9 Essential Poker Moves to Start Winning Today

01 Jul 2025

Beginner

This material is for beginner players

Poker is fundamentally a game of skill and I believe that focusing on the basics is the most effective way to improve your game. I gotta be honest now — when I first started playing poker, I was absolutely terrible. I literally was that fish at the poker table playing all the wrong cards, chasing all the bad draws. But if I could go back in time before I became a professional poker player and give my younger self some advice on how to get good at poker fast, this is what I would say. In this poker lesson I break down several key strategy fundamentals — including which hands to play and when to bet, raise, bluff, or fold.

So my number one rule at the poker table is: do not let them draw out on you for cheap. Let me give you an example. You raise it up with  , and one of these regular players calls you. So this is a decent player. They're reading many poker articles like this. They take the game seriously like you do. They're not messing around. This is not a recreational player. This is not one of our fishy friends.

Okay, so the flop comes down with a   . As you see, we have totally missed this board. What should you do? Well, guys, we always need to remember that in poker, our opponent on average has missed the flop two out of every three times. So it's not so much about what we have here, but it's about our knowledge that they don't have anything most of the time here.

So we have the best non-paired hand possible with  . You just want to make a continuation bet here and give them a reason to go away right now. But they do decide to call. The turn comes down with the . Boom! We have hit our top pair on the turn.

Now this is the biggest mistake that so many people — that I used to make myself — is getting all tricky here. Guys, do not do this. Just make the obvious bet here. You hit your top pair. Make another bet. You would make a bet here as a bluff, right? So do it when you catch the King or the Ace as well.

So this is my other twin rule at the poker table: I don't allow anybody to see a cheap flop against me. I make them pay every single time. Let me give you an example. Once again, I have  , and I noticed somebody limp into the pot. Limping is just the art of calling the blind before the flop.

I would suggest that you do not do this at the poker table because you are simply letting everybody know that you're not very confident about your hands, that you'll allow somebody like me to push you around. It just puts you in a bad position going into the flop because you have to play the guessing game. The other person has the psychological and betting advantage against you, and we just know statistically that this is not the most profitable way to play the game.

In fact, I laid out all of the evidence in my first poker book that my winnings are dramatically higher when I play my hand aggressively instead of passively before the flop.

So in a situation like this, I'm going to be raising this player up. I would recommend making it around four times the big blind here, depending on what game you play. So, for example, you play a $1/$2 game — four times the blind would be $8.

So guys, I'm going to tell you that your bluffs are simply going to get called at the poker table. And yes, take a deep breath. It's okay. I'm actually going to show you in a second why it's so profitable.

But let's just talk about the situation right now where you got egg all over your face — you make a big bluff and they call you. So you got the  on the button and a TAG calls you in the big blind. Now, a TAG stands for tight and aggressive. This is one of the better poker players at the table. Once again, this is the style that I teach in all of my courses and my books. So make no mistake — this is a good poker player. However, we're going to bluff these players too.

Skipping through the action a bit here: we fire three shells — that means we bet the flop, turn, and river — on the board of the     . Now I've made multiple videos in the past talking about why this is an excellent board texture for you to fire the triple barrel bluff here. Let me briefly explain why that's the case.

On the flop here — the Nine, Four, Ten — we have flopped an open-ended straight draw, meaning we can catch any of the four remaining Jacks in the deck or any of the four remaining Sixes in the deck to make the unbeatable straight. Also, we had a backdoor flush draw on the flop. If it came with running diamonds on the turn and river, we would make a nearly unbeatable flush.

So this is a standard spot for me to bet again. Turn comes with the — the ultimate scare card. Once again, I'm going to be keeping my foot on the gas pedal here, giving them a reason to fold. River comes down with the ultimate, ultimate scare card , putting all of their lower pairs in a terrible situation.

This is a classic spot where I'm going to be emptying the clip here, firing the third shell as a bluff. Remember guys, we have Eight high here — we're never winning this hand if we don't bet. However, this player has a hand that is near the top of their range —   — they snap call you on the river and you look like a fool because you've just bluffed off half your stack with Eight high.

But guys, the only thing you need to ask yourself in this situation is: was this a profitable bluff or not? You need to always remember that poker is not about one hand — it's about hundreds, thousands, or even millions of hands in my situation as a 10+ year professional poker player.

