Questions to Ask Yourself While Playing Poker

Poker is a skill game that requires a player to have strong critical reasoning and influential decision-making skills. This is the key reason why poker pros take time to decide on the best possible game move. While playing online poker, it is necessary to analyze the current scenario like your position on the table, pre-flop betting, hole cards dealt, opponents play, etc. Here is a guide of questions you should ask yourself to figure out the odds and outs and decide whether to fold the hands or continue playing. This help you in not only how to play poker, but to also avoid poker game mistakes.

Pre-Flop

When your poker game begins, you should not just wait for your turn to come, instead, you should start thinking logically in order to make game play decisions. Following are some questions you should answer before proceeding further in the game:

  • Does the first pre-flop raiser have a strong hand?
  • Are there any loose players?
  • Before your turn arrived how many players have folded on the opening raise?
  • Are your pocket cards and position strong enough to play?
  • Should you call or raise?

Flop

Flop is the round when the complete picture of the game gets clear. This is a stage when you already know 5 out of 7 cards, and you know your eventual opponents. During this time, you should consider finding answers to the following questions:

  • Who is the invader on the table?
  • If you are holding a strong poker hand, what is your probability?
  • What odds do you focus on?
  • Are you in the right position to steal the pot?
  • How do your opponents normally play the flop?

Turn

This is a phase when your pot odds decline. So, most of your critical decisions are taken during the turn as some unexpected draws can decrease the value of your hand. Ask yourself some of these questions when you feel stuck in this situation:

  • Who is the most aggressive player on the table?
  • What are the available odds for holding the strong hand?
  • Does your hand is strong enough to value bet?
  • Is your hand weak enough that can be folded to further aggression?
  • Will the bluff be profitable?
  • How deep is the stack?

River

The final round to make your best possible five-card combination, i.e., a round where you already know about your opponents range and can take the perfect decision. Here are some questions you should ask to take the best showdown decision:

  • How much value can you extract from the hand made?
  • Will the bluff work well with a busted hand?
  • Will your opponents fold if you start betting aggressively?
  • Will your opponents still bet with medium or the low hand?
  • What you get to learn from your opponents in the game?

Thus, by asking the right questions at the right time, you will start making the better ‘poker game play’ decisions over time and can identify which poker strategies to follow in different situations.

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