Basically you need to gain respect at the table, you need to demonstrate confidence in all the hands that you play, if you feel like a loser – well then you probably will be. Poker is as much about psychology as it is knowing your statistics. If you’re casually cracking jokes and laughing as you cheerfully raise with AA in the pocket, people will begin to think you are untouchable and perversely your good humour will almost make some players want you to win hands. Sounds crazy, but say if you have been playing a high stakes hand, you’re the life and soul of the table and you are left playing the miserable so and so, who do you think the other players who might have dropped out earlier, or, did not bet, will be hoping wins that particular hand? And if other players do cheer you on, what do you think the other player is going to be feeling like.

In terms of the statistics well there is a simple rule – never let the other players see you playing a bluff. If for instance you do go to the showdown and you lose, don’t be in the position where they see you playing with for instance a two and a three unsuited, when the flop has revealed mostly high cards and you’ve held out to the end making no pairs, suits or anything but still calling raises. Every other player is going to see you as easy money. If you still lose a hand but made a high pair (triple etc) or didn’t complete a possible straight or flush people will respect your mindset that you have balanced the luck with good skill. It’s kind of like being in a mathematics exam as a child, just because the result wasn’t quite right, if the thinking was sound you’ll still get something, not money (unfortunately), but respect.

As discussed in a previous article some players like to bet low in many hands, raising when the opportunity comes up. But I am definitely from the camp that likes to bet on high cards, playing less often. In my game in most cases low cards like two’s and four’s get discarded 90 per cent of the time (unless I’m meeting a blind, in which case I ride it out for as little as possible, unless two pairs, triples, straight or flush presents itself  – in which case I’ll probably start raising). Whatever you do play with though, you need to convince the other players that when you play – you EXPECT it to pay! It’s one thing coming from left side and making the nuts or having four aces once in a blue moon, but it you want to stay in a game you need to be demonstrating control and sound judgement, which might mean that your call or raise will put off some players , but trust me in the long run the other players respect for you at the table, will win you chips.

We know that position is important, but that can be overcome, purely by ‘living right,’ and establishing a good reputation at the table. Being able to control your emotions and betting patterns helps you establish this, but it does help to have decent pocket cards to back you up. It’s like a nuclear arms race, you may not need to use your WMD’s but you want people to know you have them.

On-line it’s a good idea to watch a persons habits before tangling with them too much, if they don’t bet often, then alarm bells should be going if they are suddenly in a hand after remaining quiet for the last 10 hands, it’s common sense, the person is only playing good hands, they are probably looking at an AA, AK, A10 etc.

Instantly you know you should respect this person, but often you will find if they don’t make their high pair, say they have AK and the flop show’s a 2, 5 10 for instance – they won’t bet, unless they are bluffing. In a hand like this, unless someone has gone in with a  2 and a 5 (possibly on a blind – or trying their luck) no-one will. If any high card comes up after this, and someone finally bets, chances are they have made a pair (or possibly a triple). If no-one bets or the bets are low you can be pretty sure most people are staying in to see if they make a high card. It’s never a glorious win, but wouldn’t you rather get your chips back, just because you had an Ace or King and no-one else made anything with their 10 and a Queen?

As you’re probably becoming aware there is always a reverse to the rule, someone you are playing has called at the beginning, A, Q, 9 comes on the flop. No-one bets, a 10 comes up, still no-one bets, then suddenly, after the river reveals a 2, someone has gone all-in or raised significantly. What normally happens is everyone else folds. The person betting has told everyone he has a high card or has made the straight, but, this bet has come out of the blue. It’s one of the easiest ways of bluffing. I liken it to being at a tea party and there is one last slice of cake, no-one wants to claim it, because they are scared how people will react – so no-one does until the last minute – and that person will get away with it scot-free, unless challenged.

The truth is just because someone does bet a lot towards the end might mean they are bluffing in this way, or it might be that they have been waiting for someone to bet so they can re-raise. Again this can be balanced out by previous play, have you seen them fishing and being caught out, are they desperate for chips or have they had a long standing history of only playing picture cards. The other clue is if someone raises they are at risk of scaring you off, but if they have the hand surely they want to keep you in, so an extreme raise can be a clue that their bluffing. Don’t worry, your head will hurt just as much actually playing sometimes, but in time you will gain the confidence to know what to do.

Now I’m sure many people prefer face to face (that is at home or in a casino) when reading people at poker. People communicate with each other using body language as well as what they actually say, and subconsciously we pick up most of what another person is telling us, about 90 per cent, from their body language. So despite what a person says, through their chips or their vocal chords, there may be a deeper truth.

