Basic texas hold'em poker tips - beginner strategy

Playing good solid fundamental Texas Hold'em will make you a steady winner at poker.

By knowing the basics of each position and situation, you'll always know what to do at the poker table.

Basic Texas Hold'em strategy means mastering the fundamentals. It doesn’t get you thinking outside the box or even inside the box for that matter. But it will turn you into a strong, tight-aggressive player with a good handle on all the various situations that come up in no-limit Hold’em.

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You’ll be able to play all positions (early, middle and late) competently and you’ll understand how to adjust your style depending on the cards you’re dealt and who you’re playing against. The goal here is not to become a winning micro-stakes player but rather to build a strong foundation for higher profits at all levels.

The following tips assume you have a fundamental grasp of the game. If you don't yet know the order of street action (pre-flop + flop + turn + river), how betting rounds work or what "all in" means, please take a step back and read some beginner strategy resources before proceeding.

Position Is King in Poker

The #1 rule of No-Limit Texas Hold'em:

All other strategies and ideas should branch off this fact like tendrils from a root.

In hold'em, where the size of your stack is essentially unlimited, being last to act has immense value. It gives you information. Specifically, it allows you to observe what all the other players before you chose to do. It's basically free info, and in a game where luck and skill are so finely intertwined, every bit of relevant information is crucial.

When you're last to act you can always make the most logical decision based on all the information available. Conversely, players who are forced to act first have to commit their chips, potentially to the wrong hand, without knowing if they're surrounded by weakness or strength.

There are nine positions at a full 10-player Texas Hold'em table:

• First to act: Under the gun (UTG), or first to act pre-flop, is the player seated to the left of the big blind. This player acts first on every round (pre-, flop and turn)
• Rock bottom: The small blind is always last to act pre-flop but moves to the middle on the flop and turn.
• In between: The other positions -- UTG+1, UTG+2, etc., through the big blind, cut-off (button +1)--are in between these two extremes. On the flop and turn they retain the same relative position to action.

A typical flop in action.

Because acting last is so powerful, each player's options are dramatically increased or decreased depending on where they're sitting. Hence, position becomes an extremely valuable commodity at the table. And as in life, value demands a premium. To emphasize the importance of position, most poker games give the player acting last the option of checking if there has been no raise in front of them. This power is known as last action.

Last action allows a player in late position to check and "take away" the option of a free turn card from an opponent wanting to check behind and complete a draw. Or last action can be used to put excessive pressure on an early position player who wants to check a raise. These examples show how position/last action can be used as a bluffing tool.

Power of Last Action Bluffs

It also works in reverse, allowing a player in early position holding a monster to imply (suggest) that he is checking ahead because he has a big hand. This implies strength can often times get an opponent to make a costly mistake -- calling or raising when weak.

Some players will attempt to play only in advantageous positions, a strategy called "position snobbery". Although this approach does have merit among beginners still learning the intricacies of playing in early position, advanced players must learn to overcome this affliction and deal with the consequences of playing from weakness.

After all, you cannot fold every hand out of position, and sometimes you'll be forced to battle from the get-go -- making correct pre-flop actions critical to long-term success. Keep this hierarchy of positions in mind at all times:

• Play the same way in all late positions
• Play the same way in all middle positions
• Play different ways in early positions

Always Adjust to Your Table Position

What this means is that based on years of experience observing and playing in different positions, a late-position player understands the possibilities of a raise from early position are either:

• Bluff
• Very weak hand
• Very strong hand

Middle position understands it could be any one of:

• Weak hand
• Strong hand

While early position should always be playing a premium starting hand -- anything weaker would be played only in the most optimal SITUATIONS. So as you move from late to early position within the table, our range of starting hands must always decrease while the requirements for playing that hand increases.

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Poker Hand Rankings for Beginners

If you're new to poker, you need to start with the basics. Knowing the hand rankings is one of those basics. Memorizing this list is easy. All you have to remember is that a Royal Flush is the best possible hand in Texas Hold'em and that the lower ranking hands progress in logic order.

As you learn more about the game you can discover the many idiosyncrasies associated with specific hands. For example:

• How a straight beats a spite flush
• How two pair is better than a pair and straight (this may seem obvious but it's not)
• How the Ace can play higher or lower then the king
• How four of a kind is resolved when when two people have it but one has a higher kicker

But for now just commit the basic list to memory and move on.

