Strategies to increase your chances of winning at Poker

Poker is one of the most famous card games and offers players the opportunity to test their skills. There are many variations of the game, including Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Soko, Stud Games and Draw Games, all of which have certain general rules in common.

When you win at Poker

Although each variant of the game has its own particular aspects that distinguish one version of the game from another, the Poker family has some shared basic rules that every player needs to know in order to participate in all the variants of this game:

Cards: French deck of 52 cards, made up of 4 suits (hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades), each suit includes 13 cards that are distinguished by value: 9 number cards (from 2 to 10), Jack (jack), Queen (queen), King (king) and Ace. The value of the Poker cards is useful for creating your own combinations: the higher the value of the combination and the cards that place it, the greater the chances of winning;

• Betting: these are the stages of the game where players decide whether to take part in the hand or exit the bet. The available moves are: Check, Bet, Fold and Raise;
• Dealer: the person in charge of dealing the cards;
• Scores: are assessed on the basis of the combinations made during the game;
• Combinations: in order to win the game, it is necessary to make the highest combination with the cards that the player has in his hand. In some games, such as Texas Hold’em, the community cards dealt on the table are also used to create combinations.

The highest winning combination is the Royal Flush which consists of 5 cards of the same suit in ascending order from 1 to 10. The Straight Flush, on the other hand, consists of 5 cards of the same suit (the suit does not matter in this combination to win the hand). It should also be noted that in Poker, a straight flush beats a full house, while in American Poker, the opposite is true. 

Mistakes to Avoid in Online Poker

Here are some mistakes to avoid in online poker:

• Continuing to play for long periods of time: it is very important to keep in mind the budget available for the game and to end the game hands when it is exhausted;
• Being impulsive during the game: in order to win, it is necessary to remain calm and pursue your playing strategy;
• Varying your playing strategy during the game: it is essential to maintain your strategy throughout the game;
• Being distracted by external factors: you must always pay attention to the game in order to choose the right move to make based on the play of your opponents.

Bluffing in Poker

The strategies for being a good poker player are diverse and varied, but only those who know how to deceive their opponents in a good-natured manner can really consider themselves poker players with outstanding skills. The so-called bluff is the attitude of a player who tends to mislead his opponent, preventing him from understanding his own playing situation. For example, he may make him believe that he is in a better situation than he really is, or vice versa.

How to bluff in the game of poker

Bluffing can be considered an integral part of the game, which only a few know how to apply. It is undoubtedly a technique that involves a minimum of risk, but the control exercised over this type of concealment brings great satisfaction.

There are three fundamental elements to bluffing in the game of poker without which it would not be profitable:

• A credible story: firstly, a good bluff cannot start randomly from nowhere, but must be part of a story. A fictional story that has a beginning, a middle and an end. Mind you, the whole thing must make sense and be credible in the eyes of the enemy;
• The right opponent: remember that in poker, knowledge is everything and so is bluffing. You need to know your opponent so that you can be sure that he has more than one reason to fold;
• Image at the table: You need to build up an image and an identity and exploit it so that you can bluff successfully.

Bluffing and psychology: How it affects a game

There are three types of bluffing in the game of poker:

• Pure bluffing: with the aim of making your opponents fold their hand, you pretend to have high combinations in your hand when in fact you do not;
• Passive bluff: with the aim of making the pot as big as possible, once you know you have the best hand, you try to keep your opponents fighting so that you can win it all in the end;
• Semi-bluff: the hand, being weak, can be improved to the point of becoming the dominant hand.

One of the most specific characteristics of this game is the possibility of good-naturedly deceiving the opponent in order to confuse and mislead his actions, showing him a reality mystified by the bluffer’s attitudes.

When around the gaming table, bluffing and psychology are two of the most important resources that can be used by players. On the one hand, in fact, with psychology it is possible to interpret some signals, even involuntary ones, of those who participate in the game and then evaluate the cards they have and their actual ability to play. On the other hand, bluffing serves to disguise, as needed, the actual value of the hand one holds.