Card Player: The Total Poker Manual: 266 Essential Poker Skills

By Eileen Sutton and The Editors of Card Player

Play like a pro with this guide full of strategies, tactics, and techniques from the experts!
 
Eileen Sutton has been writing about—and winning at!—poker for over a decade. Now she joins with the experts at Card Player magazine to demystify the game and detail everything you need to know, whether you’re sitting down to a friendly kitchen-table game or hoping to compete in the high-stakes world of multimillion dollar tournaments. The Total Poker Manual is packed with the strategies, tactics, and techniques needed to beat opponents in Texas Hold’em, Draw and Stud.
 
From the basics of each type of game and the hands needed to win, to insider tips such as specific strategies for different versions and how to beat the odds, these skills and many more are accompanied by some of the most fascinating poker stories in history, from the riverboat gamblers to today’s international stars players. Detailed sections cover how to play online, in casinos, and in tournaments large or small, as well as how to run a game for fun at home. You’ll also get insider tips from the following poker experts:
 
Vanessa Selbts • Linda Johnson • Matt Matros • Jennifer Harman • Ed Miller • Mario Ho • Xuan Liu • Leo Margets • Jared Tendler • Randy Lew • Tommy Angelo • Brian Rast • Kelly Minkin • James Sweeney
 
Learn something new, improve your poker game and walk away a winner!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Sep 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9781681882161

Book preview

BE A PART OF HISTORY

POKER HAS CATAPULTED ITSELF ACROSS TWO HUNDRED YEARS, SEVERAL CONTINENTS, AND COUNTLESS CULTURES, ENTICING PLAYERS YOUNG AND OLD TO DECEIVE, DOMINATE, AND BEAT THE ODDS. YET, THE MORE THE GAME CHANGES AND REINVENTS ITSELF, THE MORE IT STAYS THE SAME.

Poker boasts a rich legacy. When you take a seat on the felt, you’re a New Orleans riverboat gambler in 1829 using a 20-card deck. You’re a California miner in the Gold Rush, passing the time by the fire playing five-card draw for two cents a hand. You’re a member of the 114th Pennsylvania Infantry in 1864, playing in front of your makeshift tent, hoping your straight holds and the Civil War ends. You’re a Chicago doctor, slipping into a saloon’s back room for a high-stakes split-pot game in 1901. You channel 20th-century champions like Johnny Moss, Amarillo Slim, Linda Johnson, or Puggy Pearson. You usher in the 21st century by witnessing everyman Chris Moneymaker’s groundbreaking 2003 WSOP victory. You fantasize about quitting your day job and going pro.

From 1829 to yesterday, poker has remained steadfastly people agnostic. The game welcomes grandmothers, stockbrokers, sheep herders, pub owners, hairdressers, bakers, accountants, presidents, and farmers—card-carrying, passionate players all, from every corner of the planet who all have one thing in common.

Poker players dream of greatness. Of victory and the proud boast. Online or live, from seniors with canes to young whippersnappers sporting shades and hoodies, in our souls we trust our capacity to play our hearts out, and somehow get ahead, even for a single hand, of this beguiling, merciless game of chance.

In this chapter, you will discover the lexicon common to serious players, and how to become one. You’ll learn powerful starting hands and where you’ll thrive—cash or tournaments, online or live. We’ll discuss the power of position, and how to tell a persuasive story as well as how to run a home game, and other ways to get your feet wet. You’ll discover table customs and how to play the player. Above all, you’ll discover the win.

LEARN THE GAME

Poker has a lot of moving parts, so start here to get familiar with all the key terms and ideas before you proceed.

VOCABULARY The poker lexicon is vast. Explore these basic terms to improve your play and get comfortable with game flow. You’ll encounter these words and phrases throughout the text. Bookmark this page—you’ll need it!

VARIATIONS Poker has countless variations. Most now play no limit Texas hold’em (abbreviated as hold’em). In Chapter One, Poker Essentials, hand examples come from hold’em, which uses two starting cards, community cards, and dealer buttons (see definitions below).

HAND SYMBOLS You will find poker hand diagrams that include the denomination and suit—e.g. A K for ace of hearts, king of diamonds, or J 8 for jack of clubs, eight of spades. You’ll also see poker hands diagrammed throughout the text with full-sized cards.

ACTION Everything you do in the course of the game, including checking and folding, is taking an action. Also used to describe your opponents calling your bets and helping you build a pot, as in giving you action.

