Category: Poker

5 Tips to Win Poker

If you’re new to the game but want to win poker, this is the place for you.
I’ve been playing poker for some time now, and I’ve noticed how 5 tips changed my game dramatically – and took me from poker beginner to poker pro. 

They aren’t complicated, in fact you probably practice some of them without even thinking about it – but being conscious about it will instantly improve your poker skills.  

I’ve made a short video that quickly explains the 5 tips to win poker, but this page continues underneath the video with a more in depth explanation, a lot more detail and more of my videos to further explain each tip.

How to win poker

Easy tips to win poker

There’s no right or wrong way to play poker. There’s not one method that will guarantee success. But there are ways and means for you to maximize your chance of winning. 
There are good habits, and bad habits. Situations to avoid and situations to seek. 

And there are those who have the knowledge to exploit them. These five poker tips will make a huge and instant change to your game, and show you how to win poker.
Let’s get into it.

1. Know your starting hands

One of the most common beginner mistakes in poker is to see too many flops.
New players are curious to see what the flop will make of their hand, and so they end up throwing chips after a hand that was never going anywhere. This may not sound like too big a deal, but if you constantly waste your chips hoping for a magic flop, you’ll quickly see your stack go down. Advanced players know what starting hands to throw away so as to not waste chips, allowing them to trust their math and go big when needed.

Great players immediately access their starting hand after being dealt their two cards, and they know what to look for. What gives a hand potential, and what cards should just be thrown away? 

There’s a science behind this.
I’ve made an in depth video about starting hands, in case you want to get into more detail and see some examples of what starting hands to play and what to throw away.

If not, I’ll outline the basics underneath. 

Basically, paired starting hands are best. Like two kings.
After that, we look for ‘high card value. Cards of high value, like an ace or a queen, have good potential for high pairs from the board.
We then look for suitedness, meaning cards of the same suit – like hearts.
This is because a suited starting hand has potential for a flush from the community cards.
Lastly, we look for ‘connectedness’, meaning cards that are close to each other in rank.
Cards that are close to each other, like a 9 and a 10, have potential for a straight. Cards when a larger gap has less potential, and cards that are 5 ranks apart are terrible.

What starting hands to act on very much depends on your position. Another main pillar of poker strategy. So let’s have a look at tip number 2 in how to win poker.

2. Beware of position

Position is one of those things that no new player thinks about, but when told about it you go “Oh”. But it’s actually pretty simple. ‘Position in poker’ refers to the way players are seated at the table – more specifically, in what order they get to act.

Poker Positions

As you probably know, every round of poker has a dealer, a small blind and a big blind. Since the small- and big blind are forced to bet an amount, the first player to act freely is the player sitting after the big blind. This is the worst position to be in, since you have to act your turn without having seen anything from your opponents.
You have no intel to go from. Just your own cards.
The later your position, the better. Since you get to see other players act first. 

The dealer is considered the best position, since you get to act third last for the first round and last in every round after that. Like the role of dealer, small blind and big blind, your position of course changes clockwise after every round. 

Position and starting hand strategy is very much related, and the later your position, the wider range of starting hands we should play.
For more on position, and an in depth view at what hands to play in what positions, see this video or our blog post on the subject.

3. Know how to bluff

Bluffing is easily the most recognizable and famous tool in the toolbox of poker strategy. Made famous by TV and movies. And it is a great tool, although the frequency of which players bluff in movies is very much exaggerated. 

The perfect hand doesn’t come around too often in Texas Hold’em. This means you can’t just fold every bad hand and go all in on every good hand. That’s too easy to read.

Bluffing is a great way to win some chips even with terrible cards and keep your opponents guessing. Whether you’re doing a semi bluff or a pure bluff, you should always keep your opponent in mind.
And it’s one of the secrets of how to win poker. 

