Use each poker cheat sheet in this guide to ground your game and establish solid fundamentals:

Don’t underestimate their power! When I first started playing poker, I didn’t even know how to hold my cards right. But I studied diligently and three months later, when I entered my first poker tournament, I won first place. The secret? Mastering the fundamentals.

I wasn’t a poker tells guru or mathematical whiz. What I did know was which cards to play and when – that alone was enough to have an extreme edge on my competition.

Poker Hands Cheat Sheet

For starters, remind yourself of the poker hand rankings, so you know what hands you’re trying to make.

But this poker hand cheat sheet alone isn’t enough to make you a great player. As with my story, the first place you really need to start is with what’s called your starting hands.

Poker Starting Hands Cheat Sheet

It may surprise you to know that professional poker players fold close to 80% of their hands… BEFORE the flop! Most hands are bad hands not valuable enough to enter the pot.

As I say in my book “A Girl’s Guide to Poker“, the first peek at your cards provides a mini rush, until you realize most of your hands are destined for the muck – poker’s trash pile.

…Truth is, most poker hands are awful. Statistical miscreants. Mathematical losers. That one D-list celebrity who can just never seem to get it together.

That’s right—the first thing you need to know about poker is that most hands are statistical losers. The fastest and easiest way to get ahead is by playing better cards than your opponents.

In a moment, you’ll see how to adjust which starting hands you play based on your position at the table. But for now, here’s your starting hands cheat sheet separated into three different levels:

Beginner

• Only play suited A-K-Q-J-T

Play any two cards that can make a royal flush. Said another way, BOTH of your cards need to be the same suit and either an Ace, King, Queen, Jack, or Ten. Nothing else counts.

If you implement this strategy, you will find yourself folding A LOT. That’s OK. Poker is a game of discipline – good habits start now.

Intermediate

When you’re ready to level-up and take your poker starting hands to the next level, stick to the following three categories: BROADWAYS, PAIRS, SUITED CONNECTORS.

• Broadway cards are A-K-Q-J-T, but they don’t have to be the same suit. So now you can play a hand like King-Queen even if they’re different suits (like the King of Clubs and Queen of Spades).
• Pairs are two of the same card, like a pair of nines or a pair of Jacks.
• Suited connectors are numerically consecutive and the same suit. Hands like a nine and eight of spades or a six and seven of diamonds. What if you’re dealt a nine and ten of different suits? Fold it!

These are card categories you can loosely play in any position.

Advanced

You really begin to develop your edge when you fine-tune which cards to play based on position. This is a preflop raise first-in guide. These are the hands you raise if no one else has raised ahead of you.

First what you do is determine your position at the table. Then you check this cheat sheet to see which starting hands you should raise.

What if I don’t want to follow these rules? Poker is for you—obviously play the game you want to play. This is just a foundation. As your skill level increases, you can deviate from these norms based on player types, stack sizes, preflop action, and so on.

However, you do want to know the general reasoning behind these tight guidelines.

The Guidelines Explained

Why do you want both cards to be broadways?

Why not just play any starting hand with an Ace? The problem is that you will often find yourself “outkicked” —meaning if you do this, your Ace-Eight will lose to someone else’s Ace-Jack. It is going to cost you significantly because you will hit a good hand that is second-best. Poker doesn’t reward silver medals.

Why do you want to play pairs?

When two of your hole cards match, it’s called a pocket pair. This is great because you already have what’s called a “made hand”—you don’t need to connect with the flop! A pair is a pair and no one can take that away from you. (Not even the government.) It’s also surprisingly hard to flop a pair.

• You’re only going to connect with the flop around one-third of the time.
• This also applies to your opponents. A pair provides a nice head start because they’re usually going to miss.

Why do you want to play suited connectors?

Number cards are the hardest to play because they are much less likely to be the best hand at showdown. Flopping a pair of sixes isn’t going to hold up frequently enough… and even if it does, the pot will surely be small. You play suited connectors for their ability to hit straights and flushes.

This is also not a guarantee, which is why you shouldn’t play these starting hands until you’re comfortable bluffing. You need to be confident playing draws.

Let’s say you have 8-9 and the flop is A-K-4. Sure, another spade will improve you to a flush and most likely give you the winning hand—but what do you do if another spade doesn’t hit? You’re going to need to have a back-up plan.

