Poker is a card game in which players place bets and reveal their cards at the end of the hand to form a winning hand based on the rankings of the cards. The player with the highest ranking hand wins the pot, which is the aggregate of all bets placed by all players during each betting round.
The key to poker is reading the other players at the table and changing your strategy accordingly. This doesn’t just mean analyzing them for physical tells, it means noticing how they play and how their behavior changes with different hands and positions at the table. For example, if an opponent always calls a bet when they have a weak hand, you might want to change your strategy and call more often.
Another part of reading your opponents is understanding their ranges. New players try to put their opponents on a particular hand, but more experienced players work out the range of possible hands that their opponent could have. This helps them decide whether or not to call a bet and gives them the chance to win the pot even if their opponent doesn’t have the best hand.
Also, be sure to slow-play your strong hands pre-flop, as this will help you price out the worse players and make the pot bigger. This will increase your chances of winning a high percentage of the time, especially when you have solid cards like AQ.