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The Hand Rankings:

• Royal Flush: Any suit (example: Diamond)
• Straight Flush: All in a row but not of the same suit (example: 9-8-7-6-5 of Clubs)
• Four of a Kind: Four cards that are the same value (example: 4444; the Ace can be counted as either low or high)
• Full House: Three of a kind plus a pair (RRR Hannah and 55 Hannah)
• Flush: All the same suit but not in sequence (example: KKKKQ Qqueens, all clubs)
• Straight: In sequence but not all one suit (example: 7891 Ace is a straight because it Wr Wraps around the 9)
• 3 of a Kind (TTT 333; TTT 222 is a set/counterset/two pair situation)
• Two Pair (HHHHGG GGgg KKkk AAaa; Ace can play high or low)
• Pair: Any two cards of the same value (any PP pp QQ qq RRrr AAaa)
• High Card: Whatever the highest card is (Kk kk QQ QQueen)

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Spades are Not Always Trumps in Poker

Note: Many new players think that because a hand has more spades (or the same suit), the cards are automatically higher. They're not. Suits never count unless both hands have the same ranking, such as when you're splitting the pot with two pairs or have two high cards with no pair between them.

Incidentally, this misconception about trumps in spades can cause problems when counting voting cards in political elections. For a great look at the phenomenon check out this clip from Saturday Night Live: 

Once you have the basic hand rankings down, move on to some of the advanced Texas Hold'em hand rankings. There are plenty to choose from.

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Starting Hands in Poker

Which hands you play and which you fold are completely up to you. But to be a successful poker player you need to analyze the probable outcomes of putting money into the pot and select those hands most likely to yield a positive result.

Every hand contains 169 distinct combinations or dealed boards. Even though you only hold two of the five cards that will determine the winning hand, during the course of an eight-hour day a professional poker player will be faced with the decision of playing or folding his or her cards hundreds of times.

Therefore, understanding which of the possible boards your cards can combine with to make a profitable final hand is vital to staying solvent, let alone making a profit.

An extreme example demonstrates this concept:

• J♦ J♥ T♦ 2♠ 5♣ (Two pair, jacks and tens, on the flop)
• J♣ J♠ T♠ 2♥ 5♠ (Identical hand but a different suited two of clubs)

Clearly, the second board has the exact same combination of values as the first but because it lacks the spade cards that go with the jack of clubs, it's vastly different in terms of its value as a held starting hand. Few players would play the jack of clubs in this instance; most would keep it in the deck where it can combine with the Flop for a powerful hand.

Therefore, we want to focus our efforts on playing hands that not only make strong hands but also ones that can improve on the flop to make even stronger hands.

Which Hands Should You Play in Poker?

As mentioned above, the later your position the wider range of starting hands you can play. At the very least, you should be looking to play any hand that could possibly make a pair, preferably high up on the value scale. As you move closer to the button (a.k.a. the cut-off), your table image and reputation will allow you to play more hands, especially ones that can produce drawn hands such as straights and flushes.

When you're in early position you should limit yourself almost exclusively to hands that can produce a strong, non-drawing, made hand by the river.

Draws will happen less frequently and when when they do they're far more difficult to manage successfully from this point on the table. Remember to adjust your hand selection accordingly. This is why you almost never see really tough players playing garbage hands like 72 offsuit from early position.

The only time you should deviate from this idea is when you're playing against a single caller or someone who gets out of the way when they don't have a strong hand. In this scenario you might consider expanding your definition of playable hands to include marginal combos that could possibly make a straight or a flush.

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Odds in Poker: Before, During and After

Poker is a game of odds. Every situation on every street has a series of mathematical probabilities associated with it. Pot odds, implied odds, outs, Implied probability… the math runs deep in poker. Getting a handle on these numbers will not only help you make the right decisions at the table, it will allow you to project potential outcomes in situations yet to unfold.

Often referred to as "counting cards," this ability to predict the future composition of the board by analyzing the cards your opponents have folded is one of the key tools in the advanced poker player's arsenal.

Before the first bet of the night, the only odds you need to worry about concern the simple possibility of making a winning hand. What cards do you hold and how many times do they occur in the deck? Once you've dealt with the initial odds, you need to consider the potential money you must commit to the pot versus the amount going in compared to thepot equity you hope to win.