And the only thing that I ask myself is: if we play out this scenario over hundreds, thousands, or millions of iterations, is this going to be a profitable bluff for me? The answer is yes. This extremely profitable bluff is going to force them to fold out so many lower pairs — they just happen to have a really strong hand this time. And that's why it's okay to look foolish sometimes. It doesn't mean you made a bad bluff.

Let’s talk about why getting called in a bluff is not necessarily a bad thing. And that is because of the simple rule that bluffs always pay off later. Let me give you an example. You raise it up with Pocket Kings — that’s the  . The flop comes down:   .

What should you do? Well, you guys already know — you should just make a strong bet here. We’ve just bluffed off half of our stack with Eight high — the whole table’s ready to call us at this point. So you absolutely want to make a bet here.

They call. Turn comes down with the . What should you do? Once again, guys, there’s no reason to get tricky here. You just want to make another strong bet again. But once again, they call. River comes down with the . You bet again — they snap call you with top pair  .

We flip over the bad news — we’ve got Pocket Kings. Guys, this in a nutshell is why playing aggressively and getting caught in a bluff in earlier hands is not necessarily a bad thing — because it gets you paid off in the future like this.

When you get caught in a bluff, it tells everybody at the table that you have a couple screws loose up here and you’re playing all sorts of crazy hands and making all sorts of bluffs. And ironically, when you pick up the   like this, this is going to get you paid at the poker table.

People complain to me all the time: “Nathan, every time I get Pocket Kings, everybody just folds”. They don’t fold when I pick up Pocket Kings. And that’s because I bluff a lot at the poker table, which gives me a reputation as the kind of player that they don’t want to fold against.

So let’s talk about another highly effective bluffing strategy before the flop. But first things first, let me tell you something you already know: You want to 3-bet (which means to re-raise before the flop) with all of your strong hands — your Pocket Aces, your Pocket Kings, Pocket Queens, Ace King, Pocket Jacks.

I don’t need to make a video to tell you that — you already know that. But what you might not know is that you also want to 3-bet them (aka re-raise them) with a whole assortment of speculative hands as well. And in particular, I love to pick a suited connector like a  , or a suited Ace like  .

The suits don’t really matter — diamonds or clubs, same thing, guys. The point is, when you can make a light re-raise here (that’s what this refers to), it makes you infinitely more difficult to play against at the poker table.

Let me ask you a question: When you play against someone who only re-raises with Aces or Kings, what are you going to do? Well, you’re just going to fold your hand. Of course — if you have a crappy hand, they’re super easy to play against. But if you know this is the kind of person who can raise you with a   or an  , you are much more likely to pay them off when they actually have a big hand.

And also, crucially, many of the players in today’s games like to back down. They don’t like to call re-raises before the flop. Take it to the bank: This is a highly profitable strategy that you absolutely want to be using before the flop in your poker games.

So guys, I’m just all about making them fold at the poker table. Let’s give you another example right now. You raise it up with  , and a regular player calls.

Once again, this is one of these decent players. They’re watching videos just like this. They take the game seriously, like you do. They’re playing relatively good hands, and they’re going to make those disciplined folds later on.

Let’s give them a reason to make one of those disciplined folds right now. The flop comes down:   . What should you do here? Well, guys, we’ve already been through this. You just want to make a bet here. This is a very harmless board. There aren’t too many draws going on. It’s pretty difficult for them to have too many strong hands here.

So you just want to make a bet. We already raised before the flop — we know that we can just make another bet here on the flop and often get them to fold their hand. And in many cases, we can even get them to fold a better hand than ours. This is a massive win, of course, and they make the call.

The turn comes down: . What should you do? Well, guys — I like slowing down in this spot. I’m a big fan of hyper aggression in poker, but the Three of Hearts is not the card to be doing it on.

Let’s remember — they called us on the flop, which means they probably have something. Maybe they’ve got a Jack. Some kind of pocket pair like Nines or Eights. Now ask yourself: Are any of these hands going anywhere on the turn? Probably not.

This card doesn’t scare them in any way. So I like checking and slowing down here. They check behind as well. The river comes down . The ultimate scare card. This is the perfect card to make a big bluff on. Because even if they have a relatively strong hand — like a Jack, Pocket Nines, or Pocket Eights — they don’t want to see this King. They know that we’re betting a lot on the flop with hands like Ace King or King Queen.

