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
Hidden Thought: What do you do?
Hidden Thought: What do you do? Call 15 cents, raise 15 cents, or muck your hand? You think, Junior always bets any good hand and many poor hands. He most likely has made a Straight or a Flush on the river (the river being the last card). Otherwise, he would have raised and raised and raised. He hasn’t learned the trick of slow- playing a good hand. When the hand is over, I’ll give Junior a short lesson on slow-playing a monster hand. So, with your Quad Aces, you of course raise, you make it a 15-cent raise. Junior looks at you a bit shocked, thinks for another 5 seconds, smiles and then looks away while raising you back 15 cent! Mother instantly steps in, “Okay, you macho guys, that’s enough raising and re-raising. Remember this is a family game.” Junior looks at you and shrugs. You both call.
The Final Show Down:
The Final Show Down: (Hidden Cards) (…Four Board Cards…) (Last Card) You: Ace. Ace. Ace. Ace. Queen. 2. 3. Junior: 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 10. 9. Junior has drawn a 6-card Straight Flush, which wins the pot. Reasonably, you’re shaken by this tough loss, a real “bad beat.” However, you want to be a good sport, so you say, “Nice hand Junior,” as you sigh deeply.” Junior responds, “Got you, Dad! Got you good! I had the Straight Flush on 5 cards and I decided to slow play’em. I was really worried because you were slow playing at least Three Aces and you could’ve had Four. When you have Aces you always bet to try and force everyone out. So, when you slow-played your Aces, I knew you had the goods. So, like Grandpa taught me, sometimes slow-playing is very effective.” You respond, “Thanks for the online hold'em poker lesson, Junior.”