PartyPoker FAQ - Poker Strategy

Table of Contents

I. PartyPoker
II. Frequently Asked Questions
III. Online Poker Information
IV. Poker Strategy
V. General Poker

IV. Poker Strategy

1. What are good starting hands in poker?

The quick answer is any two face cards (Tens included) or any two cards over 8 that are both suited. Starting hands is a vital part of your game and you should definitely study this aspect of the game and learn how to take into account position, players, game type and if you're in a tournament, your chip stack. Many variables will come into play when you are deciding what hands to play.

I will be writing my own guide / table about this soon based on EV for a normal 10 person ring game (money game). Update, the starting poker hands page is now available on this site.

This is a guide that is based on Sklansky's starting hand groups that has undergone a lot of mathematical simulation and proven to be winning hands. Personally I like actual EV stats, but this is still a good primer to go on.

2. What are the odds of hitting my hands in poker?

Visit the poker odds page to see how to calculate odds for Texas Hold'em after the flop.

3. What are pot odds?

Pot odds is the odds of winning or hitting your hand vs the amount of money in the pot. For example, if there is $100 in the pot and it costs $8 to call on the turn, you are getting pot odds of $100:8 or 12.5:1 odds (100/8 = 12.5). Let's say you are also on a nut flush and you have about a 4:1 odds of making a nut flush by the river however. Since the the pot odds are 12.5:1 while your hand odds are 4:1, this means you are getting very good value by calling this hand. To make it easier to understand, if there were only $32 in the pot and it costed $8 to call, that means you are getting 4:1 pot odds and 4:1 hand odds. This means that if you played this hands 1000 times over, you would break even.

The idea behind pot odds is to make decisions when your hand is mathematically a correct one to play - thus letting math and statistics make the money for you in the long run.

4. What are some tells that people have when playing online?

Since you can't see someone while playing, tells are usually involved in the speed of someone's actions. When someone plays very slow or very fast, it always means something, because that tells you they are being put to a decision, trying to trick you or don't have to think about their hand at all. This should tell you many things.

On the flip side, you need to make sure you aren't giving away any tells. Most of the time, players give away tells when they are trying to act themselves. This is why many pros just give out a poker face and act the same way on every play they make. Sometimes it's useful to put out a tell on purpose if you think your opponent will catch on to it and not realize you're being tricky - but it can backfire if your opponent is good.

I'll be putting up an online tells article soon to address this question.

5. What is tilt?

Tilt is the definition poker players use to describe someone who has pretty most lost it and is mentally/emotionally steaming. Usually tilt happens after someone suffers a bad beat or is on a losing (or winning!) streak. Once someone is on tilt, their game variance usually becomes very high and they start playing very lose and/or aggressive.

When you're faced off against someone on tilt, the good thing is to usually to deal with them like a maniac - which is to pop them back hard when you have a good to very good hand (be careful of others callers however) and smooth call when you have any playable hand at all (again, don't get caught by the caller with the better hand).

5a. How do I know I am on tilt?

Anytime you're not playing your optimal game, you're on tilt. I know a lot of people who claim to never go on tilt, but I call bull on that. Whether from losing $600 to a double-runner or just flat being tired after 8 hours of non-stop play, something in the brain is going to give. When you make a play and say to yourself anything along the lines of: "Screw it", "I don't care" or "This guy is going to pay" then that's a dump truck heading your way. The best thing for you to do is get up and get out of the way. Get a drink, take a stroll, light a smoke, whatever floats your boat. You need a clear mind to play good poker.

5b. How do I prevent myself from going on tilt?

My philosophy is that there is no good substitute for simply playing a lot. Once you've logged a thousand hours or so, you should have pretty much seen everything there is to see. That's if you're not broke by then anyways. If you're going to need help in the meanwhile, the other best thing for you is simply understanding that poker is still gambling. Your opponents will get lucky and you will get unlucky at times, that's part of the game. If you can't deal with it, then suck it up. If you can't suck it up, the game isn't for you.

I've heard there is actually a good book that helps the mental game of poker called Zen and the Art of Poker. Never read it myself so I can't vouch for it, but it has some good reviews. If you just keep flying off the handle, it probably wouldn't hurt to pick this up.