Like all good things understand, to the up most, the fundamentals can help incredibly in any one game. Perhaps the biggest things I find to be helpful on the most basic of levels is understanding the hand hierarchy, what beats what. Most players will see more than occasionally the player who isn’t really sure what beats what and even more drastically doesn’t know the odds in a full deck of getting such a hand.

If you don’t know your hand lists then you need to, now! It is a basic part of the game that needs to be fully understood before really even sitting down to a table because if you don’t know what you are holding you certainly cannot make anything close to a call on your partner’s hand. So as homework you should first off understand if a flush beats a straight and more importantly the basic odds behind that. The mathematics will help you realize just how powerful a flush is even when compared to a straight. This will inevitably make you a stronger player and more importantly allow you to make quicker calls which if you are multi-boxing tables (playing more than one) while playing online it can help you extend your capacity to handle more and more tables effectively. Don’t worry though; because you will realize after a while that just playing for a while will help you tremendously and it will quickly become 2nd nature.

The other big thing is memorizing your odds for draw hands, if you are a higher level player or just like to play draw hands and feel comfortable with it and your experience level then you should understand based on your flop what your actual chances maybe to complete your hand, be it a flush or straight. This can help you make choices like betting, raising, folding and understand your odds at success.

Now the real thing that benefits you more than knowing your own odds, is knowing your opponent’s odds. Once you have both the hand list and odds understood and under your belt; and you can understand your own odds it is time for you to apply it to your opponents. First you need to look at your hand and determine what you have and what the odds of improving that hand are, this should help you determine your call but when you throw in the next level of understanding you get an even greater edge on your opponent. Because now you can take into account your hand and then take into account what beats your hand and using the board you should be able to figure out the probability, generally speaking, what the odds of your opponent having a hand to beat yours is. This is so important when you feel your hand is the best, just as a double check that you should always quickly mentally do, and if you suspect a bluff or a weak hand it can help you rationalize your next move.

Just remember the basics win games in every sport and poker is no different. The basics are what pro-players are going through when they are on TV and you hear them suggesting or putting their opponents on a hand, they are using these very skills that they have mastered!