Top 10 Things Every Poker Player Should Be Aware Of: Part 1 of 3

There are certain principles that new poker players need to know in order to build a good foundation for their game. I’ve compiled a list of 10 important concepts in poker, and it’s these 10 principles that are the basis of how you will fare at the poker tables, and once you understand and implement these principles you’ll notice a turning point in your results.

I’ve always said that as a poker player you need to crawl before you walk, so before you go trying to calculate the ICM of a certain scenario or determine good situations to attempt a “squeeze play” you need to have the basics of the game down.

So without further adieu here are the Top 10 things every poker player should be aware of, numbers 1 through 3:

1.      The importance of kickers

Your kicker -the second card in your hand when you flop a pair– is usually as important as the pair you have. The reason kickers are so important is that with a bad kicker you’ll tend to make a lot of second-best hands, which means you’ll lose the most money: With a good kicker it will be your opponent who makes the second best hand.

Take the following three hands: K-Q, K-T, and K-5. If you were to look at the results for each hand when you flop a pair of Kings -just disregard any hand you don’t make a pair or luck into trips and such– you’d find that the better the kicker, the more money you will earn; even though you have the same pair each time.

2.      The price of the rake

The amount of rake taken from each pot is in direct relation to how profitable the game is. It doesn’t matter how good you play, if you play in a $2/$4 Limit Holdem game that takes $5 in rake you’ll be lucky to break even. If the average pot is $40, about $16 of that will be coming from your stack, and with a further $5 taken in rake, you’re looking at about $19 in profit. If you win four hands an hour you’ll make $76 in profits, which is unlikely to cover the blinds you pay -about $9-$12– plus the hands you play but don’t win.

3.      The difference between raised pots and limped pots

One of the hardest aspects of poker to understand is the difference in your hand’s strength if the pot has been raised or if it has been limped. If a single player, or even two, limp into the pot in front of you KQ is a powerhouse that you can feel comfortable raising (since it’s highly unlikely either player limped with QQ, KK, AA, AQ, or AK; the hands that dominate you). However, when someone raises in front of you that same KQ is typically a muck depending on the player who raised.