In Texas Hold'em poker, when it is a player's turn, he tries to make a best hand out of his hole cards (private cards) and the communal cards.
Now my question is: On what factors does he decide to add more chips and play for the next round or fold?
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This might be a question better asked at poker.stackexchange.com– Colin DNov 13, 2012 at 17:45
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Can I transfer this question there?– SidNov 13, 2012 at 17:48
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you might be able to flag the question as 'needs mod attention' and explain in the comments it should be migrated. Alternately, if after you think your original question has been answered, if you have new related questions post them there instead of here.– Colin DNov 13, 2012 at 17:52
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@Colin D - Poker is perfectly on topic here. There is no need to transfer the question.– ire_and_cursesNov 13, 2012 at 20:44
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1Appropriate location aside, I can't imagine how this is either answerable or reasonably scoped - the FAQ says 'if you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you're asking too much', and I think it's safe to say that several hundred books have been written that answer this question at this point...– Steven StadnickiNov 14, 2012 at 1:37
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4 Answers
It's a hard question to answer, and depends on the player's style and whether the player likes to bluff, as well as the style and skill of the other players.
If I don't have decent hole cards (low cards or nothing matching) I fold. I might risk it if I'm one of the blinds, but if I'm raised I'll fold. If I have a decent starting hand I usually wait for the flop.
In my opinion you should bet based on the strength of your cards. Generally speaking, the games I've won have always been ones where I've consistently been conservative, and I find the same applies to my opponents. By conservative I mean don't bet unless you're sure the odds are in your favor.
For more on odds, read this article.
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how do i check if the odds are in my favour?. When are you talking about the strength, do you mean if we have three of a kind or above we continue or else we fold? pokerstars.com/poker/games/rules/hand-rankings– SidNov 13, 2012 at 17:15
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Again, there's no solid rule. It depends what cards are out, what you have in your hand, etc... That's a topic within itself, but it comes with experience. Check this out: texasholdem-poker.com/odds– MohamadNov 13, 2012 at 17:20
The general concept here is known as "pot odds". The basic goal is to figure out your probability of winning, and then compare the amount of money to "call" to the total amount of money you would win if you are successful. Neither of those are known values though, so you need to do your best to guess what they are. That requires both thinking about both the probability of upcoming cards that might improve your hand, as well as what hands you opponents might be able to create based on their private cards and upcoming cards.
All of this ignores the idea the concepts of bluffing as well as the fact that you often want to raise people if you feel you have better pot odds than them, to raise the amount of money you can potentially win and to decrease the chance that they stay in the pot and win on a lucky card on the river. So you can imagine that many books have been written on this subject, and thus it is impossible to give a complete answer on a site like this.
I can think of two reasons why someone would decide to add more chips:
- He thinks he has the best hand at the table (he wants to win a large pot).
- He thinks he can convince others that he has the best hand at the table (he wants the stakes to be too high for others to continue).
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with respect to point 2 we are betting on all the other players folding right?– SidNov 13, 2012 at 17:12
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A player "folds" when someone bets and he decides he can't win.
He may have a bad hand, with "long odds" to improve, and there are one or more bets from players that seem to have a better hand.
The players at the table can't be bluffed out (particularly in limit), and are not known for playing hands worse than the player holds.
