By: Chris Iaquinta

While Texas Hold’em may reign supreme in both the live and online card rooms across the globe, a number of different poker games are still widely played and enjoyed by a number of poker players, including Razz.  Razz is a seven-card stud variation where instead of the highest hand winning, the lowest and worst hand wins.  The best hand to have in Razz is A-2-3-4-5 because flushes and straights aren’t counted against a hand being low, plus aces in Razz are counted as low.

As opposed to split-pot hi-lo games like Omaha, Razz doesn’t have an “eight or better” aspect to it’s play. In a hi-lo eight-or-better game, the winning low hand must not have a card any higher than an 8 in it to count as a low hand — but as Razz is a game with only a low hand winning it means that any hand can win, including those with low pairs. However, even though this is possible, it is highly unlikely, and the majority of winning Razz hands will not have a pair in them.

Here are the best 10 Razz hands:
1. A-2-3-4-5
2. A-2-3-4-6
3. A-2-3-5-6
4. A-2-4-5-6
5. A-3-4-5-6
6. 2-3-4-5-6
7. A-2-3-4-7
8. A-2-3-5-7
9. A-2-4-5-7
10. A-3-4-5-7

By: Chris Iaquinta

If you’re just starting or wanting to get started playing Texas Hold’em, here is a quick guide on the rules of how to play the most popular poker game in the world.

Step 1
The two players to the left of the dealer (represented by the “dealer button”) put out blind bets. The player immediately to the dealer’s left puts out the small blind bet while the player two places to the dealer’s left puts out the big blind bet.

Step 2
Every player is then dealt two cards, face down. These are called pocket or hole cards.

Step 3
The “action”, or the first move, falls to the player directly to the left of the big blind. They can either call the bet, raise it, or fold. Betting then continues around the table, clockwise.

Step 4
Once the betting is completed, three cards will be dealt face up on the center of the table, otherwise known as the board. The first three cards in Texas Hold’em are known as the “Flop”. These cards are “community cards” meaning everyone can (and will) use them in a combination with their own hole cards in order to make the best hand.

Step 5
From the flop onwards, betting begins with the player to the dealer’s left, who can either check or bet.

Step 6
A fourth card is then dealt face up onto the board. This is called “Fourth Street” or the turn card.

Step 7
Another round of betting.

Step 8
The final card is dealt face up. This card is known as “Fifth Street” or the river.

Step 9
A final round of betting will then occur. The remaining players will show their cards and the player who makes the best five card hand by combining the pocket cards and the cards on the board wins.

By: Chris Iaquinta

In some types of poker games you can win half or all the pot by having the best “low” hand, which is a hand that is made up mostly of low numbers and generally contains no pairs (or hands better than a single pair).  If you find yourself in a split-pot hi-lo game like Omaha hi-lo, where half the pot is won by the player with the best low hand and the other half won by the player with the best high hand, you’ll need to know what the best low hands are.  Here are the top ten low hands, starting with the absolute best.

1. A-2-3-4-5 – Also known as the wheel (In a hi-lo game this will win you the whole pot as it is considered the best high and low hand possible.)
2. A-2-3-4-6
3. A-2-3-5-6
4. A-2-4-5-6
5. A-3-4-5-6
6. 2-3-4-5-6
7. A-2-3-4-7
8. A-2-3-5-7
9. A-2-4-5-7
10. A-3-4-5-7

By: Chris Iaquinta

Poker Game Abbreviations

HE — Hold’em
LHE — Limit Hold’em
NLHE — No Limit Hold’em
O8 — Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-better
PLO — Pot Limit Omaha High
PLO8 — Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-better

Poker Abbreviations for Betting and Position:

BB — Big blind or big bet.
OTB — On the button
PL — Pot Limit
NL — No Limit
SB — Small blind
UTG — Under the gun

Poker Abbreviations for Poker Tournaments

AO — Add On
MTT — Multi-table tournament
RB — Rebuy
SNG — Sit and Go

Other Common Poker Abbreviations:

B&M — Brick and Mortar
EV — Expected value

While it may take a lot of hands on experience to be able to read your opponents emotions and hands at an advanced level, there are a lot of easy to spot tells based around body language and the things that other players say.  Here is a quick guide:

Tells That Depict A Strong Hand
•                  Acting uninterested in a hand while still in it
•                  Aggressive or rapid breathing
•                  Sighing and shrugging
•                  Looking at their chips after looking at hole cards
Tells That Depict A Weak Hand
•                  Staring down other players
•                  Holding breath
Tells That Depict A Drawing Hand
•                  Checking hole cards after a flop
•                  Taking a long time before calling a bet

There’s a rather disturbing trend among newer poker players that have gotten heavily involved in both cash games and tournaments; they typically don’t know how to change up their style of play between the two types of poker games.  The truth is, many standard strategies and tactics will work in both cash games and tournaments, but there are also some stark differences that need to be identified, one of which being the coin flip.

A coin flip situation in poker is when two players have both pushed their chips all-in (usually pre-flop) and hold hands that have around a 50/50 chance of winning.  A classic coin flip situation is a medium pocket pair like 8-8 against a big non-paired hand like AK.  You’ll see a lot of players eagerly shove all their chips into the pot during coin flip situations in a tournament, and often times this can be the right play, however those same players will also follow this same mentality during coin flip situations in cash games, which usually is not the best play to make.

The main difference is that in a tournament the goal is to accumulate chips quickly with hopes to make it “into the money”.  Plus, the most you can lose during a tournament is whatever the buy-in was, which can often be less than $100.  Because of those two factors, there are many situations during a tournament where wagering your tournament life on a coin flip can be correct.