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Pot Odds: The Foundation of Good Poker Play

Pot odds are the foundation upon which all good poker decisions are built. They deal specifically with the relationship between the amount of money you must put in (your call or raise) and the amount of money you feel you have a reasonable chance of winning. Because poker is a game that deals only in positives, you can discard all negative terminology and replace words such as "no value" with "doesn't pay".

For instance, if you believe there is a 50% chance you'll win a pot, but the pot contains $10 whereas you must add $20 to contend, the odds simply shift to 50% ($10 is less than 50% of $20). So it doesn't "pay" to call in this scenario.

Let's say your opponent bets $10 into a $20 pot. Given the same 50/50 hand assumption, this situation offers much better odds as you are risking half your pot equity to double your pot equity. If you have fewer than 50/50 odds, the bettor is said to have the hand locked down tighter than Dick's arse.

Of course in reality you're dealing with percentages rather than 50%. Most of the time you won't have knownotingly hit the exact percentage, but the ratio of pot in / pot out remains constant. As the number of players in a hand, the size of the bets and the number in the deck change, these ratios will fluctuate constantly.

Keeping track of these fluctuations and how they relate to the strength of your hand is the difference between winning and losing in poker. Some players find it useful to vocalize these calculations out loud so everyone at the table knows what you have and what you're thinking. Luckily for the rest of us, silently doing the math in our heads is allowed.

Implied Odds in Poker

So far we've only discussed direct pot odds, meaning situations where you're only concerned with the amount in the pot at the moment you must make your call or raise. Sometimes, however, a follow-up action will give you tremendous odds on your call, odds that were not available during your current turn to act.

These post-flop situations are known as Implied odds, a concept that can turn losers into winners. Let's take a look:

Example 1: Direct Odds Only

• You have a pair of queens
• An opponent bets $10 into a $20 pot
• You must call his bet to win a $30 pot
• You have no chance of making a better hand and believe your opponent is holding at least a pair
• There is no way to raise your call to a level that presents you with better than 50/50 pot odds.

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In this scenario the pot doesn't offer you enough restitution for your investment and you should fold.

Example 2: Implied Odds

• Same scenario as Example 1 except …
• You know the player you're facing has only a meager bankroll left and will have to get heavy on the turn and river to rebuild his stack.

In this circumstance you're facing the same pot odds as before (50/50 or worse), but because of the implied action to come you are presented with much better odds. If you estimate that on the next street your opponent will be forcing you to bet two pot-size bets to three pot-size bets, thus giving you a 2-1 return on your original call, you actually have 78% pot equity!

Although you have no chance of improving your two pair on the turn, the knowledge of the action to come shifts the percentages massively in your favor. Clearly, it's impossible to calculate these kinds of odds on the fly so you must develop an intuitive sense of when implied odds are sufficient to counterbalance a poor direct pot situation.

This skill comes only with practice and experience. In short, implied odds mean you don't always need to focus on the immediate pot, but rather take into account all action to come -- including after the river. Having the ability to run these scenarios through your brain will separate the fish from the players.

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Outs in Poker: Drawing Hands

Along with pot odds you need to familiarize yourself with the idea of outs. Since poker allows you to buy into a game for a minimum amount (often less than 10% of the max buy-in), you're often able to play "drawing hands."

These are combos that do you no good now but have the potential to produce a winning hand with some help, usually on the turn or the river. Help takes the form of specific cards that will either make your hand or -- more importantly -- eliminate one of your opponents'.

Any card outside of those that strengthen your hand is known as an unused out. The more outs you have the greater your chances of catching one of these helper cards. Again, it's an easy calculation.

• Without any money on the table you realize there are 52 cards in the deck
• You figure the odds of you catching the card you need is 1 in 52, or 1.95%.

If you make it to the flop you've now seen three cards, removing them from the deck. The odds of catching that one card you need have not changed but the number of remaining cards has decreased by one-third:

• Total cards = 52 - 3 (cards already seen) = 49 cards remaining
• Odds of catching that one special card = 1 in 49, or 2%

Each card that enters the scrap heap by failing to help your situation increases your overall probability of catching one of your remaining outs. And every time a card is played that does you some good, the number of outs you have in the deck reduces by that much.