You will find that your seasoned poker player will be an excellent reader of people, after all Jamie Gold the current world-leading chip winner (with an impressive $12,0161,719 earning’s to date) used to work promoting actors, people who effectively need to lie convincingly in their trade. And some of that life experience must have rubbed off on his poker experience and subsequent success. So it shows how essential being able to read people is, as most poker players also need to be able to lie convincingly in their trade and perhaps as importantly know when they are being lied to. Presumably, being around trained fib-tellers, Jamie Gold picked up some non-verbal cues about when someone is lying.

You don’t need to jet off to Hollywood and become a talent agent or director to have a successful poker career (but, hey as careers go, I’m sure it would be just as interesting). What you need to do is listen to people and watch them, if you’re a bloke and your partner always complains about how you don’t listen, well for once do so (It’ll have the double benefit of improving your relationship as well as your poker game).

I’m not implying that your partner is lying to you, in fact just the opposite, by referring back to an intimate, trust worthy persons behaviour, will help you see the glaringly obvious tells of someone who isn’t being truthful. Good poker is a social game, it relies heavily on what you know of people. Are they risk takers, steady and truthful, calculated, playful, intelligent, dangerous and so on.  Whenever you talk to someone socially you are developing the skills required for face to face poker.

Combine this with other little idiosyncrasies you might learn about someone, and, their body language will be telling you a great deal of what you need to know, for instance do they tap their fingers when they are excited, smile a lot, or become exceptionally chatty with a good hand. Most players will also keep looking back at their cards if they have a good hand, (although I’ve trained myself to do the reverse) all kinds of little hints that will help you match your play to what the opponent has.

One last thing before I move onto the second part of this topic about reading people is beware if they actually tell you what hands they have. Technically speaking it’s against the rules, but as Jamie Gold has demonstrated some players even get away with showing a card during big tournaments. This can in some ways create more uncertainty for you, the opposing  player, than if you were left guessing. For a start if any other players are still involved they will be able to compare what they have, so if one person blurts out that they have AA and another person has an ace too, what do you think they will do when it’s their time to bet?

The answer is probably fold, (because they can’t beat the AA with two or three or four  of a kind now, and even if they make a straight, it will be a shared pot and would be a lot harder to guarantee than someone playing KK and getting another King in the community cards). Meaning your winning hand may not make as much money, or that if you know they have AA, your KK might not look so tempting if the King doesn’t show in the flop, but if you had been playing ‘none-the-wiser’ might still have seen the hand to the river and luckily caught another King.

Some top poker players suggest that you play only high card combinations – AA, KK, QQ, AK, AQ for instance, basically any two cards between Ace and Jack or ten. This means that you have to play quite a tight game and people may consider you to be ace chasers but there is some logic in this tactic. Others suggest that you make regular small bets on many hands, and carefully accumulate wins, subtly raising if the community cards present an opportunity.

A good player will read what you are doing one way or the other, but by playing high cards only, most players will respect your call – you are effectively telling them – ‘yes I have high cards again.’ It will mean a lot less people will call or raise, this is good in some ways as the less players in on the hand means you have a higher chance of winning, but it also means there may be less money to win. If the flop comes up with more high cards it will put your competition on high alert, any raise you make will probably push out anyone who has come in with a low hand. Beware though if someone calls or even raises you.

The other method, of betting on all reasonable hands at low calls will mean you will see a greater amount of hands, you will also probably fold more often after the flop, especially to anyone’s raise. This tactic can be used very well at the beginning of a tournament, as the blinds will be low and you should have a reasonable stack to weather the storm, but at some point, you will need to tighten in the reigns. It can also be a good scare tactic much later in the tournament, when and if, you have accumulated a massive chip lead and want to intimidate players limping along.

If you can imagine a line graph of the two types of play, the high card player will keep a reasonably steady amount of chips, the line would dip and jump here and there in relation to the blind cost. The player who plays more hands would probably be more erratic, often finding his stack halves before any serious gains.

The difference would be that the player playing high cards is more likely to need to make sizable bets to make their point, whereas someone who plays ’any reasonable’ hand would probably tag-along through most hands without raising. Both tactics have legitimate grounds for applying them, and I would argue that a good poker player would need to mix and match their playing style to keep his opponents guessing.

I think the key point to make though during any game is to play steady, don’t call an all-in if you have a weak hand, even if you have called the blind already. If someone is showing off in such a way, you need to question why, do they have a killer hand – or are they bluffing? And remember there is a difference to having a few less chips after a hand – than having none. A tournament is about survival, and you don’t necessarily have to come first place to see some money out of a game.

