7 Core Poker Strategies Used by EVERY Winning Player

16 Oct 2025

Intermediate

This material is for medium-skilled players

Among the abundance of strategies and tricks in poker, I learned seven main ones early on that helped me take my game to a whole new level. These are such useful tricks that without them my professional career would definitely not have been a success, and I would not have the right to share with others what I know myself. I think that these 7 tricks will have a colossal and beneficial effect on your game, so let's get down to business.

If a tight player raises you in a solid pot - you should fold. A simple but typical example of a hand when we finally hit a strong hand and want to collect money with it, but on the turn we are raised or check-raised.

What can be said about an unknown tight opponent - what is usually characteristic of him:

• Tight, typical regular or weak-tight, who inhabit micro-stakes.
• He is not crazy, does not like to waste money on bluffs and generally knows their value.
• Also, he most likely learns from videos and articles, otherwise he would not play tight and carefully.

Preflop

Hero opens on EP with , and a tight player calls him. Relative positions are not critical here.

Flop

. Everything is great: hitting a top pair and top kicker often promises all 3 bets for value, albeit thin. Here you need to bet big (from 2/3 of the pot) and continue on the turn.

The opponent calls our big bet, sitting out of position, which shifts his range to top pairs, where he has quite a bit of trash - such opponents filter hands right away. And the non-made hands in his range are mainly open-ended straight draws like the  combination. You also need to understand that such players may not raise or check-raise their value hands immediately on the flop, preferring to activate already on the turn.

Turn

. You bet again for 2/3-3/4 of the pot, and the opponent (check)-raises you.

What feelings do you have inside at such a moment? - I'm sure, the worst. However, you should press the Fold button here and not think about anything. Not think - because you can change your mind and convince yourself to call. And then on the river.

The type of players we are opposed to in this hand prefer to keep things simple and play rather crudely: hit a good hand - now he can play it as he wants, and if he didn't - well, just fold.

My vast experience - including painful huge hands - tells me that in this very hand 18-19 times out of 20 we will be shown at least two pair (and higher). These will be A5, A4, A7, 54s, 55, 44, 57s, 47s and even random 63s. - There are a lot of these combinations compared to the ones we want to see as bluffs or semi-bluffs. - Against them we are in a deeply sad situation with 10% equity - at best.

And the more dangerous the board, the bigger hand you will need to continue the game and try to win this pot.

Now we have the same hand, but we want to win by bluffing against a similar type of opponent. This play prints money through overfolds from players who don't like to go to showdown without at least top pair and constantly convince themselves that we've hit a hand that's better than them.

Preflop

The hero opens again with , and a weak tight player calls him. Relative positions are not critical here.

Flop

The cards come . We missed and now only have two overcards ... but also the potential and initiative. Here we should make a continuation bet and get +EV from this bet. This will work in the plus because the opponent missed this flop 2 times out of 3, and if he did, then as a rule, he has top pair, which more often than not will survive to showdown. And our miss here is essentially unimportant. So make a continuation bet and get profit from the red line.

• But the opponent calls us.

Turn

Here comes . Most players start to get embarrassed and give up. Different thoughts may appear. But this jack not only strengthened our perceived range as an open-raiser, so now the advantage in both range and nuts is completely on our side. And it will often scare the opponent with his ex-top pair. And we also have additional 4 outs () for the nut straight, in addition to the already existing 6 outs for a new top pair.

Here we need to make a second barrel, and a fairly large one - around 3/4 of the pot. We convincingly pretend to hit a jack or a better hand, which we clearly have more of in our range than our opponent. In addition, he understands on a sensory level that we are serious about winning this hand, so with the former top pair  he will feel very uncomfortable. There is also the river, where he understands he will have to endure even higher pressure with a so weak-looking hand.

Practice tells that opponents fold in such spots much more often than they should according to GTO.

«Tight from right» - I've said it, I'm saying it and I'll continue to say it when it comes to playing in the presence of fish - and anyone else. People, I've seen thousands of students who couldn't play poker. Some are content with crumbs at NL2-5-10, and that's with rakeback, others can't handle the game at the ranges they like and play at a loss, and others have completely dropped out of the race. - And if you also take into account fish of all their subtypes, who like to play hands like  and .