And many weaker players will convince themselves that we’ve just spiked it on the river. This is a prime situation to fool weaker players in today’s games. And guys, we’ve already talked about this earlier — even if you get called here, it’s great for your image.

I’m going to give you a poker strategy that’s like pure rocket fuel for your success at the poker tables. I’ve used this throughout my entire professional poker career, and it works especially well against recreational players — the ones I affectionately call our fishy friends. These are the players who are just there to have fun. They don’t take the game seriously like you do.

Picture this: you raise it up with a  , and one of our fishy friends calls. Now this is a player who’s on tilt. Maybe you’ve bluffed them out of a couple of pots already, and now they’re steaming. They’re angry, frustrated, ready to get back at you.

The flop comes   . They’ve had enough, and they bet ten dollars, trying to show you they’re strong. So what should you do here? I recommend raising it ten times their bet — make it $100 to go. And if the stacks are deep enough, I’ll even make it $200.

Now you’re probably wondering: why do something so crazy? The reason I love these massive overbet re-raises is because it flips the conspiracy theory switch in their head. It makes them think you’re bluffing. It pushes them to jam on you with hands like pocket eights, where you’re a massive favorite because you’ve flopped trips — three of a kind.

I actually laid out this strategy in detail in my first poker book. I’ve made a career out of getting weaker, recreational players to flip out like this. When you make a massive overbet raise with a really strong hand, they almost always read it as a bluff. That’s why you want to do the exact opposite of what they expect: raise huge when you have it.

So take this one to the bank. When you’ve got a recreational player on tilt, you hit a highly favorable flop, and they bet into you — just go ahead and make that massive raise. Let them flip out and shove it all in as a massive underdog.

One of my absolute favorite weapons at the table is to absolutely abuse the heck out of the button. The button is the player with the dealership in front of them — the best seat at the poker table. Why? Because you get to act last on every street: flop, turn, and river.

This gives you a huge advantage in poker, which is a game of incomplete information. You get to see what your opponents do before you make your decision, which means you can extract more bets and bluffs, or even fold your hand and save money if you believe they have you beat.

Basically, having the button means you get an information advantage at every stage of the hand. So what should you do with this advantage? Simple — play more hands! Let me give you some examples of “trashy” hands I routinely play on the button. These include hands like ten-eight of hearts (a suited one-gapper), king-nine of diamonds, queen-ten offsuit (that means two different suits, like queen of spades and ten of hearts), ace-four offsuit, seven-nine suited, four-six of clubs, jack-eight of diamonds — and the list goes on.

Guys, this is the absolute killer of bankrolls and dreams for so many beginners and amateurs. Let me give you an example. You raise with pocket rockets —  , the ace of diamonds and the ace of hearts — the best hand ever created. A tight player calls you. This is one of those relatively decent players who only plays good hands. This is probably your most common opponent in today’s games.

Let’s see the flop. It comes:   . They check. What should you do? Well, you have the best hand in poker. You want to make a strong bet here. But instead, you decide to check.

Guys, this is a massive leak in your poker game. I call it FPS — fancy play syndrome. I see this mistake with my students all the time, and it costs them a fortune. I’ve said it many times before: don’t get tricky in small or mid stakes games. Don’t overcomplicate this simple card game when you’re playing against other relative beginners. Just make a strong bet when you have pocket aces.

Now, the turn comes , a total brick. They check again, and inexplicably, you check again too. Guys, this is utter face-palm territory. You just want to make another strong bet here. If you take nothing else from this article, please understand this: you will never have long-term success in poker if you don’t start betting with your big hands.

Getting fancy and tricky because you once saw some famous poker pro do this in a million-dollar cash game won’t help you in your $1/$2 games at the local casino or your $0.10/$0.25 online games.

Those players aren’t sophisticated enough. They’ll just check behind, and you’ll win a tiny pot with your pocket aces while complaining about your bad luck. This is exactly why most people lose at poker. When you pick up a big hand like pocket aces — just bet big.

Wrapping up

Poker isn’t about showing off with fancy plays or complicated tricks. It’s about playing smart and making moves that actually work. Whether it’s using position to your advantage, knowing when to bet or slow down, or just not getting cute with your big hands — these tips will help you avoid common poker mistakes and win more.

If you want to really improve and get help from real poker coaches who know the game inside out, check out Getcoach.Poker. It’s a solid place to learn, get better, and start beating the tables for real. Go take your game seriously — you won’t regret it!