Poker is a game of skill and deception. It requires a balance of raising and folding to build your chips and win the pot. The key to winning is to fool your opponents into thinking that you have something they don’t – either the nuts or a bluff. Unless you can do this, your bluffs will never pay off and your big hands won’t make it to the showdown.

Before you start playing, make sure you shuffle the cards and cut them once or twice. This is to ensure that the cards are mixed well. It also helps to play with money you are comfortable losing. This way, if you lose your buy-in, you won’t be disappointed and it won’t hurt as much.

When it comes to poker, there are three emotions that can kill your success: defiance, hope and fear. Defiance is when you keep betting at a bad hand hoping that the turn or river will bring you that one card that will give you a straight or flush. Hope is worse – it’s the reason why you keep calling every bet even though you know that your hand is unlikely to make it to the showdown.

If you are holding a weak hand, it is usually better to fold rather than call or raise. If you have a strong value hand, however, you should be raising to price out the weaker hands and increase the value of your pot.