Poker Hands Explained

Table Of Contents

Other Poker Game's Rules:

All poker hands contain five cards, the highest hand wins. Some games have Wild Cards, which can take on whatever suit and rank their possessor desires. Sometimes jokers will be used as wild cards, other times, the game will specify which cards are wild (dueces, one-eyed jacks, or whatever). How the hands are ranked. Hand-for-hand – A stage in tournaments where every table completes its current hand before the entire tournament moves on to the next hand. The reasons why are explained in this glossary entry. Hand Rankings – Check out this glossary entry for a full breakdown of the different types of hand that can be made in poker. Does a straight beat a. If you watch a lot of poker on Twitch or on television, you've probably noticed how most no-limit hold'em hands are contested heads-up after the flop. A player opens with a raise, another calls.

Then, memorize the different hands so you can easily recognize them. Here are the winning poker hands, from highest to lowest: The highest-ranking hand is a royal flush (the royal straight flush). This hand includes a 10, Jack, Queen, King, and Ace of the same suit, one kind (all clubs, diamonds, hearts or spades). Poker Hands Chart: The official classification of all poker hands with a free pdf to download and print. What Beats What in Poker: the perfect starting guide to learn how to count points in poker.

Learning how to play poker should not be difficult. If you want to understand why so many people love this game, this beginner's guide to the rules and the basics of poker is all you need.

Poker is a simple game to learn, but the poker rules can be challenging for a complete beginner.

But don't let that put you off. It is not hard to learn how to play poker, and you can move from the basics of the game to the tables of the top online poker sites in no time.

Here's everything you'll learn in this guide on how to play poker:

1. And lots more

Before you move to the 'practical' side of this guide on how to play the most popular variants of this game, you need to learn the basics of poker.

When most people say they want to know 'how to play regular poker,' they imply that they want to learn the basics of Texas Hold'em.

Texas Hold'em is (by far) the most popular poker game out there and it's the one you find at every online poker site.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. With so many poker variants to play online and offline, the only proper guide on how to play poker for dummies is the one that gets you access to all the best games out there.

Not just to the most famous one.

Many poker rules are consistent from game to game, although among the dozens of variants such as Texas hold'em, Omaha, and seven-card stud you will find some ket differences you need to kno.

Let's have a quick look at the poker rules of the most played poker games online:

How to Play Texas Hold'Em

Also called the 'Cadillac of Poker,' Texas hold'em is the one you are going to play over and over again.

This is the most popular poker game online and it is also the one you are most likely to play with our friends in your next home game.

Whether you play it in the form of a tournament or as a ring-game, the basic poker rules and the hand rankings don't change.

> Discover how to play Texas Hold'em

How to Play Omaha Poker

The second-most popular poker variant. Omaha poker finds its roots in the game of Texas Hold'em, although the rules of the two games are slightly different from each other.

Many players find learning how to play poker Omaha to be the natural step to take after they have successfully mastered the basics of Texas Hold'em.

In the poker rules page dedicated to the game, you find the perfect beginner's guide to moving your first steps in the world of Omaha.

> Learn how to play Omaha poker

How to Play Seven-Card Stud

Before Texas hold'em became king, anyone who wanted to learn the basic poker rules and how to play poker had to go through the game of seven-card stud.

As the name suggests, this is a variant of stud poker. 7-card stud is also the 'S' game in the H.O.R.S.E. poker — but if you are still learning how to play poker, it's probably too early for you to jump on that.

> Discover how to play seven-card stud poker

Other Poker Rules to Learn

If you want to go deeper and you want to learn how to play even more poker games, PokerNews is the right site for you.

Pick one poker variant to learn from the list that follows and find out how to play some of the most exciting and lesser-known poker games out there!

Use these guides to learn how to play poker and master not only the most 'obvious' games like Texas hold'em bu also all the other different variants out there.

In our guides for beginners, you find the official poker rules, the basic strategy tips, and the hand rankings — because knowing how to calculate points is key if you want to win at poker.

