How much to bet?

After the flop, 3-h, 7-h, 10-h, you find that the A-h you are holding would need one more heart, in the turn or the river, to give you the nut flush. Your opponent raises the value of pot. Everyone else folds. Do you bet, do you call, or do you fold?

Here's the read, chances are, your opponent has already made the flush -- at least, that's what he is saying the way he raised pot. So you are behind. Let's assume that for the moment. Hitting another heart on the turn is a more or less 25% probability. Your opponent is asking you to pay 33% of the possible win for the chance to see that 25% turn card. That there is still the river card even if you miss the turn is immaterial at the moment, because your opponent can still raise and ask you to pay even more for the chance to see the river card.

So do you call with those numbers? That's your decision. But the odds are against you. You are betting 75 to get 50.

A-K suited strength

You drew A-K suited, it's a beautiful sight to see. But just how strong is it? Well, not really. Against any pocket pair, A-K suited is slightly behind on an almost 50-50 toss-coin. Against 2-2, an A-K suited still needs to hit an ace or a king, and this true from 2-2 to Q-Q. Against A-A and K-K, then A-K is dominated. But chances are, if you are pushing all-in with A-K suited, you are playing with 50-50 odds against a pocket pair, good enough for a newbie, but definitely not how real poker ought to be played.

Mind what are you saying.

Knowing how to read your opponent is one thing. Speaking to your opponent is another. And I am not talking about vocal chatter. Betting, after all, is the language of poker. While mid-level poker players can read their opponents, the next higher-level players know how speak with their betting.

Learn to say, get off the pot now, with a huge bet. Of course, poker being a competition, while you can say that, your opponent might not do what you tell him to do. And that is the game -- that is poker.

The simple point is, know that your betting is saying something about your hand. And your opponent is trying to read you. You can talk to him. For a example, the flop shows a flush draw situation. Your opponent raises, you call. He raises again at the turn, flush draw card didn't come, and you call again -- just call. At the river, flush draw card comes, he raises, you re-raise big. What did you just tell your opponent? It doesn't matter if you had the flush or not, you just told him you had it. Whether he believes you or not, that's the game.  

Don't be a donk

General rule: never re-raise (except on the river). If you believe you have the best hand, and you got raised, call. Re-raising at any time except on the river is a donk bet. Re-raising potentially ruins the possibity of winning more chips in the end. Re-raising with the strongest hand invites the original raiser to fold. And will almost certainly make the rest of players on the table fold. Remember the first principle of poker, it is not how many hands you win but how many chips you get in the hands that you win.

An exception to the rule is when you flopped flush with small hole cards, and you want to end the hand before the turn. Personally, even in this scenario, I do not re-raise.

Bluffing

First, let us get this clear, bluffing is betting or raising when you have no hand. Calling a raise when you have no hand is not bluffing, that is stupid.

More on statistics

So you already know that a flush draw on the river is a 1 in 4 proposition. An inside straight draw 1 in 13 and an up and down straight draw 1 in 6. That is just half the story. Remember that poker is only half about your hands, the other half being the hand of your opponent. If you get your straight and your opponent has a flush, you still lose. So pay attention.

How to play with pocket pairs

Getting pocket pairs can be real tricky. They look pretty and can be misleading in that it looks stronger than it actually is. One has to remind oneself that a pocket pair, even an AA pocket pair, is still just a pair.

Risk management

I am tempted right here to start spewing statistics. That's all well and good. And you can read all about that right here. But what I want to really focus on is what to do with this knowledge. 

Bad beats

Before we proceed to further discussions on strategy and whatnot, let us get one thing out of the way first, there is NO PERFECT WAY TO PLAY POKER. There is only the smart way, there is no perfect way. Even the smartest poker players get bad beats.

Check-raise

Check-raising is the most basic poker strategy a noob needs to learn. The idea is pretty simple, really. I just don't understand why there are those who think they know poker and yet simply does not understand what check-raising is all about.

Zynga poker for noobs

So, you know that a straight beats three-of-a-kind (trips). Well, good for you. You know the rules of the game. But can you play poker? I mean, really play poker?

How I won at the shootouts

I played Zynga poker shootouts for a month and won it three times. I actually won it twice within 2 days because I had won my first tournament 12 hours before the IPAD raffle qualifiers. The first win however took a week of trying.