Here's a quick example using raw odds: You hold 8♥ 7♥ . You have 9 outs (cards 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, A, Ah, Kh, Kh) on the flop of 9♦ 8♦ 5♣ :

• On the flop you have a gap of one card in your hand to the combined value of the board (a "single-gap draw").
• You have nine outs to make either a straight or a flush.
• With 50 cards unseen there is a 9% (1 in 11.11) chance that one of these cards will help you on the turn.

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In hold'em the maximum number of players is 10. Of those, one or two will be obliged to act first and therefore will be forced to fold most (if not all) of their hands. The next three or four players, sitting in middle position, will also be forced to fold most of their hands due to the strength of the remaining players in late position (who will also most likely fold their trash to avoid a confrontation).

This leaves just one or two players seeing the flop in most poker games. Basically, only one or two unused outs are needed to win a pot carried by a single draw. With these reduced numbers, your 9% chance of catching a winning card climbs to just over 50%, a statistic well worth taking into consideration when deciding whether to pursue a draw.

Remember, these odds apply only to "shared" outs. The odds double if the card you need will give you the hand alone, without having to knock someone else out of the pot.

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Pregnant Poker Odds: When to Quit

Projecting the makeup of future boards based on known information, otherwise known as pregnant poker odds, can prove quite lucrative. Also known as conditional probabilities, these projections allow you to estimate how often you'll catch one of your drawing hands before the river. In other words, they allow you to quantify your outs.

Most of the time you won't know the precise percentage of the odds you're facing so you must break it down into a general set of rules. For example:

• Four outs: Close to 50/50 shot before fourth street
• Three outs: 30-40% chance
• Six outs: 70-80% chance
• Nine outs: Better than 90%
• Eleven outs: Will probably win a series

Keep in mind these odds apply only to single-gap draws (one hole card adjacent to the largest value on the board) and do not take into account the possibility of making a flush draw. For example, let's say you're holding 8♥ 7♥ and the flop comes down 9♦ 8♦ 5♣ .

On the surface you have an inside straight draw with seven outs (4, 3, 2, A, Ah, KH, Kh):

• One of the treys or fives will give you a straight, putting one or two opponents out of the running.
• One of the cards will pair the board, giving you a two-pair hand that should hold up against most two pairs.

What these numbers don't reveal is the fact that you also have a flush draw, giving you a total of nine outs -- a very nice place to be in. There's a good chance you'll hit one of these cards by the river, especially since so few players will be chasing in this scenario.

Obviously, if a seventh player had been dealt the 6♥ your odds would drop from nine to six outs and your probability of catching one of these cards before fourth street would plummet to below 50%.

Being able to quickly assess scenarios such as this is a tricky skill to master, but the more you think about the makeup of the board and the cards you know to be absent, the easier it becomes. If you hear a new poker player trying to calculate his or her odds out loud, it's probably best to throw them a lifeline. Pregnancy doesn't suit the heat of a poker game.

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Betting Strategy for Beginners

Betting is the heart of poker. Without it we'd all be playing Chase the Queen, a game that bores me rigid. From the smallest "small bet" to the biggest "non-standard raise," every wager opens up another layer of complexity to the game.

The ability to read opponents and alter your own behavior to gain an informational edge is a highly developed skill, one that separates the casual player from the true poker professional. But like all aspects of the game, poker betting strategies start with the basics.

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Generally speaking, bets fall into one of two categories: Real bets and Pseudo bets. Real bets are wagers you're prepared to take to the bank -- in other words, you believe you have the best hand and wish to force your opponents to pay you off or fold.

Pseudo bets, on the other hand, are merely attempts to increase the pot through a variety of psychological ploys designed to lead your adversaries into making errors in judgment. Pseudo bets are further subdivided into two groups: The semi-bluff and the full-on bluff.

Real Bets in Poker

When you believe you hold the winning hand you are betting in a real capacity and want to ensure yourself a healthy return on your investment by increasing the pot. Generally, real bets are made on the flop and the turn, though they can occur on the river under special circumstances.

For example, let's say you've been raised in a limper's game by a tight player who only shows strength with premium hands. The flop misses you completely but it checks around to the raiser, who bets again. The turn brings you the A♥ , putting two hearts on the board and giving you a flush draw.

Again the raiser bets and you now have a decision to make. Although you may not yet have caught your flush, you know another heart is out there and a third bet may very well end the hand right there. You also know that your opponent is capable of representing a hand that might easily beat your eventual flush.