Common Traits of Most Poker Rules

The Value of Poker Hands

One element used in most poker variants is the system of hand rankings.

The highest ranked hand is a Royal Flush (five cards of the same suit, ranked ace through ten), followed by a Straight Flush (five cards of the same suit of consecutive ranks).

The third-best combination is the Four-of-a-kind, which is then followed by the Full House (three of a kind plus one pair), the Flush, the Straight, the Three-of-a-kind, Two Pair, One Pair, and High Card or no pair.

When a hand reaches the showdown, the player with the highest-ranked hand wins the pot.

That's true of Texas hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, seven-card stud, and five-card draw.

Of course, in 'lowball' games like razz or deuce-to-seven triple draw, the hand rankings are turned upside down and the 'worst' hand according to traditional hand rankings is the winning one.

Poker Hands Ranking

• Royal Flush10JQKA
• Straight
  Flush56789
• Four Of
  A Kind3333K
• Full HouseJJJKK
• Flush2459K
• StraightA2345
• Three Of
  A Kind45777
• Two Pair499KK
• One Pair3QK1010
• High Card248QK

Suggested Readings

• Poker Hands Chart: The official classification of all poker hands with a free pdf to download and print.
• What Beats What in Poker: the perfect starting guide to learn how to count points in poker and discover the real value of each hand.

Blinds and Ante Bets

Games like hold'em and Omaha feature small and big blinds, so called because they are 'blind' bets players have to make before they are dealt any cards.

Meanwhile stud games usually use 'antes', which also involve players putting chips in the middle before the hand begins.

From there players bet more as the hand progresses, thereby creating larger pots.

Limit vs. No Limit Poker Games

Some games are played with no-limit betting, which means players can bet as much as they like at any point in the hand, including going 'all in.'

Sander veneklaas slots. Pot-limit betting means that the current size of the pot creates an upper limit on how much a player can bet.

Games that are played with fixed-limit betting have predetermined amounts from which players cannot vary when they make their bets and raises.

The Action

There are other terms that tend to be used in all different poker games, including many having to do with the actions you perform when playing.

When the action is on you, you can:

• Check: Decline to bet
• Fold: Withdraw from the hand, if someone else has bet already
• Bet: Place a wager on the table
• Raise: Add more chips by matching your opponent's bet and putting in a greater amount.
• Call: Match the bet of your opponents to stay in the hand and continue to play.

All of those terms are an important step in your journey to learn how to play poker since they tend to come up in all poker variants.

The Betting Rounds

In games with community cards like hold'em and Omaha (also sometimes called 'flop games'), the betting rounds are referred to as:

• Preflop: The bets made before any community cards are dealt
• Flop: The bets made after the first three community cards are dealt)
• Turn: The bets made after the fourth community card
• River The bets made after the fifth and last community card.

Suggested Readings

• How to bet in poker: a beginner's guide to betting in Texas hold'em.
• Texas hold'em betting tips: This short article gives you some actionable tips to learn how to play poker with your stack of chips.

The Table Stakes

One other poker rule common to just about every variant of the you'll play – whether you are playing live poker or online poker – is one called 'table stakes.'

Table stakes means that once a hand begins, you can only bet whatever amount you had on the table to begin the hand and are not allowed to add anything more during the hand as it plays out.

If you only have $100 on the table to begin a hand, you can't pull out your wallet and add more halfway through the hand – you can only play out the hand with whatever you had to start.

Practice Poker Online for Free

Now that you know the basic poker rules and you have links to go back to your poker guides when you need to, it's time to look for the best websites to practice poker online.

Don't start to play poker for real money right away. Try out the games for free first. That's the only way to discover if you have really learned how to play poker.

Looking for a site to practice online poker for free?

Don't miss the updated list of the best free poker sites in 2020!

There are countless options to give the game a test run, but the best way is to try out the real deal.

Sign up for a poker account with one of the big online poker rooms and give the freerolls a try.

That way, you can practice poker online without any risk; you're not wagering any money.

