The game of poker has many insidious traps that can derail even the most disciplined player. The two most dangerous ones are defiance and hope. Defiance is the urge to hold on to a weak hand in the face of aggressive play, or the hope that you might hit the right cards on the turn or river to make your flush or straight. Both of these emotions can be fatal to your bankroll, but they can also be very difficult to overcome.
After the cards are dealt, players take turns clockwise revealing their hands. The player that begins this process is called the active player, and reveals their hole cards with the objective of beating the card in the middle (or the exposed portion of the previous active player’s hand). The winning player of the round is the one who makes the best remaining hand. Usually, this means a straight or a flush (which contain five consecutive cards of the same rank), but can be any other hand as well.
When playing poker, it’s important to understand how to read your opponents’ actions. Every check, call, raise or fold tells a story about the strength of your opponent’s hand. Bluffing is a big part of the game, but it should be used sparingly and strategically. If you overuse it, you’ll give away too much information to your opponents, and they’ll start calling you down with mediocre hands on the off chance that you are bluffing. This is called poker tilt, and it can ruin your game.