Poker offers players an enormous number of different techniques and stratagems. Players need to master as many as possible and mix them up often. It is better to be unpredictable to the opposition, even if you make some mistakes, than to play an otherwise perfect game in a perfectly predictable way.

There is no one, single poker strategy, any more than there is any money-making "system" for casinos or sports books. There is no Holy Grail of poker. For that reason, no single player should possess only one strategy.

Poker offers players an enormous number of different techniques and stratagems. Players need to master as many as possible and mix them up often. It is better to be unpredictable to the opposition, even if you make some mistakes, than to play an otherwise perfect game in a perfectly predictable way.

Poker authors talk about strategies of all kinds: Some are best adapted to combating the playing styles of your adversaries. Others are best suited for playing certain types of hands. Early in the game it may make sense, for example, to play somewhat passively, probing for tells and information. In the late game it may make sense to play in a more predatory way, honing in for the kill. That is an example of a poker strategy.

Writers may talk of strategies for "profit-maximization" - one of those rare, strong, pat hands in the middle of good competition. Other strategies might be for mere "survival" - staying in a game with a weak hand that might draw well.

Another context in which the term "strategy" is employed is the competition at the table and the stakes being played. When stakes are low, even skilled and experienced players may play much looser than normal, just for fun or entertainment. Newer players, unaccustomed to seeing their chips migrate to other stacks, might play squeaky tight. You can profit from a loose or careless player, or from a tight player, but it is hard to do both at once. It is all in the "strategy" chosen.

In truth, it is a bit unfair to make the single word "strategy" carry so many meanings. A useful distinction is the one made in the military between "strategy" on the one hand and "tactics" on the other. Strategies are more long term scenarios for reaching an ultimate objective. A long-run strategy for the evening in a social game may be to enjoy the camaraderie and end perhaps just a bit ahead of break-even. Or it could be to maximize earnings, regardless of the social impact. Tactics, meanwhile, are the means employed to reach some short-run or intermediate goal.