And if you want to try out cash games instead of tournaments, all major poker sites online have so-called play money tables.

That way you can practice the game, learn the rules, and figure out how the software works, readying yourself for the big stage.

Register a free gaming account and test your poker knowledge in the next freeroll!

Poker Hand Ranges Explained

Poker in 2018 is as competitive as it has ever been. Long gone are the days of being able to print money playing a basic ABC strategy.

Today your average winning poker player has many tricks in their bags and tools in their arsenals. Imagine a soldier going into the heat of battle. Without his weapons, he is practically useless, and chances of survival are extremely low.

If you sit down at a poker table without any preparation or general understanding of poker fundamentals, the sharks are going to eat you alive. Sure you may get lucky once in a blue moon, but over the long term, things won't end well.

With the evolution of poker strategy, you now have many tools at your disposal. Whether it be online poker training sites, free YouTube content, poker coaching, or poker vlogs, there's no excuse to be a fish in today's game.

Some of the essential fundamentals you need to be utilizing that every poker player should have in their bag of tricks whether you are a Tournament or Cash Game Player are concepts such as hand combinations (Also known as hand combinatorics or hand combos).

Hand Combinations and Hand Reading

If you were to analyze a large sample of successful poker players you would notice that they all have one skill set in common: Hand Reading

What does hand reading have to do with hand combinations you might ask?

Well, poker is a game of deduction and to be a good hand reader, you need to be good at correctly ranging your opponents.

Once you have assigned them a range, you will then need to start narrowing that range down. Combinatorics is one of the ways we do this.

So what is combinatorics? It may sound like rocket science and it is definitely a bit more complex than some other poker concepts, but once you get the hang of combinatorics it will take your game to the next level.

Combinatorics is essentially understanding how many combos each of your opponent's potential holdings are and deducing their potential holdings utilizing concepts such as removal and blockers.

There are 52 cards in a deck, 13 of each suit, and 4 of each rank with 1326 poker hands in total. To simplify things just focus on memorizing all of the potential combos to start:

• 16 possible hand combinations of every unpaired hand
• 12 combinations of every unpaired offsuit hand
• 4 combinations of each suited hand
• 6 possible combinations of pocket pairs

Here is a short video example of using combinatorics to count the number of ways a non-paired hand AK can be arranged (i.e. how many combos there are):

So now that we have this memorized, let's look at a hand example and how we can apply combinatorics in game.

We hold A♣Q♣ in the SB and 3bet the BTN's open to 10bb with 100bb stacks. He flats and we go heads up to a flop of

A♠ 5♦ 4♦

We check and our opponent checks back with 21bb in the middle

Turn is the 4♥

We bet 10bb and our opponent calls for a total pot of 41bb

The river brings the 9♠

So the final board reads

A♠ 5♦ 4♦ 4♥ 9♠

We bet 21bb and our opponent jams all in leaving us with 59bb to call into a pot of 162bb resulting in needing at least 36% pot equity to win.

Our opponent is representing a polarized range here. He is either nutted or representing missed draws so we find ourself in a tough spot. This is where utilizing combinatorics to deduce his value hands vs bluffs come into play. Now we need to narrow down his range given our line and his line. Let's take a look at how we do this..

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Blockers and Card Removal Effects

First, let's take a look at the hands we BLOCK and DON'T BLOCK

Since we hold an Ace in our hand and there is an Ace on the board, that only leaves 2 Ace's left in the deck. Don pedro poker run 2019. So there is exactly 1 combo of AA.

We BLOCK most of the Aces he can be holding, so we can REMOVE some Aces from his range.

We do not BLOCK the A♦ as we hold A♣Q♣, and the A on the board is a spade, so it is still possible for him to have some A♦x♦ hands.

We checked flop to add strength to our check call range (although a bet with a plan to triple barrel is equally valid in this situation SB vs BTN) and because of this our opponent may not put us on an A here.

