Poker Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-04-2022

Texas hold’em poker is everywhere these days — on TV, online, and in clubs and casinos. Before you sit down to a game of Texas hold 'em, make sure you’re in good shape to be successful — take care of non-poker issues and check your physical, mental, and financial status. During the game, you need to understand basic odds and playable hands, as well as how to bluff successfully and follow proper poker etiquette. Texas hold 'em also has its own abbreviations for online play.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 01-20-2022

Whether you play poker for fun or money, you can use bluffing strategies and the rules of etiquette for games at home. If you play for money, tips for managing your poker chips may come in handy.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

If you've watched a few Poker games in a card club while waiting for a seat, you'll notice that players don't play as many hands as they do in home games. Although there is seldom a spoken agreement to play every hand in a home game, because of the chummy atmosphere, many players simply play lots of hands. That's not the case in a casino. Players are more selective. Still, the biggest mistakes most players make are playing too many hands and calling on early betting rounds when they should have folded. Tighter than home games Low-limit cardroom games, while tighter than comparable home games, are still much too loose. In tight games, the players with the stronger hands tend to enter the pots, while in a looser game, more players enter more pots than they really should. If you simply play better starting cards than your opponents do in these low-limit games, you will usually be a favorite (favored to win money in the long run). However, you won't be a favorite in any game right off the mark. Because it will take you some time to get familiar with cardroom play, give serious consideration to starting in very small-limit games. You'll probably be paying for lessons the first five or ten times you play in a public cardroom, and there is no reason to make these lessons any more expensive than they need be. Players are more selective about the hands they play If you come from a home game into a public cardroom, especially the fun-to-play, jam-it-up kind of home game, you quickly realize that you can't play every hand, or even many hands, for that matter! You need standards so you know what your minimum calling hands and raising hands should be. This is true for all forms of Poker. When you set your standards before you sit down at the table, you give yourself more time to study your opponents and to determine what makes the current hand different from similar hands you've seen before. You don't have to play every hand you're dealt. Folding weak hands that will prove to be unprofitable in the long run is — like discretion — the better part of valor. Each form of Poker has its own set of good hands. For now, it's enough to remember that you should fold more hands than you play. Games are faster The first few times you play in a casino, the speed of the games might startle you. You may also think that the players are better than your home game cronies are. But after becoming familiar with the environment, you'll find that your skill level is right up there with your opponents' abilities. Most of them aren't students of the game. Recreational players want to have fun and that's it. Most of the regulars, who run the gamut of skill levels, don't bother to study the game. Though many of them have been playing in cardrooms for years, they simply repeat and reinforce the same errors they've been making for decades. Don't worry too much about the skill level of your opponents when you first begin playing in a public cardroom. By studying and playing the game, you should soon catch the field — begin to play as well, or better, than your opponents. And through frequent play and study, you can improve at a much more rapid rate.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

