Poker is a card game where the players place bets into a central pot during each round. The player who has the best hand wins the pot. Winning hands are more valuable than losing hands, and the goal of a player is to extract as much value from winning hands as possible while minimising losses from losing hands. This is known as maximising expected value (MEV).

To maximise MEV, a player must know when to raise his bets and when to fold. He must also know how to read the other players’ reactions. Identifying which players flinched or smiled when he called a bet is a crucial part of reading the game.

A player’s actions must be based on his knowledge of probability, game theory, and psychology. This knowledge is distilled into a series of’moves’ that have a positive expected value. This is called game theory, and it has transformed poker from an intuitive ‘feel’ into a game of detached quantitative analysis.

There are many’moves’ that can increase a player’s MEV, but they must be implemented consistently and reliably to yield a consistent outcome. This is what makes a good poker player great. The’moves’ are the building blocks that make up the house of poker. Once the foundation is poured and the structure is framed, you can add the decorative elements to make it beautiful. Likewise, once you understand the fundamentals of poker, you can start to experiment with more advanced strategies.