How you play your hand is, of course, important. So I want to discuss some “plays” that can be made, and more importantly, why we would or would not make these plays.

There are three basic plays in poker: Check, Bet, or Fold (one might argue that raising is one of the basic plays in poker as well, however raising is actually a form of a bet; so for the purposes of this text there are only 3 basic plays in poker). The other plays we will be discussing are more advanced combinations of these three basic plays. Each one of these basic plays tells your opponents something about your hand. The more advanced plays are a way to disguise the information that these basic plays would normally give to your opponents.

In the most straightforward sense, when you check, you are telling your opponents “I want to stay in the hand and see what happens, but I don’t feel confident enough to bet at this point” or “I want to see more cards cheaply”. Many times when someone is on a draw they opt to check until they make their hand and they can feel confident in betting.

When you bet you are telling your opponents “I have a strong hand” or “I believe that I have the best hand, at the moment”. When you bet out it shows confidence either in your hand or in your read on your opponents’ strength or weakness.

When you fold your hand this is the ultimate act of surrender in poker. You are telling your opponent “you win” and removing any chance that you might have of winning the hand. This is the most used play in poker. You should fold far more hands than you play. Many times the difference between a winning poker player and a losing poker player is knowing when to lay down a hand and when to continue playing a hand. You can’t always worry about laying down the best hand. A good player will lay down the best hand from time to time. Remember, you can bluff a good player, but never a bad player.

One of the most powerful plays in all of poker is the check-raise. It goes like this: The action is to you and you check, then one of your opponents acting after you bets and when the action come back around to you, now you raise.

This does a couple of things. First, it is a deceptive way to get another bet in the pot. It also shows that you have a very powerful hand (or that you are willing to bluff, but most of the time this is not the case) or are representing a powerful hand. If your opponent is bluffing with their bet and you raise then many times they will fold and you will win the pot right there. If they are not bluffing then they will most likely call your raise. However, if they re-raise your check-raise beware, because they may have a powerful hand or the best hand.

You can use the check raise to “find out where you are at” in a hand. For instance if you check-raise and they fold you find out that your opponent was holding a weak hand, bluffing, or that they were pretty sure that they were beat. If you check-raise and get called then you can deduce that your opponent has a strong hand, but not necessarily the nuts (unless they are slow playing, which is a play we will discuss a little later on). Now if you check-raise and get played back at (re-raised) then you know that your opponent probably has the best hand at the moment or has the nuts (unless of course you have the nuts and then you could be fairly sure that they either have the 2nd best hand or a powerful draw if you are still on the flop betting round). So now we have a pretty good idea of where the power of our hand stands compared to the rest of the field. Of course many times you can find out “where you are at” in a hand more cheaply with just a bet instead of a 2-bet check-raise, but the check-raise will give you a better indication most of the time than a single bet will

A bluff is when you hold a weak hand (or non-existent hand for that matter) and bet in hopes that your opponent(s) will fold. Bluffing is one of the most celebrated of all poker plays. It may also be the most overused. Many times this is what you will see when you watch The World Series Of Poker on ESPN. They choose the most exciting hands to show us because they make for better TV. However, you should be ware that bluffing isn't the only play to be used. If it is used too often it will be a losing play, and it will cost you winnings in the long term if not used correctly and with caution. There are times to bluff and times to fold, and you need to understand which is which to be successful. It can be used to a great advantage against good players who understand what you are telling them with your bets. The reverse is also true. You can't bluff a bad player. They just don't understand or can't grasp the idea that they are beat and should fold. Against these players you will need another strategy (hint: play solid, fundamental, position poker).

A semi-bluff is when you bet and you are pretty sure that you do not have the best hand at the moment, but you do have a hand that has potential to be the best hand. For example, you have A5h and the flop comes Jh 3c Qh, now you have a strong draw to the nut flush and still some straight possibilities on both the high end and the low end of the cards. You also believe that one of your opponents has a Queen. If you bet in this situation (or raise in this situation) then you would be making the semi-bluff play, because you don’t have the best hand at the moment, but you defiantly could improve on the turn or the river.

When you have a big hand, and hand that you feel can really stand up to some heat from other players even in a multi-way pot (like the highest full house on the board, the nut flush, or a straight flush) you are going to want to get as much money out of the hand as you possibly can and many times the way to accomplish this goal is by slow playing the hand. If you get a strong hand and you raise too much or show too much strength then many of your opponents will fold, and when you have a really strong hand you don’t want this to happen. You want to keep everyone in the hand and extract as much money as possible. Slow playing involves betting small or marginal amounts so that you will get called or raised instead of pushing everyone out of the hand with a big raise or a check raise. Sometimes just a bet that is placed too quickly will push people out of the hand as well, so pay attention to the timing of your bet as well.

Changing gears is not a specific play exactly but rather, changing your overall strategy to confuse your opponents and keep them guessing. If you are a tight and aggressive player (which is what you aspire to be - as tight and aggressive is the winning formula) after a while at the table with you the other players will catch on that you always have a hand when you come into the pot.

When this starts to happen you should change up your play some and loosen up your starting requirements. Even if you end up showing down a weak hand and losing a pot (many times this is called advertising). Because you will then begin to get action again as you will have changed gears and shown your opponents that you are bluffing, or at least playing weaker hands than they thought that you would play. Now, you change gears and go back to your tight aggressive play. This way when you pick up another hand, you will get paid off for it because no one will be sure what cards you are playing.

Well, I hope this gave you a good, basic overall on plays available to you at the tables. Because so many of the plays in this game are situation specific, many times it is tough to discuss several at one time without being overly complex or wordy.

Good luck at the tables, and may you not get unlucky!