Casino Poker differs from typical home games. Although kitchen-table Poker may be long on camaraderie and unusual variants of the game, there are many reasons to play in a public cardroom. The most important factor may be that there is always a game. In fact, you frequently have a choice of games, which are often available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Another major advantage, especially in the very large Poker clubs in urban locations, is the safety of public cardrooms. These venues offer professional dealers, floorpersons, and video security the equal of any Las Vegas casino to ensure that games are run squarely. Because people walk around cardrooms with large sums of money, there are more security guards than you'd find in most banks. Parking lots are brightly lit, well patrolled, and free of strong-arm crime. Because most large clubs offer check cashing, safe deposit boxes, and ATMs, there's no need to walk around with large sums of money in your pocket. You can also take advantage of the players banks available at many large clubs. Although you can't write checks against it, a players bank is like a conventional bank account except that it's in a casino. You can deposit money and withdraw cash when you need it. In a public cardroom, there's never any pressure to stay. Nobody minds if you quit the game a winner. Someone else is usually waiting for your seat. You do, however, have to pay to play. It costs more to play in a casino than a home game where all you have to do is split the cost of food and drinks. Casinos, however, offer a variety of games. If you don't feel like playing Texas Hold'em you can play Stud, Lowball, or Omaha High-Low Split. If weak players are at your table, you can punish them continuously. Weak players in home games eventually become ex-players if they can't win some of the time. You'll find the pace of a casino game to be much faster than most home games. Dealers in a casino try to maintain a quick pace. If you are playing in a game with a time collection, you are paying the same fee per half-hour of play regardless of how many hands are dealt. Consequently, dealers act efficiently, and players are expected to make prompt decisions. Things you've probably done in home games just won't happen in a card room. No one ever fishes through the discards. The dealer handles the deck. You play your cards without the help of a neighbor. Entering a game: The how-to When you enter a cardroom, you may see a white board full of players' initials. These initials are listed under games that are available. For example, if you walk into a large casino, you might find seven players ahead of you waiting for a $2–$4 Hold'em game. Just give your initials to the board attendant and indicate the games you want to be listed for. You might say: "My initials are ABC. Put me up for the $2–$4, $3–$6, and $5–$10 Hold'em, the $5–$10 Stud, and the $4–$8 Omaha High-Low Split games." That's all there is to it. It's as easy as taking a number at Ben and Jerry's. Your initials will go up on the board for each game you request, and you'll be called as seats become available. If the board for a particular game is so long that the club can start another, the attendant will announce that game and call the players in the order they are listed. When you hear your initials, go to the table and grab a vacant seat. You're in the game. Some cardrooms don't use a board. Just give your initials or first name to the attendant and tell him the games you want to play. In small cardrooms, where there are only one or two tables, ask the dealer if a seat is available or if there is a waiting list for the game. Buying chips When you first sit in the game, either the floorperson or dealer will ask you how much you want in chips. Each game has a minimum buy-in. Give the floorperson your money, and you'll get your chips. Large casinos have chip attendants. One of them will take your money, announce to the table that "Seat five (or whatever seat you occupy) is playing $200 behind." That means you bought in for $200, and the casino is in the process of fetching your chips. You can play that hand, even though your chips have not yet arrived. The dealer will either lend you some chips or keep count of how much you owe the pot. Your chips should arrive about the time that the first hand is played to its conclusion. Shuffling and dealing You may never have noticed, but the shuffle procedure in a casino is much more rigorous than it is in a game with amateur dealers. Home game players are usually unfamiliar with the mechanics of a good shuffle, and many lack the manual dexterity to perform one. Well-trained casino dealers assemble the deck so the cards face the players, frequently preceding that by scrambling the cards on the table. This is followed by a four-step procedure of shuffle, shuffle, riffle, and shuffle. Finally, the dealer cuts the deck and deals. The procedure is efficient, quick, and designed so no cards are flashed in the process.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

The kinds of players sitting at your table in a Poker parlor will vary with the limits you play. If you play in low-limit games, you are not going to find either last year's World Series of Poker winner, the eight toughest card players in your hometown, or any legends of the game. Although there are many ways to classify players as you try to build a book on your opponents, the easiest way is to group your opponents into the following four types. Casual recreational players Casual recreational players love the game, but when push comes to shove, they're not that concerned about winning or losing. They play for the fun of it. It's simply a hobby, and no matter how much they lose, it is less expensive than keeping horses, restoring classic automobiles, or pursuing a hundred other hobbies that devour money. Naturally, you'd love to play exclusively with recreational players. If you can't beat a table full of these players, you just might want to find something else to do in your spare time. No one, however, will come right out and admit to being a casual recreational player. If someone does, watch out. He probably isn't, and you're forewarned: Take heed when he fires a raise at you. Cardroom regulars Regulars come in a wide variety. This includes retirees, homemakers, students, people with no fixed job hours, dealers who are playing before or after their shift, and almost anyone else you can imagine. Some regulars have independent sources of income and often play in big games. Take it for a fact that all the regulars you encounter have more playing experience than you do. Even if you are a stronger player but are just making the transition from home games to casino Poker, they will have the best of it for a while. After all, they are in playing shape. You, on the other hand, are in spring training and will need some time to adjust to this entirely new environment. Regulars and casual recreational players constitute the majority of Poker devotees. Some are good. Most aren't. But they're in action on a regular basis. Professionals You find professionals and semi-professionals in most of the larger games. Generally speaking, you don't encounter these players at limits below $10–$20. While a pro would have an easier time of it at lower betting limits, she just can't earn a living in a $2–$4 game. In these lower limit games, you'll be competing with regulars and recreational players, not professionals. But when you graduate to the higher limits, you can expect to encounter some players who earn all or part of their living playing Poker. Proposition players Proposition players, or props, play on their own money but are paid a salary by the club to help start or prop up games. You'll typically find them late at night when the club is trying to keep games going, and early in the morning when it's trying to start up a new game. A prop's life can be tough. Playing in short-handed games or games struggling to get off the ground isn't always a bed of roses. The minute a live player wants his seat, the prop is pulled from it — often when the game is just starting to bear fruit. Props typically play better than most regulars do, but not as well as top players do. Their defining characteristic is that they tend to be conservative. Many cardroom newcomers panic at the thought of a prop in their game. Because the casino pays the prop, players often believe he has a big advantage. Not true. Props play their own money, and as long as they're reliable and maintain a playing bankroll, the card club cares not a whit whether they win or lose. Given a choice, any cardroom would prefer to employ a weak player as a prop, rather than a strong one, simply because the weaker player is a bigger draw. In fact, the ideal prop would be a poor player with a winning personality and an unlimited bankroll.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