AGGRESSOR The player who bets or raises, and expresses aggression on any street. The last aggressor has to reveal cards first at showdown.

AIR You have nothing. Your cards don’t connect with the flop, you haven’t completed draws. You are bluffing when you bet with air.

ANTES Forced bets in Stud poker variations.

BANKROLL Money that you have put aside to play poker.

BARREL Slang term for firing bets on multiple streets of action. Associated with bluffing, or getting value from opponents’ marginal hands.

BET Using chips, any money wagered in the course of a hand.

BETTING ROUNDS In community-card games, you can bet on four streets of action or betting rounds: pre-flop, flop, turn, and river. These rounds correspond to when you receive hole cards, and after community cards are dealt. See streets.

BIG BLIND The larger of two forced bets in community-card games like Hold’em.

BLINDS Forced bets, and also the minimum bet, in community-card games like Hold'em and Omaha. Blinds stay the same in cash games, yet rise in timed increments during tournaments.

BLUFF Misleading others with big bets on bad hands, or small bets on good hands.

BOARD Five cards in the middle all players can use to make a winning hand in community-card games like Hold’em and Omaha. See community cards.

BUSTED Out of chips, out of money, out of luck.

BUY-IN A tournament fee, or the amount paid to play in a cash game.

CALL You match the amount of a bet made before you act.

CASH Different from tournaments, your buy-in is dollar for dollar, and each hand is played for real money. For example, a $100 buy-in equals $100 worth of chips. Cash is also a verb, meaning you cash or win money in a tournament.

CHECK Tap the table, bet nothing, pass the action to the next player.

CHIPS Used in place of real money in all types of games, chips are gathered in the middle of the table during hands. See pot.

COMMUNITY CARDS Five faceup cards dealt to the middle of the table players can use for a winning hand in games like Hold’em and Omaha. See board.

COMMUNITY-CARD GAMES Poker variations like Hold'em and Omaha where players use two hole cards and five community cards to make the best hand.

CRUSH Win, as in crush an opponent.

DEALER BUTTON A round disk that moves one player to the left every hand in community-card games indicating who acts last in every hand post-flop.

DRAG Winning, as in dragging a pot.

DRAWING DEAD Your hand is not strong. New cards don’t help. You have no way to win.

FELT Poker table, virtual or physical.

FLOP First three community cards dealt faceup, and the second betting round, in games like Hold’em and Omaha. See community cards.

FOLD Throw your cards away. End your involvement in a hand. See muck.

FORCED BETS Mandatory bets built into poker’s structure, made at the start of hands. See blinds and antes.

GOING ALL IN Betting all your chips.

GRINDING Playing poker regularly or for long periods.

HEADS UP Playing against a single opponent.

HIT THE FLOP You have a strong hand. Your cards match the flop. See flop and community cards.

HOLD’EM Abbreviation for Limit Texas hold’em or no-limit Texas hold’em. A popular global poker variation using community cards.

HOLE CARDS In community-card games, your starting cards dealt facedown. See starting cards.

HOUSE DEALER In casinos, card rooms, home games, and underground games, the person who deals cards, handles chips, and runs the game.

KICKER Of your two starting cards, often the lower card denomination, or the card used to break ties between hands of the same rank. Kickers may play or not play, i.e., be considered in determining a winner. Kicker problems means the second card is low and prevents you from betting aggressively.

LIMPING Placing only the minimum bet pre-flop to stay in the hand in games using community cards.

LIVE PLAY Playing live with other people, as compared to online and privately.

MONSTER A powerful hand like pocket aces. Or a powerful hand relative to the board, like a made flush or straight. See item 003 for hand rankings.

MUCK Folding your hand, i.e., mucking your cards. Also refers to the pile of folded cards, e.g., He threw cards into the muck. See fold.

NUTS The best possible cards—a guaranteed win.

ONLINE Playing online through any digital device.

PLAY As in making a certain play. A strategy you employ with a given hand on a given street to capture a desired result.

POKER FACE Not showing emotion or giving off clues about your hand.

POT All chips bet by all players during a hand. You bet to win the pot.

PUSHING Betting all of your chips at once in a single action.

PRE-FLOP First betting round after you get your holecards in community-card games like Hold’em and Omaha.

RAISE Bet to increase the size of a bet made before you.

RERAISE Bet to increase the size of a raise made before you.

RING GAMES The shorthand phrase for cash games that are played live and for real money.

