Note: This guide is for standard cash games. It is not meant to be applied to tournament play, although many of the same tips are still valid. Many points in this guide apply to limit hold'em as well, and even to other types of poker in some cases.
1. STARTING OFF SMART - General Guidelines
Before you start, there are several important things to think about:
Point #1: Do Not Memorize
This is the most important thing to remember while learning poker: UNDERSTAND, DO NOT MEMORIZE! If you're trying to memorize factoids that will help your game, you're doomed. In order to be a good player, you must to be able to think when you play. Situations will come up that you've never considered before, even after you've been playing for years.
Point #2: The Required Skills
So what does it take to be a good poker player? Well, first of all, experience. Don't expect to be a star in three months. There are lots of subtleties that will become ingrained only with experience. But here are the major things to keep in mind while gaining that experience:
-Intelligence. This one is obvious, but if you're a dumb person in general, you won't ever be a good poker player.
-Deductive Reasoning. This one is critical. If you can't ever figure out what cards other people might have, good players will eat you for breakfast. And lunch and dinner if you have any money left.
-Level-headedness. You will get unlucky and lose hands you should have won. It happens to everyone. The important thing is to accept it and not let it affect your play in subsequent hands.
-Thick Skin. Most people you'll play with will be either friendly or quiet. However, some players will talk a little trash to you, joke with you, and will sometimes be downright mean. You must be able to take it in stride and not let it get to you.
-Basic Mathematical Competence. If you don't know the probability of hitting, say, a flush, you'll make very bad decisions. If you can't tell what fraction of the pot you have to put in to call a bet, you'll make very bad decisions. This is something you will need to work on. I'll go into more detail on this later. You don't need to be a math phenom, but you do need basic skills.
-Courage. Timid players don't win. You shouldn't be reckless, that's much worse for your bankroll than being timid, but you can't be afraid to bet and raise just because you're not 100% sure you're going to win the hand. Courage usually increases with experience.
Point #3: Playing the Right Stakes
Think about how much money you would bring to the table. Now ask yourself: "How would I feel if I lost it all?" If your response is something like "devastated", "upset", "angry", or anything along those lines, those stakes are too high for you. You don't want to be in a position where losing everything you bring to the table has any real impact on your life. This is a key to poker: You MUST be able to play with a risk-neutral attitude to be successful. In other words, if you have a 80% chance of gaining $20, and a 20% chance of losing $80, you must be essentially indifferent about taking this bet. If this is too abstract, imagine that you have a flush draw and someone else is betting. You want to be able to play the hand if and only if probability dictates that you should. You do not want your emotions telling you how to play.
Point #4: Playing Cool
Once again, you do not want your emotions telling you how to play. You must be focused on the game; you should not ever play when feeling angry, depressed, bitter, or carefree. You will make bad decisions if you play in these mental states. Poker players often refer to this condition as "on tilt". If you find your emotions straying too far from the norm, take a break. Relax, have a drink, and collect your thoughts. Remember, calm and calculating is the way to play poker. And in addition to making better decisions, you'll find it much easier to keep that poker face!
Point #5: Picking the Right Table
Now you know what stakes to play, and you've got your emotions under control, but which table should you sit at? A good tip is to watch the table for a few hands. If you can't spot an obvious weakness in any of the players, move on if at all possible. Table selection is probably the most important decision you will make. There's a line from Rounders that goes something like "If you can't spot the sucker at the table within half an hour, you're the sucker."
2. BEFORE THE FLOP
Point #1: How Good is Your Hand?
Hold'em hands can be useful in 0-3 of four possible ways. These ways are: Being high cards, suited cards, connectors, or a pocket pair.
-High cards means you have two cards that are J or above, or A 10, maybe K 10 and A9. This greatly improves your chances of winning with a pair, or winning a bigger pot with two pairs.
-Suited cards means you have two cards of the same suit. The higher your high card, the better. These cards obviously give you a better chance of winning a big pot with a flush.
-Connectors are cards that give you a chance of getting a straight that uses both of your cards. They're cards that are close to each other in value. The closer, the better. The best connectors are cards like 78, JQ, etc. Cards like 35, 9J are less valuable, since there are fewer straights that will use both cards.
-Pocket pair means you have two of the same value card, like 77 or JJ. These cards can win huge pots for you if a third one appears on the table (giving you a set). And if it's a high pocket pair, you can sometimes win good pots without even improving.
