A Field Guide For 1st-Time Poker Players
By Lou Krieger

As poker’s popularity grows by leaps and bounds, tournaments like this year’s World Series of Poker attracting nearly 6,000 players, many of whom willing to ante up $10,000 to play in its main event, it’s clear that new players are continuing to find their way into casinos in numbers undreamed of a few years ago. If you’re a new convert to poker and are just learning to play Texas holdem, or even if you happen to be an experienced player and the game still seems baffling at times, there’s never been a better time to learn. Many of your fellow players won’t have any more experience at the poker table than you do. Some have even less. For all of you who are new to poker, here’s a field guide to help you navigate through poker’s sometimes murky waters.

Play Solid Starting Hands: Nothing can overcome the deep and gaping hole many new players dig for themselves because they persist in entering pots with weak starting hands. Not even Doyle Brunson’s abundant skills could rescue you from the inevitable beating you’ll take as a direct consequence of entering pots with weak hands. My advice is to lock onto some good starting standards and let them guide you through the minefield of starting hand selection. Playable hands vary with your position in the betting order, your opponents, and the game’s texture. If you’re in a tournament, your choice of starting hands also depends on the stage of the tournament you’re in, your chip count and the stack sizes of your opponents.

There’s a lot more to be said about starting hand selection that can fit into this short article, but as long as you’re aware of the fact that there are starting hand guides you can use, you’re well ahead of anyone who’s playing on whim, playing hunches, or playing without a clue that there are generally playable as well as generally unplayable hands, and that success at the poker table depends in large measure on knowing the difference between them.

Try As You Like, You Can’t Escape Arithmetic: Many of your poker decisions are based on numbers. Even if you’re not consciously considering probabilities as you decide how to play your hand, the game itself is bounded by probability theory. It’s what makes poker a game you can beat. You can’t beat casino table games because the odds are fixed and always stacked in favor of the casino. But at the poker table, you’re not playing against the house; you’re playing against people just like yourself, and the odds and their relationship to the size of the pot change with each card that’s dealt.

Regardless of whatever other decisions confront you at the poker table, you always need to answer the Prime Question: "Are the odds against making my hand offset by the money in the pot, or the money that figures to be in the pot by the end of the hand?" When you can correctly answer this, you’re well on your way to becoming a skillful player.

If the odds are 2-to-1 against making your hand, but the pot will pay $3 for each $1 you have to invest, you must play in order to try and catch that winning card. But if odds against making your hand are such that you figure to make your hand only once in four attempts, you’d better not call if the pot only offers a 2-to-1 return on your money.

Counting the pot is hard for some players. Don’t let it worry you; there’s no need to be all that precise about it anyway. A close estimate is OK. But when you do count or estimate the pot, be sure to consider any additional bets you’re likely to win from opponents who are likely to call if you make your hand.

It may pay to play even when the relationship between the pot odds and the odds against making your hand are not justified by probability but you think there’s a good chance that betting or raising will cause your opponent to fold. But we’ll ignore those considerations for now, just to keep this as simple as possible.

When you’re playing holdem, many situations frequently repeat themselves. Even if you are innumerate and don’t want to bother yourself with doing calculations, all that’s necessary is to memorize the odds against catching the card you need in commonly-encountered situations, compare those odds to the pot odds, and your choice is clear.

The chart below shows the chances of making your hand in common holdem situations. Those chances are expressed as percentages in the first column. The second column shows these same percentages expressed as odds against making your hand. The numbers are rounded for simplicity’s sake.

For example, if you are dealt a pair before the flop, you have a 12% chance of making a set on the flop. A 12% chance of flopping a set means the odds against that event occurring are 7.5-to-1.

Before the Flop Percent Odds Against
You hold A-K, your chances of flopping at least an Ace or a King are: 32% 2-to-1
You hold a pair, your chances of flopping a set are: 12% 7.5-to-1

On The Flop, With 2 Cards to Come Percent Odds Against
You hold a straight-flush draw, your chances of making a straight, a flush, or a straight-flush by the River are: 54% 0.9-to-1
You hold a flush draw, your chances of making a flush by the River are: 35% 1.9-to-1
You hold an open-ended straight draw, your chances of making a straight by the River are: 32% 2.2-to-1

Other situations will also be predicated on how the size of the pot compares to the odds against making your hand -- but these will do for starters. If you memorize these odds, and can make a reasonable estimate about how many opponents will pay you off if you make your hand, you’ll be OK.

Count Your Opponents: The more opponents in the pot, the more straightforward you’ll have to play. If you hold A-K and three rags flop, what should you do? Part of the answer depends on the number of opponents you are facing. If the flop didn’t hit your hand, but you have four opponents, you can be almost certain that the flop was kind to someone. If there’s a bet and a call before it’s your turn to act, you only figure to win if an Ace or King falls on the Turn or River, and then only if that Ace or King doesn’t give your opponents two pair. You also have to hope you are not up against two pair (or better) already.

Against one or two opponents A-K may be the best hand regardless of the flop because there’s no certainty that a flop which missed you helped someone else. But please be extremely careful when confronting more than two opponents: A flop that misses you will probably help one of them.

The tipping point is usually two opponents. Against one or two others you can win even when big cards like A-K don’t improve. Against three or more players your chances drop rapidly, depending on how many opponents you have. The larger the field, the less you’ll be able to bluff. Bluffing seven players is nearly impossible, but against only one or two opponents, you might be able to steal the pot often enough to make it pay off.

What’s Your Position? Poker is easier when you’re in late position or last to act. Once your opponents have acted you’ll know with complete certainty what it will cost to see the next card. If no one bets and you’re last to act, you can even see the next card for free. If you are up against only one or two opponents betting might enable you to win the pot right there, even if you don’t have much of a hand at all. When you are first to act or in early position, you need a strong hand to come out swinging. And you can’t really assess the strength of your opponents’ hands -- real or purported -- without some information to help you.

Although every credible poker pundit advises selective and aggressive play, there are times when checking is advisable. Unless you have reason to think a bluff might win the pot right there, discretion in the form of a check is usually the better part of valor when you hold a marginal hand in early position.

What Are My Opponents Like? There’s no substitute for knowing your opponents. Any time you have a good hand and a habitual bluffer bets, raising is mandatory. While he’s going to hold his share of big hands too, you will come out ahead in the long run by raising often enough to pick off his all too frequent bluffs. You’d ideally like to play him heads-up, since he might not have a legitimate hand, and your raise might also cause other opponents to fold. That’s a good thing, because they otherwise might call, get lucky, and draw out on you. While the world is full of poker players willing to stick around with weak hands in hopes of catching a miraculous card when the cost is only a single, solitary bet, that coterie narrows significantly when they have to cold-call two bets with a dial-a-prayer hand.

There’s a lot more in the way of advice to first-time poker players than is covered here. This is simply a primer -- written with new players firmly in mind -- as well as an easy way to keep your mind on the information you’re likely to need in the heat of battle.