Call them rules, conventions, or Poker etiquette, some guidelines are common to all forms of Poker, especially Poker in card clubs or casinos. Although you may find some minor variations from one casino to another, many card casinos are working diligently toward a uniform set of guidelines. Going all-in If you don't have enough to cover the bets and raises, you are said to go all-in and are simply contesting that portion of the pot your money covers. Others who are active in the hand can still make wagers, but those bets constitute a side pot. At the hand's conclusion, the side pot is decided first, then the main pot. You aren't eligible to win the side pot because you invested no money in it, but you can win the main pot. You can buy more chips or put more money on the table between hands. You can't drive someone out of a pot just by betting more money than he has in front of him. The player with the limited chip supply goes all-in — by calling with the remainder of his chips. If the all-in player loses, he either buys more chips or leaves the game. Knowing how to raise If you want to raise, just say "Raise." Then you can go back to your stack and count out the proper amount of chips. If you want to let your action announce your intention, you usually must put the correct amount of chips into the pot, and do it all in one motion. No splashing Avoid splashing the pot: Don't toss chips into the center of the table where they mingle with the others. Instead, stack your chips neatly on the table about 18 inches in front of you. The dealer will pull them into the pot when the action has been completed on that round of betting. If it's your first time in a public cardroom, tell the dealer so he can help you through the mechanics of the game. After a few sessions, you'll be familiar and comfortable with the majority of playing procedures. Soon you, too, will feel like a regular. Protecting your hand; cards speak In a casino, unlike in many home games, you are always responsible for your hand. Toss it in the muck (the pile of discarded cards), and your hand is fouled and cannot win. The rule in all cardrooms is that cards speak — your hand is worth whatever value the cards have. Dealers, however, can make mistakes. If you think yours is the best hand, turn your cards face up and announce it. Place it halfway between your chips and the pot, and hold on to it while the dealer determines the outcome. If you're not sure whether you have the best hand, turn all of your cards face up at the end of the hand and allow the dealer to read your hand. If you are in a Poker club or casino and there is a doubt or debate, even if the hand is over, casino security cameras can review the hands that were shown down to determine the winner. Sticking to table stakes Most games, including most casino games, are table stakes. You can't add chips or money to the amount in front of you during the play of the hand. If you run out of money during a hand, you can contest only that portion of the pot that your bets cover. You can't go light — that is, pull more money out of your wallet — as you might do in a home game. You can, of course, always add more money to your playing stake between hands. Taking time out Anytime you are unsure of anything, the best procedure to follow is to call "Time!" This freezes the action. Then get your questions resolved prior to acting. Poker etiquette suggests that you not abuse this privilege, particularly if you are in a game where you are charged a fee for sitting at the table. Players usually want a fast, efficiently run game with as few interruptions as possible. Dealing and decks Dealers — and decks — generally rotate every half-hour. In addition, players unhappy with their run of cards are prone to holler "Deck change!" Most cardrooms permit a change once a deck has been in play for an entire round. Grasping the finer points: Etiquette Poker rules and etiquette helps speed the game along and keep it orderly. These conventions are as much a part of the game as the cards themselves. In fact, when you play casino Poker for the first time, Poker etiquette may take more getting used to than the game itself. Keep in mind the following points of Poker protocol: Act in turn. Each player is expected to act in turn as play proceeds clockwise around the table. If someone bets and you plan to discard your hand, wait until it's your turn to act before doing so. Not only is acting out of turn impolite, it can give a big advantage to one of your opponents. If he knows you'll fold your hand, it makes it easier for him to bluff and is unfair to the rest of the players. In Poker, as in most things, it's considered polite to wait your turn. Keep your cards in plain sight. In order to maintain the integrity of the game, players must keep their cards on the table during the play of the hand. The best way to protect your hand is to keep it on the table and look at the cards by shielding them with your hands while lifting a corner of each card to peek at it. In a game like Texas Hold'em, where players have only two cards in front of them, it's customary to leave them on the table after looking and to place a chip on top of them. This alerts the dealer that your hand is still in play. Avoid discussing hands in play. Discussing your hand with others, even if you have released it and are no longer contesting that pot, may provide information that would give another player an unfair advantage. If you want to discuss a hand with a neighbor, wait until the hand concludes. Practice toking. Toking (Poker parlance for tipping) the dealer is customary when you win a pot. In Poker casinos, tokes constitute a significant part of each dealer's income. The size of the pot and the game's betting limits generally determine the amount of the toke. If you're new to casino Poker, take your toking cue from the other players at the table. In games with betting limits of $10–$20 or higher, a dollar is a typical toke for all but the smallest pots. In smaller games, tokes of fifty cents are the rule.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

