Rick Rahim: I am Rick Rahim from the Executive Poker Tour back with Rhett Butler, a professional poker player, who also plays on the Executive Poker Tour. We are talking to you today about how to play No-Limit Texas Hold em. Now, we get the opportunity to talk with a very expert poker player who has won millions of dollars in tournaments and quite frankly, I have seen him do very well in cash games as well. We are going to talk about reading your opponent and the basics of how to get a tell on your opponent, and by a tell, Rhett, I mean, pick up on body language, some things he might say or some things he might do to overall get a feel for the strength of his hand.
Rhett Butler: Playing poker is very similar to playing chess and setting your opponent up for the next move and so you try to observe and watch what is going on, on the table. A lot of times when people sit up straight or they stop eating to look at their cards and they go to bet, you know they have a good hand.
Some of the better players, some of the top professionals try not to give anything away, but amateurs, a lot of times, unfortunately, have rhythms or moves that they show off or get nervous with their chips they have a good hand, when you as a player can read that, that's a very good sign. For the future, when you watch what they have done, in the future to see how their betting structures, you can use that to your advantage. Learning entails us the game. The cards are great, but the best poker players keep winning in cash games and there is a reason for it because they are playing the player, they are not playing the cards as much.
Rick Rahim: So, what you are saying is that, although your cards are very, very important and so are the community cards and how they match up with your whole cards, equally important, in your opinion is reading the other people at the table and picking up on their body language, so that you can go back and review everything you have noticed in their past actions, compare them to what they are now doing and get a feel for whether you feel they a strong hand or perhaps they are weak and that can help you decide whether to fold, call their bet or maybe even re-raise them to see if you have got a better hand.
Rhett Butler: Exactly, poker has a few things. First of which is manage your money. The best poker players tend to play within themselves because they play the limits that they should. People tend to play higher and they tend to go broke. People who learn to play position in poker as well as reading their opponents tend to do very well. They base their bets of what their players at the table are doing and not so much what they have in their own particular hands. So, if you want some tips on learning how to play the game, it is not just always getting the best cards, it is playing of what other people are doing at the table and based of your position and how much money you have in front of yourself and them, when to put the money in or when to fold them.
Rick Rahim: So, the best players, Rhett, certainly play not only the cards, but the other players and they are using a knowledge base that they have developed over a long period of time to make a judgment call about their opponent.
Rhett Butler: Exactly.
Rick Rahim: One last thing we ought to point out, we are talking about beginners and how to learn to play the game of poker. While, reading your opponent is key, don't forget that you have to have a good hand to win if you get called. So, if you are not sure, if you think you are beat, there is nothing wrong with folding. In our next segment, we will talk about when to fold, call or even raise your opponent during poker and we will get into bluffing as well.