9 Poker Strategies Every Serious Player Should Know

22 Jul 2024

Hey guys, there are nine simple poker strategies that all serious poker players should know. These are some of the top strategies that I've used throughout my professional poker career, and I'm going to teach them to you today with step-by-step example hands. Let's jump into the first one.

#9: Having a Good Flop Raising Frequency

Alright, counting down from 9 to 1. This is something that a lot of beginners and amateurs overlook. What I mean is that they're not raising enough. I have found that the vast majority of players in small stakes games raise the flop around 10% of the time, which is not ideal. The reason is simple: when you're only raising such a small percentage of the time, you're basically broadcasting to the entire table that you have an overpair, top pair, two pair, or something really strong. 

Imagine you have an Ace-Queen offsuit (Ace of Diamonds, Queen of Spades), and the flop comes down with the King of Diamonds, Ten of Spades, and Seven of Diamonds. Many players would look at this flop and think, "I missed the flop again." But actually, we have two strong backdoor draws on this board, both to the nuts (which is slang for the best hand possible or one of the best hands possible).

In this situation, if the turn and river bring two running diamonds, we would make the nut flush because we have the Ace of Diamonds in our hand. Additionally, if a Jack comes on the turn or river, we would make the nut Broadway straight. If our opponent is holding a hand like Queen-Nine, we would have the higher straight.

This is why I always emphasize in these articles: you always want to be drawing to the nuts. If that Jack comes, the person with Queen-Nine is in big trouble, and we're going to get all their money.

So, the bottom line here is you should be raising this flop sometimes. This will make you infinitely more difficult to play against because you'll have some bluffs in your range. When you raise the flop, you're becoming a better-balanced and more difficult player to play against, which will ultimately get you paid when you want it. 

Then, we look over their hands, and I find out that they have no bluffs in their range. That's why they're not getting paid off — people are reading them like a book. Learn to bluff-raise in some spots like this, and you'll have a lot more success.

#8: Double Barrel Frequency

This time, we're going to discuss double barrel frequency. A double barrel is when you raise the preflop, bet the flop, and then bet the turn. 

The biggest mistake that many people make is betting the flop around 75% of the time, which is fine as you should be betting most of the time. However, they only follow up on the turn about 25% of the time. Once again, any good, thinking opponent is going to read you like a book and realize that you don't have anything when you don't bet again on the turn. So, we want to increase that percentage just like we talked about on the flop. I recommend betting the turn around 50% of the time.

For example, let's say you have a Jack-Ten of diamonds. You raise the pre-flop, and the flop comes down with the Nine of Hearts, Three of Spades, and Seven of Diamonds. This is a pretty good spot — we've got a gutshot to the nut straight if an Eight comes, and we also have backdoor diamonds on this board. If it comes diamond-diamond, we would make an excellent flush by the river. You bet, they call — pretty standard stuff.

Now, let's go to the turn. The turn comes down with the King of Spades. Savvy poker players will notice that this gives us a double gutter straight draw, meaning we now have outs to the Queen as well, which would also give us the nut straight if it comes on the river. This is a common situation where I fire the second shell. Yes, you should absolutely be betting again here.

Once again, what we're doing is upping our aggression levels, making us much more difficult to play against and ultimately getting us paid when we hit our hand. If it comes with a Queen on the river, we're going to get paid here because they'll never put us on that straight.

#7: 4-Bet Bluff

This tip is about four-bet bluffing with your suited aces. Once again, this is another aggressive strategy for serious poker players, and it has been a massive profit source for me in recent years.

Everyone knows that you should be four-betting most of the time with hands like pocket aces, pocket kings, ace-king, and so on. I don't need to make another topic about that — you already know it. However, what you want to be doing is four-bet bluffing versus good players. 

I want to be very clear about this: do not do this against the fish because they’re just never going to fold. You want to be doing this against the loose and aggressive regular players, in particular. I love doing it with a hand like Ace-Four of hearts, for example.

Let me explain what a 4-bet is. A four-bet occurs when there is a raise pre-flop, a re-raise, and then you put in another raise. This is an incredibly strong move in poker. You’re essentially drawing a line in the sand, putting in roughly around 20 to 25% of your stack, and you’re basically telling your opponent, "I am extremely serious about this hand. This is going to cost you a lot of money. You need to fold your hand right now." Luckily, most of the time they do.

Even if the player has a hand as strong as pocket queens, Ace-Four suited has a little over 30% equity versus pocket queens. It can also make the nut flush, the wheel straight, and more. This is an excellent hand to go for the bluff.

So, once again, we’re upping our aggression levels, just like in the previous examples. This makes us much more difficult to play against and, most importantly, it gets you paid off when you want it in future hands because you’re building this aggressive image.

#6: How to Play Against Aggressive Players

Let's talk about how to play against aggressive players. This is the player type I get asked about the most. What do you do against those players who are always betting, raising, and bluffing? This is the style of play that I teach and play myself.

Instead of letting them run you over, you want to make wide multi-street call downs with a hand like Ace-King. 

