Poker Games - What is the Best Strategy to Winning? By Donaldson. Matt At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Poker has become one of the most glamorous card games due to televised tournaments featuring Hollywood stars. You want to get in on the action, and you already know the basic rules of the game. But knowing how to play is obviously not enough; you need a strategy. What is the best strategy you can adapt for winning poker games?

The first thing you need to know is the winning order of poker hands. You should find them from a book or on a website and memorize them. Remember that in poker, the ace is the highest card, followed by the face cards then the number cards. Each hand consists of only five cards. The highest hand is the royal flush consisting of an ace followed by the king, queen, jack and ten, all of them the same suit. This is followed by the straight flush (which consists of five consecutive cards of similar suit); four of a kind (same rank, i.e four kings or four aces); full house (three cards of the same rank, two cards of the same rank); flush (five cards same suit non-consecutive); straight (five consecutive cards different suits); three of a kind (same rank); two pair (two pairs of cards with the same rank); one pair and high card (any hand not already mentioned).

Once you're familiar with all the poker hands, it's time for you to learn the basic theorem of playing poker: you win when you play your hand as if you could see your opponent's hand. You also win when you manipulate your opponent into playing differently from how he would play if he could see your hand. You can manipulate your opponent by tricking him through bluffing and slow-playing. In bluffing, you fool your opponent into folding (discarding his hand) even if he has a superior hand by making him believe your hand is stronger. In slow-playing, you do the opposite: you convince your opponent you have a weak hand by betting weakly. The point of slow-playing is to trick your opponent into increasing his bets, thus increasing the size of the pot.

Your position in the game is also an important part of your strategy. If you go later or last then you have an advantage since you can gauge what your opponent's hands are by the actions they take. If you're in an earlier position there is a greater chance that one of your opponents will have a stronger hand. Position is an element of poker you will have to understand to craft a long-term winning strategy.

Of course, you need to learn to read the 'tells' of your opponents. Tells are visual clues to your opponent's hand determined through changes in his behavior or expression. For example, a player with a weak hand may unconsciously reveal it through facial tics. Effectively reading your opponents' tells will enable you to decide what actions to take.

Poker is a complex game with many strategic possibilities, and studying them is the only way to effectively craft a winning strategy. But the best strategic tip is to play poker games as often as possible, either live with friends or with online opponents, and learn from your mistakes and those of your opponents.

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