For all the times your straights and flushes don’t come in, you’re going to need to know when a bluff will be successful vs. when it’s better to give-up (sometimes your opponent just isn’t folding). Suited connector starting hands require more advanced post-flop strategy, unlike a hand like pocket aces which is strong enough to win on its own.

Poker Odds Cheat Sheet

Here’s a beginners cheat sheet for poker odds. You can print this out like a master list or keep reading as I break the most important ones down in more detail.

• Flopping a pair… 29%
• Flopping two pair… 2%
• Flopping a set… 12%
• Flopping a flush… 0.84%
• Flopping a straight with two connected hole cards… 1.3%
• Making a flush by the river… 35%
• Making an open-ended straight by the river… 32%
• Making a gutshot straight by the river … 16%
• Making a full house by the river if you’ve flopped a set… 33%
• Pocket pair vs two overcards … 51%
• Lower pocket pair against higher pocket pair … 18%
• Pair vs one overcard … 70%
• Kicker pairing … 25%
• Pairing either overcard after the flop … 25%
• Backdoor/runner-runner flush … 4%

Even though this is a poker cheat sheet for beginners, you’d be surprised how many regulars don’t know some of these essentials. People chase backdoor flushes all the time – even though they’ll miss with near 95% frequency.

Tip: A backdoor flush is when you need both the turn and river to be the same suit in order to make your flush. For example, if you have KJ and the flop is 893, you need both the turn and river to be a heart in order to complete a flush.

You can also refer to this poker odds cheat sheet featuring common scenarios to help you calculate odds when trying to improve your hand.

These are the 3 most vital poker probabilities for you to know:

• Making a flush by the river… 35%
• Making an open-ended straight by the river… 32%
• Pocket pair vs. two overcards … 51%

Making a flush or straight with one card to come rather than two—ex. You’ve flopped a straight draw and want to know your probability of hitting your straight on the turn—means you just cut the statistic in half. So making a straight is about 16% and a flush is about 17.5%.

The pocket pair vs. two overcards is a scenario commonly referred to as a FLIP… because it’s nearly a coin toss. A hand like pocket tens vs. Ace-King will win just over 50% of the time. Poker players will frequently say, “we’re flipping!” when you’re racing a pair against two higher cards.

What I recommend all beginners do is download a poker odds calculator app on your smartphone (there are many) and plug-in the hands yourself. If you do this enough, you will see the same probabilities appear over and over again. It’s an easy way to begin to recognize standard situations and statistics.

Calculating Outs Cheat Sheet

An alternate way to look at your hand’s chances of winning is calculating “outs.” Think of how many cards are available in the deck to give you the best hand.

If you need to hit an open-ended straight draw for example, then you have eight outs. For example, you hold 76. Flop is 983. Any 5 or 10 will make you a straight. There are four 5s in the deck and four 10s, meaning you have eight cards to hit for the winner.

• Multiply your number of outs by four in order to roughly calculate your odds of hitting on the river.
• Multiply your number of outs by two in order to roughly calculate your odds of hitting on the turn.

Example:

Flush draws contain nine outs (there are 13 cards of each suit in the deck, subtract the two in your hand and the two on the flop). Multiply 9 x 4 to calculate your likelihood of hitting your flush by the river (36%) and multiply 9 x 2 to calculate your likelihood of hitting your flush by the turn (18%).

Some people prefer to calculate outs and run these equities in their heads. I can assure you however it’s not necessary—if you follow this poker cheat sheet, then you will see the same odds and statistics pop-up so regularly you’ll naturally store them to memory.

Printable Poker Cheat Sheets

Use the links below to print poker cheat sheet PDFs, or download them to refer to later.

Key Psychological Aspects of Roulette

You might not think there’s much to roulette. After all, you’re just betting on which numbered pocket the ball lands in. There’s nothing you can do to affect the outcome – it’s down to luck alone which number wins.

But like other casino games, there’s a lot of depth to roulette. You can easily play it casually and not pay much attention to your bets. Or, you can delve deep into its psychological aspects and play it strategically.

Roulette is fast-paced, thrilling and unpredictable. If you’re not aware of the game’s psychological side, you can still have a great time playing it. Take your roulette experience to the next level by learning how it affects your mind.

In this post, we’ll look at several key psychological aspects of roulette. Many of the things we’ll be covering are cognitive biases. These are errors in judgement we make because of various factors including emotions, memory and background.

In short, cognitive biases prevent us from thinking as logically and rationally as we should. In other words, they cloud our judgement, in other words. They can have some negative effects, especially when it comes to gambling.

