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poker hand selection
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hole cards to play in poker
Hand selection is one of the most important factors for any online poker game. In Texas holdem the 2 cards you are dealt at the start are called the “hole” cards. What you do with these cards is essential in determining whether you are a “good” player or a “bad” player. As a rule of thumb “good” players will play fewer hands then “bad” players. This is an important strategy for beating TAG players in Hold'em. Bad players tend to play every hand and see poker as a gamble whilst hoping they can get "lucky" on the flop (first 3 cards shown), good players will carefully select when to play there hole cards. The key to becoming a good poker player is to correctly apply good poker strategy, so that in the long run you can beat bad players who get lucky.Once you are dealt these cards you want to decide whether or not you want to continue with the game, by folding you are out of the hand and are no longer actively participating in the game. The higher the cards the better chance you have of winning the pot, ACE-KING, ACE-QUEEN, ACE-JACK, are all great hands to be dealt as hole cards, but they are still the “underdog” (less chance of winning) to pocket pairs.
Ideally with these stronger hands you want to raise the pot, and force hands such as 10-7, 8-4 and JACK-7 to fold rather then catching a strong hand on the flop, and beating your hand. Some bad players will elect to cal pre-flop with weak hands such as ACE-2 or ACE-3 this is great if you have a stronger ace such as ACE-QUEEN as you will often win a hand if an ace comes on the flop, they will be "out kickered". One of the down sides is that you never know if you are in front in the hand.
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Poker Guides
2012 U.S. Poker Rooms