Poker: The Master Class

Here is some fundamental advice that you need to master in order to play the perfect hand of poker. It is necessary to master some essential techniques and strategies that will allow you to move your stack around in profitable situations, and optimise your chances of winning money in any game of online poker, or even in real-life scenarios.

The 4-2 rule:
The 4-2 rule consists of a method for establishing the probabilities in a situation which requires that you know your outs (outs refers to the number of cards left in the deck that can give you the hand you require). The results are not entirely accurate, but they will give you a good idea of your chances of winning the pot.

How does it function?
With two cards to come after the flop, you multiply your number of outs by four. With one card to come after the Turn, you multiply your number of outs by two.

For example, you hold a group of colours after the Flop which gives you nine outs. With two cards still to come you multiply nine by four and you end up with a 36% chance that you will be able to complete colours. The exact measure is actually 35%. With one card to come after the Turn, you have to multiply nine by two; this will give you 18%, with the exact calculation being 19.6%.

Thus, you can calculate your outs very quickly and fairly precisely to give you a coherent order of magnitude of the necessary cards.

There is another method which is a more precise way of calculating the odds of your hand, but it is also a lot more complicated, it does not carry much interest with poker players because in the heat of the moment it is very difficult to carry out.

Betting techniques:
A bet is a declaration of the following:

1. "I have the best hand and I will bet money on it" or...

2. "You have a feeble hand and you are going to fold if I force you to bet". Typically, players are supposed to bet when they have a good hand; the players who do not hold a good hand are supposed to fold.

Of course, if this was the case, you may just as well bet as in heads and tails, rather than concern yourself with mastering the game of poker. For the most part, players try to become the very best players that they can and try to play intelligently, but it is necessary to try to keep the pretence of good sense in order to optimise your chances of winning.

You have to maintain simple strategies from the start. Quite simply, you should bet when you think that you are holding a winning hand and fold when you think you are holding a losing hand. This being the case, there are some situations where it is preferable to bet even when you do not hold a winning hand.

Here are some situations you need to study in order to master poker:

Stealing the Blinds:
Texas Hold'EM poker is a unique variation of the game, in that those people in position of the blinds are obliged to wager. The result of this is that those people who are obliged to wager engender a situation whereby they are not as implicated as the rest of the players who need, really, to have a winning hand in order to wager.

In the position of Dealer, if there is only you and the two Blinds remaining in the round at the Pre-Flop, the fact of raising is called "Stealing the Blinds". Why is it called this? Simply because by raising against the Blinds, you put them in a situation whereby they will have to fold under most circumstances. It is important here to remember that the Blinds are playing because they are obliged to; therefore, it is easy to push them out of the game.

The Steal-Raise
The position of choice is always the position where the player is last to speak, and is therefore able to observe the actions of the opponents. You will be the last in the sequence to bet; therefore you are privy to the intentions of your opponents. If all the other players have checked before you, and that you bet (regardless of your hand), you can force other players to fold. Taking the pot in this scenario is called steal-raising.

Obviously, if you use this technique too often, the other sharper players are likely to await you at the Turn. It is a good idea to try the steal-raise when you have a good hand of suits or colours.

The Check-Raise:
This is an action which makes it possible to increase the size of the pot. If you hold a winning hand and that you bet immediately, you can drive out players who could possibly have contributed to the pot. Thus, let us consider that you have checked, and that one of your opponents sees an opportunity, assuming that you are a bit dubious regarding the strength of your hand. Therefore, you opponent bets, at which point you can now raise him a higher amount. At this stage, your opponent needs to make a difficult decision, but most of the time he is too far along in the game to let it go now.

The Opener:
This is a traditional bluffing technique. The first person to speak after the Blinds raises aggressively, obliging the other players to pay the Blinds plus a bit extra. The only reason that forces a player to act in this way in such an early position around the table is in order to maximise the number of opponents. Usually, a majority of players will fold. On the other hand, those who remain should be in possession of a good hand, or they are simply refusing to let themselves be intimidated by aggressive game play. This manner of betting when in an early table position serves to collect invaluable information on the force of the players involved. However, you must remember that this tactic only works well when there are not very many players at the table!

Click here to learn how to play poker. understanding winning hand combinations in poker Understanding variations of poker Understanding the importance of play position in poker. Understanding your opponents. Understanding advanced strategies for poker. Understand going All-In. Mastering your game. Understand the approriate kind of poker play for you. Understanding real world poker. Understand chipleading. Dealing with a small stack. Understand the relationship between poker and psychology. Understanding tournaments.

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