If he is a thinking player his jam can exploit our thin value bet on the river turning his missed straight/flush draws into a bluff to get us to fold our big pocket pairs and even make it a tough call with our perceived weak holdings.

The problem in giving him significant credit for this part of his bluffing range is the question of would he really shove here with good SDV (Showdown Value)?

These are the types of questions we must ask ourselves to further deduce his range along with applying the combinatoric information we now have.

Now, let's look at all the nutted Ax hands our opponent can have.

If he has a nutted hand like A4 or A5, and we assume he is only calling 3bets with Axs type hands, the only suited combo of those hands he can have are exactly A♥5♥. He can't have A♦5♦ or A♦4♦ because the 4 and the 5 are both diamonds on the board blocks these hands.

Lets take a look at all of this value hands:

There is only 1 combo of 44 left in the deck, 2 combos of A9s, 3 Combos of 55, 3 Combos of 99, 2 Combos of 45s - some of these hands may also be bet on the flop when facing a check.

So to recap we have:

1 Combo A5s, 2 Combos of A9s, 3 Combos of 55 (With one 5 on board, the number of combinations of 55 are cut in half from 6 combos to 3 combos), 1 Combo of 44, 2 Combos of 45s, 3 Combos of 99

Total: 12 Value Combos

Now we need to look at our opponent's potential bluffs

Based on the villain's image, this is the range of bluffs we assigned him:

K♦Q♦(1 Combo), J♦T♦ (1 Combo), T♦9♦ (1 Combo), 67s (4 Combos)

He may also turn some other random hands with little showdown value into bluffs such as A♦2♦/A♦3♦

Total: 9 Bluff Combos

9(Bluff Combos) + 12(Value Combos) = 22

9/21 = 42% of the time our opponent will be bluffing (assuming he always bets this entire range)

11/21 = 58% of the time our opponent will be value raising

Now, this is the range we assigned him in game based on the action and what we perceived our opponents range to be.

We are not always correct in applying the exact range of his potential holdings, but so long as you are in the ballpark of that range you can still make quite a few deductions to put yourself in the position to make the correct final decision.

According to the range we assigned him, he has 11 Value Combos and 9 Bluff Combos which gives us equity of 42%. This would result in a positive expected value call as we only need 36% pot odds to call.

However, unless you are playing against very tough opponents you will not see someone bluffing all 9 combos we have assigned - most likely they will bluff in the range of 4-6 combos on average which gives equity in the range of 20-30% equity. This is not enough to call.

Many poker rules are consistent from game to game, although among the dozens of variants such as Texas hold'em, Omaha, and seven-card stud you will find some ket differences you need to kno.

Let's have a quick look at the poker rules of the most played poker games online:

How to Play Texas Hold'Em

Also called the 'Cadillac of Poker,' Texas hold'em is the one you are going to play over and over again.

This is the most popular poker game online and it is also the one you are most likely to play with our friends in your next home game.

Whether you play it in the form of a tournament or as a ring-game, the basic poker rules and the hand rankings don't change.

> Discover how to play Texas Hold'em

How to Play Omaha Poker

The second-most popular poker variant. Omaha poker finds its roots in the game of Texas Hold'em, although the rules of the two games are slightly different from each other.

Many players find learning how to play poker Omaha to be the natural step to take after they have successfully mastered the basics of Texas Hold'em.

In the poker rules page dedicated to the game, you find the perfect beginner's guide to moving your first steps in the world of Omaha.

> Learn how to play Omaha poker

How to Play Seven-Card Stud

Before Texas hold'em became king, anyone who wanted to learn the basic poker rules and how to play poker had to go through the game of seven-card stud.

As the name suggests, this is a variant of stud poker. 7-card stud is also the 'S' game in the H.O.R.S.E. poker — but if you are still learning how to play poker, it's probably too early for you to jump on that.

> Discover how to play seven-card stud poker

Other Poker Rules to Learn

If you want to go deeper and you want to learn how to play even more poker games, PokerNews is the right site for you.

Pick one poker variant to learn from the list that follows and find out how to play some of the most exciting and lesser-known poker games out there!

