Are you a beginner or casual poker player looking to improve your game?

If you would like to make the move from "playing for fun" to "playing to win," there are several important strategies that you need to understand when sitting down at the poker table. Although it takes diligent study and practice, don't worry... Playing to win is still pretty fun, too!

Poker Strategy 101: Don't play so many hands

One of the easiest ways to improve your poker game is to be more selective about which hands you choose to play. If you are a casual poker, most likely you have played with some "garbage hands" like Queen-Seven offsuited (Q7o) just because you want to stay in the game and bet against your friends.

Remember, even a broken clock is right twice a day. While you will still win some hands playing cards like these, you are  paying a price over the long run! If you want to become a profitable player (or just enjoy the satisfaction of beating your friends), then you'll need to narrow down the hands you play.

How many hands should you play?

Hand selection always occurs during pre-flop play. During this time, higher cards and suited cards are always considered to be better than lower or unsuited cards. This is because higher flushes always beat lower flushes, higher pairs always beat lower pairs, higher kickers always beat lower kickers, etc.

What can we learn from this table?

• 26 of the possible 169 combinations (15.4%) are considered "playable in all positions." 
• 52 of the possible 169 combinations (30.8%) should only be played if you are one of the last to act.
• 91 of the possible 169 combinations (53.3%) should never be played at all.

Notice that the majority have hands are meant to be folded. Yes, your default decision should be to FOLD! It's also worth noting that an Ace with an unsuited low card is NOT considered a plyable hand.

If you are playing selectively, you'll only be playing between 15-20% of all hands. If this sounds boring to you, consider bringing a book or finding a blog post to read while you're waiting for a good hand. Or better yet, observe the other players and see what you can learn about how they play!

What hands should you be playing?

It would be helpful to memorize the table above. However, you can instead create a few basic guidelines that effectively cover the table above:

• Play pairs if they are 7 or higher
• Play suited cards if they are both 9 or higher (this includes "high" connectors like 10-9)
• Play unsuited cards if they are both 10 or higher

After you learn how to play these hands effectively, you can branch out and add in a few others, such as lower suited connectors.

What factors should I consider when playing hands?

Just because you have "playable" hand doesn't mean you should always play it out. There are very, very few hands (pairs of Aces and Kings) where you should considering going all-in before the flop. Most of the time, you should be asking questions:

• Are you in a strong position at the table? If you are one of the last players to act, this means you have more information than others when you make your decisions.
• Are other players betting or re-raising the bet? If so, they are also presenting strong hands and you need to consider how yours might stack up.

Remember the "sunk cost fallacy"

When another player makes a bet, remember that folding is ALWAYS an option. You don't need to defend your hand just because you were forced to pay a big blind. If you made a bet with a "good" hand and then other players re-raised your bet, you should probably be folding and waiting to play a "great" or "excellent" hand instead.

Losing a few chips early in the handle will hurt you a little; playing with a bad hand after the flop, turn, or river may hurt your chip stack a LOT.

Poker players of steemit, what percentage of hands do you play? What guidelines or advice on hand selection do you have for new players?

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