Poker consists of not one game but is really a complicated group of games that are related to each other in some way. So while they are interrelated, some require a much different set of strategies and experience than some of the perhaps more popularly played versions of the game.

For this reason, you may have played successfully many of the more familiar games for years, but find yourself confronting a version that demands sets of skills and rules that you know nothing about and have not experienced. At this point you would be wise to decide which of the versions you want to be expert in. But can such a decision be made?

Every poker player is there to win the game and the bank. But for a beginner, to decide which poker game is the most profitable is practically impossible. Every one of the games is complex, allowing plenty of possibilities. None are decidedly more profitable than others.

What decides the overall profit in any poker game is how well you combine your goals, your strategies, and the unique possibilities of the specific game. That is, one must simply decide which game one is best at (at least as far as earning money is concerned) and work to continually improve oneself. Other games may be played occasionally, but mostly as refreshment. Your best profits will usually be at the one or two poker types you have been specializing in for a long time.

This answer is not going to appeal to everyone. To the novice player, some games seem to offer more possibilities of high earnings than others and so stay with those games until luck finally strikes. You can hang around for that lucky streak if that is what you want from the game, but you will sacrifice the potential of regular earnings.

There is one belief usually held by newcomers that if they get to know the game of no-limit reasonably well they stand to gain greater profits than by playing a solid game of limit poker. It seems to them that by betting large sums even though losses are inevitable, those large bets will turn a net profit in the long run.

Now if you are after consistent profitability, you must delve more deeply into the question. Gain is a result of managing your cards well in the face of a constantly increasing bank. The size of the bank, though is not determinant of how you manage your cards. Good card management is determined by the rules of the game. Each hand needs particular skills to make that bank grow to its highest profitability before you collect it. As you are now aware, successful strategies differ greatly between the game versions.

To be just a mediocre player, pick a game that seems to you a winner, without any further contemplation. You may win an occasional hand, but you will lose the potential to learn how to raise your strategic skills above your opponents’ and thereby raise your earnings above theirs.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Rakeback at Ultimate Bet and Rakeback at Absolute Poker. Unique version for reprint here: Discovering Which Poker Game Will Make You The Most Profits.

Poker jargon can be like a different language, a dialect of English you might have trouble deciphering unless properly initiated into the world of poker.

No matter what the street (how many cards have been dealt = street) a player makes any one of the following decisions: to fold, to answer a bet, and to call. If a player responds to an obligatory bet on a preflop, that bet is known as a limp or limp in, the player himself is referred to as the limper. A player who calls a raise having placed no bet himself, that bet is referred to as a cold call.

To check – to place no bet if no bets were placed before you; to make the first bet is “to bet” (in no-limit poker special terms refer to different types of bets: continuation bet – a standard bet approximately the size of the bank, pot-bet – a bet approximately the size of the bank, and overbet – a bet significantly larger than the bank); to raise another player’s bet (if the bet has already been raised, than your raise may be called a re-raise or a 3-bet; if you were preceded by a re-raise, than the fourth allowed bet is called a cap and player is said to “cap the betting”).

The bank is interchangeable with the pot and consists of chips which have been put in by the players and make up the major prize (and major purpose) of the game. The “stack” is each player’s pile of chips. The bankroll is the total sum of the money available to a player in any one game. A player goes “all-in” should he bet his whole stack. When a player does go all-in, he can usually be seen pushing his chips toward the table’s center. By the way, “push” itself implies an all-in bet. A game continuing on after an all-in requires the bank to be divided into two parts: the main pot and the side pot.

When at the river (end of the game) two players or more have placed equal bets, it is known as a showdown. The winner of the showdown is the player with the strongest 5-card combination (aka hand). Rating the hands from strongest to lowest goes like this: royal flush, straight flush, quad (four of a kind), full-house, flush, straight, three of a kind (a set when a third card is added to a pocket pair), two pairs (a doper), pair or overpair which is stronger than the strongest single card on the table; in the flop, the cards are ranked as top, middle, and small pairs, and winding up the rear is the high card which is the card higher than the highest card on the table and is referred to as the overcard.

Strong hands are monsters, generally ranging from full-house up. The nuts is the strongest current hand. So he who holds the strongest current hand has the nuts.

The highest card of the five best cards, in the situation of even hands, is the one which is not part of any of the combinations listed in the above paragraph. This is known as the kicker. When players have similar combinations, a split bank is the result. Now you know.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Poker Nordica Rakeback as well as Rakeback at Betfair Poker.

In Poker, some games offer more potential for profit than others. Limit Hold’em was once the most popular online game. There remain many low to medium limit games, and also those with limits as high as $100/$200 per game. Because one can always find a hold’em game whether online or at a casino, it undoubtedly offers the most profit potential of any of the games. There are many not-so-hot players out there that do not rise to the level of the $20/$40 limit.

Being as popular as it is, it is everyone’s choice and so maintains its profitability and will be the go-to game for a long time.

There are tons of books written for the sole education of the limit hold’em player of any level. It is one of the most read about and studied forms of the game and if the student is diligent, he can learn a lot just by reading. With all this literature available, it is not difficult to learn how to make the right decisions in many situations.

The abovementioned advantages of the game lead directly to the increase of well read, agile players. Which brings us back to the fact that despite the accessibility and apparent profitability of Limit Holdem, it will not necessarily make you a millionaire. If you become no more than an average player, your overall profits are likely to amount to nothing more than near zero.

For you, who are determined to not be just an average player, you must do some soul searching to discover the game that best suits you. You know that poker is a game of chance of course, but it is also a game of skill, creativity and resourcefulness. It requires a tolerance for risk and a high degree of self control. You must find in your soul searching as accurately as you possibly can your tolerance for risk-taking and how you behave when you encounter it. Can you control yourself or do you run amok with impetuosity and careless behavior? Do you take uncalculated stabs at chance or do you carefully calculate the risk and either stop yourself or go ahead and enjoy the thrill if the odds are in your favor?

Once you have your risk level determined, if you find that you are the impulsive type, stay with the cup of quarters and the slot machines. If risk for you is something to be avoided, go on and play limit games – low limit for the most risk-averse, higher limits in proportion to your level of comfort at higher risks along the scale.

Players play with logic and/or insightfulness. If you are one who thinks you have things under control in most circumstances, observe yourself again and decide whether your bailiwick is calculating card combinations as they relate to all other combinations that you have observed in a very long game, or did you make your best efforts by latching on to your opponent’s body language and facial expressions (or lack thereof). For the latter type, the no-limit and MTT poker games are the best fit.

Of note, the psychologist has the best chance of becoming an all around expert player. High-limit games are hard to find, if not impossible. High risk is not profitable in the end. In conclusion, no-limit and tournament poker are both the most accessible and complex of poker challenges and provide the most suitable environs for the aspiring beginner.

The author is a successful limit cash game player. He plays poker online and receives Gutshot Poker Rakeback as well as Rakeback at Doyles Room.