When the flop is dealt your hand is defined to 71%. This means that normally your hand will not be improved when the turn- and river card are dealt. This is the reason why you should be able to estimate when to pull out (fold) or continue playing your hand (call, bet or raise).
You have to watch out so you do not lose your temper when you play loose games. This kind of game is very common at poker tables where the bets are at a low level.
The reason to this is that players normally do not respect the sizes of the bets enough and they tend to play any hands, too far and very often too aggressively.
You will surely get quite irritated when you, with your better knowledge, realize that you for the fourth time in a row have lost to an ignorant player who goes on betting and raising with bad cards and still wins. As there are many players in the pot coincidence often creates good hands out of something that normally would have been just rubbish. Sometimes these kind of players make big wins but they lose more often – you however do not see this.
When you lose to these players - whatever you do – just keep calm. If you do not do this you will probably play very badly and perhaps lose the profits you have made the last week. It is good to know and also a comfort that the players who play just any cards in the long run are the ones who pay you.
Illustrated examples
This information in the first place applies to a poker table from 10 down to 7 players.
The most important thing is to keep an eye on the outs* and if your odds** are favourable at the flop and of course if there have been any raises and from what position.
You play 74o from the Big blind (otherwise you should not play this lousy hand) and you have a gutshout draw. That menas four outs – four fives. Is this really the case? The answer is probably that the outs are only three as one card of hearts can give your opponents a flush and thus reduce the odds (*). There are also three players acting after you and there is a big risk that one of them will raise (A on board) and thus reduce the odds further. Fold.
(*) = When you draw a card to get a strong hand and your opponent needs the same card which creates an even stronger hand it is said that the card counterfeits your hand. This means that your hand does not have as good odds as the first impression might give.
Situation 2
Call. The Small blind has allowed you to spend $0.25 to see the flop with J9s which gives you a an open straight draw. An open straight has the odds 4.88:1 (according to the odds tables). The pot contains $5 (at least - there are 2 players left to act). 4.88 * 0.5 = 2.44 and the pot is actually considerably bigger than this already (calculate odds). Even if you only count on six outs (because of two cards of clubs in the flop) the draw is still worth making. The odds for six outs is 6.83:1 and 0.5 * 7 (rounded up)= 3.5.
If there are unexspected raises you might have to recalculate this.
Situation 3
Only one thing to do - throw away! An ace in the flop and a player who raises before you does not give any good odds for this hand even if your pre-flop hand looked quite nice.
Situation 4
Throw away. You certainly have two overcards but there is a risk they will lose to a flush. On top of this one of your opponents has indicated some strength. He has at least one pair. So, even if you succeed in getting your pair your opponent is at the same time making a draw for two pairs or flush. This ruins the odds. In cases like this calculating odds is mostly not necessary.
Situation 5
Call. I understand if you wonder why I have chosen to play this hand. I have probably decided to sit out and then decided to start playing again. (Then you have to post the Big blind). In other words – I have been able to see the flop "for free". Well, in the pot there is enough money to make a call. 0.5*4 = 2 which gives a good margin to 9 outs with the odds 4.22:1 .
Explanation: 0.5*2=2 is once again the minimum size of the pot in order to make your draw profitable in the long run.
Situation 6
This is obvious – fold! You are in the Big blind and have seen the flop with this tragic hand for free. Calling with this hand against this board consisting of three suited cards and with a tiny pot like this will certainly ruin you. More players than you actually think play rubbish like this to get their gutshot draw which will succeed 1 time in eleven.
Situation 7
Raise. You probably have the best hand and it is better not to play your full house slowly. There might be somebody with AK as pocketcards so if you notice that there is much action when you start raising after the turn- and river cards it is time to fear the worst: Your opponent might have got a higher full house than you have and therefore you only should call down his hand. But up to this point you should raise!
Situation 8
Fold. Two outs (odds 22:1) when there is a J on the table and two cards of diamonds do not give any good odds.
Situation 9
Raise. You have a fairly good hand but there is a risk that somebody else in the first place has a pair QQ with a higher kicker card. Please note that most players would have made a pre-flop raise if they had had a queen and a higher kicker card than a jack before the flop. By raising you get more information about the hands of your opponents and at the same time you deteriorate the odds for the players who might be in position to make a straight draw.
Situation 10
Call. Considering the overcards you have this pot is certainly worth calling. If we deduct the cards of diamonds which might result in a flush for one of your opponents there are still 7 outs left and the odds is 5.71:1.
6*0.5=3 which creates a fairly comfortable margin. If you get a J on the turn (we do however not want J diamond) there is a big chance you will get a higher straight than a possible lower one. Hopefully you will get some extra money as there might be a raising war.
If you would like to have more examples than the ones above and perhaps some more detailed explanations I recommend the book “Internet Texas Hold’em” by Matthew Hilger. This is one of the better books focusing on Texas hold’em (in the first place for beginners) on the internet. There are 220 detailed examples including a lot of other useful stuff.
Well, is this so important? Can’t I play somewhat worse hands more often, you ask yourself? You should ask yourself this question instead:
Do I want to see the 29% of the cards that remain after the flop by paying 83% of the expected total bet after the flop?”
(At a $1/2 table the preflop is $1, the flop is $1, the turn is $2 and the river card is $2 ---> 5/6 which equals 83%)
I hope your answer to this is "no".
If you play aggressive players and you have a hand that is so strong that you are pretty sure of winning? Perhaps you have a nut flush or a safe full house at an early position? In this case you should let the other players take care of the betting and you just go on calling. You start indicating your strength at the turn- and river card. Why? Because bets and raises at this stage have doubled and there are more players who have paid to join the pot and they are prepared to bet with only a high pair. You thus recover the money you would have made on the flop as these players probably play even more aggressively if there are fewer players showing their strength. Aggressive players sometimes back out if there is a raise from an early position but they are eager to play and willing to raise if nobody shows any strength. In other words – let these players get a fairly good hand which hopefully is not stronger than yours and let them take care of the raises. The next time they might be a bit more cautious (some players, however, are slow learners …) and then you bet and raise at once.
Playing in loose games 
