The term “action” simply means that it is your turn to act. Depending on the how the hand has gone to that point you may have several of six options: Check, Bet, Call, Raise, Reraise or Fold.

Let’s take a Hold’em hand in a fixed limit cash game for our first example. The blinds are 2/4 and it is your turn to act, two players in front of you have folded. You can either fold your hand, call the bet of 4. Since this is a limit game, if you wish to raise you would make it 8.

Same situation but another player in front of you has bet 4 or as we say: they have called the opening bet, which in this case is the big blind of 4. You now can fold, or call the 4 raise to 8. If the original bettor had raised to 8 already, then your options are fold, call the 8 or reraise to 12.

(more…)

Online is the easiest place to learn to play poker. You can play for free, so mistakes cost you nothing. More importantly, you should always play on the free side of any money site before you deposit and money. The free play will accomplish several things.

First, online software has a lot of variation between sites. How you view the table, where you sit, how you bet and raise and fold are different on every site. You should be comfortable with a site and its software before you invest any significant time and definitely before you risk your money.

(more…)

Before you sit down to play in a cash game, you need to buy chips. The question is often asked: “What is the correct amount to buy-in for?” There are several answers to that question.

First, the card room will have a minimum buy-in. For example, yesterday I was playing 2/4 Texas Hold’em and the house minimum was a 50 buy-in. Most players were buying in for 100. Ask when you make your buy-in what the average or normal buy-in is for the table. Let’s look more closely at the minimum buy-in of 50 at this 2/4 table. If each round of betting is bet at the minimum then a hand will cost 2 pre-flop, 2 on the flop and 4 on the turn and 4 on the river or 12 total. Add one raise per round and it takes 24 to play one hand to the river or nearly half the minimum buy-in. This is why many players will not come to the table with a minimum buy-in.

(more…)

One of the most important pieces of information you can gain about the other players at your table is sitting right out there in the open for everyone to see. Each player has one or more stacks of chips in front of them and the relative size of their stack will have a big influence on how they play. In this respect cash games and tournaments are very different. Let’s look at chip stacks in cash games first.

(more…)

When you make a bet, you should always place, lay, toss or throw the chips out in front of you so that it is clear what exactly your bet is. Never make your bet near or into the pot already on the table. Tossing your chips into the pot is called: “Splashing the Pot”. If you splash the pot you will be politely warned by the dealer not to do so. There are good reasons for such a rule.

(more…)

New players and even experienced players often make a fundamental error when thinking about the money in the pot. When is the money that you bet into the pot your money and when is it not your money? This is a very fundamental rule that you should always remember: Once the money you bet is in the pot, it is no longer your money. Sounds simply enough right? Well it isn’t.

Let’s say you had raised a Hold’em hand before the flop with KK. You bet those kings again on the flop and once more on the turn but a big fat ace falls on the river and you are sure that one of the other players has an ace. Some players will make what we call a “crying call” on the river with their kings, even though they are sure they are beat. The faulty reasoning for giving away that last bet? “Well I already had so much of my money in the pot, what was one more bet.” Wrong!

(more…)

In games with community cards that may be used by all the players, games like Hold’em and Omaha, the first three cards that come out together are called “The Flop”. So we talk about: ‘pre-flop betting’ and ‘seeing the flop’ or ‘taking a flop’. There is a betting round after the players are dealt their ‘down cards’ or ‘hole cards’ but before the flop. After the community cards are ‘flopped’ and there is another round of betting.

An important percentage to remember in Hold’em is that after the flop you have seen 5 of the 7 cards you get to make your best hand or you have seen 71% of your potential hand. In Omaha, where you are dealt four cards to start, you have seen 7 of your 9 possible cards or 78% of your hand.

(more…)

The one topic that every poker book talks about is bankroll and specifically “Bankroll Management.” Most of the time they are talking about the total amount of cash you have available for you poker playing. The first thing everyone says about bankroll is that you should have one. That is not meant as a joke but a very strong suggestion that you set aside from the very beginning an amount you are going to use to play poker.

(more…)

Some new players jump right in and begin playing tournament poker; others like to learn the game at low limit cash games. So how do you pick which “beginner limit” is right for you. Most poker coaches will tell you that the lowest limit is the place to learn the mechanics of playing live cash games. To some extent we agree with that advice, as long as you know that the lowest limit games have many more recreational players, which means they play a lot of hands and therefore the game is a bit different.

(more…)

These “Mechanics of the Game” will attempt to explain just how the games are played both at a live table and on the internet. A poker room can be very mysterious the first time you sit down to play; knowing the basics will make your experience that much more enjoyable and profitable.

In all poker games with a blind structure there will be a “Button” or the “Dealer Button” this signifies which players will act in what order during the play of the hand. The blinds are put out in front of the button and the button rotates clockwise around the table, one spot each hand. The player with the button has a huge advantage during that hand. After the flop the button always acts last, which means the button will see all of the other players act before having to make a bet, raise or fold decision.

(more…)