Basic poker strategy for beginners

If you want to become a successful poker player, you can't avoid learning poker strategies. If poker beginners don't want to learn from their mistakes, it can cost them a lot of time and money. To enhance your poker game and avoid costly mistakes, many players turn to platforms like poker88 for in-depth strategies and tutorials. In addition, the fun also falls by the wayside. In this guide we give you tips and tricks about poker games to give you a kickstart to your successful poker career.

Reasons to raise.

Increase your bet by raising. If there hasn't been a raise before you, you should always raise with premium hands. If your hand is ahead even after the flop, turn or river, you should always raise to get more chips into the pot. You want to win a lot of chips and not give your opponents a free card.

Reasons to call

Do you want to play in the casino game to have your existing stake paid out? To do this, you should pay attention to a few little things. To call, you should have a moderately strong hand and a real chance of winning. Simply calling with a weak hand because you're curious is not a good poker tactic.

If you are in the blinds and no one has raised before you, you can also call because you already have a share in the pot. In this scenario, a raise would even be recommended, as no one seems to have a strong hand in front of you.

Hands you can raise with

There are certain card combinations where you should increase your bet. We recommend that you raise with the following hands if there has not been a raise before you.

• Pocket aces
• Pocket kings
• Pocket women
• Pocket jacks
• Pocket tens
• Ace king suited
• Ace lady suited
• Ace jack suited
• King queen suited

Hands you can call with

In the game of poker, the term hand describes the best five cards. Below you will find hand combinations that justify a call:

• couples
• Combination with Ace (suited)
• Suited Connectors
• Combination with Ace (offsuit)
• Combination with king (suited)

When should you fold?

If you have a bad starting hand or you can't improve your hand to a winning hand after the flop, you should fold. Assuming your starting hand is seven-two, this hand has little chance of winning, so you shouldn't play it. If your starting hand was a pair of fours, you stayed in the pot, and the flop comes ace-king-ten, then your pair of fours no longer looks good, and you should fold.

When you have a strong hand

Let's assume you have a pair of queens as your starting hand and on the flop - which is three-suited (i.e. rainbow) - another queen comes up as the highest card. You can be sure that you have the best hand at this point, so you should bet or raise a bet here.

When you have a drawing hand

Assuming your starting hand is king-jack suited in spades and you are in the pot. The flop puts ace-eight in spades. So, you have a flush draw because you are still one spade short of the nut flush. Here you can either bet yourself (see semi-bluff) or you can call a bet to watch the turn.

A poker face is important

During every round of poker, you should be careful not to give yourself away with your facial expressions or body language. If you're really excited about a pair of aces and you can see it on your face, you're not going to attract many opponents into the pot with a raise. Focus on your body language and try not to give your opponents any talks about your cards.

Bluff

A bluff is an attempt to get the opponent who has a better hand to fold with a bet or raise. A bluff makes sense if there are cards on the board that can be dangerous to the opponent. Suppose you bet your opponent on an ace and the flop already has an ace and two hearts, the turn brings another heart, and your opponent would lose to the flush. So you bet or raise, whatever your hand, so that your opponent thinks you have a flush in the hope that he will fold.

The semi-bluff

In a semi-bluff, a player has a hand with which he bets or raises in order to get his opponent out of his hand. This hand is still behind but can improve on subsequent streets and become a winning hand (drawing hand). For example: A player has ace-ten in hearts, and there are two hearts on the flop. Now the player bets or raises because his hand with the next heart can develop into a winning hand.

Slow play

A slow play is a small bet to get your opponent into the pot with a call. This puts more money in the pot and allows you to win more with a strong hand in the later betting rounds.

Beginner mistakes and how to avoid them

Every professional player started small. Practice makes perfect. Therefore, it is important that you play repeatedly, avoiding common beginner mistakes.

In this section, we'll show you beginner mistakes and how you can avoid them. Ultimately, your goal should be to get better at poker and not just be the fish at the table.

Playing too many hands

When the passion hits you, you want to be involved in a pot as often as possible and play a lot of hands. This is understandable, but unfortunately also dangerous because you can quickly lose your stacks. Every lost hand costs you money. So why should you put chips on every hand, no matter how bad it is? Especially as a beginner you should only play premium hands.

Not starting with low limits

Probably one of the most important poker tips for beginners is that you should take your first steps in low limit games. Since bankroll management probably isn't second nature to you yet, and it's certainly not high enough yet, start with the lowest limit available. Later, if you are successful here and your bankroll management allows you to move up, you can move to the next higher limit.

Losing your poker face

A poker face has nothing to do with sitting expressionless and listless at the poker table. Rather, it means that you won't let anyone see through you, no matter what cards you have. Don't let your emotions be immediately recognized by your face and you will be very difficult for your opponents to assess.