There’s no such thing as a surefire system for winning at poker, but practicing your game and watching how experienced players react can help you develop quick instincts. Keep an eye out for patterns in their behavior and try to emulate them when you play your own hands. This will help you develop your own unique poker style that can lead to long-term success.

There is a famous saying in poker: “Play the player, not the cards.” What this means is that the strength or weakness of your hand is based on the opponent’s situation and how likely they are to have a better one than you. For example, if you hold K-K and the flop comes up J-J-5, your kings will lose 82% of the time to the other player’s pair of jacks.

A common mistake that many beginners make is to be too passive with their draws. They will simply call every bet and hope that they hit, but more skilled players often play their draws aggressively to give themselves the best chance of making a strong hand. They will bet and raise their opponents to put them on edge, or they’ll use a semi-bluff to make their opponent think they have a good-to-great chance of making a strong hand by the river.

If your hand does not improve by the river, you’ll need to fold it or risk losing all of your chips. The person with the highest-valued hand wins the pot.