If your cards do not have any of these four attributes, fold. Your expected return for playing the hand is solidly negative. Low suited cards and low-mid or poor connectors are also not generally worth playing.
One of the most common rookie mistakes is to play with "high-low" hands such as A5, K4, etc. These hands are not good. In order to win a big pot with them, you must hit both, which is very unlikely. More often you'll find yourself getting "kicked". You have A5, the flop is A97. Great, you have top pair. So you bet, or call small bets, and end up losing to AQ. This will happen to you over and over again if you play high-low hands. It's NOT WORTH IT.
If you're playing with good players, you generally need to restrict your starting hands even further. Low-mid pocket pairs, connectors, and suited cards are only good hands to play if you can see the flop cheaply with several other players, and this usually won't happen at good tables. In addition, hands like KJ, KT, QJ, A9 are VERY risky to play with at good tables, because it's likely that you'll end up with the second-best hand and lose some money. Point #3 will provide some further guidelines on when to play what cards.
Point #2: How Many People?
The way you should play your hand depends greatly on how many people are at the table. If you're playing at a full table (let's say 10 people), connectors and good suited cards become more valuable, and other hands become less valuable.
Conversely, if you're playing heads up (2) or with 3-4 people, suited cards and connectors (which We'll refer to collectively as draw hands from now on) become less valuable, and high cards become more valuable. The reason draw hands become less valuable is that if you catch your straight or flush, you need someone else to have a decent hand in order to make money, and the chances of that happening are lower when there are fewer players. High cards are more valuable because you are much more likely to win a hand with only a pair when there are very few players.
Pocket pairs are nice to have regardless of table size, though you may want to play them differently. At a big table, you want to generally "play for the set", unless you have AA-JJ. This means play conservatively unless you get three of a kind. At smaller tables, you're usually ahead with a pocket pair, so you may want to raise before the flop even with something like 44.
From now on, we will assume that you're playing at a full or nearly full table (8-10 players).
Point #3: Where Are You?
The final consideration that determines whether or not you should pay to see the flop is your position relative to the dealer. If you are in early position (1 or 2 seats after the big blind), you should be much more reluctant to pay. In fact, you should ONLY pay if you would be willing to pay a few times the blind level to see this flop, because there is a significant chance someone will raise. Do not call borderline hands in early position. If you are in middle position, play normally, valuing hands as described in the previous two sections. If you are in late position, you have a big advantage preflop: you know how many people before you are in the hand. If there are very few people, your high cards have improved in value, and if there are lots of people, they've decreased in value. Vice versa for draw hands. In late position, when you see your cards, you will sometimes have to observe how many players before you are in before making a decision about whether or not to play. For example, if you have 67 suited, you would call instantly if everyone before you had called, but you may want to fold if you would be playing against only the blinds. The major benefit of late position is that you are last to act in each betting round, which means you can observe others' actions before making a decision.
Point #4: Should You Raise?
Under normal circumstances (in middle position), you'll want to raise regularly with AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK, AQ and sometimes AJ and TT. Here's the key to pre-flop raising: the size of the raise should NOT depend on the quality of your hand. If you're the first one into the pot, raise to about 3 times the big blind. Increase the amount by 1 big blind for each person who has called in front of you.
There is one other situation in which you may want to raise. In late position, if everyone before you has folded, it's often a good idea to raise with a moderately strong hand (A9, for example). Often you will just buy the blinds, and even if you do get a caller, you're likely to be ahead. But be ready to lay down your hand if the flop misses you and a caller shows strength.
Point #5: What If It's Been Raised In Front of You?
You must be FAR less willing to call a raise than you would be to raise yourself. The reason is that when you make the initial raise, you have no reason to suspect that anyone has a strong hand. Therefore, your AJ is likely to be the best hand, so you want to put more money in the pot. Once someone else has raised, they only have the types of hands they'd raise with. Your AJ is being crushed by this range of hands. If you call raises with AJ, you will win modest pots and lose very large ones. In 99% of situations you'll run into, AJ is an easy fold to a preflop raise.
There are two reasons to call preflop raises. The first is if you have a strong hand that fares well against the raise, but will benefit greatly from seeing a flop (AK is the prime example, though sometimes you'll want to reraise with it). The second is if you have a good prospective hand (mid pair, suited connectors), and believe that the possibility of winning a huge pot if you catch outweighs the cost of calling the raise.