For example, on a turn of 10-8-8-Jack, we know that a loose and aggressive player is often going to double barrel (like we just discussed) with hands like Ace-Queen, King-Queen, 9-7, 7-6, pocket fives, pocket sevens, and so on. We are significantly ahead of many of these hands with Ace-King. Always remember that there are far more combinations of a hand like Ace-Queen than there are of pocket sevens.

Loose and aggressive player is going to have a lot of bluffs in their range in a spot like this. The solution is not to bluff-raise them back because all that will do is fold out their bluffs and get you snap-called or re-raised when they actually do have a strong hand like pocket tens or pocket eights. In a spot like this, you're just digging your own grave.

What you should do instead is simply make the call. This is what we call "floating" in poker. Do not let the aggressive players run you over, and you'll have a lot more success.

#5: Punish the Limpers

Alright guys, tip number five is to punish the limpers. If you're familiar with low-stakes cash games and tournaments, such as a $1/$2 live game, a $2 tournament on the Internet, or a 1-cent/2-cent cash game online, you’ve undoubtedly noticed all the limpers in these games. Limpers are players who just call the blind before the flop. 

As I've mentioned before, you should view this as free money. It's like someone has dropped money on the table, and it's yours for the taking. So, how do you do that? You need to make a big raise, especially when you're on the button.

I’ll talk more about poker seats later, but for now, remember: do not allow people to limp your button. Let them know it's going to cost them a lot if they want to get involved in a hand with you when you're on the button.

For example, if you have King-Queen on the button and there are three limpers, I recommend raising it to a minimum of seven times the blind. If you’re playing a $1/$2 cash game, that would be $2 * 7 = $14. Some people might still not fold, so the answer is simple: bump it up even more.

I was known for raising crazy amounts in low-stakes cash games online. People laughed at me until they saw my results. If people are not folding, just raise it more. Make it 10x, make it 15x. If you’re playing at a table with a bunch of drunk maniacs, just go all-in when you have a strong hand like King-Queen or Ace-King.

#4: Always Set-Mine the Fish

Alright guys, moving on to strategy number four that all serious poker players need to know: always set the fish. We just talked about fishy players limping, so now let's discuss what to do after the flop against them. The number one thing I can tell you is that I’ve literally made a career out of playing small baby pocket pairs, like pocket sixes, and hitting a set against fish.

They will mortgage their house, sell their car — they're going to call you down no matter what. There's no way they're folding a hand like pocket aces. They’ve never done that in the history of poker.

In all seriousness, you’re only going to hit your set around one out of nine times, but the payoff is absolutely tremendous in those situations. So, if you are getting any kind of reasonable price before the flop, you want to get involved with these hands, hit your set, and make sure you fast-play it. Do not slow play these hands when you hit your set.

#3: Turn Your Top Pair into a Bluff Catcher

Let's move on to tip number three, which is to turn your top pair into a bluff catcher. Guys, let's talk about aggressive poker players once again. One of my top strategies to crush them in recent years is taking a hand like Ace-Jack, for example. When I raise the pre-flop and hit something like a top or middle pair, I will often just check it.

By doing this, you give them the rope to start doing what they love to do best: bluffing. Instead of betting into them or getting into one of these bluffing wars, the best thing you can do is let an aggressive player do what aggressive players love to do. Just check-call, check-call, check-call all the way.

#2: Fix Your Red Line

Alright guys, let's move on to strategy number two for serious poker players: fixing your red line. I’ve never discussed this on the channel before, so let me explain what red line means in poker. Red line is essentially your non-showdown winnings — the amount of money you win when nobody has to show their cards.

It’s a little-known secret that this is the key to success in poker. You don't get really good hands very often, so it’s absolutely vital to take down more pots when you don’t have anything.

The graph you see on the screen is from a poker tracker program I use. 

The idea is to have your red line roughly around break-even or slightly losing, as you can see on this graph. You don’t want it to be massively losing, but you also don’t want it to be winning either. This surprises a lot of people, but if your red line is winning, it typically means you’re bluffing too much, which can negatively impact your green and blue lines — your actual winnings.

So, if you’re using poker tracking software, pay attention to your red line. Try to get it roughly around break-even, and I think you’re going to have a lot more success.

#1: Choose Your Poker Seat Wisely

Alright guys, my final tip for serious poker players is to choose your poker seat wisely. As I’ve mentioned in previous topics, if I don’t like a poker table, I leave. It’s that simple. I’m not there to make friends, chit-chat, or battle it out with world-class professionals. I’m there to make money. That’s why I got into this game, and I make no bones about it.

Following this simple rule will already massively improve your poker winnings. But there are three additional rules that have helped me tremendously over the years:

1. Have the fish on your right. This is important because you will have a direct position on them in nearly every hand, which is a massive statistical advantage. You can get more value bets in, more bluffs in, and save money by folding when you think you’re beat.
2. Have the good regulars on your right. Specifically, the tight and aggressive players and the loose and aggressive players. You don’t want these players on your left, raising you every time you enter the pot and making your life difficult. You want the aggressive players on your right.
3. Have the nits on your left. These are the passive players who only play hands like pocket aces and pocket kings. When they raise, you can just fold because you know they have the nuts. This makes poker a lot easier to play.

Guys, I hope these nine simple strategies help. Like and subscribe if you found this material helpful.