While many poker players contend that the most important decisions are made on the flop, that doesn’t mean we can totally ignore strategy for the river.  After all, the river is where hands actually pay off so it’s definitely worth taking a look at how to play the river.

Playing the river is all about knowing how to handle different situations at the end of a hand.  And one of the most common situations on the river is when you’re holding a good hand, but not the nuts.  For instance, say you hold Kh-Qh on a board of 10s-Qc-3h-Qd-Jd in a three-handed pot.

The small blind makes a raise while you and another player behind you still have to act.  On this board where there is no flush possibility and only a straight possibility, your trips queens are too good to fold.  But you can’t eliminate the possibility that a straight is out there so you should simply call to avoid being re-raised.

Another common river situation is when you’re heads-up with top pair and have been betting all along.  A good example of this is if you held As-Jc on a board of Ah-3d-9h-Qs-4h.  Unfortunately, a flush has landed on the river so you can’t be sure if your opponent is a fish who called your bets in hopes of hitting a flush later on.  How you bet will mainly depend on your position in this situation.

If you’re in early position, you should bet to show the possibility that you might have the ace-high flush.  Even if the other player calls, you have a chance to beat them based on the fact that they’re only holding a pair of queens.  If you’re in late position, you can either fold (if they’re a tight player who raises) or raise assuming you don’t think they’re check-raising.

One last situation is when you’ve hit a drawing hand on the river and have the nuts.  Obviously you want to get as much money as possible in the pot so how you bet depends on the opponent.  If the opponent is tight, you can make a small bet and hope that they’ll call just because of the pot size.  On the other hand, you can check-raise a more aggressive opponent.

Everyone admires how star poker players play, and they might even try emulating the way they play.  In fact, this is why many people like to watch the pros on TV shows because they think they’ll be able to pick up some major pointers this way.  And while watching poker on TV might not be the best way to learn the game for beginners, it’s still fun to do   With that in mind, here’s a look at how the following three pros play the game.

Phil Hellmuth

He holds the title of having won the most WSOP bracelets in history with 11. And his best game is no doubt No Limit Hold’em tournaments. Phil Hellmuth is emotional and aggressive at the table and it causes the other players to respect his bets and raises.  However, you’d be better off at using a less emotional style when playing cash games.

Phil Ivey

Ivey is known for being the top poker player in the world when all variations are taken into account. Of course Ivey’s absolute best variation is 7 Card Stud since he has won millions of dollars playing this in cash games and tournaments. Ivey is emotionless so he is able to mislead opponents easily, and he reads other players really well. So it’s no wonder why he is said to be the best in the world.

Chris “Jesus” Ferguson

He has obtained gold bracelets in Omaha, Texas Hold’em, and Stud, but out of the three poker disciplines, he is most successful in Stud. Ferguson is good with numbers and uses this to his advantage at the table. He also rarely gives off tells to other players, causing many to give up on trying to figure him out.

It stands to reason that you have a much better chance of being a successful poker player if you are able to dedicate your total attention to what’s going on at the table.  Unfortunately, this is a lot easier said than done when there are good TV shows on, text messages coming in on your phone, phone calls, great Internet articles to read, and a whole lot more waiting to steal your attention away from the game at hand.

However, it is of the upmost importance that you are able to focus not only on the hands you actually play, but also the on hands where you folded.  Here’s a good example on how a hand you folded away can hurt you when not given attention afterwards.

Let’s say that you pick up pocket queens in a $2/$4 game of No-Limit Hold’em and are in late position.  Two players limp in before you throw out a $25 raise and the small blind is the only player to call your raise.  The flop comes up 9c-6c-10h and the small blind decides to check before you throw out a $35 raise.  This prompts the small blind to call again and the turn is a harmless 4s.  You decide to make another raise of $55 and the small blind calls yet again before the river is shown to be an Ac.

Now you have no idea what to do since you’ve still only got a pair of queens and there are both straight and top pair opportunities on the board.  The worst part is that you have no idea what to do because you weren’t paying attention in the earlier hands.

In this example, let’s just say that the small blind player got involved in a previous hand where he laid down a set of 10’s face up where the only thing that would have beaten him was a better set or a backdoor straight.  Anybody who is even mildly aggressive would have called in this situation, but not the player we’re talking about because they’re tight/weak.  So if they’ve went all-in in the hand we’re playing, they need to have the nuts and we should’ve folded long before the river.

The key point here is that you can’t let distractions take you away from any hand because they are all critical.

J-10 is one of the trickiest hands in all of Texas Hold’em.  To start with, you’ve got little shot at making top pair with either of these cards since there is no doubt going to be a queen, king, or ace in somebody else’s hand.  So if you’re staying in the pot with this hand and hoping for top pair then you are wasting chips.

But the dilemma comes in when you consider the straight potential of J-10.  If the board does present you with a straight opportunity, then there’s a good chance that you’ll have the high straight with these cards.  Seeing as how there’s the potential to hit a big straight with J-10, you’ll want to look for situations with large multi-pots to play this hand.

The best spots to play J-10 in is obviously late position since you’ve seen how many players have limped into the pot.  If several players have limped in, then you have an excellent opportunity to call and see if you hit a drawing hand on the flop.  This situation will give you a great chance to wait for your hand before betting big.

The opportunities for playing J-10 only get better when you throw a lot of tight players into the mix since they won’t be as likely to make you pay to see cards.  If you can continue to see cards for cheap then you’ll be able to play your drawing hand into the turn and even river.

You can also semi-bluff with J-10 since it gives you a shot at getting some kind of hand down the line.  Just make sure that you’re semi-bluffing the right players though because you don’t want to be counting on the straight to come through in a bluffing situation.