RIVER Fifth community card and fourth betting round in community-card games like Hold’em and Omaha.

SHOVING Betting all your chips.

SHOWDOWN Cards are revealed to determine a winner.

SMALL BLIND The smaller of two forced bets in community-card games such as Hold’em and Omaha.

STAKES The level of buy-ins and mandatory minimum bets in both cash games and tournaments. See blinds.

STARTING CARDS A new hand that is dealt facedown In community-card games like Hold’em and Omaha. See hole cards.

STREETS OR STREETS OF ACTION In community-card games, you can bet on four streets of action or betting rounds—pre-flop, flop, turn, and river. These rounds correspond to when you receive hole cards, and after community cards are dealt. See betting rounds.

SUITED CONNECTORS Cards that share the same suit and are in sequence.

TELL Physical behaviors that can reveal your hand strength.

TILT Making poor decisions when you’re tired, angry, upset, or losing. You’ve played a 15-hour cash session and accidentally throw away the winning hand—aka fatigue tilt.

TOURNAMENTS Unlike cash games, you don’t play dollar for dollar or for real money. For your buy-in or tournament fee, you get a starting chip stack that is scaled—the more you pay, often the larger the stack. See cash games.

TURN In variations like Omaha and Texas hold'em, the fourth community card and third betting round. Turn action can dramatically change a hand.

UNDERDOG Your hand is weak and not likely to win.

UNDERGROUND GAMES Private cash games and tournaments in cities where gambling is illegal.

UNDER THE GUN The player seated one seat to the left of the big blind in community-card games, and who is always playing and acting from early position. See community-card games and blinds.

VARIANCE The random element of chance (luck of the draw) in all card games that creates winning and losing. If you win 20 tournaments in a row, that’s skill and variance.

WHIFF As in missing. In community-card games, when your hand doesn’t connect to cards on the flop in any meaningful way, or you have a busted flush or straight draw by the river.

001 EXPLORE THE BASICS

Poker is a whole category of card games where hands are dealt and players place bets. Games vary by how many cards you play, the use of faceup community cards, how many cards stay hidden, and betting rules. A typical game has two to ten players and uses a standard 52-card deck. Your goal is to bet on the strength of your hand and win pots or collections of chips to which all players contribute. In most games, the best five-card hand drags or takes the pot.

MANY HANDS, MANY CHANCES In the community-card games such as hold’em and Omaha, you’ll receive new starting cards facedown (two or four, depending). You will then bet across several streets of action (betting rounds). Each time new cards are dealt, you’ll have a new chance to bet and win the pot.

BLUFFING You’ll bet when you think your hand is strong and believe you can win the pot. You’ll bluff, making bets when your hand is weak and you want to fool opponents. Dramatic bluffs are the stuff of poker legend, both in real life and in many great poker films.

LAST MAN STANDING Poker is a winner-take-all game. In split pots, players in a given hand tie for the win. Yet, in general, for every hand, when betting is complete one player takes the pot. A player may also drag a pot before showdown if he bets and all others fold.

SKILL V. LUCK Poker is more than a game of chance. How many pots you win will always depend on a combination of betting strategies, math, probability, reading tells, and more.

002 ASSEMBLE YOUR TOOLS

As with all serious endeavors, having the right equipment can make all the difference.

CHIPS Your Aunt Betty may have played poker with pennies. But don’t underestimate the feel of real chips, which now come in countless weights and textures. You can buy chips online or in local gaming stores. Casinos have standardized colors and denominations. Buy chips appropriate to your stakes. A low-stakes home game, say, won’t need $1,000 chips.

CARDS Get to know your cards. Most forms of poker are played with a standard 52-card deck. Each deck has four suits: hearts, diamonds, spades, and clubs. Each suit has 13 cards: 10 numbered cards (ace through 10), and three face cards (jacks, queens, kings). Some games use wild cards and jokers. Decks have different designs and some feature larger numbers.

TABLES Don’t hesitate to get creative when creating your felt. Suitable tables can be found in all shapes and sizes online and in local gaming stores—from table tops and folding tables, to full-sized poker tables. You can also buy poker felts that can be laid over any table.

DINING-ROOM OR KITCHEN TABLE Any size will do. Purchased poker felts will also fit different shapes and sizes.

POKER TABLE TOP Smaller tables pushed together can hold a larger tabletop.

FOLDING POKER TABLE These come in several sizes and are ideal for limited space and budgets.