Because your range starts to be stronger than opponent's, hit better, be more playable and lead to victory more often in the majority of important hands. As a result, the EV of the game grows rapidly. In principle, to make a profit at micro limits, it is enough to play a super-narrow range of 15% of hands - and they themselves will bring a lot of profit, because it dominates the opponents' hands - time after time. And in general, the main profit in poker is brought by about 10-12% of starting hands from the upper-left corner of the poker matrix.

Playing as a nit brings less profit than in a TAG style, because you miss out on a lot of value:

• Your range and habits will quickly become obvious => you will start getting paid much worse,
• Additional hands (up to ~ 25% VPIP) also bring money, albeit smaller - and they are still profitable to play,
• Playing as a nit is very boring, so you will always be tempted to play on 9-12-24 and more tables, but you will not be able to handle them.

With such a range, you are no longer fighting with probabilities and mathematics, but they take you under their wing and help you regularly dominate and cool down the combinations of opponents, most of whom, as we know, are not used to often giving in to aggression.

Opponents who play much wider ranges will not be able to do anything special to you, except steal the blinds when you are out of position on them. But many of these folds pay off with interest when the TAG gives a bluff 3-bet to someone who steals against a «cowardly» opponent.

Recommended.

You've probably heard this before, but I feel it's my duty to remind you once again. We're talking about stacks around 100 bb.

When you're dealt kings, you have the second-highest starting hand in poker, which brings the most profit right after two aces. And folding KK preflop against almost any opponent preflop is a huge mistake at a normal stack depth. For example,

• You open,
• Opponent 3-bets,
• You 4-bet him for value
• And the opponent shoves his stack into you.

You should call and accept the outcome. In most spots, you will win, and the total EV of all such situations will be colossal. If you were shown two aces, then it was almost always a cooler, not an overplay from you. Just look at the statistics of how often one of your opponents will have AA preflop: at a 9-max table, AA is dealt in 4% of cases, and at a 6-max table - even less often - in 3% of cases.

The only exception can be a situation when there is precise information that the opponent's all-in range is exactly 1% of hands. Then I would also be able to fold KK. But in the remaining 95+% of cases, you will be ahead of his range.

And also remember that when you are dealt AA, and your opponent is dealt KK, he will not be able to fold them either.

A big hand means high equity, and high equity means a high chance of winning the hand. So it makes sense to build a bigger pot when the hand is worth it. Most often, hands worth value betting start with top pairs, and that's why we'll look at playing with them, because they have a big impact on the win rate along the blue line. A typical problem for those who came to me for training is not getting value with good top pairs.

• For example, I have . On the preflop, the fish limped, I raised him.
• On the flop , I bet 2/3-3/4 of the pot - the fish called.
• On the turn, a full blank of  came out, and I like to increase the bet size here - up to 3/4 of the pot, minimum. We're aiming to get value from top pairs, some middle pairs, and the fish's OESD from , which he'll often call us with at terrible pot odds.

If it's a live $1/$2 game, then if there's $40 in the pot, I'll put another $30 in there. Value betting, not bluffing, is the foundation of a good win rate, even when it's the red line that's actually growing, not the blue.

Top pair top kicker is a great hand for getting not just two, but even all three streets of value on safe boards. We will often be called with top pairs with a smaller kicker (like KJ, QJ, for example), against which we are far ahead on the flop and turn and statistically will win 87% and 93% respectively on such a board. Against particularly wide-calling opponents, even a value-shove on the river can be a very reasonable move - there are plenty of such opponents at low limits, especially when you have an aggressive and bluffing image.

• If you have a big hand, invest more money in it.

The kicker is very important and often determines how the hand will go. The kicker can be a stronger-than-pair hand - for example, trips with a top kicker will beat trips with another kicker, although this is a rare spot - but usually we are talking about hands in the «one pair» category. Most often, it is about top pair, because we rarely get into expensive situations with second pairs, and with top pairs - not at all.

So, hands like AJ and KJ are notorious for kicker problems - they often end up dominated by a higher kicker (A, K or Q) when things get hot. I will tell you right away that when 3 barrels are flying at you, and your kicker is  or lower, then you will rarely win against a reasonable and tight opponent, which will be the majority. Here is a typical example of such a hand.

Example of a typical hand

On preflop you have khjs. On flop  the opponent bets - you call. On safe turn  all the same. On river comes  and the opponent bets again - you should fold against adequate players.

A few words about decision-making logic - on each street.

Flop

We have TP with a third kicker - a pretty good hand, and there is no question of folding, because we are far ahead of the opponent's active betting range. However, what you should not do is raise it or check-raise it, thinking that this is a raise for value. This will be value mostly only against fish who call very widely.

