Learn to Read Tells in Poker
Poker is a card game played with a group of people around a table, each playing for their own stack of chips. It is a fast-paced game where players bet continuously until one player has all the chips or everyone folds. There are usually multiple betting intervals before a showdown where the players reveal their hands and the player with the best hand wins the pot. Each player can “call” (match the amount of money put in by other players), raise (“bet more than the previous player”), or check (no bet).
The game is based on incomplete information, and every action — fold, call, check, raise, or even how you do it — gives away bits of information that your opponents can use to build a story about you and make decisions accordingly. This is why learning to read tells is an important part of the game. These tells can be as subtle as a player fiddling with his chips or a ring, or they can be more obvious like the player who seemed bored on the flop, but then he sees the card that completes his flush and suddenly sits up straight in his chair focused and starts making big bets into you.
It is also important to understand how different hands rank. A full house contains 3 matching cards of one rank and 2 matching cards of another rank. A flush contains 5 consecutive cards of the same suit. Three of a kind is 2 cards of the same rank and two other unmatched cards.