Poker is a gambling game where players place chips or cash into the middle and the highest hand wins. Typically, you must ante something (amount varies by game, our games are usually a nickel) to get dealt cards and betting starts in clockwise order after the dealer. Once it is your turn to bet, you can say “call” or “I call” to raise the amount of the last player’s bet, or fold if you don’t have a strong enough hand to continue.
Aggression is a big part of winning poker, but only when it makes sense. Often, players will limp with weak hands instead of raising and then they’re missing out on the potential for a larger pot size and better odds. It is also important to learn how to read other players and watch for their tells. Tells aren’t just fiddling with their chips or wearing a ring, they also include the way they play the game and how they react to other players at the table.
One of the biggest things that separates break-even beginner players from big-time winners is the ability to start viewing poker in a much more cold, detached, mathematical, and logical way than they do now. This is the only way to truly start to see your game improving and winning at a higher rate. The first step in this process is learning how to calculate the odds of your hand beating another player’s hand.
