Poker is a card game played between players and involves betting on the strength of your hand. The player with the highest ranked hand wins the pot which includes all the bets made during that particular hand. Each player places an ante into the pot and then one by one, each player has the option to either “call” the amount of money that was put into the pot before them or raise it. The last person to act will then either call the new amount or fold their cards.
To be a good poker player you need to watch and study the hands that your opponents play. This will help you to understand the way that they think and will allow you to classify them into certain categories. If you can start to classify your opponents then you can make more profitable decisions against them.
Tight-passive players like to play a few strong hands and then will wait for something good to happen to them before making another move. This type of player will rarely bluff and you should avoid playing against them unless you have a great hand.
Loose-passive players will limp into lots of pots and then will call every raise. This type of player will often be “calling stations” and you should never bluff them.
Deciding how much to bet in a given situation can be an art form and it takes a long time to master. To be a successful poker player you need to be able to read the game and decide how much to bet based on the situation, stack depth, and pot odds.