Tournament Strategies
After receiving pocket cards, you are immediately faced with a choice: play your cards and either raise or call the blinds, or fold.
Practice Matters
On March 2, 1974, the prestigious London Times ran a six-column
On March 2, 1974, the prestigious London Times ran a six-column feature article on John Scarne by Richard C. Moon which read in part, "Edmund Hoyle passed away in 1769. He left us with a rich legacy of games and game rules. I think he would have been proud to see his mantle passed to John Scarne. According to Hoyle—not anymore. Now it is according to Scarne."
Ever since Americans decided Poker was their own, their native
Ever since Americans decided Poker was their own, their native game, unsuspecting players have believed in Hoyle as the ultimate authority on the play. I'm no iconoclast and I don't believe in making it tough for any man to make a living; but we'd better at the outset face the facts about this venerable myth. You can't play Poker according to Hoyle simply because Hoyle (a) never played Poker, (b) never uttered a ruling on Poker, and (c) never even heard of the game of Poker. Edmund Hoyle was an English barrister who wrote a book on three card games—Piquet, Whist and Quadrille—the first two of which are now virtual museum curios and the third of which was just recently dropped from the functional game books. Poker was not heard of until years, decades, after Hoyle's death in 1769. But—for reasons which have so far escaped me—it is the custom of modern writers on card games to call their books "Poker According to Hoyle" or "The Up-to-Date Hoyle" or "The Revised Hoyle" or some comparable nonsense. It seems to me about as intelligent as some research engineer's publishing a monograph titled "Fulton on Diesel Engines" or "Richard the Lion-hearted on Atomic Energy." With this exception: the writers on Poker who have put on the mantle of Hoyle and handed down their own private prejudices about the game have simply reduced Poker rules to utter confusion. Poker players, confronted by a shelf of Hoyles who don't know what they're talking about, have been compelled to formulate and live by their own regional, village or house rules. This confusion has created a not-too-healthy atmosphere in which to play for money.