Limit your bluffing to when you’re up against one or two players. It’s easier to bluff a few players than a whole table.
Likewise, you should focus your bluff to times when your opponents seem hesitant or are low on chips. Weak players probably won’t not have the guts to call you out.

How to bluff

Lastly, it’s important to consider your opponents playing style. It’s a lot safer to bluff against a player with a tight playing style than against a loose cannon, who might randomly call your bluff.

And of course, most important of all, if you’re bluffing, the last thing you want is to go into a showdown with your weak hand. Finish the job before that, and force your opponents to fold. 

For more info and example of how to bluff in poker, check this video or our designated blog post on the subject. Now you know how to win with a bad hand – but what do we do when a great hand comes along? Let’s look at betting.

4. Know how to bet

Knowing how to make the most of a great hand is absolutely crucial if you want to win poker. If you’re dealt a great hand, like two aces, you can’t have everyone fold before the flop and leave you with just the blinds. You need to make the most of your hand. This takes a good betting strategy. 

Betting in poker is usually divided into two different categories; a blocking bet and a value bet

A blocking bet is designed to control the pot. By placing a small bet, you get inside your opponent’s head and stop them from making a larger bet. Since just the fact that you made a bet makes them more cautious and less aggressive. They’ll most likely call. 

That way you get to set the price for further participation – allowing you to see another round without too much investment. Quite genius. 

Now, let’s say you’re dealt a great starting hand – like a pair of aces.
This is the best starting hand in poker and you’d be pretty likely to win.
When you have a great hand, it’s important to make the most of it – you want a massive pot to win.

Win poker

But, if you try to build a pot by instantly raising by a lot, other players might be scared off and fold their cards – leaving you with just the blinds and some change. Not quite the massive win you were hoping for. 

This is when we place what’s called a value bet.
A value bet is designed to build the pot, but to do it in such a manner that opponents won’t be scared off. You place small bets, big enough to drive up the pot but just small enough to not scare off opponents. 

A value bet is essentially the opposite of bluffing, since this time you actually want other players to call or even raise your bet. You want them to think that building the pot is their idea, and that they’re in charge. Essentially doing your dirty work and digging their own grave. It’s actually quite evil – but oh so effective to win poker.

5. Don’t limp

Limping is perhaps the most common beginner mistake in poker. And easy for more advanced players to spot and pounce on. 

Limping basically means to ‘hesitate’ or show a lack of faith in your cards when it’s your turn. This is typically when a player tries to just check or call instead of making a decision.

If you want to win poker, you have to play with conviction. Therefore, it’s best to either raise or fold – checking and calling usually isn’t a good idea.
If you have good cards; raise.
If you have bad cards; fold.

It’s that easy.

face to face poker - EasyPoker App

Limping is very obvious when players try to check after the flop or, even worse, after the turn. Especially if they start aggressive and bet pre flop but then suddenly show a limp the next round. It could be that they have great cards and are trying to play it slow – but most likely, they just didn’t hit anything on the board and try to limp their way into seeing if the next community card will make something of their hand. 
Don’t limp – play with conviction.

Best poker app for friends

If you and your friends are new to poker and just want to have some fun, you should consider downloading our free EasyPoker app. It doesn’t ask for a credit card, has no gambling and you only play against friends. The best app for poker nights with friends. 

The app takes care of everything, so all you guys have to do is just play your cards.
Perfect, whether you guys are physically sitting together or playing online from separate locations.
And it’s free, so you have nothing to lose.

Win poker

More tips to win poker

Knowing just a little poker strategy goes a long way and you’ll be amazed how even just small tips will make a huge and instant difference to your game – making you stand out from the crowd. As mentioned in these tips, knowing how to bet and how to bluff is really the most important part of poker strategy. It’s the salt and pepper of poker. 

Lucky for you, we’ve made complete beginner’s guides to both.  

Have a look 👇👀

Poker betting
How to bluff

History of Poker

The fascinating history of poker seems as interesting and full of legends as the game itself.
There are lots of different theories out there, so we decided to go through them all and create a ‘one stop’ blog post to tell you everything. 