Use these guides to learn how to play poker and master not only the most 'obvious' games like Texas hold'em bu also all the other different variants out there.

In our guides for beginners, you find the official poker rules, the basic strategy tips, and the hand rankings — because knowing how to calculate points is key if you want to win at poker.

Common Traits of Most Poker Rules

The Value of Poker Hands

One element used in most poker variants is the system of hand rankings.

The highest ranked hand is a Royal Flush (five cards of the same suit, ranked ace through ten), followed by a Straight Flush (five cards of the same suit of consecutive ranks).

The third-best combination is the Four-of-a-kind, which is then followed by the Full House (three of a kind plus one pair), the Flush, the Straight, the Three-of-a-kind, Two Pair, One Pair, and High Card or no pair.

When a hand reaches the showdown, the player with the highest-ranked hand wins the pot.

That's true of Texas hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, seven-card stud, and five-card draw.

Of course, in 'lowball' games like razz or deuce-to-seven triple draw, the hand rankings are turned upside down and the 'worst' hand according to traditional hand rankings is the winning one.

Poker Hands Ranking

• Royal Flush10JQKA
• Straight
  Flush56789
• Four Of
  A Kind3333K
• Full HouseJJJKK
• Flush2459K
• StraightA2345
• Three Of
  A Kind45777
• Two Pair499KK
• One Pair3QK1010
• High Card248QK

Suggested Readings

• Poker Hands Chart: The official classification of all poker hands with a free pdf to download and print.
• What Beats What in Poker: the perfect starting guide to learn how to count points in poker and discover the real value of each hand.

Blinds and Ante Bets

Games like hold'em and Omaha feature small and big blinds, so called because they are 'blind' bets players have to make before they are dealt any cards.

Meanwhile stud games usually use 'antes', which also involve players putting chips in the middle before the hand begins.

From there players bet more as the hand progresses, thereby creating larger pots.

Limit vs. No Limit Poker Games

Some games are played with no-limit betting, which means players can bet as much as they like at any point in the hand, including going 'all in.'

Sander veneklaas slots. Pot-limit betting means that the current size of the pot creates an upper limit on how much a player can bet.

Games that are played with fixed-limit betting have predetermined amounts from which players cannot vary when they make their bets and raises.

The Action

There are other terms that tend to be used in all different poker games, including many having to do with the actions you perform when playing.

When the action is on you, you can:

• Check: Decline to bet
• Fold: Withdraw from the hand, if someone else has bet already
• Bet: Place a wager on the table
• Raise: Add more chips by matching your opponent's bet and putting in a greater amount.
• Call: Match the bet of your opponents to stay in the hand and continue to play.

All of those terms are an important step in your journey to learn how to play poker since they tend to come up in all poker variants.

The Betting Rounds

In games with community cards like hold'em and Omaha (also sometimes called 'flop games'), the betting rounds are referred to as:

• Preflop: The bets made before any community cards are dealt
• Flop: The bets made after the first three community cards are dealt)
• Turn: The bets made after the fourth community card
• River The bets made after the fifth and last community card.

Suggested Readings

• How to bet in poker: a beginner's guide to betting in Texas hold'em.
• Texas hold'em betting tips: This short article gives you some actionable tips to learn how to play poker with your stack of chips.

The Table Stakes

One other poker rule common to just about every variant of the you'll play – whether you are playing live poker or online poker – is one called 'table stakes.'

Table stakes means that once a hand begins, you can only bet whatever amount you had on the table to begin the hand and are not allowed to add anything more during the hand as it plays out.

If you only have $100 on the table to begin a hand, you can't pull out your wallet and add more halfway through the hand – you can only play out the hand with whatever you had to start.

Practice Poker Online for Free

Now that you know the basic poker rules and you have links to go back to your poker guides when you need to, it's time to look for the best websites to practice poker online.

Don't start to play poker for real money right away. Try out the games for free first. That's the only way to discover if you have really learned how to play poker.