The bottom line is that you should be very reluctant to call raises. Don't look for reasons to call, look for reasons to fold. One of the biggest money leaks that beginners have is calling too many raises.
3. AFTER THE FLOP
So you've decided to pay to see the flop, and now you've seen the first three cards on the table. There are several possible results: You could have nothing, a low-mid pair, a draw, a strong hand (high pair with good kicker or two pair) with no draws present on the table, a strong hand with draws present on the table, or a monster.
Point #1: Nothing
If you have no pair, flush, or straight, and the next card cannot give you a flush or straight, you have nothing. In almost all cases, you should check, and fold to any bet. Unfortunately, you will have nothing quite often.
Point #2: A Low-mid Pair
If there are three unequal cards on the table, there are three potential pairs. If you have the lowest or the middle pair, it's a low-mid pair. You'll usually want to use similar strategy if you have the high pair with a low kicker. You should generally not bet with this, except occasionally to try to buy the hand if there are very few players in. You should usually fold to any non-trivial bet. In some cases, the chance of you catching trips (3 of a kind) or a second pair to win a decent amount of money may be large enough to justify calling. But if you don't catch it, be ready to fold. And even if you do catch it, be cautious, it's still possible that you're behind.
Point #3: A Draw
This is the most reasonable thing you can hope for when you have a draw hand. Having a draw means that one more card could give you a straight or a flush. The quality of the flush draw is determined by how many higher flushes are out there. If you have 39 spades, and the 4 and 7 are on the table, it is not out of the question that someone has a better spade flush draw than you. The quality of the straight draw consists of two factors. Open-ended vs. inside (a.k.a. gutshot) draw is the first consideration. This simply means, do you have 4 consecutive cards, so that a fifth on either end would give you a straight (open-ended) or do you need one of the middle cards (gutshot)? The chance of catching an open-ended straight is TWICE that of catching a gutshot. The other consideration is, would catching the card(s) give you the nuts (the best hand). If you have 56, and the board is 78K, you are open-ended, but if no one bets and the 9 comes on the turn, it's possible that someone will have a higher straight than yours. Be cautious in those situations.
So what do you do with your draw? Don't bet with a draw in normal poker games until you're very comfortable with hold'em strategy. Until you've actually caught your hand, you want to put as little money into the pot as the other players will allow you to. Check, and call any bet such that this inequality holds:
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(Amount of money you expect to win if you catch on the NEXT CARD)*(Probability of catching on the NEXT CARD) > Bet
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Amount of money you expect to win consists of the current pot, plus any expected contributions by other players to the pot. You will see this inequality again. It's one of the fundamentals of smart poker play. You'll hear people talk about "pot odds" and "implied odds." I tend to think in terms of probabilities and expected values rather than odds; use whichever concept you're more comfortable with. The idea is to make decisions that yield positive expected value, not just in this situation, but always in poker.
Point #4: A Strong Hand with No Draws Present on the Table
This means you have the high pair with a high kicker, or two pair, but not the best two. It also means there are no obvious straights or straight draws on the table (e.g. not 468, 5JQ, 78J, 345), and that all three cards are different suits (called a rainbow). There is nothing at all to stop you from betting in this situation. It's unlikely that someone has a better hand than you. Don't bet too high, no more than about 70% of the pot. Remember, you want to maximize how much money you win. If you bet a huge amount, anyone with a weaker hand than you will fold, and if someone has a great hand, they will take lots of money from you. Ideally, you want a caller, but only if the caller thinks his/her weaker hand might win without catching anything more (or if the caller has no understanding of pot odds).
Point #5: A Strong Hand with Draws Present on the Table
In the previous scenario, it was recommended that you bet. Now, it is imperative that you bet. This is a situation in which you can essentially get free money. Other people will call bets with worse hands than yours. They'll do it because they have a 20 or 30% chance of winning the pot. But they're PAYING YOU to see more cards. Sometimes people make the mistake of trying to "bet them out" of the hands by throwing out an enormous number of chips. This is not optimal. It's better than betting a very small amount, yes, but what you really want them to do is to call incorrectly. You must bet enough so that calling would be a mistake given their draws, but that they will sometimes convince themselves to call anyway. Usually 2/3 to the full pot is a good bet size. Give other players as many opportunities to make a mistake as possible.
