the 4 principles of poker

Wednesday, April 29th, 2009

Maybe obvious for the more advanced players among us, but for the beginners I’ll summarize the main principles of each poker form (as stated by Action Dan Harrington) If you follow these short and simple guidelines, I’m sure you’ll end up winning money playing poker on the internet. Just be smart and think about your choices  

Principle no. 1 : The Strength principle

In general, you want to bet your strong hands, check your mediocre hands, and fold (or sometimes bluff) with your weakest hands

That wouldn’t be too hard not? Obviously you want to bet your very strong hands to build a bigger pot when you’re likely to win. Your middle hands you better check because it’s harder to make money when you bet these. Better hands than yours are likely to call or raise, while weak hands probably fold. Folding your weakest hands is quite obvious. Bluffing with your weakest hands might be not so obvious, but then again if the bluff works you’ve gained value from a hand that had none

Principle no.2: the agression principle

Agressive actions have two possible outcomes: your opponent could fold to your bet, or he could call your bet and you can win at the showdown. Passive actions in contrary has just one, at the showdown. 2 > 1

Principle no.3: the betting principle

A bet can thus make money in three ways. If you can chase away a better hand, you won a pot you normally would have lost. If you get a weaker hand to call, you’ve got more money into the pot. Same goes to let somebody call a draw at unfavorable odds If you don’t think a bet could accomplish one of these things, just don’t bet :p

Principle no.4: the deception principle

This is quite clear. Be surprising, don’t act predictively! In order to be succesful at poker, you need your opponents to keep guessing about your bets.