Looking for a site to practice online poker for free?

Don't miss the updated list of the best free poker sites in 2020!

There are countless options to give the game a test run, but the best way is to try out the real deal.

Sign up for a poker account with one of the big online poker rooms and give the freerolls a try.

That way, you can practice poker online without any risk; you're not wagering any money.

And if you want to try out cash games instead of tournaments, all major poker sites online have so-called play money tables.

That way you can practice the game, learn the rules, and figure out how the software works, readying yourself for the big stage.

Register a free gaming account and test your poker knowledge in the next freeroll!

Poker Hand Ranges Explained

Poker in 2018 is as competitive as it has ever been. Long gone are the days of being able to print money playing a basic ABC strategy.

Today your average winning poker player has many tricks in their bags and tools in their arsenals. Imagine a soldier going into the heat of battle. Without his weapons, he is practically useless, and chances of survival are extremely low.

If you sit down at a poker table without any preparation or general understanding of poker fundamentals, the sharks are going to eat you alive. Sure you may get lucky once in a blue moon, but over the long term, things won't end well.

With the evolution of poker strategy, you now have many tools at your disposal. Whether it be online poker training sites, free YouTube content, poker coaching, or poker vlogs, there's no excuse to be a fish in today's game.

Some of the essential fundamentals you need to be utilizing that every poker player should have in their bag of tricks whether you are a Tournament or Cash Game Player are concepts such as hand combinations (Also known as hand combinatorics or hand combos).

Hand Combinations and Hand Reading

If you were to analyze a large sample of successful poker players you would notice that they all have one skill set in common: Hand Reading

What does hand reading have to do with hand combinations you might ask?

Well, poker is a game of deduction and to be a good hand reader, you need to be good at correctly ranging your opponents.

Once you have assigned them a range, you will then need to start narrowing that range down. Combinatorics is one of the ways we do this.

So what is combinatorics? It may sound like rocket science and it is definitely a bit more complex than some other poker concepts, but once you get the hang of combinatorics it will take your game to the next level.

Combinatorics is essentially understanding how many combos each of your opponent's potential holdings are and deducing their potential holdings utilizing concepts such as removal and blockers.

There are 52 cards in a deck, 13 of each suit, and 4 of each rank with 1326 poker hands in total. To simplify things just focus on memorizing all of the potential combos to start:

• 16 possible hand combinations of every unpaired hand
• 12 combinations of every unpaired offsuit hand
• 4 combinations of each suited hand
• 6 possible combinations of pocket pairs

Here is a short video example of using combinatorics to count the number of ways a non-paired hand AK can be arranged (i.e. how many combos there are):

So now that we have this memorized, let's look at a hand example and how we can apply combinatorics in game.

We hold A♣Q♣ in the SB and 3bet the BTN's open to 10bb with 100bb stacks. He flats and we go heads up to a flop of

A♠ 5♦ 4♦

We check and our opponent checks back with 21bb in the middle

Turn is the 4♥

We bet 10bb and our opponent calls for a total pot of 41bb

The river brings the 9♠

So the final board reads

A♠ 5♦ 4♦ 4♥ 9♠

We bet 21bb and our opponent jams all in leaving us with 59bb to call into a pot of 162bb resulting in needing at least 36% pot equity to win.

Our opponent is representing a polarized range here. He is either nutted or representing missed draws so we find ourself in a tough spot. This is where utilizing combinatorics to deduce his value hands vs bluffs come into play. Now we need to narrow down his range given our line and his line. Let's take a look at how we do this..

Free MTT Poker Training:

The Underused MTT Skills Essential For Success

• 5 Day Email MTT Poker Training Course By Poker Pro Kelvin 'Acesup' Beattie
• 3 Key Skills That Will Take Your MTT Poker Game To A New Level
• 1.5 Hours Of Professional Poker Training

Blockers and Card Removal Effects

First, let's take a look at the hands we BLOCK and DON'T BLOCK

Since we hold an Ace in our hand and there is an Ace on the board, that only leaves 2 Ace's left in the deck. Don pedro poker run 2019. So there is exactly 1 combo of AA.

