Hi, I'm Martin from Claremonts.com. I'm gonna run you through
lots of terminology and lots of knowledge about the game
of Poker. Action.
Action refers to the amount of play
in a game. You can have lots of Action when there's lots of people betting in the hand,
you can have a low Action hand when everyone's checking and moving it around.
"The Action on you", means you're the next person to
act in the hand. It's up to you next to decide what you're gonna do.
An All In.
An All In is when a player decides to go for broke, to put all his chips in the middle
and to try and double up his entire chip stack. We can see an example
at the table here, you've got a Small Blind a Big Blind, a Call.
The player here, looks at his cards, got a lovely hand, there's the line,
put all your chips over the line, All In, all your chips in.
If you get a Call, you've got the chance to double up. Very risky,
a lot of players call All In's when they're bluffing, a lot of players only call All In's
when they think they can't be beaten. It's taking a chance, it's a good chance though
to double your stack by going All In.
A Backdoor
is when you get a little bit lucky. You catch the last two cards
perfectly to complete a Straight, or in this particular example we're giving here, a Flush.
You can see the player here, he's got 2 clubs, first three cards only included one club.
By having a Back Door there, the Turn Card
and the River Card, both Diamonds, was a long shot but it's worked out for him. It's
a Back Door, the last two cards have worked in his favour and
he's completed the five cards to the Diamonds to complete the Flush there.
You could do the same thing
when you're going for a Straight for instance, by getting the two matching cars that you
needed
on the Turn and the River, the fourth and fifth cards. That's a Back Door.
A Bad Beat. A Bad Beat is, it's not nice.
It's when you're the favourite in the hand, everything is looking very very good for
you,
but on the turn of the last card unexpectedly,
things turn against you. Nobody likes to have a Bad Beat.
We all sympathize to the player who has a Bad Beat, but we all like to be
the person who benefits from a Bad Beat. So that's when the odds turn around after the
last card,
the person who looked like they were gonna win the hand ends up being the loser.
They suffer from a Bad Beat.
Let's talk about the Blinds. The Blinds are very very important, the Blinds are what starts
the betting going in
any particular given hand. They're compulsory bets
to start everything going. Look at the Dealer Button here; the Dealer Button moves around,
the player to the left of the Dealer, they're the compulsory bet, the one that started
betting going before we see the Flop, the first three cards.
They're the Small Blind to the left and to their left
is the Big Blind.
Bluffing. Bluffing is one of the great arts of the game of Poker. It's the most
satisfying way
to win a hand of Poker. It's when you don't have much of a hand,
but by sticking a load of chips in, by putting some pressure
on the other players at the table, you get them to Fold, you get to win the hand when you
didn't have the best hand. Bluffing,
it can be dangerous, it can be expensive, it's a very very satisfying way
of winning. The best Poker players are really good bluffers
and the best Poker players also spot when the other players are Bluffing.
The Button as it's sometimes referred to. That's the marker
of the Dealer, that the Dealer Button moves around, it moves around in a clockwise
motion with every hand. We all take our turn to nominally be the dealer in the
hand. To be "On the Button"
means that you are nominally the Dealer in the hand and that means, as the
betting moves around,
you're actually gonna be the last person to act in the hand. It goes the Small Blind,
the Big Blind, it moves around the table
in a clockwise motion, comes back to you who's "On the Button", you are the Dealer.
You're the last person to act in any hand. Some people think it's a position of
great strength,
because you can see what the other people have done first. On the Button, the last to act,
the Dealer in the hand.
A Call. A Call is when you don't Raise
and when you don't Fold. Let's look at the example here at the table of a Call Bet.
We've started the betting off, we've got our Small Blind for 5, we've got our Big Blind there for
two 5 chips which is a 10, action moves around in a clockwise motion,
it's this player next to act. If they're gonna Call the bet, they just match the previous bet.
You can sometimes call that a Flat Call where whatever the person's bet before,
behind them you bet exactly the same. You're not Raising the stakes,
you're not Folding out of the hand, you're just maintaining the status quo in the hand
by matching the previous bet, that's called a Call.
The Check. The Check bet happens
in the second and third and sometimes the fourth round of betting,
where you have the opportunity sometimes to stay in the hand without placing a bet.