But you have a rough idea who your opponent is? And if he is a typical regular or a tight and accurate fish, then he will mostly call you with hands better than your top pair with a third kicker. As a result, your raise will not be for value, but, I will say, for «value-own», when you collect from yourself in favor of your opponent on your own initiative.

So, we have a clear mega-profitable call on the flop, but you do not need to raise a typical normal opponent with such a hand.

Turn

We still have a good check-call hand, and there are really no other options besides this one. - We still have high showdown value, and our hand is comfortably ahead of the equity needed to check-call to breakeven against our opponent's likely range. So we are also making money over the long run with our check-call.

River

The board pairs up, and we get a third barrel. - At this point, you are probably feeling a little tight inside, and if not, you should at least be getting alarm bells going off in your head. The main questions to ask yourself are simple:

There are many things we don't know at the start, but we remember them over time: from range research, from our own experience, and from the experience of others. So, my 20+ years of experience in poker in general and 10+ years as a professional player tell me that in the range of an adequate typical tight-aggressive regular, there will still be a huge underbluff in the third bet on the river. I would bet that on such a board there will be no hands lower than yours at all.

If you are playing with a reasonable opponent, you will almost always be shown a hand, at least AJ - top pair and top kicker. And he will also have sets and, possibly, dopers, if he opened from a late position.

Experience and statistics tell us that opening adequate opponents against three bets on the postflop from them in a row, and especially in big pots - on the river - having a top pair and a non-top kicker, is a losing decision that will burn you a lot of money.

Even if you have a second kicker, it will usually not be enough in such conditions to at least break even. This means that a fold, which on any single street costs 0 EV, is more positive than a check-call, which on the river will statistically be negative on its own. Even regardless of the money already invested. If you still check-call against 3 barrels with a non-top kicker, then you will usually play at a severe loss in the sum of these actions.

In poker, sometimes you get lucky - what a surprise, right? However, luck itself does not always bring profit, and sometimes you have to work with your hands to monetize it. So, many either disdain to take advantage of a good situation, or perceive it incorrectly. I will give a simple but common example in which many will recognize themselves.

Preflop

You opened with kcqd, and a regular called. - He is an ordinary player who wants to learn and win, and not a random fish who is here for fun.

Flop 

Just make a continuation bet without thinking about who got what kind of board, who has what kind of advantage, and in general about how the opponent will perceive your continuation bet. - This, in fact, is not so important as the fact that he missed here 2 times out of 3, and in some of the other spots, when he hits, he can be convinced to fold his cards.

Just keep betting, developing your story from preflop and giving the opponent more reasons to give up the hand without resistance.

Turn

Here it is! - This is exactly the luck I was talking about in the context of this example. - We hit a top pair with a second kicker. And this kicker is definitely good given our wide ranges.

Let's think about it the other way around to better see the rationale for a second barrel. If, when the second high card came out and it was a great fit for your preflop range, you still had an unmade hand or some pocket pair like 66, you would probably put that second barrel in as a bluff.

So why not take advantage of the fact that the opponent also knows that  is a good card for us to continue bluffing from the flop? - I have long been convinced that a simple continuation bet into a «good-for-bluff» card, when you actually have a value hand, brings much more profit than a complicated game with a check from showdown-value hand on the turn and transferring the value collection to the river - no matter what motives it has there.

And in this particular hand, on the board there are a lot of draw hands that the regular micro-limit player likes to draw to the river. And these draws pay you. And the second pairs of jo, which were top pairs on the flop, in most cases also pay you, because there was a good run for a bluff and the opponent does not believe (and has every right to). As a result, a confident bet for value will bring much more EV on the turn than on the river, when one or another draw of the opponent either goes to zero in value or turns into a flush or straight, at worst.

And finally, about the notorious showdown value (SDV)

We choose to check after with those hands, the value bet with which becomes excessively marginal in such and such a situation or we have reasons to think that postponing the collection of value for later will bring more EV than betting right now. But in this and thousands of similar situations

• We have a hand with too high a SDV to consider it borderline and not bet,
• The opponent has a lot of hands in his range with which it is fair to expect the bet to be paid,
• And the opponent will often distrust our bet, because the spot is good for bluffing.

If you are lucky, it would be a sin not to take advantage of it. Consider that your opponents will use it to their advantage, as well as against you. So don't miss the chance that can put you ahead in this long-term battle.