Nonetheless, you decide to raise, hoping to induce a fold while increasing the pot via a semi-bluff. Your opponent, who holds QQqq, decides to call after considering your possible hands: a bigger premium hand, a woman on the river, or the possible effect of his call on a perceived weak player. He doesn't think you have enough for a raise with a weak made hand, otherwise you would have bet. 

In the poker world this scenario happens thousands of times each day. While the results may vary, particularly if a third heart hits the board, the underlying dynamics remain consistent: Your semi-bluff was motivated by your desire to increase the pot while attempting to force your opponent out of the hand.

Full-blown bluffs, on the other hand, do not have the backing of a real hand and are purely psychological maneuvers aimed at getting your opponents to make mistakes. Unlike the real bet, the success of the bluff does not depend on the cards in your hand but on the cards you believe are absent from the board and in your opponents'.

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Bluffing in Poker

Bluffs are a natural part of the game and a necessary component of any aggressive poker-playing strategy. Though they lack validity in a court of law, poker bluffs fall into two distinct categories: the "four-bet bluff" and the "naked bluff" (also known as a "ferocity bluff").

Four-Bet Poker Bluff

This tactic involves making a series of increasingly large bets or raises in an effort to represent a hand that your opponent believes is even stronger than your previous representations. It begins with a modest "real" bet designed to disguise your true intention while testing the waters for a possible steal. 

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Let's use a typical hand from middle position. There are three players in, none of whom are particularly dangerous. You cut the betting initiously with a small bet, figuring that if neither of your adversaries responds you'll score a relatively simple steal.

Either of your opponents surprises you by calling your bet. Now what? Well, the flop delivers a perfect two-club, pass Mustered one count, dominate the other, and raise. Mustarded one count, dominate the other, and bet out.

dominate the other, and although he or she holds a decent hand, you believe it's unable to match your representation. You bet again, fully expecting a call. Instead, your opponent surprises you by raising.

Mustered one count, dominate the other, and raise … dominate the other, and re-raise. Dominate the other, and … ?

At this point you have several options. Basically, your hand is a complete air balloon, lacking both hard data and plausible deniability. Nonetheless, you decide to raise once more, hoping to represent a hand so strong your opponent will fold a winning hand in deference to your apparent superiority.

If your adversary folds a hand like AK or AQ, your four-bet bluff has succeeded. Had he or she held the actual AA or KK, you would have found yourself heading for the rail in record time. As it happened, your rep gained enough credit to earn a very large pot.

Naked Bluffs in Poker

Unlike the four-bet, which gains credibility through repetition, the naked bluff succeeds or fails on the strength of a single representation. Also known as a ferocity bluff, this strategy suggests that the more forcefully you attempt to represent a strong hand, the more believable your charade will become.

Although this theory has some validity, too much zeal can backfire and leave you stranded on the side of the road wearing nothing but a huge target. As with all forms of poker bravado, proper table image and reputation play pivotal roles in determining whether this sortie will succeed or result in a spectacular crash.

Put simply, naked bluffs should only be attempted by seasoned veterans with a reputation for playing stone-cold monsters. If you're known as the guy or gal who only plays Garbage, it will be very difficult to pull off the Ferocity. In fact, trying something so brazen will mark you as a fish desperate to turn things around, thus encouraging others to trap you into making dumb moves.

Though they lack the hard data required to support a real bet, naked bluffs do enjoy certain advantages derived from human fallibility. First, most players will give you far too much credit for possessing a true monster. Second, nobody wants to lose a pot to a weaker hand, so when you "rep" a hand larger than your adversary believes he or she can beat, the likelihood increases that he or she will lay down that hand.

Position is Key in Poker

Acting last has enormous advantages, otherwise every TV talk show host would clean the casino out on a daily basis. Being able to base your actions on the behavior of your opponents is a crucial aspect of playing quality poker.

In an effort to extract the maximum amount of information from another player's actions, poker professionals will go to great lengths to ensure they always have last action. Even if it means getting involved in a hand they would have been better off avoiding, the ability to bet, raise or fold after seeing everybody else's actions is considered an indispensable tool.

Generally speaking, you can divide players into one of three groups based solely on their posture: Fish, regulars, pros.

Fish: Fish are complete positure morons. They believe that "when you got 'em, you got 'em" and that the strength of a hand is determined solely by its owner's actions. Thus, if a fish raises, he or she always has a monster. Period. Full stop. Case closed. End of discussion.

