Poker in the room lessons

The lessons in this track

1. 7.1Poker hands, from high card to royalTen hands, one order. The ladder from high card to royal flush as poker rooms print it, how often each hand turns up on seven cards, and how two hands are compared.About 18 minutes
2. 7.2Blinds, button and betting roundsBlinds go in before the cards, the button decides who speaks first, and in no limit a raise has a floor. Here is the order of a hand, round by round, and what you may do when the action reaches you.About 19 minutes
3. 7.3The poker room: list, buy-in, stakes, rakeGetting a seat in a poker room is a short path: three questions at the desk, the waiting list, a buy-in inside the posted range, and a first hour that keeps to the rules of that room.About 18 minutes
4. 7.4Binding actions and one player to a handAt a poker table, what you say and how your chips move can commit you. Here is how several rooms rule on words, chips, string raises and shown hands, and when to speak up.About 19 minutes
5. 7.5The showdown: kickers and split potsAt the showdown the cards decide: the highest five of seven, the kicker when combinations match, a split when everything matches, and a side pot when one player runs out of chips.About 19 minutes
6. 7.6Starting hands: how often and how far aheadA starting hand says two things before the flop: how often two cards like it are dealt, and what share of the pot it holds against another hand. Neither says how one deal ends.About 16 minutes
7. 7.7Outs and the exact oddsAn out is a card that puts your hand ahead. Here is how to count outs, the exact chance they come by the river, and the cards that help the other hand more.About 17 minutes
8. 7.8Pot odds: a decision, not a resultA call is a price paid for a share of the pot. Here is how to work out the share a call needs, set it against the share your cards hold, and read the result as a decision rather than a forecast.About 17 minutes
9. 7.9The nuts, the board and blockersBefore a big bet, one question settles a lot: what is the strongest hand this board allows? Here is how to read it off the board, and what your own two cards change.About 15 minutes
10. 7.10Rake, swings and who pays for the roomPlayers play each other, not the house, and the room takes a fee out of the pots. Here is what that fee does to a table’s money, and how far luck swings a month of play.About 18 minutes
11. 7.11Tournaments: buy-in, structure and MA tournament buy-in is split before the first card: part to the prize pool, part to the room. Here is how to read that split, the structure, and M, the orbits your stack covers.About 18 minutes
12. 7.12Chips are not money: the final tableTournament chips are counted one way and prizes are paid another. Here is what a stack is worth in prize money at an example final table, and what that does to an all-in call.About 15 minutes
13. 7.13Tilt, and when to leave the roomAfter a big pot goes the other way, the next decision is the one that matters. What tilt is, how a break keeps your seat, and what your plan says next.About 16 minutes

What this track is for

Every figure in these lessons is worked out when the page is built, by the same engines as our tools, or comes from a source quoted on the spot. More on how we verify.

Nothing here is a way to win. The course explains what each game costs to play and what the rules on the table actually change, so that the money you take in is a decision and not a surprise.

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