Poker is the world’s most popular card game, played all over the planet by all kinds of people. The game has seen a huge boom in popularity over the past 15 years, but the game actually goes way back and seems to be a melting pot of popular features known from a range of old card games.
It’s story stretches across centuries and played a major role in iconic moments of history such as the colonization of America, the Old West, and World War 1.

As-Nas

As-NasMost historians agree that the ancient, Persian card game ‘as-nas’ seems a likely origin to poker. The game can be traced back as far as the 17th century and stems from Arabic culture. 

As-nas was both the name of the game and the type of cards used to play it. The name as-nas roughly translates into something like “Aces and Mankind”, and the cards featured an ace and 4 different kinds of man. Not unlike modern playing cards.
However, the ‘mankind cards’ would often show 4 ranked levels of society such as a king, a lady, a soldier and a dancing-girl. The ace was usually something cool – like a dragon or a lion. Or both, fighting each other.
A deck of as-nas would have 4 or 5 identical cards of each suit meaning the full deck was either 20 or 25 cards.

When playing as-nas, each player was dealt five cards. With no community cards, the player would only use the cards in his hand to make combinations. The ranking of combinations was pretty similar to what we use today, but without straights and flushes. 

The dealer would be the first to place a stake and you would then go around the table in a circle with players either calling, raising or folding. Sound familiar? When all players’ stake was even and no one wanted to raise further, the players would show their cards and a winner was found.
What’s also really interesting about as-nas, is that the game would encourage bluffing.

As-nas certainly seems to be a very likely ancestor to poker. It introduced elements like betting, bluffing and even the early stages of the same hand rank we use today.
There’s also no denying that the game had a huge involvement in shaping the deck of cards we use today, with its introduction of aces and face cards.
But later card games would come to further develop the game towards the poker we play today.

The European Ancestors

Like much of the American population, poker also seems to have clear roots in Europe. 
Some time during the 17th century, a card game called ‘primero’ became wildly popular in Spain. The game had three cards dealt to all players and a big focus on bluffing.
Later, primero was copied by the Germans who named their version ‘pochen’ and the french who called it ‘poque’.
As if that wasn’t enough, the Irish also had a version called ‘poca’ and the brits developed a version called ‘brag’. Confused yet? 

Anyway, the french version (poque) was by far the most played and in the 17th century the French colonists brought it to their settlements in North America.

Early History of Poker in America

After being brought to North America, poque was translated into English and quickly developed into different versions. Around this time is when stud poker was introduced – a version of poker that is of course still played today, although less popular than Texas Hold’em and Omaha.

This version of poker became popular among the crews of riverboats transporting goods up and down the Mississippi River and thus quickly spread around the country. In fact, this is believed to be where the poker term ‘river card’ (fifth community card) derives from. As poker became popular during Mississippi boat rides, sometimes cheaters would purposely deal a final community card that would improve their own hand. If such cheating was discovered, the guy would be thrown overboard and so the river card got its name.

Early versions of casinos called ‘gambling houses’ started popping up along the riverbanks and these attracted a lot of opportunistic people, trying to hit the jackpot. This same group of people was later attracted to the possibilities of prospecting and the gold rush – and so poker spread to the West. It became tremendously popular in Westers Saloons, and is perhaps one of the most recognized elements of the Old West today. Their game of choice mostly resembles stud poker and was the backdrop of many Western stories and legends. Although a great pastime, one can easily imagine how the alcohol, guns and laws of that time would often result in very dramatic poker games. 

History of Poker

Soldiers spreading poker

When the civil war broke out in April of 1861, many men were called to arms. As both sides gathered in their respective camps a lot of them brought poker from the West and this quickly became a popular pastime between fights. Since it was played by both sides, pretty much every soldier was introduced to the game and it’s rules at this time and it seems the game stuck with them after the war. Upon returning to their families, the soldiers further spread the game and poker, that up until now was only played by men and outlaws, was now enjoyed by everyone.

