Poker Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
THE SCARNE POKER SHUFFLE
THE SCARNE POKER SHUFFLE At least 50% of nonprofessional Texas Hold'em Poker players make this mistake after a shuffle: They take the pack up into their hands to square it before offering it for the cut. Why, after taking such fastidious pains to conceal that bottom card, must they expose it thus to their opponents? Make no mistake about it—at least one hawk-eyed opponent will take advantage of that card. He'll know where it is after the cut. He can cut the pack in such a way as to force it into the deal (placing it high in the pack) or keep it out. In either case, a significant percentage swings in his favor. Square the cards flat against the table.
It must be a matter of record that I'm a card manipulator by trade. I
It must be a matter of record that I'm a card manipulator by trade. I know how to shuffle, and I'm going to take the liberty of assuming you'd like to be taught by a professional. Nothing fancy about it; it won't take much time; and, while I don't guarantee to transform you into a card manipulator, I think that the next five minutes we spend together will insure you against ever being embarrassed by shuffling badly.