Poker is a card game that involves betting between players. Depending on the rules of the game, there may be an initial amount of money put into the pot by the players to the left of the dealer before the cards are dealt (these are called forced bets). Then there is a round of betting that can take place before the flop, on the flop, and after the river (the fifth community card). Players can bet, call, check or raise.
The best poker players use a variety of different strategies. They study other players and learn how to read them, they practice bet size and position, and they work on their physical game to be able to play long poker sessions without losing concentration or getting tired. They also try to minimize luck in the game by avoiding bad beats and making bluffs that have a low probability of success.
One way to do this is by not limping into too many pots. When you open limp, it signals to the other players that you don’t have a strong hand. This gives them the information they need to make decisions about whether to call your bets and hope that you don’t improve, or to raise you when you do have a good hand and give you more value. This is why top players usually only limp into pots when they have a good reason to, such as a suited connector or a flop specific hand with implied odds.