Carry on reading and you may be surprised to learn how much the game can get inside your head.

Tilt and Emotion

We’ll start our look at the psychology of roulette by focusing on tilt and emotion. Playing casino games can cause a range of emotional reactions. Some of these can be beneficial; others can affect you negatively.

An example of a positive emotional reaction is when you win and feel good. As for a negative reaction, you could feel upset or frustrated if you’ve ended a session with a significant loss.

In psychology, the term ‘tilt’ refers to when you lose control due to negative emotions. You start making irrational decisions that can have negative side effects.

After a losing streak, you may feel desperate to score a win. You decide to increase both the number of bets and the size of each bet. You back several numbers that haven’t come up yet.

But, none of these numbers is the winning one and you suffer a bigger loss. This is a prime example of what consequences tilt can have.

Managing tilt and emotion in online roulette is important. If you let the game overwhelm you emotionally, it could have negative effects on how you play. Poor decision-making and excess betting can cause you to lose money too fast.

When it comes to playing any sort of casino game, you should be in a good frame of mind. Make sure you stay in control of your emotions and don’t let them influence your gameplay.

Alcohol and Other Substances

It’s also worth mentioning substances such as alcohol and even drugs. Both of these, especially the latter, can make you more emotional and affect your responses.

On the other hand, they can increase the enjoyment you get from playing, especially when you win. But, the way they affect your mind and decision-making isn’t worth it in the short or long term.

So should you play roulette or any other casino game if you’re drinking alcohol or using some other substance? The answer is no.

It’s much better to approach any casino game with a clear head that’s not affected by any kind of substance. You’ll be completely in control of yourself, which is the most important thing when you gamble.

Even if you don’t feel the effects of substances, you shouldn’t gamble for real money. Even if you’ve had just one drink and you don’t feel drunk, it’s best to stay away from casino games.

Gambler’s Fallacy

When you play roulette, the chances of the ball landing in any pocket are the same. In European versions, the wheel has numbers 1-36 plus 0. Therefore, each pocket has a 1/37 chance of being the winner.

With American roulette, there’s an additional 00 pocket. Each pocket therefore has a slightly lower 1/38 chance of having the ball land in it.

Gambler’s fallacy is one of the key cognitive biases linked to gambling. It refers to two things: a result that hasn’t come up recently should come up soon; a result that has come up recently shouldn’t come up soon.

Let’s say you’re playing European roulette. In the last 20 games, the number 7 has won three times. This is higher than expected because statistically speaking, it’s rare that a single number wins this many times in so few rounds.

According to gambler’s fallacy, the number 7 shouldn’t come up again for a while. This is because it’s been the winning number more often than it should have been in recent games.

In other words, 7 has won a lot and it’s now time for other numbers to have their turn.

Some people believe in gambler’s fallacy. They think results are connected and that outcomes from previous games have an effect on the outcomes of future games.

The thing is, gambler’s fallacy is false. This is because in a game like roulette, every single outcome is completely independent. There’s nothing that connects the results in any way.

People believe in gambler’s fallacy because we humans are hardwired to see patterns in things. We like noticing things like certain numbers winning more often. When we notice patterns, we try to use them to our advantage.

It’s easy to see why people think gambler’s fallacy to be true. They want roulette game outcomes to have patterns they can use to predict future winning numbers.

But the truth of the matter is that this isn’t possible. If the number 7 has won three times in the last 20 games, it’s just a coincidence.

This doesn’t mean the number 7 is more likely than usual to win in the next 20 games. At the same time, it doesn’t mean 7 will be any less likely to win either.

On every single spin of the wheel, the number 7 has a 1/37 of winning if it’s European roulette. For American roulette, it’s 1/38. The same is true for every number regardless of previous outcomes.

The key takeaway is this: don’t let past results affect your decisions. Remember that each outcome is completely independent of all others. Any patterns are just coincidences and shouldn’t be used to determine your bets.

The Thrill of Competition

Lots of roulette sites have both solo and multiplayer games. Both of them can be exciting and rewarding, but multiplayer ones have the edge.

If you want to play online roulette with other players, try a live roulette game. These are real-life games you can take part in through your casino account. They’re sociable because you can interact with other players.

This is what sets them apart from solo games. With other players comes the thrill of competition. You’re no longer playing by yourself. There are others and, naturally, you want to do better than them.

