of your hand vis-a-vis your opponent based on your position in the game.
If you are in a late position versus if you are in an early position
Will make a difference in your gameplay.
Poker Board Texture
The poker board on the flop has three community cards from where you can start analyzing your hand as well as your opponents’. If a board has a low potential for making strong hands, you can bluff more often to force other players into folding.
On the other hand, if your board has multiple draws and a potential for strong hands, you can likewise move ahead with caution.
An advanced understanding of how the texture of the board interacts with the hand ranges of players will give you accurate information about each player’s specific positions.
Bet Sizing in Poker
Adjust your bet sizes according to the relative strength of the hands. You have to extract maximum value from strong hands and bluff your opponents into folding.
For example, if you analyse the board texture, your hand strength and the strength of your opponents’ hands, and you find that you are in a relatively strong position, then you can increase your bet size.
In contrast, when your hand is weak, bluff assertively and reduce your bet size to pressure opponents into folding with minimal pot value.
Play According to Situation
You need to assess the opponents’ tendencies to play the best possible game. For example, if your opponent is bluffing often and betting aggressively, you shall call less, this will induce more bluffs on their part.
You should constantly adapt your strategy to exploit the weaknesses of your opponents. This will make your play very accurate and incisive. You will reduce wastage and increase your chances of winning multifold.
So keep playing and keep bluffing!
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