Poker is a card game of chance and skill, with the player who forms the best poker hand winning the pot (all bets placed during the hand). The cards are dealt out face down and the players make their bets before the cards are revealed.
The poker strategy used in the game is dependent on the individual player and is often tweaked based on experience. While there are many books on the subject, most poker players develop their own strategy through detailed self-examination and discussion with other poker players.
While the outcome of a single hand involves some element of chance, poker is a game in which skill dominates chance over the long run. This is largely due to the fact that players place bets voluntarily based on their understanding of probability, psychology and game theory.
As you play more hands, you will learn to recognize the betting patterns of other players. You can identify conservative players who tend to fold early in the hand, as well as risk-taking players who bet high on the flop. Knowing how to spot these players will allow you to read them better and bluff them into making mistakes.
Suck outs in poker are painful, but you can learn to avoid them by playing with disposable income and keeping your emotions under control. A good poker player can be very unlucky from time to time, but bad beats are more often the result of poor decisions than an unfair act of the poker gods.