Poker is a card game played between two or more people. The game involves betting, raising and folding. The person with the best poker hand wins the pot. While the game has a element of chance involved, a good poker player will make decisions based on probability and psychology rather than pure luck.
The first step in becoming a better poker player is learning to read players. This isn’t necessarily just subtle physical poker tells such as scratching your nose or playing nervously with your chips but more so the patterns of other players. For example if a player is calling every time then you can assume they are holding weak hands, whereas if a player calls frequently but suddenly raises a large amount it could indicate they are holding an amazing hand.
Another skill to work on is bluffing. To bluff successfully you need to consider your opponent’s range (which essentially means what cards they could have), the board, their stack size and more. This is a complex area of the game and requires much practice.
One of the most important aspects of poker is table selection. Putting yourself in a position where you are playing the best players at the table will increase your win rate. If you are the 10th best player in the world and play against the 9th best, you are going to lose money, it’s just math. This is why you should always play at tables full of the best players you can find.