Without betting, Poker would just be a game of luck, and the best hand would always win. Betting is the key to Poker, and minimizing losses when holding a poor hand while maximizing wins with good hands is what Poker is all about. Every betting interval requires a check or a bet from the first player to act. Each player to the left of the first player to act may either check or bet if no one else has bet. Whoever makes the first bet is said make the opening bet. If a bet has been made, other players may fold, call, or raise. When a player folds, he goes out of the hand. He loses any chips he has contributed to that pot and has no further interest in the hand. After the final betting round, a showdown among the players still active in the hand determines the winner. Here are some other key terms to describe the action that occurs during the betting phase: Ante: A token sum of money contributed by each player before the cards are dealt. Antes are used in Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Stud/8, Razz, and many other games. Blind bet: A forced bet by one or more players before the cards are dealt. This takes the place of an ante. The requirement to post a blind bet rotates around the table from hand to hand so each player pays his fair share. Blind bets are common in Texas Hold'em and Omaha. In most casino games, there are two blinds: a big blind and a small blind. These blinds are considered live, which means that players who post the blind have the opportunity to raise when the action gets back around to them. Call: To equalize the amount wagered by putting the amount of money wagered into the pot. Check: A check is a bet of zero dollars. By checking, a player retains the right to call any bet made by player who acts after he does, or even to raise. But if someone's already bet when it's your turn to act, you can no longer check, and must either fold, call, or raise. Checkraise: To check and then raise if one of your opponents bets. This is generally done to trap players for a bet or two, when the checkraiser has a very powerful hand. Raise: To increase the amount wagered by an amount equal to your opponent's bet — or by a greater amount, if the game is spread limit, pot limit, or no-limit. Different types of games call for specific kinds of betting: In a fixed limit game, no one may bet or raise more than a predetermined number of chips. This limit, however, usually varies with the round of the game. In Stud Poker, betting limits usually double when the fifth card is dealt. Thus, a $10–$20 game means that the first two rounds of betting are based on limits of $10, while the last three are in increments of $20. In Texas Hold'em, with four betting rounds, betting limits usually double on the third round. Spread limit games are similar to fixed limit, but the bettors can wager any amount within the limits. A limit might be $2–$10 any time, which means that wagers can be made in any amount within those limits at any time, with the proviso that a raise must be at least the equal of the bet that preceded it. In pot limit, bets or raises are limited only by the amount of money in the pot at the time the wager is made. A player who raises may count her call as part of the pot. If there is $10 in the pot and someone wagers $10, a raiser may call that bet, making the pot $30 and then raise the entire pot. When she is done, the pot will contain $60. In no limit, a player may bet or raise any amount of chips she has in front of her at any time. In most limit games, a bet and either three or four raises per betting round are permitted.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