Now here we are, we've had the Flop, the first three cards to come down,
the player to the Dealers left, they're gonna be the first one to act. Nobody in the hand,
in this particular juncture has yet, in this round of betting, made a bet.
So you don't have to match anything, you don't have to Raise anything if you don't want to. To Check you just
tap the table and it moves round to the next player. When there's no Action
and you don't want to put any Action or put any chips into the pot,
you can check and pass the buck along to the next player in line. Eventually someone's gonna
bet,
but if you wanna Check and move it around, just to keep yourself nice and safe without
playing any money into the hand.
That's called a Check, when you move it around without placing any money.
Community Cards. Community Cards are the cards that are placed in the middle here.
They're cards that all of us who are playing in the game of Poker get the chance to add to our
hand to give ourselves the best chance to win.
You have the Flop, the first three cards, you have the Turn and the River
in the game of Texas Holdem. These are Community Cards, we add to them
our own, nice and secretive to ourselves to make your hands up,
but these are ones that are on public show. We can all see what the Community Cards are
and we can all use these cards to make our hands up.
Drawing Dead. Drawing Dead means that you're in a position in the hand where it's
impossible for you
to have the winning hand, to have a hand that can beat the other players.
Here's an example of Drawing Dead. This player here
has got a Jack-8, this player here after four cards have been drawn here,
has got the Ace-King. There is not a card in the deck here
that can be placed here as the last card that means that the player here
can win the hand. He will be what we call Drawing Dead, he has got no chance
of winning the hand whatever happens.
We'll draw the last card out. Impossible for the player here to win whatever the scenario.
Drawing Dead is not a position any of us want to be in. We want our opponent
Drawing Dead
so we can't lose the hand.
The Flop. Once the players have been dealt their hands and the first round of betting
has been completed,
the Dealer will then deal you out the Flop. The Flop,
is three cards turned face up that form part
of your Community Cards of your hand. In a
live game of Poker, the Dealer will always burn one card
and then will turn three cards over called the Flop.
A very nice Flop in this case. Two Aces here, to start your hand off. The first
three Community Cards in the game, they're called the Flop. You have the Flop,
the Turn, the River,
these are the first ones, the Flop.
A Gutshot. A Gutshot is when you catch a lucky card really.
What you're doing, you're trying to create a Straight, a Straight is 5 cards
in sequence. In this case, 7, 8, 9,10 and Jack to make a run of five cards here, a really
strong hand.
Here the player with the 8, has already got the 7,
he's got the 8 himself, the 9 and the Jack, his Gutshot card.
It's this one isn't? He's hoping and praying 1/14 generally.
There it is, it's the 10. The Gutshot card. It's a very very lucky one. It would be a
Bad Beat if somebody got
a Gutshot on you and caught you up on the last card of any given hand.
A Gutshot completes a Straight by being one of the cards
in the middle.
Kicker. A Kicker is sometimes the very minute difference between winning and losing
in a hand of Poker. Let's have a look at the example I've put out on the table
here.
We've finished the hand, we've had the Flop, we've got the seven cards to look at,
what's the winning hand in this situation? Let's have a look at it then. It's a
pair of Jacks.
Both players here have got a Jack, a pair of Jacks each.
Neither player has managed to make Two Pairs, they've both got one Pair, a pair of Jacks. So how
do we decide who wins the hand?
It goes down to the next best card.
So we've got a pair of Jacks, what's the next highest card available for either player?
It's this card here. It's the Ace. So this player has got a pair of Jacks with an Ace Kicker.
This player has got a pair Jacks, his next best card is this 10 here.
So the winner in this particular hand is this player here. He's got a pair of Aces
with a higher Kicker, something to back up his Pair, without making a stronger hand is the
Kicker
and the Ace Kicker this time will win the hand for that player.
Limping In. Limping In means that you
place the minimum amount of chips necessary to keep yourself in the hand when you're the last
player to act.
We'll make this seem a little bit clearer. Let's look at the table here, we've got the Dealer Button,
Small Blind for one, all the players in the hand have bet two chips worth 10, 10, 10, 10,
10. The last one to act here is the Small Blind, he's already bet 5,
he's gonna Limp In, he's not gonna Raise, he's gonna put the minimum amount in,
as the last player in the hand to finish off the action, he'll just put in his extra 5 chips
to even it up,
he's Limped In. He hasn't Raised the Action, he hasn't been aggressive,
he's kept the game fairly low-key. Limping In,
sometimes people do it as a bluff when they've got a very very strong hand,
watch out for that.