Point #6: A Monster
This is the fun one. When you've tripped your pocket pair, flopped a straight, etc, and you KNOW with at most a tiny shred of doubt that you've got the best hand. This is the situation where you can be the most flexible. In general, you want to do something, ANYTHING, to lead other players to believe that you don't have your incredible hand that will crush their puny cards into oblivion, at least until they've put a good amount of money in. However, keep in mind that deception is not your ultimate goal. Your ultimate goal is to get the other players to put money in. In many situations, simply betting and representing something like top pair will be your most profitable course of action.
The simplest method is just to check/call anything (until the river). This method can work, but there are situations in which it is definitely not the best idea. If there are draws that you will beat EVEN IF THEY HIT, you should bet reasonably low, making it seem likely that you have a good, but not great hand. If the draws don't hit, you've made as much money as you could have, and they do hit, your brain should imperceptibly be making cash register noises.
Essentially, just read the board. Look at the table, and decide what you'd like people to think you have, and, at least until you eventually drop the hammer, act accordingly.
If there are draws that CAN beat you, however, play as you would in the previous section: bet strong, but don't overdo it.
You don't get monster hands very often, so try to methodically cash in as much as possible when you do.
TIP: Once you've seen a flop, if you think you're behind, it is vitally important that you estimate your number of outs. An "out" is a card in the deck that you think would give you the best hand. For example, if you have a flush draw with a low pair, you probably have 14 outs (9 for the flush, 3 for the second pair, and 2 for trips). You MUST determine your outs in order to evaluate pot odds.
Point #7: If You Raised Pre-Flop
This depends on your hole cards, the board, and the number of players. If you have a pocket pair that's higher than the board, always bet/raise aggressively (bet 2/3 of the pot and raise by 3x minimum). Don't try to get crafty. If you have overcards (missed AK, AQ, etc), you need to stop and think for a minute. What you need to ask yourself is: "If I bet 2/3 of the pot right now, how likely is it that everyone else in the hand will fold?" It's much less likely with multiple opponents, and much less likely if there are high cards and draws on the board. If it's not very likely, just check and fold to any significant bet. If you think it is reasonably likely, try it. If you get called, you're done with the hand unless you improve on the turn; just check/fold. See the section below on continuation bets.
4. AFTER THE TURN
Now you've seen the 4th card. There are myriads of possible things that could have happened. The important thing now is to remember how other people have been playing up to this point, and try to determine how the turn might have helped them. If nothing has changed noticeably, play just like you would have on the flop. Here are a few common occurrences, and some guidelines on how to deal with them.
Point #1: You Made Your Draw
Congratulations! Depending on what happened after the flop, it may or may not be obvious to other players that your hand is now very strong. If it's not obvious, a good method is to bet reasonably low, which might make players think you've caught a pair. Then if someone has two pair, or some other good hand worse than yours, you're golden. If people simply call, repeat the process on the river. If it IS obvious, well... if you're playing with good players, you won't get much more money no matter what you do. Even if you check, they'd be crazy to bet anything significant. If you're in late position and they all check, bet SOMETHING; why let them see another card for free? If you're in early position, you may want to check in the hope that someone will bet low and get a few callers.
Point #2: You Had Top Pair, Now You Don't
If you bet on the flop with high pair, and a higher card hit on the turn, don't panic. Unless there were at least 3-4 callers, chances are good that you still have the best hand. Throw out another reasonable bet, and if someone raises huge, fold.
Point #3: You Bet After the Flop, Then a Draw Hit
If there are many other players in the hand, check. It's not worth it. You probably will not win. If there are only a few players, you may want to bet again, but be ready to fold to a big raise. If there are 4 straight cards on the table, check/fold. You're screwed. If there's a possible but less likely straight, bet again, and be ready to fold to a huge raise.
Point #4: You Were On a Draw, and You Still Are
Follow the same rule as earlier. Check, and call a bet if and only if
(Amount of money you expect to win if you catch)*(Probability of catching) > Bet
Point #5: You're On a Draw, and The Board Paired
Approach with caution. There's a chance that even if you make your draw, you will still lose the hand. Do not call any high bet, and if you end up catching on the river, bet low and be wary of opponents' bets/raises.
Point #6: Your Two Pair or Trips Became a Full House.
Awesome. See point #1, and use the same strategy based on whether or not other players will suspect that your hand became omnipotent.