So why doesn’t this apply in a cash game?  First of all, in a cash game the only goal is to make money, and the golden rule of cash games is to get your money in the middle in the best possible situations, such as when you’re a huge favorite to win.  A 50/50 chance of winning a hand isn’t a strong enough reason to wager a large amount of money and goes against the cash game principle of getting your money in with the best of it.  Secondly, in a cash game you could be risking your entire stack of chips on this coin flip.  In a tournament this is acceptable, but for a cash game you only ever want to put your full rack of chips at risk when you are confident you are going to win a hand.  A 50% chance should not inspire confidence.

If you find yourself playing a mix of cash games and tournaments, learn to differentiate the times of when a coin flip scenario can be beneficial and when it can be disastrous and you’ll find that you’ll be playing much smarter poker.

There are few things that give away the inexperience of a player more than when someone bets an odd amount or incorrect amount at any stage of a poker hand.  Knowing the basic betting amounts is important to building a strong table image and will help keep the veteran players from picking on you.  For example, a common beginner mistake pre-flop is raising less than double the big blind.  If you’re playing a $2-$4 no-limit hold’em game and you want to raise it up pre-flop, you can’t raise it to a total of just $5 or $6.  Whenever you’re making a raise you need to put out at least double of whatever the current bet is.  In this situation the $4 big blind represents the current bet, so you need to raise at least to $8 total.

However, raising just twice the current bet is called a “minimum raise” (or min. raise) and is not something you see a lot in most games.  Typically only inexperienced players will put out a minimum raise, and the more knowledgeable players at the table will pick up on this very quickly and will soon learn whether or not you have a bad hand or a good hand when you decide to make minimum raises.  Commonly you want to raise about three times the big blind pre-flop, though raising just 2.5 times the big blind is becoming very popular in online games.  Putting out a raise of at least 2.5 times the big blind should get rid of anyone with a weak to medium strength hand, and will give you a better idea of how strong your own hand is when the flop comes.

Now as for betting amounts on the flop, you need to bet at least the amount of the big blind, but again in almost no situation is that the correct move.  Generally, the concept is that if you want someone to call (if you flop a monster hand for example) you should bet about half of what’s already in the pot.  If you want to make the decision hard on another player though and discourage a call, you should bet the full amount of what’s already in the pot.

You can follow this general rule of thumb on both the turn (fourth card) and the river (final card), and by doing so you’ll be playing poker like the vast majority of players.  Betting the incorrect amount is practically never beneficial and will typically only hinder your hand with problems, so make sure you get the basic betting amount requirements down pat.

Just like how there’s a right and wrong time to bluff, bet or call, there’s also a right and wrong time to check.  Experienced players with a strong hand can effectively use a check to trap and extract chips from an opponent, but on the flip side, weak players often check far too often in the wrong situations, allowing the other player to catch a card that beats their hand.

Just because you can trap an opponent doesn’t mean you should.  If you check and they check, you’ve just given them a free card and it’ll be very hard to know whether the next card dealt helps their hand or not.  Only when you flop a monster like a full house or a high flush can you be reasonably assured that there is no way an opponent can beat you in that particular hand, but other than that you need to know how to protect your medium strength hands.

Lets say you have KQ unsuited and the flop comes K-10-8 with two hearts and it’s heads-up between you and another player.  If you check, hoping that the other player bets so that you can raise them, but they instead also check, and the next card is heart, you’ll have a tough time figuring out if that third heart gave the other player a flush.  Trying to get the maximum amount of chips out of your opponent is always a good idea, but at the same time you don’t want to give them a cheap chance to beat you.  The correct move in this situation is to bet almost the full amount of what’s already in the pot, forcing the other player to gamble away more of their chips if they want to try and catch that heart if they are on a flush draw, but more likely than not they will give up their draw, securing you the win for that hand.

The same applies when you have top pair or a set and there are straight draws on the board.  Anytime that giving a free card to the other player can easily result in them getting a better hand than yours, you need to bet.  Now, if you yourself haven’t made your hand yet, then of course you can check with hopes of getting to see a free card for yourself, that is one of the times it is ok to check.

Checking when you’ve made your hand should typically be reserved for only the biggest of flops.  Doing so with two pair when there are no straights or flush draws on the board should be the absolute riskiest chance you take when it comes to checking a strong hand, any other weaker scenario should require you to bet.

Poker may mainly be war of cards, but sometimes it can also be a war of words.  Here are some of the more memorable poker related quotations that you can take with you to your next home game or casino tournament.

Money isn’t everything … unless you’re playing in a rebuy tournament.
- Anonymous

Trust everyone, but always cut the cards.
- Benny Binion

Avoid people with gold teeth who want to play cards.
- George Carlin

The next best thing to gambling and winning is gambling and losing.
- Nick “The Greek” Dandalos

It’s morally wrong to let a sucker keep money.
- Canada Bill Jones

“Nobody is always a winner, and anybody who says he is, is either a liar or doesn’t play poker.”
- Amarillo Slim

“Hold’em is to stud what chess is to checkers.”
- Johnny Moss

“People would be surprised to know how much I learned about prayer from playing poker.”
- Mary Austin

“No matter how much you may want to think of Holdém as a card game played by people, in many respects it is even more valid to think of it as a game about people that happens to be played with cards.”
- Phil Hellmuth

“Ace is not good, Ace is God.”
- William Wigstrom