Hand of the day

The spot

Pot

8,650 chips

Effective stack

1,200 chips

Table

6-max

Stakes

blinds 200 / 400, ante 50

No board yet, so there is nothing made and nothing to draw at. A preflop decision is made on two cards, your seat and the price, and the preflop charts are the shortest version of what that usually comes down to.

How it went

1. Preflop

   • You post the big blind, 400
   • Middle position raises to 8,000

And there the hand stops, because the next move is yours.

What would you do?

• Fold
• Call 1,200

Pick one before you scroll. Reading an answer you had not committed to teaches you nothing you can use at a table.

The answer

• Call 1,200 best 0 chips
• Fold -800 chips

Call 1,200 is the best of them at 0 chips. The next best is Fold at -800 chips, so taking that one instead costs 800 chips.

The numbers are expected values: the average result of picking that option, in the same unit as the pot above. What they are useful for is not the winner but the distance. A spot where the top two sit a hundredth apart is one you can get wrong all week without it mattering; a spot with whole units between them is where the money actually goes. Terms in the list above are all in the poker glossary , and if you would rather practise the pattern than read about it, the free table deals forty hands against a bot that folds when it should.