FULL-SIZED POKER TABLE These seat more players and often need more space.

003 STUDY YOUR HANDS

Whether you play one poker variation or several, you’ll still be dragging pots with one of the ten ranked poker hands. Get to know them by heart. The more unusual the hand, the higher its ranking. Take note: high hands are not necessarily winners in every poker variation.

ROYAL FLUSH

Poker's best hand is an ace-high straight flush—the game’s five highest cards in sequence, all of them the same suit: A K Q J 10 . There are four royal flushes; they're all as rare as Sasquatch.

STRAIGHT FLUSH

Five cards in sequence, all the same suit: J 10 9 8 7 . A straight flush can be as low as 5 4 3 2 A , and as high as K Q J 10 9 . Beaten by a royal flush, but still a grand slam.

FOUR OF A KIND

Nicknamed quads, four cards of the same rank and an unrelated fifth card. Quads can be a hand like 6 6 6 6 A . Nothing’s finer than realizing you’ve lucked into one of poker’s top-three hands.

FULL HOUSE

Also called a boat, this is any hand with three matching cards of one rank and two matching cards of another. In poker lingo, a hand like 5 5 5 K K is referred to as fives full of kings, or fives full.

FLUSH

Five cards of the same suit in no sequence or order. Flushes are described by the high card. So A Q 10 5 3 is called an ace-high flush. Rank matters. Your heart flush will beat a club flush like A 9 5 4 3 .

STRAIGHT

With an up-and-down straight, you will need five cards in a sequence such as K Q J 10 9 . Suit doesn’t matter. For an inside straight or a gut shot, one card completes your hand for the win.

THREE OF A KIND

Three cards of the same rank and two unrelated cards. The only trick is what you call it. A set means a pair in your hand and the third card is on the board. Trips are the opposite: one card in your hand, two on the board.

TWO PAIR

The average winning hand in poker, two pair means two cards of one rank, two cards of a second, and a fifth unrelated card. Suit is irrelevant. You can hold a pair or have two unrelated cards that match the board.

ONE PAIR

One pair can often win you nice pots. You could hold two cards of the same rank and three unrelated cards. Or you could have a card that matches the board, like the 8 in your hand and the 8 on the board.

HIGH CARD

You’ll have five unrelated cards in your hand and no hand from the list of ranked hands but your lone ace might be strong enough to win the pot. Playing high cards well against tough opponents is a formidable skill.

004 LEARN YOUR TABLE

Types of poker go in and out of fashion, but poker tables never change. These standard elements are the one constant in a game filled with exacting variables. For your own comfort, learn the table and how the game proceeds. If you’re just starting out, the dealer and other players will help as you get familiar with the rules. In no time, you’ll be saying, All in.

CHIPS

The denominations used from game to game vary according to the table stakes. A low-stakes cash game won’t need $1,000 chips. The colors and amounts of casino chips, which are often purchased for home games as well, have been standardized: $1 white, $5 red, $25 green, $100 black, $500 purple.

DEALER

Every poker game has a house dealer. (Exceptions are private home games or free pub leagues where players deal.) House dealers deal the cards, make change, monitor bets, control the pot, distribute winnings, and keep the action moving.

BOARD

In poker games with community cards like Texas hold’em and Omaha, the board consists of the five community cards the dealer puts down, according to defined streets and rounds of betting, in the center of the table.

POT

Dealers collect all bets for the table’s main pot. Only the dealer can touch these chips. When a player moves all in by betting their whole stack, the dealer may create a second side pot.

BUTTON

In addition to the house dealer, a dealer button or round disc moves one position clockwise at the start of each new hand. The position of the dealer button determines which players are in the small and big blinds.

BIG BLIND

Also a forced bet. The player in the big blind sits two to the left of the dealer button as it moves clockwise. The player in the big blind must post the full minimum bet before cards are first dealt.

SMALL BLIND

Poker variations using community cards have small and big blinds. These are forced bets that build pots before cards are dealt. The player in the small blind sits one to the left of the dealer button. The small-blind bet is half of the big blind—the game’s minimum bet.

005 PLAY THE WORLD

Everyone has a place in the poker ecosystem. You can be an absolute beginner or a pro in the making, hoping to make it to the final table of the legendary World Series of Poker Main Event. Poker is 24/7 and international. You can play in a plush Paris card room or grind cash inside a cramped New York basement. Without getting out of bed, you can compete online from a hut in the Amazon, or a mansion in Macau. As you immerse yourself in the culture, find the environment and the poker variation you prefer.