Conversely, if a fish calls or fold, it means they were weak. Another way of looking at it: A fish's hand is always stronger than your hand, no matter what cards you have. For this reason it's very difficult to bluff a fish. They simply will not believe you have a better hand than they do.

Regulars: Regulars play by the book. They open with premium hands, defend their blinds, overcall when multiple players are in, and semi-bluff steal occasionally. They are predictable and fairly easy to read. However, their predictability makes it easier to determine the value of their bets. If a regular bets, you can be fairly certain he or she has a minimum of a pair of jacks.

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Pros: Professionals use position as their primary tool. Almost all will wait for good cards in later position before entering a pot. Occasionally, they'll make a pre-flop raise to discourage a opponent from overbetting the pot or to gather information about the strength of his or her hand. At showdown they'll bet or check raising almost never. Their posture dictates that they trust their cards.

This scenario changes radically when they're in earlier positions. Then they'll adopt a more conservative stance, limiting themselves to fairly tight starting hands. In short, the pros will only enter a pot in early position if they believe it contains a weak opponent who is willing to overbet the pot. If a pro raises before the flop, you can take it as read that he or she has a seriously big hand.

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Traps and Errors in Poker

Understanding your own propensity towards error is essential for reducing its impact on your bottom line. Everyone makes mistakes, but the truly successful poker players minimize their blunders to the point where they become irrelevant. 

To reach that plateau you must be aware of the common pitfalls and learn to recognize them in others. In short, you must learn to think like an error. Here are some classic examples of common gaffes:

Dominotion

Domination occurs when a player holds a hand with a larger value card in a smaller suite (5♥ 4 Diamonds for example) that is subsequently outdrawn by a smaller value card in a larger suite (4♥ 4♠ ).

This type of hand can be psychologically devastating for a player who becomes fixated on the larger value card and fails to see the bigger picture. Despite holding the dominating hand (on paper), a player locked into card values will regularly lose significant chunks of his or her stack to players with "inferior" holdings.

For example, the player holding 5♥ 4 Diamonds will regularly find himself or herself drawing one step ahead only to be passed by a smaller suit on the river. Over time the cumulative effects of repeated losses like these can bleed cash from even the most disciplined player.

How can you exploit dominication? By keeping the pressure on and continuing to bet and raise even when you believe your adversary has you beaten. For example: You're holding QDs and the board shows KKjj. Your opponent -- holding QH -- bets out, dominated on the flip. You still have a chance to win the hand via a pair of deuces, but your queen is also a threat to chop the pot should it pair the board.

Should you hit the deuce, your adversary will almost certainly be convinced that his or her queen kicked yours. This kind of psychological blow can result in your opponent becoming emotionally disconnected from the game, increasing your chances of winning a significant pot.

Overpaired

In hold'em, pairs above jacks on the board are relatively rare. Therefore, whenever a board shows a big pair, there's a good chance somebody at the table is overpaired. Overpaired players are vulnerable to attack because they're almost always playing the board. Consequently, they can be persuaded to fold the best hand by an aggressor playing a weaker hand.

For example: AJ gets raised in front of you, so you smooth-call with 6♥ 5D after the initial raiser bumps it up a notch on the flop of KK8V. The turn brings the 6♣ , giving you a straight that beats the top pair on the board while increasing the strength of your hand. 

Thanks to the vulnerability factor, you feel confident enough to bet out, knowing the pre-flop raiser is almost certain to be playing the board. More often than not, this sort of maneuver will garner you an immediate all-in from a player who believed he or she had the best hand.

The Manipulative Continuation Bet (CB)

A continuation bet (CB) refers to a small bet made by a player already in on a hand, usually after missing the board entirely or only catching a low-level piece of the flop. Employed primarily as a theft tactic against timid or inattentive players, the CB attempts to capitalize on the initiative gained by acting last.

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Typically, a CB will be a mere shadow of the player's initial raise -- perhaps 25% or less. The hope is that the CB will be sufficient to represent the bet initiator as the stealer, thereby convincing the silent players at the table that they should sit quietly and wait for their moments.

Successful manipulators will fire a second SB (known as a "double barrel") if they pick up a piece of the action on the turn or believe no one has them beaten. The hope is that the silence of your advers