We have already talked about the ” mistakes not to make ” when we start our adventure at the poker tables, but before going into more detail of the various notions and strategies, it may be equally useful to take a general look at what should then be the “basics. “To be explored to the fullest.
Obviously, let’s leave the basic rules aside (it seems to me obvious that if we start playing poker at least the rules of the game we will already have to know them, right?), And let’s see what we will have to pay particular attention to during the game from the beginning.
Playing In An “ABC” Way
When we start playing poker, we will certainly be tempted to perhaps emulate the great shots we have seen this or that champion make. Often times it will be almost natural to invent imaginative games for the pure pleasure of having fun.
The Position At The Table
And so we also come to the other fundamental point to evaluate during our first gaming experiences (to tell the truth this is a central point for any strategy at any level), the position at the table during the hand.
As you know, in sports poker we have the small and the big blind, which turn each hand clockwise and establish the different order of speech each time during the game .
This is because “speaking” last during a shot is a huge advantage in terms of game information. In addition to having useful information in terms of statistical probability on the current hand, in that case we will in fact also have the knowledge with respect to the action made by our or our opponents, being able to determine the best strategy to adopt compared to all the others. . Speaking last is therefore essential, and should be one of the first conditions to notice and exploit during the game.
Observe The Opponents
When you start playing poker it is perfectly natural to think almost exclusively about your cards and your game. It is what is referred to as “ Level 1 ” on the poker thought scale (ranging from zero to six).
Climbing this ladder is one of the primary objectives to improve our game, and while giving us the right time to learn, from our first game tests it is already important to begin to better observe our opponents to evaluate what is the next step of the game. ” Level 2 “: we think about what we have in hand and what our opponent is holding.
We pay attention to the position from which our opponents start, how many times they entered the game, the type of their action, the amount of the bet. We try to figure out what range of hands they might have played with, and we dispel hypotheses as we gain more information.
Managing Your Chips
Another of the things that we will have to give more and more importance to, is the management of our chips. Not only obviously in terms of not wasting them during the game (let’s go back to the choice of starting hands and also not to play too many pots passively), but also and above all in always being aware of the relationship between blinds and stacks (the amount of our chips).
This information tells us (and will tell us) a lot about how to act in certain situations during the game, and is normally referred to as the number of blinds available. For example, if we are playing at a blind level of 100/200 and we have a stack of 10,000, we will say that we have 50 blinds to play.
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