How to think when playing poker
To follow up our last article of how to play poker, we thought maybe we could also give some tips that would be needed during the game. Like we mentioned this game is about understanding your opponent and at the same time playing guess the cards with them. Usually there are eight players that means a total of sixteen cards. And five are shown in the middle of the table, that gives us a sum of 21 cards out of 52 in total in card deck. So, if you have an ace in your hand and there are two aces showing up in the pot, that means either one of the players have the last one or the card is still in the deck.
The most important thing is try not to play your hands always the same way. Let´s say you have nothing and you are trying to bluff and the opponent calls your bluff. You lose this time if you want to bluff again try to not play the game in the same way. When you have different combination of playing you will also become more difficult to read. If you play the same way always that means everyone around the table will know what you have without you needing to tell them.
When you are the first one to bet, you must think very carefully about what to do. If you are only two players left and you know you have the upper hand maybe you should just raise the stakes a little bit so that he continues to play. If you check and he checks then you have lost, because you had the higher hand and you gave him a chance of beating you with the dealer introducing another card to the game. But let´s say there are four players in total then you can check, because the odds say that one of them will be bluffing and trying to scare you away. That is when you should raise since you probably are playing against amateurs they will pay the little extra just to see the next card. Remember that if you have the best hand you want them to pay to get a second chance. Do not give them out for free.
Another important idea is when you are bluffing you have to scare them away. That means do it when the moment is right. Say the turn is five jack queen and the river shows a nine. There is a possibility of a straight now. If you go hard directly it usually implicates that the last card did you good and could scare the opponents. But remember if there is a possibility of a flush then you could lose. That is why we always say, try to think about the worst possible scenario if a straight is highest possible and you bluff it perfectly you will have big earnings. But if you miss one of the scenarios that is when you lose money. So before entering a game, please try to remember the standings of the poker hands so you do not mess up your game.