Lesson 1

Play fewer hands, from better seats

The biggest edge at a weekly game costs nothing to learn. Fold more before the flop, and play most of your hands when you act last.

If words like blind, flop, limp or button are fuzzy, read the basics first. It takes five minutes and every term on this page is explained there.

Why position decides so much

Your position is where you sit compared with the dealer button, the marker that moves one seat to the left each hand. Betting goes round the table in order, and after the flop the player on the button always acts last. Acting last means you see what everyone else does before you put in a chip. You get to bet when they show weakness, check behind for a free card, and fold cheaply when they show strength. The same two cards are worth more on the button than under the gun.

Which hands to play: the opening chart

Every hand starts with two cards face down in front of you. Most two-card hands lose money over time, so the first skill in poker is throwing them away. The chart below says which ones are worth playing, and it changes with your seat.

When the chart applies. It is your turn before the flop, and every player before you has folded, meaning they threw their cards away. Nobody has put in more than the 50¢ big blind. This is the most common decision you will face all night.

You have three choices.

• Fold. Throw the hand away. It costs you nothing.
• Limp. Put in 50¢ to match the big blind and see what happens. This is what most casual players do.
• Raise. Make it more expensive, about $1.50 in your game. Everyone after you has to match that or fold.

The chart only ever says raise or fold. A raise can win in two ways: everyone folds and you pick up the 75¢ of blinds straight away, or someone calls and you see the flop with the stronger hand on average. A limp can only win the second way, and it lets everyone else in cheaply behind you. So if a hand is good enough to play, raise it. If it isn't, fold it.

How to read the chart.

• Pick your seat. The table shows where that seat is: gold is you, faded players have already folded, and the rest still get to act after you.
• Each box is one starting hand, written as its two cards: A for ace, K, Q, J, T for ten, then 9 down to 2.
• Two the same is a pair. 77 means two sevens, like . The pairs run from corner to corner.
• Boxes marked ♥♥ are both cards in the same suit, like . They sit above and to the right of the pairs. Same-suit hands are a little stronger because they can make a flush.
• Boxes marked ♠♦ are two different suits, like . They sit below and to the left of the pairs.
• Box with a green ring: raise. Plain box: fold. Tap any box and it is spelled out underneath.

You don't need to memorise 169 boxes. Learn the shape. The ringed boxes start in the top-left corner, where the big pairs and big cards live, and spread out as your seat gets later. In the early seats you play about one hand in six. On the button you play about two in five. If you are folding most of your hands, you are doing it right.

The chart is a sensible baseline for a full table of eight or nine. Lesson 6 covers what changes when there are fewer players.

Adjusting for a home game

• When several players limp in front of you (they just called the 50¢), raise bigger with your good hands. A common rule is three big blinds plus one more for every limper. At $0.25/$0.50 that is $1.50, plus 50¢ per limper. If that still gets four callers at your table, make it $2.50 or $3.
• When someone has already raised, tighten up a lot. You need a better hand to call a raise than to make one, since their range is already strong.
• Suited and connected hands go up in value when many players see cheap flops and stacks are deep. Weak offsuit aces and kings go down, because they make second-best pairs.

How hands match up before the flop

Sometimes two players put all their chips in before the flop. Nobody has any decisions left, the five shared cards are dealt, and the best hand wins. A few of these matchups come up constantly, and it helps to know roughly who wins how often. Pick one and the simulator deals the five shared cards 20,000 times.