How To Play Poker
Welcome to the Game of Texas Hold’em Poker
If you’re reading this, there is likely someone in your life who enjoys playing poker. Perhaps you’ve been playing poker for a while, and you’ve realized there may be some things you don’t know. Whatever brought you here, let us just say welcome and that you’ve come to the right place!
With the rise of charity poker tournaments, many more people are becoming interested in learning poker so they are able to participate as well as contribute. Many people who have come to us say they registered to play, the tournament is a month away, and they still don’t know how to play. Again, we got you!
Part of this is overcoming the fear of making a mistake. Let go of this! You’re new to the game, and you have to start where you are. Don’t expect to be doing black diamonds your first time down the slopes. That said, with some commitment and focus on the right things, we’re confident you’ll be able to sit down at any table in any poker room and play the game. With this in mind, here are the fundamentals to help you up your game.
Memorize the Ranking of Hands
Before you start to learn anything else about Texas Hold’em, you need to have a solid foundation of what makes a hand and what beats what. Here are the various poker hand rankings from highest to lowest.
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Spend some time reviewing the hand rankings until you’re able to repeat them from high to low and low to high.
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Quiz yourself on the different poker hands by dealing several starting hands and the board.
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Download and play the Hand Ranking Game on the Go Nuts Poker App, make this memorization easier and more fun!
Familiarize with Starting Hands
Of the 1326 starting hands in Texas Hold’em, this represents roughly the top 30% of starting hands. If you’re just starting off, or you think you may be playing too loose stick to these hands only. Also, don’t play every hand in every position. Begin by lumping in types of hand.
1. Big Pairs, Medium Pairs, and Small Pairs – Pairs are great because you have a chance of flopping a set. It’s not that likely, only about 8-1 chance, but when you do you generally win a big pot. Big pairs are further characterized as such cause they can often win without improving to a set.
2. Suited (s) vs Offsuit (o) – Cards are unsuited or offsuit when they are two different suits. Suited cards are better to play because they can make a flush. Don’t play all suited cards, or fold every offsuit hand all of the time.
3. Junk – Unconnected cards that you don’t see on this chart. Jh4c for example has no chance of making a straight using both cards.
4. Connectors – Hands that can make a straight like 56, 78, and even gap connectors like 79. These are reasonable hands to play, especially when suited, “suited connectors”, and when you’re getting good odds to call, like when there are many limpers pre-flop.
5. Broadway – Two cards between ten (T) and ace (A). Keep in mind that hands like AKs are much more valuable than hands like KTo.
Texas Hold’em Fundamentals & Positional Chart
Poker Rules & Terminology
In Texas Hold’em, every player is dealt 2 cards face down called your starting hand, pocket or hole cards. This is pre-flop, the 1st of 4 rounds of betting. Players use these cards along with the community cards to make their best 5 card poker hand. Community cards come as 3 together, the “flop”, followed by one card, the “turn”, and the last card, the “river”. There are 2 ways to win at poker, by having the best hand on the river, or by betting and getting everyone to fold. The dealer button moves clockwise around the table after each hand is played. The immediate left 2 seats are the blinds, forced bets they must put in regardless of looking at their cards.
Positional Strategy
The best position at the table is the “dealer” because you act after everyone else at the table. Poker is a game of limited information, so knowing what your opponents do first is a big advantage. When you are under the gun, that is first to act, you have everyone to play after you. The earlier you are in position, the more likely you are to be out of position the rest of the hand. Therefore, the earlier your position the tighter you should play.
RAINBOW FLOP
FLUSH DRAW FLOP
SUITED FLOP
PAIRED FLOP
Improve your Board Reading Skills
Your ability to accurately identify the strength of your hand is critical to your success. Additionally, being able to recognize the “nuts”, or best possible hand is also important. Once you know what you have and the nuts, you can figure out the other hands that beat you. If you’ve been playing for awhile, this will eventually help you put your opponents on a range of hands.
1. The accuracy and speed in which you see the possible options gives you an advantage over your opponent.
2. There are over 20,000 flop combinations, and how you continue with your hand range depends on the texture of those flops. That said, flops have certain common characteristics, these are the main 4.
a. RAINBOW FLOP – All three cards are different suits which means nobody can have a flush, or even a flush draw. Unless the turn and river are both the same suit putting three to a suit on the board, a flush isn’t possible.
b. FLUSH DRAW FLOP – There are two cards of the same suit meaning the most a player could have is four cards of the same suit. A player with a flush draw has two chances of hitting their flush on the turn or river.
c. SUITED FLOP – All three cards are the same suit. These boards are dangerous because someone could already have a flush, and someone with one of the suit in their hand now has a draw.
d. PAIRED FLOP – When the board has a pair, the possible hands available increase to include full houses and four of a kinds. Immediately realize that it’s now possible for your opponents to be holding these huge hands.
3. Download and play the Board Reading Game on the Go Nuts Poker App, to improve your ability to recognize how hand strengths can change when certain cards hit the board.
Understand the Fundamentals of Betting
1. Betting Choices
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Check – If there is no bet to you, you can stay in the hand without putting money in the pot by saying check, or simply just tapping the table. This is essentially passing.
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Bet – If there is no bet to you, but you want to put money in the pot, you can bet a minimum of the big blind. Bet sizes vary, but half – full pot is a good rule of thumb.
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Call – Matching the current bet size, and continuing on in the hand.
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Raise – Increasing the current bet by at least double, and continuing on in the hand.
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Fold – Throwing your cards away in the muck, and getting out of the hand.
2. Reasons for Betting
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Value – Defined as betting to get called (or raised) by a worse hand. Betting just because you probably have the best hand is NOT sufficient to bet for value.
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Bluff – Defined as betting to get a better hand to fold. Betting just because you can’t win any other way is NOT sufficient to bet as a bluff.
3. Hand Strength
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Absolute – What is the strength of my hand? (Flush, straight, etc.)
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Relative – What is the strength of my hand compared to my opponent’s hand?
