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How to Beat Your Friends at Poker

• 30.06.2025 6:52 pm
• Helen
• 0 Comments

There is nothing better than busting your opponents at a poker table.

Busting your opponents at a poker table.

If you happen to be a poker player who plays the semi-to regular and understands the game perfectly well, you are most likely ahead of your friends when it comes to Texas Hold’em strategy.

On the other hand, that does not assure you that you will win at your home game.

Reading a lot of articles will not help you a lot if you do not change your game to the level of your opponents' play.

Who is at your table?

A lot of home games will often have a normal cross-section of playing methods.

These methods comprises of:

• Beginners
• Intermediates who think that they are experts
• Pre-beginners
• intermediates

Each step you make at a poker table is part of a poker talk that you have with other players.

If you are making difficult moves it is as if you are talking in a different language.

There are different and easy formulas that you can use to maximize your edge on every player if you want to be the one to have the most chips.

A range like the $5-$20 buy-in, which happens to be very common in many non-pro home games, is going to create a lot more beginners and also the players who happen to be low-end intermediate than the high-end ones.

To polish your poker game you need to follow the key styles above.

Player: Pre-beginners

Usually, a girlfriend of a regular or a friend of a friend do not understand what poker is and cannot even make up a Texas Hold'em game.

They do no have any idea of the poker rules, let alone what you are saying. They do not have any idea of what is going on at the poker table.

Such a player should be regarded as antique army-surplus landmine. Such people are hard to predict.

Even though it may sound easy to play against such players, it is also good to stay away from them since they can bring you a lot of trouble at the table.

They will move with the nuts or move with nothing at all.

Such players do not have the idea of what they have and this can be very hard for them to get a read on.

Your best plan

Allow every player to play the guessing game.

This will help you get chips from the other players.

Example

You happen to raise from the middle position using a . The buttons raise and the pre-beginner min-re rasies right from the small blind.

You and your opponent call in order to see a flop.

The flop comes .

The pre-beginner opens for a bet two times the pot size.

Even though there is a straight chance that you are ahead, there are so many hands that have you bet.

Instead of involving yourself with the guessing game, expect the button to call. Fold and relax for the right spot.

Player: beginner

Even though these players are familiar with the basics of poker they only play the fundamental plans.

Hope for the first level poker that has got all the choices made on the strength of two cards they have.

Players such as these are very easy to handle since you will have the idea of what they hold and what they have.

If they give signs of strength, this means that the hand they have is very strong. If they show signs of weakness, then theory are probably going to fold.

Such players are known to put their stacks in the pot and later fold to the last bet which leaves them with only one or two chips.

Your best plan that is aggression

The best way you can use best to players like this is by the use of an aggressive poker game.

Your main aim is to bring down every hand that might have been dealt with.

These players may try to show signs of strength. When they do this, allow them to have the hand.

Example:

You raise the first six hands that happen to be dealt on the table. You steal the blinds or a certain caller folds to your continuation-bet right on the flop.

The other hand that has got two callers, on the flop, your continuation bet gets raised by a beginner.

To someone who is a poker beginner, your picture does not have any meaning.

He got you raised simply because the hand he has is lawful. Fold out and raise the other pot.

Player: intermediate

If you do not change your players each week, a lot of them will become intermediate players.

Such players understand the game well and will begin to mix up how they play.

The most important thing you need to keep in mind is that these players do not make a lot of mistakes like the beginners.

Your best plan that is aggression

You can handle these players the same way you would handle the beginners.

Pressure them a lot using aggression and make them fold out of the most hands they pay.

If anyone plays back at you, discipline them when you have got a good hand.

If the rest of the players give you a chance to see that they have strength earlier, it means that they have  a hand.

For example:

Right after getting aggressive on the table, the intermediate players will begin to upset you.

The times they had a hand that they were interested in playing, you forced them to fold.

Each time they were dealt a premium hand or even raised, you ended up folding.

The players will call your raise using and see a flop that happens to be .

After this, the players think that they are going to discipline you.

Unluckily, they find that you have . However, the main thing is to play the hands just like you have played your junk hands.

Hope that you will be check-raised, then you can raise them.

If you happen to call, they will bet the turn and at this you can raise them.

Discipline them early and this will make them hand out an all-in and you will earn yourself the pot.

Player: intemidiate who takes himself as an expert

It all depends on the position you are in, such players will be a lot if not less in your game.

The most important idea is to locate these players early so as to take them on.

If a player begins to show some of these signs, then he is a delusional intermediate:

• he likes using expressions like "pot committed" and "pot odds"
• he likes to pride himself how he is good at poker
• he mostly talks about the number of odds your hand has

 Your best plan: remain calm for the dumb move

These players have the same way of playing with the regular intermediates, but the only difference is that they have a few twists.

These players will always make rare bluffs.

Luckily for you, their skill stage is not that high to make great moves.

Just allow them to bluff and remain calm for the dumb move to be made at the wrong time.

Just like the other players, these have the same ego issues.

Since these players think that they are experts, they are certain that they will rebuy so snapping them can bring out tilt.

For example

If these players give out a strong play that shows they can bluff, just fold. Only do this if you have a hand that is locked up.

The short and the long term are good for you. They are good to allow them to run the bluffs instead of them getting stack on a bad read.

Just play the exact way you play vs. your intermediate players and ensure that they make any move at the wrong time.

The players will not understand the betting story, but they will be very keen on the surface of the board.

Bluffs from players like these are just in-depth because in most cases he cannot call if he does not hold any king.

Fortunately for you, he does not have a king and he has to think that you have one of the kings if you make a move in on top.