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
tell
tell A tell in poker is a detectable change in a player's behavior or demeanor that gives clues to that player's assessment of his hand. A player gains an advantage if he observes and understands the meaning of another player's tell, particularly if the tell is unconscious and reliable. Sometimes a player may fake a tell, hoping to induce his opponents to make poor judgments in response to the false tell. See main article: tell.
texture
texture How well coordinated the community cards are to one another. This is used to estimate your relative hand strength: a pocket pair, for example is of a higher value when the texture is uncoordinated (also known as a dry board), as it reduces the probability that someone has hit a stronger hand like a straight or a flush. See also dry board and wet board.