If there is one thing in the world that I know about, it is going to be poker strategies. What many people do not know about the game of poker is that it is all about how you play it. You want to make sure that you are the one that is playing the cards, not the other way around. You never want to play poker when you are not confident, for it is all about how confident you truly are.
There are two basic approaches that you need to learn about whenever you are dealing with a poker game – the defensive poker player and the aggressive poker player. Half of the time, the defensive poker player will back down when the aggressive player speaks up – however, you need to be able to find your balance in order to truly become a good poker player.
Poker is a game of skill and just how well you work with other people – how well you can read them. If you can read them extremely well, you will do awesome in poker!
Starting Hand Strategy
To be completely honest – the start of your hand is going to be a very, very important thing. If you get a crappy starting hand, you are not going to do well in the rest of the game … right? Wrong! That is not always the case. Now of course, not all of the bad hands that you get are going to be able to be turned around but some of them could, you really just have to know exactly what you are doing in order to turn a bad hand into a good one.
So what exactly is a good standing hand? Well, ace/ace, ace/king and king/king are all very good starting hands; however what happens if you just get one or the other? Well then, you truly have to make sure that you use your skills and observant nature to ensure that you get the next best card run as soon as it becomes available.
Being observant is by far one of the best skills that you are going to have to learn in the game of poker – remember that!
Learn the Rules Before You Play
The rules in poker almost sound pretty stupid to talk about … if you play poker, you know the rules right? Wrong! Most people honestly think that they know the rules but half of the time … the poker players do not know the rules of the game and honestly, it is the very first thing that you need to be doing whenever you are looking to get serious about the game … after all, playing poker is all about following the rules.
Whether you are playing online or offline, the rules is something that should be read. Now, when you are playing online, you should definitely make sure that you look the rules up and read them – if you are playing normal poker, you should take up reading the poker manual. Poker is not a hard game to play but it is a game that you want to make sure that you know.
Think about it – how often do you play a game that you do not know the rules on? Not that often, poker should be no different!
Poker Jargon
Poker is a hard game to learn – well, it is a hard game to truly get to know and completely appreciate. If you are just starting out in the poker field, there are a few terms that you should know – otherwise, you will be very confused once you get really into the game. That is exactly what we are going to explore below, so watch out, it’s all about poker jargon in this blog right now!
One of the first terms that you need to learn is ‘board cards’, now these are not cards that are bored, they are the cards in the middle of the table that are shared by everyone. Another term that you should be familiar with is ‘blinds’, this is the forced bets that take the place of an ante. The person to the left of the dealer is the one that must pay the small blind and the person after him must pay the big blind.
Now that we have talked about just a few of the poker jargon terms, let’s discuss a few more! The basis of this ‘language’ is that it is universal – anywhere you go that has poker as a game, you are going to see a lot of these words and terms used, so if you plan on getting really into poker, you should take these terms into account – seriously. All right – let’s talk about lowball. This is a term that is used quite a lot, but what is it?
Basically, a lowball is actually a hand that is low or poor – it is not a good hand. So an ace-to-six low would be a 6-4-3-2-A, aces are low and straights and flushes count as high hands. That is an example of a very poor hand that is considered a ‘lowball’.
Another term that you will hear a lot about is bankroll – that is the amount of money that a player has to wager for the duration of their poker career – a very chip or even a money rich player. In the next blog, we will explore some more terms!