Poker is a game in which players make decisions based on incomplete information. Each action you take — whether it’s calling, checking, or raising — communicates bits of information to your opponents that they use to piece together a story about you. Sometimes these stories are about your strength, and other times they’re about your weakness.

As a player you can’t know the full picture, but you can improve your odds of winning by learning how to make intelligent decisions. You will win hands and you will lose hands, and your objective is to maximise the value of your winning hands while minimising losses from losing hands. This is called Min-Max strategy.

One of the most important things you can do is learn to read your opponent’s expressions and body language. These give you clues about the type of hand they’re holding, and how strong or weak it is. The more you practice reading your opponents, the better you’ll become at this.

It’s also important to have quick instincts. Experienced poker players make a lot of money by making intelligent responses to other players and remaining unpredictable. Researchers from the University of Connecticut, UC Davis, and Indiana University found that players who had spent several years playing professionally were better at this than amateurs. The key is studying the basic rules and spending time practicing with experienced players to develop quick instincts. It’s important to shuffle and cut the deck multiple times, so you don’t get caught with cards that you’re not ready for.