Loose. A Loose player is somebody who tends to play a lot of hands, who tends to Raise
a lot,
tends to get involved in every pot. You can never be sure if a Loose player
is bluffing or if they have a big hand.
If a Loose player plays every hand generally though, they are running into somebody with a
really big hand who
will take them down; Loose players. They can win or lose a lot of money
very very quickly.
In the Muck. That means when you decide to discard your hand,
throw it away and surrender in the hand. I'll show you how to Muck a hand.
The Dealer here, Small Blind has placed his chip here, the Big Blind behind. He's Raised and he's
bet another hundred.
This player here has looked at his cards, he's gone "Oh dear, I haven't got very much here,
I don't wanna play." What they do, they throw their cards into the middle
into the Muck, they're out of the hand. In this case, they've Mucked their cards
without even spending a Dime, a Penny, a Cent
in the hand. A Muck is when you throw your hand in and give up.
An Out. An Out is your chance to catch up,
catch up on the last card in the hand. Let's see
if there's any Outs for the players here. Let's have a look at our two hands,
player here with the Ace-Jack, he's got a Pair already, he's in the lead.
The player looking for Outs is the player here with the Ace
and the King. What are his Outs then? Let's work them out.
If the last card was an Ace, he'd have a pair of Aces, he'd win.
If the last card was a King, he'd have a pair of Kings,
he'd beat the pair of Jacks. One more potential win over him actually is the
Queen as well.
We'd have 10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, a Straight.
So the player in this scenario's got a few Outs. He's got three
different Outs, three ways of catching up at the last minute. The more Outs you have, the more
chance you've got in the hand.
If you can work out you've got lots of Outs, maybe it's a better idea to stay in the hand.
If you've got very few Outs, maybe the wisest manoeuvre
would be to give up the hand, throw it in the Muck and of course in this occasion,
the Ace comes, the Out has come in, they've caught up,
it's been a lucky catch on the River. That's an Out.
The Pot. The Pot is the amount of chips, the amount of money that's been wagered in the hand
so far. The amount that's in the Kitty, to be won
at any given stage of the hand. The Pot
is here, and on the live game, right in front of me here. You add to the Pot
before and during the hand and as you come to the River, the last chance
to add to this Pot, to the amount of money that you're all aiming to win
is in your last set of betting. The bigger the Pot,
the more that you're likely to want to be betting into it at the last minute. If it's a very
small Pot,
you're very risky putting a big bet in. If the Pots already very very large,
you want to be in that Pot as often as possible for the chance of winning it.
There are two different
ways of playing the game of Poker. You can play No Limit
or Pot Limit. Pot Limit, limits the amount of money,
the amount of chips that can be wagered on any particular round
of betting. It restricts the amount that could be won and lost
in each individual hand, it means that you can budget your game a lot easier when you're
playing Pot limits.
Some people prefer it, some people don't. Your choice to play No Limit or Pot Limit.
Pot Limit puts a ceiling on the amount that you're allowed to bet in
any one particular hand or any one particular round
of betting.
A fantastic hand if you can catch one is Quads. Quads is when you have Four
of a Kind. Fairly rare and if you get beaten on Quads you can consider yourself
very very unfortunate. Here's an example of some Quads here. three 10s,
down there on the Flop, on the Turn, on the River as well,
one of each, three 10's, one in the players hand here,
makes the best hand available to himself. Four 10's,
Ace Kicker. Quads are a very very strong.
Of course, the higher the Quad, the better. Four 10's will beat
four 6's.
The Rake is a very very small amount that you will have,
it's more like a tax of tables. It's like a betting tax at the Poker Tables.
The Rake is the small percentage of the winnings in every hand,
that are taken by the casino operator, or the croupier sometimes, if you're fortunate
enough in a live game as a commission for running the game.
So maybe here, you've got a great big Pot here of about eleven or twelve hundred,
perhaps the Rake would be ten, fifteen or twenty chips that don't return to you,
they go into the Kitty
of the casino operator and the winning hand gets the rest of it. The Rake,
normally a couple of percent goes back the casino operator,
the Dealer. That's the Rake.