Point #7: You Had Nothing, Saw a Free Card, Still Have Nothing
Check/Fold. If you couldn't have figured this out yourself by now, poker is probably not for you. But seriously, there are rare cases in which you might want to bluff. Generally check/fold.
5. THE RIVER
All the cards are on the table now. Much of the same logic from the previous two rounds of betting still applies. Your situation after the river can be divided into four categories. Remember that each of the categories is relative to what's on the table. If a flush hit on the river, your three jacks are not as strong as they were on the turn.
Point #1: You Have Nothing
Generally, check/fold. If a draw hit, you don't have it, and the other players probably don't have it, you may want to consider a bluff, but it's risky.
Point #2: You Have a Weak Hand But It's Something
Don't bet over the top here, but any other action can work. If you suspect that other players have busted draws, or any weak hands, betting low to try to squeeze a few more chips out of them might be a good idea. Checking is always acceptable here too, and sometimes it'll let you pick off an obvious bluff.
Point #3: You Have a Good Hand
Not a monster, but a hand that's likely to win. By this, I mean that there are few cards other players could be holding that would beat yours, and you don't have any reason to suspect that they have them. If you're in early position here, you have two valid courses of action, and your choice should depend on the styles of the other players in the hand. Your first option is to throw out a reasonable bet, hoping that someone with a weaker hand will call you. This is a good strategy against passive players who don't bet or raise all that often. The second option is to check, with every intent of calling a bet made by an opponent. This works very well against overly aggressive players.
If you're in late position, you should certainly bet if it's been checked to you, again, stay reasonable. You generally want to call any modest bet, unless you have some cause to suspect that someone might have a monster.
Point #4: Monster
Again, the monster hand is a flexible one. If at all possible, deceive the other players. You want to maximize the amount of money other players put into the pot. If you're in early position, you may want to make use of the check-raise, a favorite move of many poker players (this means checking, and then raising after someone else bets). The proper action in this situation really depends a lot on the type of players you're playing with. If they think you bluff a lot, overbetting can work well. If they like to buy pots, check-raising works very well. If they're tight players, you might want to just bet low to get callers.
If you caught a flush which you had obviously been chasing, deception is probably impossible, so just bet low enough to get callers. Do not check-raise it against good players; they probably won't bet.
Point #5: The Cardinal Rule of River Betting
If you're going to bet, but you're unsure how much you should bet, there is one particular amount of money you should avoid: The amount such that anyone with a weaker hand than you will fold, and anyone with a stronger hand will call or raise. Generally, you want to stay well below this amount, unless you intend to bluff out stronger hands, in which case you should bet well above it.
6. USEFUL TECHNIQUES - a few moves that will help increase your stack:
#1: Slowplay
When you flop a great hand, you're allowed to check. One of the most basic mistakes beginners make is that they immediately bet huge when they get a monster. There are occasions where you want to bet hard with a great hand, but often checking at least once will yield much better results against weak players. If you're an extremely aggressive player in general, then you can get away with the "betting hard" strategy, but when you're just starting out, you'll usually just scare people away.
#2: The Semi-Bluff
Earlier, we advised you not to bet with a draw hand. However, once you've gained some experience, there are times when you will want to do it. If you think it's unlikely that anyone has a decent hand, a moderate bet with a draw can be a very good move. There are two possibilities: either no one has anything, and you buy the pot right there, or someone does have something, and they call. This is fine. If you hit your draw, bet moderately again. If you didn't, you probably should stop betting, since it's unlikely that you can buy the pot this time.
The crux of why the semi-bluff increases your profit is that if you check and no one bets, then you hit your draw, it's likely that you won't win much anyway, because there is probably no one else with a good hand. The semi-bluff will give you cheap pots that you're behind in, and won't significantly lower your expected return when you get callers. But don't abuse it, or any decent players will catch on quickly.
#3: The Cheap Draw
This is NOT THE SAME as a semi-bluff. This is something you can only do in late position on the flop. If you have a draw, bet/raise low on the flop. It's very likely this will cause everyone else to check to you on the turn, in which case you just check (if you didn't make your draw), and you get to see a "free" card. Essentially, you're betting a little on the flop to help ensure that if you miss on the turn, you'll get to see the river without a big investment. Again, don't abuse this, or people will catch on. It's really more of a limit move, but it's all right to have in your NL arsenal too.
