Playing poker the way ‘idiot guides’ outline is a good way to become predictable and, thus, an easy prey to players who know how to vary their strategy depending on the table, their opponents’ playing styles, their hands, and their stack. Players with basic poker strategy let textbooks guide their actions whereas players with superior playing strategy allow their brains to lead them.

By-the-book plays get thrown out the window when playing in higher-limit games and experienced players. Going into such a game with your basic grounding is an invitation to disaster. Keep in mind – your opponents at the table have been where you are and gone on from there; they’ve learned most of the tricks in amateur play and are likely to use these to their advantage.

The best strategy when playing in the bigger leagues is to change your style of play – throw out your old way of playing and occasionally do something unexpected.

Learn to Take Risks

Let’s say the flop comes up AsKs9d – and the turn comes up Js. The latter is a scare card because it has the potential for drawing a straight or a flush – or even a royal flush if someone in the game is holding the connecting cards or if the required card luckily turns up at the river.

Advanced players know how to deal with scare cards. They would likely check first if they’re not in a good position. This way, they’ll have more information from which to go on before they actually raise.

There are also experienced players who would go full steam ahead and raise immediately on the basis of what’s on the board. At the very least, they aim to convince their opponents of the strength of their hands.

If you’re playing with weak opponents, betting on the scare card will live up to its name – it will scare them off, unless they’re lucky enough to be holding on to the connectors for either a royal flush or a straight. They may even overlook the fact that they can win with a flush if their hole cards match the board’s predominant suit.

Get Found Out

As all experts will tell you, it pays to sow confusion, and a good way of doing this is by calling a bluff early in the game so that you can get found out. To set this up, you must bluff mightily hard early in the game. Your goal is to reach the showdown so other players can see that you were merely bluffing.

By doing this, you will fool your opponents into thinking that you are merely a bluffer so they can safely raise and re-raise you if they want. Thus, in case you do have the nuts or a pretty strong hand, you can tempt your opponents to stay in the game. This will significantly increase your pot size.