Soldiers at war also seem to be what brought the game of poker back to Europe after maturing across the pond. Although the US tried to remain neutral for the start of WW1, certain events and threats forced them to enter the war in 1917. On a faithful morning in June of 1917, American soldiers sat foot in Europe, ready for war. As during the civil war, poker became a great way to socialize between battles, and quickly caught on among the US allies who kept playing it long after the last shot of WW1 was fired.

History of Poker

History of Texas Hold’em

Just as one would expect, the exact origin of Texas Hold’em is the object of much debate and myths. According to official documents by Texas Legislature, the official birthplace of Texas Hold’em is the small town of Robstown, located in the state of (you’ve guessed it) Texas. This was sometime in the 1920’s.
It was the first of it’s kind to use community cards, and therefore the first to distinguish between cards on the board and the cards you hold. This is probably why they doubted the game ‘Hold’em’.
Although never officially confirmed, poker legend has it that this fast paced and pretty different take on poker was invented by notorious road gambler Blondie Forbes. A man who was later inducted in the Poker Hall of Fame for the creation.

This new type of poker quickly became popular around Texas, but never really left the state. Not until several decades later, in the 1960’s, when the entrepreneurial texan Crandell Addington saw a business opportunity and took the game to Vegas.
Things didn’t go too smooth for Addington though, as the only casino who took the bid was ‘The Golden Nugget’. The Golden Nugget was located in downtown Las Vegas, and not on the prestigious and buzzing ‘Strip’. And as if that wasn’t enough, it’s poker room was run down and very basic, with sawdust covering the floor. Not an ideal place for Addington to have his game played by any of the big players – and something had to be done.

Addington finally got his big break in 1969 when the now-demolished Dunes Casino, located on the Las Vegas Strip, agreed to host a Texas Hold’em tournament which caught the attention of the big players. And the attention of Benny Binion, a huge influencer of the Las Vegas we’ve come to know. Binion had lost his gaming license, and was looking for a chance to bounce back to the top of the Las Vegas gaming community. He and his son Jack started “The World Series Of Poker” and made Hold’em (now known as Texas Hold’em due to its roots) the centerpiece of the entire thing. 

WSOP took off like a rocket and this helped solidify Texas Hold’em as the most popular type of poker in front of Five-Card Draw and Seven-Card Stud. And when Texas Hold’em was legalized in California in 1980 the game saw a massive boom.

Years later, WSOP became a household name when Chris Moneymaker (a complete amateur) beat all the pros and went on to take home the grand prize of a whopping $2,500,000. A truly amazing story we’ve detailed in this post

Today the word “poker” is largely synonymous with Texas Hold’em – so much so that pop culture often get’s it’s timeline wrong. Like in the popular video game “Red Dead Redemption” where players are free to roam around the small towns of the Old West. The game allows users to enter saloons and play poker – but the game you’ll be playing is Texas Hold’em – even though this style of poker was in no way popular (or even invented) at that time. You gotta give the people what they want, right?

Make your mark on the
History of Poker

Now that you’re educated on the fascinting history of poker you of course need to casually share it with your friends – perhaps over a game of poker? 

If so consider downloading the free EasyPoker app – a digital version of a physical poker set that provide you and your friends with an endless amount of chips and cards – for free.
The app is available for both Android & iPhone and so easy to navigate that even good old Blondie Forbes would be able to pick it up and get a game going in no time. 
The app takes care of everything, so all you guys have to do is just play your cards and have fun. 
And who knows, maybe we’ll have to add a segment about you in the history of poker.

History of Poker
History of Poker

History of poker

Here at EasyPoker we’re always eager to hear from our community. If you have something to add to this story, or a specific element of the history of poker you’d like us to touch on, please let us know in the comments below. 
Thank you, and have a great day.