The four principles of successful poker

Today, I’m going to discuss with you the four basic principles behind successful No Limit Texas Holdem play. These principles are so fundamental that they can be found in almost every form of poker.

The four principles are:

1. The principle of strong hands
2. The principle of aggressive play
3. The principle of betting
4. The principle of variable play

These principles can be found in almost every current book on successful poker play, with reference to Texas Holdem I recommend the corresponding chapter in Dan Harrington’s classic Harrington on Online Cash-Games .

Principle 1 – The principle of strong hands

The first of the principles is the principle of strong hands. The principle of strong hands helps you to understand when to bed, check, call or fold.

Typically you want

• to bet and to raise with your strong hands
• to check and to call with your mediocre hands and
• to fold and to bluff with your weak hands

It should be obvious that you want to place a bet with your strong hands. With a strong hand, you’re a favorite to win at the showdown because of your hand strength, so you want to see more chips in the pot.

The check instead of a bet with the mediocre hands may be less catchy at first glance. However, a medium-strength hand, as its name implies, has a certain showdown value. That means there is a chance that you win at the showdown if you reach it. Now, if you bet your medium-strength hands, it’s likely that your opponents will give up their weak hands or, at worst, bluff you out of the pot. And if your opponent has a strong hand, you have inflated the pot for her by betting. So you wouldn’t have won anything by betting, since you either win a hand by your opponent’s fold, which you could have won at the showdown, or you’re bluffed out of the hand. In the worst case, if your opponent calls, you could have fed the pot with the worse hand.

It should also be obvious that you want to fold your weak hands on a regular basis. However, these hands are also great for bluffing, especially since you don’t have any real alternative hands for bluffing in light of the points just discussed. With a strong hand, you can’t bluff, because you’re assuming you’re holding the strongest hand. With a mediocre hand, you’re faced with the challenge of having to fold after an opponent’s raise, even if you hold the strongest hand.

The two big advantages a worthless hand has in bluffing are

• if your opponent gives up against your bluff, it’s probably with a better hand.
• if your opponent calls or raises, you can confidently assume that your worthless is beaten and you don’t have to invest any more chips in the hand.

Principle 2 – The principle of aggressive play

Th second principle is the principle of aggressive play. In most cases, in No Limit Texas Hold’em, aggressive play (that is, betting and raising) is the better choice than passive play ( that is, checking and calling).

A player who chooses to make a passive move has essentially one objective. He wants to reach the next betting round or the showdown as cheaply as possible. The disadvantage of this approach is that with passive play there is only one way to win a hand. You have to hold the best hand at the showdown. If your opponent’s hand is even slightly better than yours, she wins.

Aggressive play, however, allows you to win a hand in two different ways.

You can win your hand if your opponent folds on a bet or raise from you and you can win at the showdown.
And since inmost cases you’re in a better situation with two ways to win than with only one way to win, aggressive play is more often than not a better choice than passive play.

Principle 3 – The principle of betting

The third of the four basic principles, the principle of betting, deals with the basics of successful betting.

Typically, a bet should pursue one of three goals.

1. the bet is to make a better hand to fold – that is if you want to win the pot without a showdown
2. the bet is to make a worse hand to call – that is if you expect to win the showdown and want to see more chips in the pot.
3. the bet is to make players with draws pay for the next card – that is if you do not want to give your opponents the chance to draw for free.

Even though aggressive play is preferable to passive play in most cases, aggressive play should never be an end in itself. A bet or a raise should always have a concrete goal.

• If the bet makes a stronger hand fold, you win a pot that you probably wouldn’t have won at the showdown.
• If the bet encourages a weaker hand to call, you’re feeding a pot with chips that you’re likely to win.
• And if your opponent holds a draw, you force him to pay with the bet to see the next card.

However, if the situation is such that a bet makes any weaker hand fold and you can only be called or even raised out of the pot by stronger hands, aggressive play is not the best choice
Then it may be better to choose strategies that bring you to the showdown as cheaply as possible.

This can still be done by playing aggressively for a freecard or by simply checking and calling – or if you think you are clearly beaten and the odds and outs do not allow you to continue playing, by folding. – Winning by folding!

Principle 4 – The principle of variable play

The principle of variable play acknowledges, that In poker you want to avoid always doing the same thing. For successful poker, it has proven to be a good idea to keep the other players in the dark about what specific hand you are holding. From a game theory point of view, if you do not play in mixed strategies but in “pure” strategies, it will be relatively easy for your stronger opponents to recognize and exploit your strategy. That’s why it makes sense to master the concepts that make it as difficult as possible for your opponents to guess your approach and specific hands.

The stronger the opponents, the more important it is to consider the principle of variable play. Some proven ways to implement this into your own game before the flop and on the flop are presented in the articles about the starting hands and the game on the flop. So I recommend that you study these articles again to see where the four basic principles of successful poker play are applicable on those streets.

Summary and prospects

In this article I have discussed with you the four principles of successful poker play. The principles are

1. The principle of strong hands
2. The principle of aggressive play
3. The principle of betting
   #The principle of variable play

For a more intensive study of the four principles I recommend you to read Dan Harrington’s very good book Harrington on Online Cash-Games .