If you want to be a winning poker player, you need to learn some fundamentals. This includes understanding what hands win and when to bluff, as well as how to read your opponents and watch for tells. There are also a few adjustments that many players need to make over time that can change them from break even beginner players to big-time winners. These adjustments have to do with starting to view poker in a more cold, detached, and mathematical way rather than the emotional, superstitious way that beginners tend to play.
The most basic thing that a player needs to do is to be in position. Being in position allows you to see more of the board and act last during the post-flop phase of a hand. This can be powerful because it lets you raise your hands more often and price out weaker ones, increasing the value of your pot.
Other things that you need to do in order to be a winning poker player include being aggressive when it makes sense and avoiding actions that put you in out of position no man’s land. You also need to be observant of other players’ tells and learn how to identify the little chinks in their armor that you can exploit.
The lowest possible hand in poker is 7-5-4-3-2 of two suits or a pair of jacks. A full house is made up of 3 matching cards of one rank and two matching cards of another, a flush is five consecutive cards of the same suit, and a straight is 5 cards that skip around in ranking but are from the same suits.