Poker is a game of cards where players compete to make the best five-card hand. Each player has two personal cards which they can use in combination with the community cards on the table to form their winning hand. Lady Luck plays a big part in poker, but being mentally tough and not getting upset after a bad beat is also important. Watch videos of Phil Ivey, for example – he never shows any emotion after a bad beat and that’s why he is one of the world’s best poker players.

Learning the tells in poker is a great way to improve your game and get ahead of the other players. But keep in mind that the reliability of a tell varies from player to player. So learn a few tells at a time and don’t try to read them all at once.

One of the most common reasons why players fail at poker is because they don’t understand the basic rules. This is a shame because the rules of poker are really quite simple. But they are often forgotten by new players.

To improve your game you need to start viewing the game in a more cold, detached, mathematical and logical manner than you presently do. This will help you to win at a much higher rate than you do now. In fact, most break-even beginner players are able to make this change by making only a few small adjustments.