Seven-Card Stud and Texas Hold'em are the two most popular forms of Poker in which the highest ranking hand wins. These games are played with a 52-card deck — there is no joker — composed of four suits: spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. Each suit is equal in value, and there are 13 ranks in each suit. The ace is the highest ranking card in a suit, followed by king, queen, jack, and 10 through 2 (or deuce), in descending order. An ace may also be used as the lowest ranking card in a 5-high straight (5-4-3-2-A), which is also called a wheel or bicycle. Although Stud and Hold'em are played with seven cards, the best hand refers to the best five-card hand. Hand rankings are a function of probability. The rarer the hand, the more valuable it is. See the figure for an at-a-glance look at hand ranking in descending value. Royal flush; straight flush A royal flush is simply an ace-high straight flush and is the best possible hand in Poker. There are only four of them: Ace through ten of each suit. A straight flush is any five cards of the same suit in sequence, such as the 9 through 5 of hearts or the queen through 8 of diamonds. Four-of-a-kind Four-of-a-kind, or quads, is a five-card hand composed of all the cards of one rank, plus one unrelated card. The higher the rank, the better the hand. For example, four kings beats four jacks. Full house Three cards of one rank and a pair of another make a full house. The rank of the full house is determined by the three-card grouping, not the pair. A hand like three 9s and two 5s is referred to as "nines full of fives." Flush A flush is any five cards of the same suit. The cards are not in sequence. If they were in sequence, it would be a straight flush. If there is more than one flush, the winning hand is determined by the rank order of the highest card, or cards, in the flush. A flush composed of the ace, queen, jack, and 6 and 5 of hearts is higher than an ace, queen, jack, and 4 and 3 of spades. Straight Five sequenced cards, not all of the same suit, compose a straight. If more than one straight is present, the highest card in the sequence determines the winning hand. A jack-high straight of the jack through 7 of diamonds will beat a 9 through 5 of spades nine-high straight. Three-of-a-kind Three cards of the same rank, along with two unrelated cards is called three-of-a-kind. This hand is also referred to as trips, or a set. If you held three 8s, a king, and a 4 you could refer to it as "trip 8s" or "a set of 8s." Two pair Two cards of one rank along with two cards of another rank and one unrelated card composes two pair. The higher rank determines which two pair is superior. If two players hold two pair and each has the same high pair, then the rank of the second pair determines the winner. If both players hold the same two pair, then the rank of the unrelated side card determines the winning hand. If the hand is identical, then the players split the pot. For example, queens and 8s is superior to queens and 5s. One pair One pair is simply two cards of one rank and three unrelated cards. If two players hold the same pair, then the value of the unrelated side cards determines the winning hand. No pair No pair consists of five unrelated cards. When no player has a pair, then the rank order of the unrelated cards determines the winning hand. For example, if Harry has A-Q-9-6-3 and Adrien has A-J-10-3-2, then Harry wins because A-Q ranks higher than A-J. Low hands In split-pot games, like Omaha/8, the best low hand composed of five unrelated cards with the rank of 8 or lower, captures half the pot. A hand like 7-6-4-3-A beats 7-6-5-3-A, but will lose to 7-4-3-2-A. Determining the best low hand takes a bit of practice, but if you always begin with the highest of the low cards and continue in descending order, you can't go wrong.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