006 EXPLORE THE ELEMENTS

Wherever your felt of choice may be, you’ll need to get familiar with the game's basic structure and guidelines. A very complex game on par with chess, poker is played with incomplete information. In all variations, some cards are hidden. Just be patient: Poker takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master.

VARIABLES Decisions in a single hand will depend on many factors—math and probability, starting-hand choices, psychology, physical tells, bet sizing, bluffing, positional advantage, and more.

LEARNING CURVE If you’re more than a casual player, grow your edge and take the time to study the game’s strategy through books, online forums, videos, televised events, and more.

OPTIONS Choose a game suited to your skill and bankroll. Don’t be a hero and play levels you’re not ready for. You have nothing to prove.

007 COME IN THE FRONT DOOR

Get to know the game’s true spirit from the start. Poker is a social game, where we meet and compete as equals. This game is incredibly hard, so keep that in mind as you engage more deeply. Be an ambassador. Be mindful of social dynamics.

SOLIDARITY We get together for the common purpose of taking each other’s chips. It’s fun and casual for some, a serious job for others. When you see the game as teamwork, poker becomes more efficient and enjoyable. We all have frustrating moments. Embrace high standards.

CHARACTER Consider the demeanor of a golf game, known as a gentleman’s game, where honor is a virtue. Whatever your level, you can always model good behavior. Cheerful games where players don’t criticize each other create the best action, or chances of winning, and much pleasure.

HEAT OF BATTLE Most players do their best to win every chip, but it’s never personal. You don’t have to like everyone you play with. Despite any personal feelings, be respectful and don’t cross certain boundaries. Losing can bring out the worst in even the best of people when there’s a lot of money and at stake. But getting caught up emotionally is a straight line to draining your bankroll. Tilt, or playing without a level head, has undone the best players.

TV TANTRUMS High-stakes televised poker may highlight amusing meltdowns or act-outs by players to create drama. Likewise, some players may try to aggravate or tilt opponents to trigger bad play. This tactic may work in the short run, but in the long run, it can hurt the game by making the environment feel unattractive. Players may be rude or arrogant, but this is always out of fashion. Poker creates tension, anxiety, and fun. Honor the stress.

008 WALK BEFORE YOU RUN

Poker players brag. And the brags are legend because the sport is hard—what many call a beast of a game. Some say poker’s not a card game played by people, but a people game played with cards. Can you play for fun without formal study? Of course. But to be profitable over time, you’ll want to proceed slow and steady, and invest some time getting smarter about the game’s mode of combat. Don’t try to learn about sophisticated optimal-game-theory strategies before you understand basic starting-hand requirements. Build your knowledge base in layers. Practice certain moves until they’re rote. Then take on more complicated strategies.

009 GAUGE YOUR FIREPOWER

When you buy in to a tournament, you pay an entrance fee (or you can satellite in by winning another game). You’re then given a starting stack of anywhere from 500 to 20,000 chips, depending on the game’s structure. Each chip represents only a small fraction of the cost of your ticket. In a cash game, your chip stack, dollar for dollar, represents your buy in. So a $200 investment in the cash game means you’ve got $200 worth of chips in front of you. Some tournaments have rebuy options so you can reload if you lose your stack. In a cash game, you can always buy more chips.

010 FIND YOUR GAME

Get skilled in each of poker’s four camps—live cash games, live tournaments, online tournaments, and online cash games. Playing strategies vary and many pros grind multiple arenas. Limit yourself to one setting and you could miss a lot of action.

011 CLICK YOUR WAY TO VICTORY

Over the last 15 years, online tournament poker has exploded. The most popular options include: MTTs, or multi-table tournaments with large starting fields; Sit-and-Gos where you play against eight opponents; and satellites, which help you qualify for tournaments with higher entry fees. You can’t play online for real money everywhere in the world, so explore the laws in your area. Playing thousands of hands online can help you deepen your skill faster.

012 GO GREEN

You’ll find cash games where you can test your skill playing for real money, dollar for dollar, in casinos, card rooms, underground venues, home games, and on riverboats and reservations. Table stakes are set by the blinds (the required minimum bet). The smallest cash games are usually $1/$2 (small blind $1, big blind $2). Typical buy-ins run from $80 to $300, or more. You’ll also find $1/$3, $2/$5, and $5/$10 games. Higher stakes will mean higher buy-ins.