We BLOCK most of the Aces he can be holding, so we can REMOVE some Aces from his range.

We do not BLOCK the A♦ as we hold A♣Q♣, and the A on the board is a spade, so it is still possible for him to have some A♦x♦ hands.

We checked flop to add strength to our check call range (although a bet with a plan to triple barrel is equally valid in this situation SB vs BTN) and because of this our opponent may not put us on an A here.

If he is a thinking player his jam can exploit our thin value bet on the river turning his missed straight/flush draws into a bluff to get us to fold our big pocket pairs and even make it a tough call with our perceived weak holdings.

The problem in giving him significant credit for this part of his bluffing range is the question of would he really shove here with good SDV (Showdown Value)?

These are the types of questions we must ask ourselves to further deduce his range along with applying the combinatoric information we now have.

Now, let's look at all the nutted Ax hands our opponent can have.

If he has a nutted hand like A4 or A5, and we assume he is only calling 3bets with Axs type hands, the only suited combo of those hands he can have are exactly A♥5♥. He can't have A♦5♦ or A♦4♦ because the 4 and the 5 are both diamonds on the board blocks these hands.

Lets take a look at all of this value hands:

There is only 1 combo of 44 left in the deck, 2 combos of A9s, 3 Combos of 55, 3 Combos of 99, 2 Combos of 45s - some of these hands may also be bet on the flop when facing a check.

So to recap we have:

1 Combo A5s, 2 Combos of A9s, 3 Combos of 55 (With one 5 on board, the number of combinations of 55 are cut in half from 6 combos to 3 combos), 1 Combo of 44, 2 Combos of 45s, 3 Combos of 99

Total: 12 Value Combos

Now we need to look at our opponent's potential bluffs

Based on the villain's image, this is the range of bluffs we assigned him:

K♦Q♦(1 Combo), J♦T♦ (1 Combo), T♦9♦ (1 Combo), 67s (4 Combos)

He may also turn some other random hands with little showdown value into bluffs such as A♦2♦/A♦3♦

Total: 9 Bluff Combos

9(Bluff Combos) + 12(Value Combos) = 22

9/21 = 42% of the time our opponent will be bluffing (assuming he always bets this entire range)

11/21 = 58% of the time our opponent will be value raising

Now, this is the range we assigned him in game based on the action and what we perceived our opponents range to be.

We are not always correct in applying the exact range of his potential holdings, but so long as you are in the ballpark of that range you can still make quite a few deductions to put yourself in the position to make the correct final decision.

According to the range we assigned him, he has 11 Value Combos and 9 Bluff Combos which gives us equity of 42%. This would result in a positive expected value call as we only need 36% pot odds to call.

However, unless you are playing against very tough opponents you will not see someone bluffing all 9 combos we have assigned - most likely they will bluff in the range of 4-6 combos on average which gives equity in the range of 20-30% equity. This is not enough to call.

We ultimately made our decision based on the fact that we felt our opponent was much less likely to jam with his bluffs in this spot. Given that it was already a close decision to begin with, we managed to find what ended up being the correct fold.

Now this all may seem a bit overwhelming, but if you just start taking an extra minute on your big decisions you'd be surprised how quickly you can actually process all this information on this spot.

A good starting point is to simply memorize all of the possible hand combinations listed above near the beginning of the article.

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Conclusion On Combinatorics

Eventually accounting for your opponent's combos in a hand will become second nature. To get to the point that , a lot of the work needs to be done off the table and in the lab. As you spend more time studying it and reviewing hand histories like the one above, you will find yourself intuitively and almost subconsciously using combinatorics in your decision making tree.

Poker Hands Explained

But the work will be worth the effort, as being able to count combos on the fly will add a new dimension to your game, allow you to make more educated decisions, become a tougher opponent to play against and move away from playing ABC poker.

Poker Hands Probability Explained

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Poker Hands Explained