#4: Isolation Raise
This is a helpful play to use once you've identified who the strong players are at your table. If you have a good but not spectacular hand, and a bad player bets, raise moderately. If you've been playing tight, any good players in the hand will almost certainly fold, and thus you've isolated the bad player. If he reraises big, be ready to lay down your hand, but more often than not, he'll call you, and then he'll check/call the rest of the way. This technique works great with top pair against players who play too many hands and bet with 2nd pair, top pair with low kicker, etc.
#5: The Continuation Bet
This is something you do on the flop after having raised preflop. If you raise preflop and get called, it's often a good idea to bet the flop even if it completely misses you. The reason is that, from the other players' perspective, it's very likely you have an overpair or top pair with a good kicker. If you bet 2/3 of the pot, players will fold more than often enough to make this a good "bluff." There are occasions where you won't want to do it, for example: if you raise from your big blind with AK, get 4 callers, and the flop is T98 with two of a suit. You are very unlikely to get everyone to fold.
7. STUPID TECHNIQUES - bad strategies that we've observed frequently. Do not use these:
#1: The Low-Mid Pocket Pair Preflop Raise
Works all right late in tournaments, very stupid in a standard cash game unless you're on the button and it's folded to you. Most of the time you'll get a caller, you won't hit your set, and then congratulations, you're in a very difficult situation. Maybe you'll throw out a continuation bet, which might work, but now this has essentially become an elaborate and expensive bluff, and you'll be doing it too often for it to work well. You will make plenty of money with pocket pairs by calling the blinds and milking your sets for all they're worth.
#2: All-in On a Draw
I don't understand why anyone does this. I've seen lots of players go all in to a small pot (with a big stack) with nothing but a flush draw or a straight draw*. It's insane. Any caller is going to be WAY ahead of you. Often you'll buy a tiny pot, occasionally you'll lose all your chips, and once in a blue moon you'll win a huge pot and run a large risk of becoming a victim of violent crime. This is not a good gamble to take in a cash game.
*This is not to be confused with a "monster draw." For example, if you had QJh, and the flop is T92 with two hearts, you have so many outs that you're way ahead of a player who has top pair, and only slightly behind a player with trip tens! In this case, raising all-in over the top can give you positive expected value. It's still usually not the optimal play.
#3: Slowplaying Aces
I'm all for slowplaying good hands sometimes, but just calling the blinds at a full table with a high pocket pair is lunacy. You're asking for a bad beat. "Bad beat" should be in quotes, since it'd be your own damn fault. Yeah, I know, we've all seen poker movies, you CAN win huge pots in dramatic fashion by doing this. But you're far more likely to win huge pots by raising preflop and annihilating someone who has a strong starting hand. The value of AA or any other high pair goes down drastically with the number of players involved in the hand.
#4: Blatant Blind-Stealing
This can work in small buy-in tournaments sometimes. In cash games, it's usually a terrible idea. The concept is that you raise preflop with a weak hand that you wouldn't normally play, hoping that everyone will fold. If you're at an extremely tight table, it's likely to work. However, think about the amounts of money involved. Let's say the blinds are $.25/$.50. If you buy the blinds, you win $.75. In all likelihood, a minimum raise will not buy everyone out. Let's assume you bet $1.50, and that if you get a caller, your expected return for the hand is -$.75 (you're almost certainly well behind). In this case, you better be sure the chance of you successfully buying the blinds is greater than 50%. The strategy in itself is not wholly wrong, but it's frequently applied incorrectly, and will cripple you if you're not an experienced player. It adds lots of variance to your bankroll without significantly increasing your expected winnings. And NEVER, EVER DO THIS AGAINST BEGINNERS. You can't reliably get beginners to fold weak-marginal hands.
8. GENERAL TIPS, TACTICS, AND ADVICE
Point #1: Read the Board, Read the Board, Read the Board!
The quality of your hand can change enormously as more cards appear on the table. You may have pocket aces, but if the flop is 9 10 J suited (and your aces are not of that suit), your hand is not very strong. Your pocket pair will not always win! Think about what cards would beat you, and how likely it is that some other player is holding them.
Point #2: It's Only Two Cards...
Learn to remember your cards after looking at them only once. If you can't do this, you will give away information by whether or not you check them again. Giving away information = bad. For example, whenever a third card of a suit hits on the turn, anyone who checks their cards again probably does not have a flush.