You have to pay to play Texas Hold'em, but all that play isn't going to last very long if you don't have enough supporting cash behind your game to survive the bad times. You don't have to play Poker to win. It's perfectly fine to just have your time at the table as a form of entertainment, but if you're playing to win, the total cash available to you (your bankroll) will make the difference between ongoing enjoyment of the game and sitting on the rail wondering what's on TV. If you've never been exposed to the basic concept of necessary bankroll before, you're probably going to be shocked about the amount of money we're talking about here. So take a deep breath. Meditate. Go to your happy place. That's right, play with the cute puppy. Okay, now, read on. . . . Recommended bankroll sizes A bankroll is what will help you prosper when you're winning and stave off the poor times when you're losing. Because of the vagaries of luck, you need to have a thick cushion under you if you take a big fall. Bankroll for Limit If you begin as a Limit player, you should have a bankroll that is at least 300 times the maximum bet size. So for a $2/$4 game, you should have $1,200 earmarked for your Poker play. That's not to say you should walk up to a $2/$4 table with $1,200 in your pocket (in fact, you definitely should not do that), but that amount should be the amount of cash that you think of being at your disposal against your Poker quests as a whole. It's not unusual for a beginning player to lose as many as 50 big bets over the first several hours of Poker play. A bigger bankroll will let you ride over the top of this initial loss to watch things grow later on. Bankroll for No-Limit As you would guess, No-Limit, due to the brutal nature of the game, requires even more cushion. You should have an absolute minimum bankroll of ten maximum buy-ins for the game you're interested in playing. A $1/$2 No-Limit ring game will probably have a maximum buy-in of $200, so a minimum bankroll for this game would be $2,000 (and double that would actually be safer). Bankroll for tournament play Tournaments tend to have wilder swings — especially multi-table tournaments where you might have a dry streak that runs for weeks, only to hit a big one to win it all back. For single-table tournaments (like satellites for bigger tourneys), you should have 100 times the buy-in. If you play in $10 tournaments, that means $1,000. For multiple tables, you need even more. A bare minimum of 300 times the buy-in is more appropriate (and don't forget to count rebuys as part of the tournament fee). So if you're playing in $10 tournaments where you're rebuying twice, from your bankroll's point of view that's actually a $30 tournament. This means you need — yes, that's right — $9,000 to weather the storm. Told ya this would get your blood pressure up. Moving up and moving down in limits When you've got a nice cushy bankroll under you, you still have to be able to adjust to your wins and losses as you play merrily along. Keeping records Assuming you want to be a winning player, to keep tabs on how you're doing overall, you must keep records of your play. You can be as sophisticated as you'd like (who was playing, time of day, what you ate), but really the most important thing is to track your wins and losses across each Poker session. A simple spreadsheet or even just a small hard-bound notebook (spirals lose pages too easily) that you take with you will do the trick. Write down every session, no matter how big or how small the losses. And don't make an excuse to not record something, "I was really drunk at the time" doesn't matter to a diminishing stack of George Washingtons in your bank account. How important is keeping records? If two players have exactly the same level of skill — one keeps records, and the other doesn't — the record keeper will win more money over time because he's more aware of how his game is affecting his bottom line and can adjust accordingly. Going down You need to be more leery of losing than winning, so it's the red ink in your ledger that you should be keeping an eye on. If you find that you've lost half your bankroll for the limit you assigned yourself, you need to move down one level in the limits that you play. So if your $2/$4 bankroll was $1,200 and you've seen it whittle down to $600, you need to move over to the $1/$2 table. You also should examine your play in general for any leaks in your play — that is, mistakes that are costing you money. Movin' on up If you're in the envious position of having doubled your bankroll, you're now able to move up one limit at will. Yes, doubling your bankroll is a lot to win before moving, but it will prove, without a doubt, that you're not on a lucky streak and give you both the experience and confidence you need for the next level. Moving up one limit in Poker is always harder. If you assume that after you move up you'll automatically be as successful as you just were, you're opening yourself up for a (small) world of heartache.

Article / Updated 01-31-2017

In Spread-Limit Texas Hold'em games, you're allowed to bet any amount, within a given range, during a betting round. So in a $1 to $5 game you're allowed to bet $1, $2, $3, $4, or $5. About the only place you find Spread-Limit Hold'em is playing at other people's kitchen-table home games. Professional card houses dealing a Spread-Limit game are very rare, indeed, tending to happen only in places sitting in Poker backwaters. Typically in Spread-Limit, your raise must be at least equal in size to the bet in front of you. If someone bets $3 in a $1 to $5 game, and you want to raise, you can raise by $3, $4, or $5 only. Don't be afraid to ask the dealer what the betting rules are if you come across a Spread-Limit game. Usually, the minimum buy-in (the amount you need to start playing the game) in a Spread-Limit game is ten times the lowest betting amount — so $10 in a $1 to $5 game. There is no maximum.