Poker Cheat Sheet
What is a Poker Cheat Sheet?
A poker cheat sheet is a guide to help you learn the absolute basic fundaments to play solid poker in
order to beat micro and low stake games. Like any endeavor, it takes time, experience and regular
evaluation to become a master. The idea behind a cheat sheet is that you can refer to it easily to
help you make better decisions than you would otherwise.
Hand Rankings
If you are new to poker, you will need to understand the proper hand rankings. The list below should
help you understand the respective hand rankings. It's worth noting that the top hand below is very
rare. A professional can count on one hand the number of times they have made a royal flush.
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Calculating Outs as Odds
To make better decisions, you will want to know the chances of improving your hand and reconciling
that with the amount your opponent is betting. The table below should help you see, at a glance, the
approximate percentage of you making your hand for the most common scenarios you will find
yourself in. After a while, calculating your outs and converting them to odds will become intuitive. In
the meantime, feel free to refer to this table.
Draw Type Number of Outs Turn & River (two River (one card)
cards)
Flush & 2 Overcards 15 54% 33%
Flush & 1 Overcard 14 51% 30%
Open End Straight 11 42% 24%
& 1 Overcard
Flush 9 35% 19%
Open End Straight 8 32% 17%
Set to full house or 7 28% 15%
quads
2 Overcards 6 24% 13%
Gutshot Straight 4 17% 9%
Backdoor Flush or 1 4% 2%
Straight
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Hand Selection – Open Raising
Choosing which hands to play is very important. It’s the first key decision of any poker hand. If you
are starting out in poker. The most important thing is to play a selective hand range based on the
position you are in. As you lack the post flop skills to profitably make marginal pre flop calls, you will
need to be careful about the hands you play. The table below is a guide to hands you can open raise
with, if you are first to enter the pot i.e. nobody has raised in front of you. Please note that the table
assumes you are opening the hand ranges in the earlier positions too e.g. You open KJ suited in early
position therefore you are opening it in mid position too.
Early Position Middle Position Late Position Small Blind
All Pocket Pairs 5s to KJ/KQ/KT/QJ Any Ace NA
Aces
AT-AK suited Suited Aces All suited kings NA
KQ suited Pocket Twos to Pocket All connectors NA
4s
KJ suited Suited Connectors All gapped connectors NA
above a 6 e.g. 7h8h above a 6 e.g. Q-9
QJ suited/ KT suited/ Any suited cards with NA
QT suited/ JT suited at worst 3 gap
between e.g. Jd 8d
Please note I have not assigned a hand range for the small blind. I firmly believe this is the worst
spot to play Texas Holdem from and don’t think it would be wise to advise a hand range from here.
Instead, play careful from there. Look to minimise how much you lose and let the strong hands do
their “talking” so to speak.
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Hand Selection – Calling Raises
As you won’t have the pre-flop aggression in the hand, it is important you are calling raises with
hands that are at least as equal in value to the likely range your opponent is raising with and
preferably in position on them. There is no cheat to knowing what hands you should call player A’s
raise with. Instead, think about the type of player raising and act accordingly. In other words, if it is a
loose player opening, you can widen the hands you call with as he is opening wider than a tight
player. If it is a tight player opening, you should be looking to play less hands or hands that can break
him e.g. low pairs.
As a very basic guide consider calling raises with the hands below.
1. Any Pocket Pair
2. A Q off suit
3. A J suited
4. A Q suited
5. A T suited
6. K Q suited
Hand Selection – Re Raising AKA 3 Bet
Starting out, I recommend 3 betting with AK suited, Pocket Queens, Kings and Aces. As you develop
and gain experience you will certainly be re raising with other hands but this cheat sheet is purely for
the new player playing micro/low stakes poker.
Post Flop Poker
You will quickly learn that playing the flop, turn and river is complex. As you are playing a selective
hand range starting out, you will not be facing as many difficult situations as a more experience
player. Few rules to follow are below:
1. Miss the flop, get out of the way
2. Be wary of straight and flushes if betting gets large
3. Bet 50% or more of the pot when you bet
4. Don’t attempt crazy bluff bets when you are multi way
5. Don’t slowplay your hands, people will call you down at micro stakes so less need for
deception
6. Bet your top pair or better hands
7. Don’t get too attached to Ace King if you miss!
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Conclusions
This cheat sheet is aimed at the new player coming to poker in 2021 who has no experience but
wants to learn fast. Understanding hand rankings, what hands to play and the basic odds are the
most simple and fundamental skills to be a competent player, capable of winning at micro stakes.
There is so much more strategy and complexity to Texas Holdem that can take years to master but
we hope this cheat sheet will help you at the start of your poker journey.
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