The Art of Poker Fundamentals

In poker, the term “fundamentals” is often mentioned, and they are one of the most important segments on which you build your poker career. It doesn’t matter if you are a beginner or an already more experienced player, you should always refine your basics because we use them in almost every hand.
 
If we are sharp with the basics, it will generate EV in the long run, ie reduce our potential losses and increase our potential gains.
 
In this article we will touch on just some of the most important fundamental poker skills:

1. Preflop Ranges

Preflop ranges are the “mother” of all basics because they affect all other actions after the flop.
 
If you are a beginner, ranges should be your first step you want to perfect.
 
As the saying goes, a house is built from the ground up and so is our hypothetical “poker house” so that we can later add everything we need to those foundations without the risk of it collapsing.

2. C-bet

When we talk about a c-bet in theory, we are talking about any bet that a preflop aggressor makes on the flop, turn, river if the opponent has checked or called.
 
To be effective with our c-bet we need to have a good understanding of the ranges and boards we hit with that range.
 
Also, as soon as we are better at recognizing boards and how they affect our and the opponent’s range, we will be able to bluff more effectively, value bet and control the pot.

3. 3-bet

The main idea of 3-bet should be to increase the pot, get folds, isolate the player(s).
 
You should study the sizing for 3-bet and how they react in different situations.
 
Also 3-bet keeps our range uncapped and on most sites we have the potential to avoid rake.

4. Bluffing

One of the most important, but also the most demanding parts of poker is bluffing.
 
It takes a lot of experience and theoretical knowledge for our bluffs to be effective.
 
Preflop Ranges, C-betting, player reading (tagging), knowledge of player pool tendencies, etc., are all essential to get closer to optimal bluffing efficiency.

5. Big Blind Game

Big blind is one of the positions from which we will play the most hands because we are automatically invested in the hand for 1bb and we will often have a good price to see the flop.
 
It is very important that we do not overdo it with calling, especially in the cash game, because that way we pay a lot of rake.

We should be aggressive from the BB and avoid excessive passivity, we should also be careful not to overfold because that way we automatically lose the bet.
 
These are some pretty general tips, but we can often see that most players ignore a lot of these basics, thus lowering their winrate.
 
I hope this will add some new perspective to you, or at least divert your focus to the basics.

Mark