Fundamentals of Poker - Part I

Before going into any other discussions, quizzes, lessons, prizes, adventures and stuff, I'd like to share with you some of the basic fundamentals of poker which unfortunately are quite often misunderstood/ignored/forgotten.

Will split the article to several parts and will continue only in case there is an interest into it. :)

OK, let's start...

What is the goal of the game and how do you achieve it?

Simple - the goal of the game is to win the biggest possible amount of money (or simply chips) which also means to lose the least if a positive outcome is impossible.

Please remember this definition!!!

Question to you now -
Does it mean that the best player in the world is the one who wins the most money or it is the one that takes the most profitable decisions during the game no matter what eventually is the outcome?

I know it is probably a bit hard to explain and agree but the correct answer always includes the word "money" into it.

So how do you win the money in Poker?

There are 2 ways to win the chips in the pot:

by forcing your opponents to lay down their hands by betting/raising
by showing down the best hand in the end of the hand

Question to you -
Do you prefer to take the pot down immediately with a vulnerable hand or you'd like to take the chances provided by the implied odds?

The way to lose money is to put (invest) them in the pot by either calling, betting, raising or posting blind.

So to actually come out ahead, those investments must have a positive expectation. And to play perfectly you must always choose the option with the highest expectation. Thus the essential skill in poker is the ability to correctly evaluate all of your options. But you will also need discipline, as having the skill alone won't do you any good if you don't actually use it to its fullest extent. But this will be a topic of another article. :)

What I want to talk about now is the essential skill for success in Poker.

The skill in poker all comes down to correctly evaluating all of your existing options. But make no mistake, this is no simple task. Ideally, you'd like to know with absolute certainty your opponent's holding and how he's going to play it out. With this information, it will always be possible to find the highest EV option. This is why, it's often said that the most important skill in poker (and especially NLHold`em) is hand reading.

In reality, usually the best that is humanly possible is to put your opponent on a range of hands and assign some probability on how he's going to play each one of them.

So how are you going to do that?

-- Part II is coming soon --

hey, will you keep up those posts?
I personally have been a semi-professionell poker player and grinded NL200 on stars. I stopped playing in 2015 to finish my studies and having a more valuable life. I also played some EPT's and smaller tourneys, but the most profit was done in CG.
I would like to answer some questions and explain some things I understand in a completely different way:

The best player in the world is obviously the one with the best decisions. But this doesn't mean the player is winning most of his hands and folds the ones he is not winning. The best player would be someone who is very much unpredictable. Someone who is able to change his playstyle. In MTTs this means to lose up on stages ( like the bubble ) to get chips going. This also might lead to having more chips on later stages and pressure the table even more. Many decisions snowball and are thus very important. Money is nothing to care about in poker. Even with the best decisions you can be a losing player on high levels. Every poker player will go through rough downswings and you have to start thinking in Blinds and not dollars. Losing 1 buy-in is not as hard as losing 200$ on one click, even though it might be the same.
Money in poker is earned by folding at right spots ( calculated foldequity ) and getting the most out of strong hands. Forcing your opponents to lay down their hand is close to nothing. You might turn your line into a bluff, but never pressure someone with air to lay down their hand. Bluffs are many times pretty much -EV and I recommend every beginner to stop bluffing, unless you are playing NL50 or higher.
You should never try to get a pot immediately with "vulnerable" hands. If your odds don't fit to the potratio, you just lay down the hand. If you are able to pressure with good (implied) odds, go on. But keep in mind that turning your busted draws into bluffs is really obvious and good players will adept it.
Indeed: Calculating hand ranges is the best way to evaluate the chances of winning for a specific hand. Can you highlight some handranges on your next post?