The Raise. The Raise is a way of increasing the Pot, increasing the amount of money in
the Kitty and hopefully increasing
your win. It's an aggressive tactic to get things moving.
Let's have a look at this sort of pre-Flop situation here, early in the hand.
The Dealers Buttons here, Small Blind, one chip there for five,
compulsory bet. There's your Big Blind there, compulsory bet for ten.
That's a Call Bet there for ten, it's just moving nice and quietly. Maybe the player here has a little
peek at his cards, sees they're really strong and thinks "Right, I'm gonna put some money into
the Kitty,
I wanna get this Pot nice and big so I can win it." A Raise
has to be double or more the previous bet.
The bet here was 10, so if you're gonna Raise, you have to make a bet of 20
or more, So perhaps the player will bet
300. That's a big Raise.
The Re-Raise. The Re-Raise, we've spoken about the Raise when you can increase the Pot to
increase the amount of money in there to get yourself a nice win. Let's look at a
Re-Raise, when the stakes get increased again and again.
The example at the table here; Small Blind for five, Big Blind for ten,
player here in this position, he's Raised to a hundred.
Player here, got a very nice strong hand. He's given three choices now. He can Fold
his hand,
he can Call that Raise of one hundred,
he can Re-Raise.
He can Re-Raise by taking that hundred and doubling
it or more. A minimum bet to Re-Raise would be two hundred.
Maybe in this case, a good Re-Raise would be to four. It puts the pressure back on the
player who has done the Raise. Basically it's you saying,
"I'm stronger than you. You think you wanna bet? Now I'm really betting." It puts the pressure
back on the player behind, it's a very aggressive strategy.
The aggressive players, they Re-Raise all the time. They put the players
before them under a lot of pressure by Re-Raising.
It's an attractive way to play if you've got a great hand. It's also what bluffers
do,
to try and pinch some money from people who have Raised in front of them.
The Short Stack. The Short Stack is the player at the table with the least
number of chips at the table. He's the one that everyone's normally looking at thinking,
"We're gonna try and eliminate him, we'll put him under pressure."
When a Short Stack is put All In, sometimes he won't have enough money to cover
the other players bets. That doesn't matter, he can still push all his chips
and be allowed to bet just that amount. The Short Stack,
sometimes they get put under pressure, sometimes people will bet against the Short Stack when
they shouldn't.
So it's not always the worst position to be in. You can quite often double through your chips when you're
the Short Stack because people
will try and get you at the game.
Side Pots are when one or more of the players in the hand,
hasn't got enough to cover the entire bet. They go All In with the chips they've got,
as an excess, that the other players at the table are playing for that they haven't
been funded enough to play in the hand. That's called a Side Pot.
When one player hasn't got quite enough chips to play the entire Pot,
the remainder is played by the other players, in what's called a Side Pot,
which they play separately against themselves,
rather than with the player who is All In.
The most skilful players in live play look for things like
a Tell. A Tell is sometimes a little scratch of the nose, sometimes it's a nervous little twitter,
sometimes it's playing with their chips. It's when a player kind of lets you know
what's going on.
Now highly skilled players can spot what's called a Tell
in other players. In fact, the craftiest players will throw a Tell out there
that's a Bluff. So Tells can work for you and Tell against you.
Are you good at spotting them? I don't know, I can't. The Tell.
Two kinds of players generally in the game of Poker.
Loose players and Tight players. Pretty straight forward. A Tight player is somebody who
doesn't play many hands.
They sit very quietly, they Fold a lot of hands, they don't get involved in a lot of
hands, they certainly don't
Raise or Re-Raise very much. But when they come out of their bunker, they
normally bet quite heavily because they haven't played many hands, they need to
catch up.
So watch out for these Tight players. When they do play, they play big,
but they don't play very often. The more
disciplined players I should say, are the Tight players,
but they don't always win.
Something we all try to avoid as Poker players is Tilt.
It's going on Tilt after you've lost a hand, if the luck isn't running with you,
sometimes you can go, what we say, on Tilt. That means that you start betting probably
a little bit more than you should, a bit more often than you should,
on maybe on hands when you shouldn't be betting. Look out for a player on Tilt.
Quite often that's an opportunity to win some nice easy chips from a player who's
lost his discipline.
Look out for them as well. If they win, they can win big on Tilt.