Point #3: Honesty is the Best Policy
You'll notice we don't encourage very much bluffing in this guide, at least for beginners. There are two reasons for this. First, bluffing is extremely risky, and until you're an experienced player, all in all it will be a negative expected return enterprise for you. Yes, it'll work sometimes, but it will burn you more than enough to compensate.
Second, good bluffing is not really a "strategy". With experience, bluffing is just something that will jump out at you on occasion. You'll be in a situation where you just know that it's unlikely anyone will call your bet.
Point #4: Think Before You Call
Don't call a bet if you don't think you can win the hand. You want to avoid thinking things like "Oh, I'm probably beaten here, but I just wanna pay to see it". If you think you're probably beaten, why waste your money*?
*The exception, of course, is if the bet is low compared to the pot size, and you think that even your slim chances of winning the pot justify a call.
Point #5: Being Big Blind Isn't All Bad
When you're the big blind, you do have one very important advantage: Since you didn't pay to see to see the flop, no one has any idea what you have. If the flop is something like 346 rainbow, you're pretty sure no one else has anything great. But they don't know that YOU don't. On the other hand, if the flop is something like AKQ, you can be pretty sure someone else has something.
Point #6: Idiots Will Sometimes Beat You
Every single player has an equal chance of getting excellent cards, regardless of poker skill. And you will sometimes lose hands to bad players who just get really lucky. It's part of the game. Don't let it affect you. As the saying goes, "Don't get mad, get even." If you're consistently a better player than someone else, you will beat them in the long run. Poker is a game of luck in the short run, but a game of skill in the long run. And don't ever, EVER, tell another player that he/she is bad. If they're playing badly, you want 'em to keep playing badly, and keep playing badly at YOUR TABLE!
Occasionally you'll hear someone complain that they didn't do well because the other players were bad. Uh... what???? If you can't usually beat bad players, you are one. Poker is a zero-sum game. If your opponent is playing badly, then he is, by definition, helping you out.
Point #7: Typing
It will help you immensely to do what's called "typing" other players. Once you're out of a hand, watch. Notice the way each person at the table plays. The types of people you can exploit are "rocks" (players who fold almost everything), "calling stations" (players who have trouble folding losing hands), and "maniacs" (players who bet/raise way too often). Play aggressively against rocks, but back off when they play back at you, unless you have a monster. Play calling stations normally; bet your good hands, and don't ever bluff. Play tight against maniacs, and cash in when you have something. Slowplaying works well. The type of player you need to watch out for is the "tight aggressive" player. These are players who don't play a lot of hands, but tend to make you put in a lot of chips against them when they do decide to get involved. These players are extremely dangerous. Incidentally, this is the type of player you should aspire to be. It's controlled aggression though, don't go overboard and become a maniac. "Loose aggressive" players can be dangerous also, though the majority of them (who are not named Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, or Gus Hansen) are idiots and will make huge mistakes.
Point #8: Bet With Purpose
Once you're experienced, when you bet after the river, you should know whether or not you want a caller (often after the turn or even the flop as well). You should be betting either because you think your hand will hold up and you want more chips in the pot, or because you want other players to fold. If you're not sure, it's probably not a good bet. Of course there are exceptions to this, but it's a good rule of thumb.
Point #9: Ranges, Not Two Specific Cards
When you're trying to figure out what players have, start with all possible cards, and eliminate any that their actions have made unlikely/impossible. DO NOT go in the opposite direction, by thinking something like: "He'd have played AK this way. That's probably what he has." It's better to think along the lines of:
"He called my preflop raise, but he's a little loose, so he's got to have a pair, a decent ace, two face cards, or suited connectors. He checked two streets with draws on the board, so it's unlikely he flopped or turned top pair or better. He then led out on the river when the jack paired, but he probably doesn't have one. He could be value betting a mid pair, or might have a missed KQ, weak ace, or suited connectors."
Then play appropriately against this range of possible hands. When you're playing against bad players, their ranges of possible hands will often be very wide. You'll find this technique more and more useful as you start playing against better opponents, to the point where you really can occasionally narrow them down to one or two specific hands.
9. CONCLUSION
If you are a relative beginner, your game will improve dramatically if you understand and follow these guidelines. These tips alone will not make you a great player, though. That will happen only with experience. And I cannot emphasize enough, when you play, you must always be THINKING. "What might he have?" "Will I probably be able to buy this pot?" "How large of a bet will he call here?" "What are my chances of winning this pot if I call this all-in?" Don't play mechanically, play like a detective.
