Thanks to Kenny Rogers we all know “You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.” – but it actually summarizes a key skill you must master as a poker player: knowing when you’re holding a winning hand.

This decision making process is a skill that comes with experience and great poker players can calculate their chances and the quality of their hand, as soon as their first cards are dealt, pre-flop.

In seconds these players can assess their chances of winning – the pot odds – by considering a range of fixed numbers (e.g. the number of suits and card values in a deck) and variable numbers (e.g. the number of players dealt in). They’ll also factor in what they know of their opponents: Is Jon a chronic bluffer? Is Paul tight? Is Marc a novice who will play anything?

Some poker players are great mathematicians. Others have a more instinctive feel for numbers and human nature. But even if you don’t fall into or even aspire to either group, it’s easy to appreciate the lure of poker: it’s an exciting combination of luck, skill and psychology that has potential to earn you some great payouts!

Some poker basics:

1. Unless a hand is at least marginal, you shouldn’t bother playing it. Even if it is marginal, it’s still worth considering carefully. Sure, it’s a bit deflating to fold right out of the gate, only to see the dealer lay out the cards you needed for that full house in the flop. But that doesn’t happen too often, does it? The most common problem with new players is that they want to play too many hands, forever hoping that the card they need will turn up. Make no mistake: the odds are against them. Instead, the best strategy is to play only those hands that have a chance of winning from the start.

2. Check out the table stats:
– Tables with “high-flop player percentages” are the ones where more players are staying in to see if their cards will improve with the flop. High percentages here are a good sign that there are a lot of new players at the table. Potential fishing…

– A low “average pot size” means that many of the players are folding to bets on the flop; this can be good or bad. You can probably get away with betting on a relatively weak hand, scaring off many of the players. The downside, though, is that the players with genuinely good hands will stay in. Pay close attention to the Turn (or Fourth Street) and River (Fifth Street) bettors in this case.

– The opposite of this are the tables with a low “flop percentage”, meaning the players are tight and playing only the hands that are smart bets. This is a good place to try to scare away players by betting pre-flop, and take the antes and blinds. However, if they do stay in and play out the hand, because of their tight playing style, you can be pretty sure that they’ve got a great hand.

– Tables you should avoid are those with high “pre-flop percentages” and large “average pot sizes”: these are tables where the players stay in a long time, raise wildly and generally cannot be bluffed. It’s tough to make hands work at tables like these, even good hands, without a lot of luck.

Good luck at the tables!
Mike

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