What is the Strength of Your Poker Hand?

In this session, we examine the various hands that we may get on the flip. What are those poker hands’ strengths, and how should you use them to your advantage while avoiding traps and maximizing the value of your winning hands? When choosing how to play with them after the flop, there are several aspects to take into account because some may seem stronger than they actually are.
Nothing flops
This will frequently occur, and if it does, you will need to decide whether to continue or not.

You can choose from the following:

Attempting to see a free card by checking, but folding to any wager.
If we have demonstrated strength before the flop, we can place a continuation bet in the hopes of winning the pot immediately.
Which of the aforementioned options we choose will depend on the strength of our hand (even though we didn’t hit on the flop) and the read we have on our opponent. If the read suggests he hit the flop, we are more likely to fold any bet. However, if he seems weak and we suspect he may have also missed the flop, we may choose the continuation bet and try to win the pot.
Knowing when a player has committed to the pot
Always keep an eye on your opponent’s chip stack to see whether they have committed to a pot.

When we say a player is pot committed, we imply that he or she has already invested a sizeable chunk of their stack into the pot and is unlikely to fold right away since doing so would leave them with an insufficient amount of chips.

A short-stacked player is typically considered to be pot committed if he has bet more than half of his chips before the flop. The likelihood is that, if given the option, he would either raise all-in before the flop or move all-in following the flop, whether or whether he has hit his cards.

There is no purpose in bluffing if your opponent is not going to fold, since it will be very difficult to get them to leave the pot.

As a result, we may relax our hand requirements a little and call with a mediocre hand while remaining certain that we are in the lead since we know that our opponent is pot committed, which increases the likelihood that he is betting with a weaker hand than usual.

Adapting to a Pay Increase

It is never simple to decide what to do when you are engaged in a pot and someone raises their hand behind you. The magnitude of the raise and the circumstances at the table have a significant impact.

There are no absolute guidelines on when to request for a raise, but you may think through the following procedure to help you decide:

• Your Hand: Did you join the pot holding a strong hand or only a mediocre hand?
• When the raise was accepted, how many players were still in the pot? -A raise against a single opponent demonstrates less power than a raise against several opponents.
• Who has yet to play a role? A raise from a player in early or middle position suggests much greater strength, but a raise from the dealer button or blinds may only be an attempt to defend the blinds or prevent a steal.
• Will you be in position against the raiser after the flop? If they are one of the blinds, you will be in a position to call with a little worse hand following the flip.
• The raiser’s level of aggression. Don’t immediately assume that an aggressive player is bluffing; remember that he may have a strong hand just like you. Instead, show more respect for a raise from a more conservative player than from an aggressive player.
• Which odds are in the pot? You need to be more inclined to accept a raise with favorable pot odds than one with unfavorable ones.
• Are you on the verge of having too few stacks? If you fold now, you will soon be compelled to throw your chips in the pot in a weaker condition than this one because of your small stack, so consider whether you have time to pass on this opportunity and wait for a better chance to do so.
• It should be easier for you to decide whether to make the call if you carefully consider the aforementioned criteria.

Display of Hands

If you win a pot before the showdown, you can choose to muck your cards (without disclosing them to your opponents) or to expose your hand first, in which case your opponents will know what you have.

After you have just won a pot by your opponent folding, the majority of online poker sites provide you this choice, with two buttons that will popup with an option to expose your cards.

I frequently observe new players revealing their hands, which is almost always a mistake. Why? Your opponents can read your future actions since you are freely providing them with knowledge regarding the acts you did with that specific hand or kind of hand.

Stick to the basic rule of not showing your hand unless absolutely necessary; there is no reason to provide your opponent with further information.

Even if you won’t employ this method in your plan, you still need to be aware of it and the reasons why others would. When an opponent shows us their hand, we will pay close attention to it and then go through their moves throughout the hand to help us identify betting trends and gauge how to read our opponent in subsequent hands.

However, we can’t assume that such patterns will continue in the future, and you need to be aware of the potential explanations for why someone could have exposed their hand.

Players that exhibit strong hands are either overly happy about earning a strong hand but not having the opportunity to show it or they are
They’re presenting you a strong hand so that you will respect them more the next time they try to steal the pot since they’ve already shown to you that they have a strong hand.
Players who bluff the pot are likely holding a strong hand; however, because you’ve seen them bluff the pot before, they’re hoping you’ll draw the wrong conclusion and call with a weak hand. Players who show bluffs are either trying to tempt you into tilt mode or trying to get you to draw the wrong conclusion.
In general, you may evaluate the above depending on how skilled the player is and whether they are able to do complex movements like this one that are intended to mislead you.

Returning to the claim that “Poker is a game of information,” it is true that we are constantly attempting to interpret the information that our opponents provide us. However, you can also exert control over the information you send to opponents, provided you are aware of what information they have received and how you can use it to your advantage the next time you are in a pot with them by switching the narrative. You will be the one in charge if you keep them guessing and maintain control over your information flow.

It’s time to raise the bar
You are getting close to the finish of the course, therefore it’s time to crank up our efforts once more to attain our target of $1,000 from a $25 starting bet. With just 4 more challenge levels to go before you reach your $1,000 target, your bankroll should now be over $200, and things will start to move fairly rapidly from this point on.

You have so far mastered a reliable fundamental approach and built on it with some sophisticated tactics. You are now aware of the steps and resources needed to make all of your poker decisions.

For the upcoming levels, we’ll leave the 5c/10c tables behind and move up to the 10c/20c tables. Again, you could see a minor increase in the caliber of your opponents, but at these stake levels, there are still a lot of subpar players.

Don’t let the higher stakes frighten you, but proceed with caution at first until you get acclimated to any differences it may bring. The arithmetic and our approach stay the same, but keep in mind that the size of the bets and raises will rise in step with the increase in stake levels. At this stage, there will still be a ton of fish, but there will also be a few more improved players added to the mix.

Now that the stakes are larger, it is very important to stick to your game plan since any deviations will cause your bankroll to suffer more severely at tables with higher stakes. Just play according to what you’ve learned and practiced during this course, and keep in mind that higher stakes tables also yield larger rewards.