Losing:

Perhaps it’s the sportsman in me, but I do believe in being a ‘good loser,’ – I’ve certainly had my fair share of losses, and seen hands that I was sure would come off well, being beaten by triple 2’s and the like. It’s unfortunate when you do lose, but try and keep it in perspective. On-line a player will see an incredible amount of hands, this increases the chances of seeing an incredible amount of ‘lucky wins’. And I’m sure many on-line players have been subjected to the calls of being a ‘donk,’ a ‘fish,’ or just generally been or witnessed bad sportsmanship from other players.

I don’t know if these players transfer their bad manners to face to face games, but I think it’s a combination of two things, the fact that these people are not physically in the room with them offers some protection (I.E it’s a bit cowardly slating a complete stranger 1000’s of miles away) and that the speed of online poker play on-line means you will see more hands and therefore more lucky flukes. Either way, whatever the reason it’s not good form.

Banter:

During a game be it face to face or on-line, the banter and chat is part of the magic of playing poker. Most people do jibe each other, poke fun and it’s usually in good humour. You will hear / see players taking the proverbial out of each other, they’ve probably played each other before or have been at the same table for a while. As long as people don’t get outright offensive take it in the spirit intended and before long you will be joining in and cracking jokes yourself. It can also serve as an important clue to the kind of hands the ‘livelier’ characters are playing, so don’t neglect the social aspect of poker. Banter or chat will help you empathise with the other players which makes them easier to read.

Face to face:

Playing at home will probably mean that you are playing close friends (although there are more and more poker clubs beginning, which means you can increase your circle of players and hopefully friends). In a casino however you will be playing complete strangers and it’s important to make sure you follow a few tips. Depending on the level of the game you are playing you may need to deal your own cards (just like a home game), more expensive buy ins or big tournaments may have a dealer, but when you first visit a casino to play poker it can be quite an intimidating experience having to deal your own cards.

Remember two things when you deal, most players ‘burn’ cards. What this means is that before each set of community hands is dealt they take the first card and discard it. The second thing is that when you are shuffling the cards you need to keep your hands above the table and try at all costs not to drop cards. The best way to shuffle is to cut the pack in half and with both hands and ‘riffle’ them back into each other. It takes practice and it’s advisable to try it a few times before playing face to face games. This way you keep the cards close to the table, visible to all players but without showing any card faces.

Finally always try to be a gracious winner or loser.

Well nowadays poker is a game many more people play, mainly due to the success and accessibility of on-line poker. Some would argue that it is killing the casino industry, but in many respects I think it is increasing the games popularity, especially when considering the TV coverage tournaments are getting and the characters it has generated. People in their early twenties have made themselves millionaires over night off the back of on-line playing, and generally poker has a buzz around it and an acceptability that it might not have had until recently.

However lets get back to you the beginner. I would suggest that in order to develop your game you actually join an on-line poker site. It will be far less intimidating than playing face to face, and often as not, you can cut your teeth on some very low priced games, so rather than betting on thousands like in the movies or on TV you can play hands that will only cost you a few cents a hand (most sites work in dollars). The other massive benefit is that many of them have what is known as ‘free-roll’ games, basically free games in which you can actually earn real cash. Find a good site with a lot of these, as they are the life blood for a poker beginner and play as many of them as you can.

On-line sites will also have ‘play’ games like Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars (in which you don‘t win any money, but can gain loads of experience), and as the sites make their money from the paying punters, the program itself is usually free to download, so you get to play many people across the world – and trust me this practice is invaluable. Also as I did, make the most of your family and friends, switch off the TV and get out the cards, you can bet with paper clips, the jar of lose change, sweets or even get yourself a cheap poker set with the chips. Think of it as like flying experience, a pilot can read all the books he wants, but they won’t know what its like to fly until they actually do it, and continuing that metaphor do it under safe circumstances before putting yourself at risk.

You can read hundreds of books about poker tactics (and I suggest you do) but remember poker is a game of luck and skill. Some people are sceptical of the skill involved in poker, they probably don’t play, but how you play your hand, even low cards will make a difference to the outcome. Luck is about odds, all beginners should familiarise themselves with the odds. But basically the chance of winning with a particular hand will match the value that hand will have.

This is why you will see more people winning with a pair (lowest winning combination), than you will with four of a kind (highest combination), bet cautiously if you are looking for more than 2 cards to make your hand the winner before the flop, and in most cases fold after the flop if you haven’t got at-least one of those cards. People do and will win on the last card (the river), but most winners will find their cards in the flop, and waiting for the river (to make anything) can be a costly and risky endeavour. Remember that, and you have the basic ammunition to play.