When you’re playing a live dealer roulette game, there’s added pressure to do well. Even if you don’t interact with the other players, you might want to outperform them. Roulette isn’t competitive, but it feels like that when it’s live.

If you play a live roulette game, don’t let the presence of other players pressure you into doing things differently. Keep your betting style the same.

If you’re in a land-based casino at a roulette table with other players, it can be easy to get caught up in the excitement. Resist the temptation to place bigger bets and show off; it doesn’t matter what others think.

In other words, only think of yourself. Yes, the competitive aspect can be exhilarating and can liven up the game. But, it can also persuade you to overdo things, which you should avoid.

Illusion of Control

Since roulette is entirely based on luck, there’s nothing anyone can do to influence the outcome of each round. Even though players can’t affect things, some people still believe in the illusion of control, which is another cognitive bias.

This is where someone feels they can control things to a degree and overestimate their chances of success. What drives this in a lot of people is superstitious beliefs such as lucky numbers.

Lots of people put on the lottery and use the same selection of supposedly lucky numbers every time. Doing this gives people a feeling of control they wouldn’t have if they just chose random numbers.

If someone’s lucky numbers win, they’ll feel as if they’ve been successful thanks to their act of control. In other words, they’ve stuck to numbers of their own preference and their risk has paid off.

Of course, the truth is that there’s no such control when it comes to roulette. You may feel as if you’re on top of things when you place certain bets or do things in a particular way.

But no matter how much you feel you’re managing things, it’s still luck that decides each outcome. Any spin can produce a number that causes you to lose.

You might feel as if you’ve got the upper hand. It’s best to stop believing this and accept that it’s the casino that will always have the upper hand.

Bankroll Management

When playing roulette or any other type of casino game, bankroll management is important. Before you play, you should come up with a budget and stick to it.

By doing this, you’ll be less likely to have financial problems due to your gambling. Playing in moderation is always best. If you only spend money you can afford to lose, it won’t matter if you never win.

Some people end up chasing their losses. This is where they lose but they decide to keep playing, despite being in the red. They hope that eventually they’ll score a big win and make a profit.

But the problem with this way of thinking is that the big win might never come. There’s no way you can guarantee a win, so you could just end up making your overall loss bigger and bigger.

Chasing your losses is tempting, especially since it’s so easy to bet and have another round. And there is a chance, albeit a small chance, that the next spin will give you a win.

If you want to be sensible and gamble responsibly, you’ll resist the temptation to chase your losses. It’s best to quit sooner rather than later so you don’t end up with an even bigger overall loss.

For effective roulette bankroll management, do the following:

When playing roulette for real money, you should play in moderation. Do your best to stick to limits. Keep playing the game regularly so long as you enjoy it. If you no longer enjoy it, stop playing.

The Temptation of Strategies

There are some betting strategies you can use when playing games of roulette. It’s worth pointing out that no strategy can guarantee you a win. Some can, however, boost your odds over long-term play.

Lots of people who play roulette want to use a strategy. They think doing so will benefit their gameplay and hopefully improve their balance. There’s nothing wrong with using one.

But, you shouldn’t convince yourself that using one will work. It won’t. It might help a bit and increase your average payout somewhat, though you’ll still get plenty of losses along the way.

If you want to use a roulette strategy, it’s a good idea to practise using one when playing an online demo version of the game. With demo roulette, you can play as many times as you want without paying.

By doing this, you can see what effect, if any, a strategy has on your bankroll. You might decide it’s minimal and you’re not going to give in to the temptation to use one when playing for real money.

One strategy that’s particularly popular for roulette is the Martingale system. This is where you double your bet after every loss.

The idea is that when you win, you should recoup your losses and make a profit equal to your initial bet. Again, it’s best to practise this with free roulette games before trying it in real-money games.

Summary

Roulette is a brilliant game to play. It’s easy to understand, has lots of betting options and can be thrilling. However, like other casino games it can affect your mind, even without you realising it.

If you’re playing roulette for real money, whether online or in the real world, don’t let it get to you. Casino games can have powerful effects on people and it’s easy to let them do this.

For the best possible roulette experience, stay in control. Be aware of how the game plays on your mind and don’t let it do this. Moderate your gaming session and learn to recognise and avoid temptation.

By playing roulette sensibly and approaching the game objectively, you’ll reduce your chances of developing problems. Treat roulette as a fun, entertaining game and it should do you no harm.