Sit down at a tournament and know the price.

Royal flush, straight flush, four of a kind, full house, flush, straight, three of a kind, two pair, one pair, high card. You make the best five-card hand from your two hole cards and the five on the board, using both, one or none of yours.

• Aces go both ways. A-2-3-4-5 is a straight, but straights don't wrap: Q-K-A-2-3 is just ace high.
• Kickers settle ties. On A-9-7-4-2, A-K beats A-Q. A kicker only counts if it's one of your best five cards.
• Suits never break a tie. Equal hands split the pot, and sometimes the board itself is everyone's best hand.

A full table seats nine, named from the button: small blind, big blind, Under the Gun, UTG+1, UTG+2, the lojack, the hijack, the cutoff and the button. The button moves one seat left every hand, so everyone plays every position in turn.

Before the flop, UTG acts first and the big blind acts last. After it, the button acts last. Acting last means you see everything before you decide, so you can play more hands from the cutoff and the button than from the early seats.

When it's folded to you, Table Ready's chart raises about 13% of hands from UTG, 25% from the hijack, 35% from the cutoff and 49% from the button. UTG opens hands that hold up: pairs from 55, strong aces and suited broadways. The chart raises or folds; it never limps.

• Open small as stacks shrink. 2.5 big blinds above 40 bb, 2.2 bb from 25 to 40 bb, and 2 bb below 25 bb.
• Facing a raise, three-bet, call or fold. Three-bet the strongest hands, like QQ+ and AK against an early open. Call with hands that play well after the flop. Fold the rest.
• Defend the big blind wider. It already has a big blind in and closes the action, so it gets the best price at the table.

The pot holds 200 and your opponent bets 100. It costs 100 to call, and after your call the pot is 400, so you need to win at least 25% of the time. That's your required equity: your call divided by the pot after you call.

Count your outs, the unseen cards that give you the best hand. A flush draw has 9, an open-ended straight draw 8, a gutshot 4. Multiply by 4 on the flop and by 2 on the turn to get your equity: 9 outs is about 36% with two cards to come and about 18% with one.

Then compare. All in on the flop for a half-pot bet with a flush draw, you need 25% and have about 36%: call. Facing a pot-sized bet on the turn you need 33% and have about 18%: fold.

The blinds rise every level, and your stack only grows when you win pots. Count it in big blinds, not chips: 30,000 chips is 30 bb at 500/1,000 but only 10 bb at 1,500/3,000. Once the big-blind ante starts there are 2.5 bb in the pot before anyone acts, so stealing the blinds matters more as the levels climb.

• At 15 bb or less, push or fold. Raising and folding to a re-raise costs too much of your stack. The shorter you are and the nearer the button, the wider you shove.
• Respect the pay jumps. Near the bubble, the chips you lose are worth more than the chips you win, so call all-ins more tightly than you would shove.

• Act in turn, and say it. Wait for the player on your right. Anything you say in turn is binding, so say "call", "raise" or "raise to 2,500" clearly.
• One motion. Put chips out in one forward motion. Going back to your stack without saying "raise" first is a string bet, and only the first amount counts.
• Protect your cards. Keep a chip or card protector on them. If the dealer mucks unprotected cards, you usually have no comeback.
• Show both cards to win. And don't muck a hand that might be best until the dealer has read it.
• Chips stay in view. Pocketing tournament chips can get you disqualified.