A Lesson for Sara

I recently had a request for poker lessons from a young woman named Sara, a journalist who was interested in going to Vegas, playing poker there, and writing an article about her adventure. She certainly needed some coaching, since the closest experience she has ever had to playing real poker has been playing video poker. I realize that nearly all Card Player readers already know the basics of poker, but there is always the possibility of your being called upon to teach a rank beginner, so perhaps how I go about it may be of some help or interest.

Sara, the most important quality needed to play poker is discipline. The essence of poker is betting that you have a better hand than the opponent. At the end of the deal, we find out who has the best hand by comparing them. To give yourself the best possible chance of holding a winner, it is necessary to fold the low-quality hands and play only those that are high-quality. Most of the hands you are dealt should be thrown away without investment of even a single chip. These hands have such a low possibility of winning that it is not worthwhile to try to improve them. As a deal of poker progresses, you have to keep evaluating your hand's quality, and continue to throw away the weaker ones. Every time a new card comes, there is a round of betting and a decision to be made about your chance of winning the pot.

It is contrary to human nature to throw hands away, because man is a playful animal, and it is more fun to play than not to play. The overwhelming majority of poker players play too many hands. If you want to be successful at poker, you must conquer this desire to play. You must fold your bad hands.

Selecting only high-quality hands to back with your money is such an important part of poker that someone who is a novice, but exercises the proper discipline, can play the game well enough to break even in low-stakes poker games, because hardly any of your opponents fold most of their low-quality hands. They would rather play than not play – especially Vegas visitors. They didn't come all the way to Vegas to fold hand after hand.

There are many forms of poker. The one used in video poker is draw, which is hardly ever played anymore. You should confine yourself to learning only one form of poker when you first take up the game. The best form to learn is hold'em, the most popular poker form in 21st-century America.

In hold'em, you are dealt two cards to start with. There is a round of betting. All the rest of the cards dealt from this point on are dealt faceup in the center of the table, rather than to the individual players. Those cards are called "common cards," because they are used by everyone. In hold'em, five cards are eventually placed in the center of the table. You will select the five cards that will be used for your final poker hand from any combination of the two cards in your hand and the five cards on the board (table center). You can even play only the five cards on the board for your final hand, if you wish, but of course the most you can hope for that way is a tie.

The five cards on the board are dealt by exposing the first three all at the same time; this is called "the flop." This is an extremely important part of the game, because three new cards all at once can easily change the value of your hand by a large amount. There is a bet after the flop, another card dealt, a betting round, then a final card and betting round.

The beauty of each player having only two cards is that anyone can read what the best possible hand will be by what is on the board. If there is no pair, no one can have a full house or quads. There needs to be three cards of the same suit on the board for someone to have a flush, and three cards close in rank for someone to have a straight.

In hold'em, a player is designated as the dealer (a house dealer actually deals the cards). The two players left of the dealer put up blind bets, and the players each decide in turn whether to fold, call, or raise. All the other betting rounds have the betting action start with the first player left of the dealer. Naturally, it is preferable to see what the other players are going to do before making your own decision. The more information you have, the better your decision is likely to be. Acting early is bad; acting later is good. When you act is called your position. Your decision whether to put money into the pot is based on both your hand quality and your position. The worse your position, the better hand you need in order to play.

What should you look for in your two-card starting hand? Big cards are better than small cards. Pairs are good, if they are reasonably high in rank. Small pairs are hard to win with unless you help them, and the odds are greatly against improvement. Cards of the same suit are better than unpaired cards of two different suits, because you have the added possibility of buying three more cards of that suit to make a flush.

Here are the top starting hands: A-A, K-K, Q-Q, J-J, A-K, A-Q. The last two are even stronger if they're of the same suit. These hands are worth a raise on the first betting round. The biggest pairs are worth reraising if someone else raises. Suppress your desire to wait until a later moment to reveal your strength. One of the most important principles of poker is to try to protect your hand by betting strongly if you believe it to be the best. If your opponents fold, you win the pot. If they stay, you are more likely than anyone else to be the winner of the extra money in the pot produced by your strong betting.

The above hands are premium hands, the cream of the crop. Some other hands can be played, as well, as long as the pot has not been raised in front of you. (If you are already in and someone after you raises, go ahead and call, because you are already halfway in.) Medium-size pairs are playable, as well as two cards both bigger than a 10. An ace, although the best card, should be played only if the other card is either big or of the same suit.

Hands to be avoided are small cards (even of the same suit), any card lower than an ace combined with a small card (even of the same suit), and small pairs. Small is bad in poker.

After the flop, the typical winning hand is "top pair," meaning a pair formed with the biggest card on the board. (If you have a pair in your hand that is higher than any card on the board, this is an even better hand than top pair.) If you have a four-flush or a four-straight, you can stay and try to improve your hand. Most other hands are too much of a long shot to stay in with.

You are going to see lots of hands winning pots that are far worse than the kind of hands you have been told to play. Remember that any two cards can win the pot if the perfect matching cards come on the board, but playing these long shots will rapidly burn up the winnings from your good hands.

There are a great many skills that the good poker players have. They know when to bluff and how to read opposing hands, and they have tricky moves. You will acquire these skills as you gain experience. But never forget that the essence of poker is betting that you have a better hand than the other person. If the hands with which you elect to stay in are only of high-quality, and your opponent plays lots of hands, the chances are that you will beat him. The better hands you start with, the better hands you are likely to wind up with – even if you are a world champion player.

Editor's note: Bob Ciaffone's new book Middle Limit Holdem Poker, co-authored with Jim Brier, is available now (332 pages, $25 plus $6 shipping and handling). This work and his other poker books, Pot-limit and No-limit Poker, Improve Your Poker, and Omaha Holdem Poker, can be ordered through Card Player. Ciaffone is available for poker lessons. E-mail [email protected] or call (989) 792-0884. His website is www.diamondcs.net/~thecoach, where you can download Robert's Rules of Poker for free.