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Introduction

In this article

• When to play a standard line and when to not.
• Why to play a standard line.
  
• How to deal with made hands and draws.
  

Every strategic poker player has a more or less fixed repertoire of playing styles which he applies in certain situations. Depending on many factors, various situations can be differentiated, categorized and associated with favourable lines.

In the Bronze section, Standard Playing styles against one Opponent were already described and explained. They are moves which relate to the flop and the following turn play, and represent, in defined situations with certain kinds of hands, the optimal playing style, in most cases.

These categorisations are an indispensable tool to reduce the great complexity of FL Hold'em, with the goal of picking the optimal playing style in many situations, without having to analyse the whole hand (even mathematically) in the short amount of time you usually have.

This article expands upon the topic of standard lines. You'll learn the detailed identification and application of the criteria which represent the optimal playing style of a standard line. They depend on the position, the initiative, your hand strength in relation to the type of opponent and the board texture. How to evaluate these parameters so as to determine the correct decision will be explained in the following.