The opening of any poker game is like chess. If you have a good opening, chances are you will win. The opening is a very key part of the game, as it segways you into the rest of the game.


To start off with, when you get your hole cards for the first hand of the tornament (Or any hand for that matter) you need to inspect your cards, so as to see if its worth playing on.
A good example of good hole cards are pairs, Jacks, Kings, Queens and Aces or 2 cards of the same suit of any value. These cards give you a signifigant advantage in the Flop, Turn and River sections of a hand.

Lets just say I get a Queen of Hearts and a 7 of Hearts, these cards are good due to the same suit and reletively high value of the cards. You would only need an 8, 9, 10 and a Jack to win, or 3 more Hearts to have a Straight or Flush. With this hand, I would keep playing as the odds are in my favor for winning, this may change when the Flop comes, so keep that in mind when playing.

If I got a 3 of Diamonds and a 4 of Spades, these are particularly bad cards as they both are low value and different suits. However that doesn't stop a 3 Of A Kind of either of these cards from winning the hand, but cards like these would leave me thinking twice about playing the hand, especially with high stakes involved. Try to avoid betting too much on cards that:

- Are on opposite sides of the card value spectrum. E.g, a 2 of Clubs and a 10 of Spades.
- Have different suits to one another that aren't in a sequential order (7 and an 8) or pairs.

With this wall of text done, here are a few tips

- Make sure that you are confident in your cards, weigh the odds and if you feel something good inside your cards, bet as you will.
- Try to avoid bluffing before the Flop, as this results in the AI calling or everyone folding.
- Don't be afraid to fold bad cards before the flop, Its better to be safe than sorry.

With betting, its importaint to scale the bet to your cards unless you intend to bluff or lead the AI along with bait. Don't go all in on a pair of 5's hoping that mabye, you might pick up another 5 in the community cards or that your opponent has a lower pair than you. Because most of the time, this ends up blowing up in your face.


As I mentioned earlier, think about your cards, weigh the odds before you bet, and more importaintly look at what the AI has betted.

When it comes time for the Flop after the pre-flop bets, you will then compare your cards to the community cards (This goes for both Omaha and Hold 'Em). With this in mind, if you see any signifigent increases in hand value, then make a bet to lure in the AI and make sure its scaled to the cards. Make sure to look at what the AI is betting and consider what cards they may have to make them bet as big as they are.

Say I have a 10 and an 8 (suits don't matter for this example), and Brock Samson over here has two 10's
If a 10 and an 8 come out with the Flop or Turn, then watch Brock's betting pattern. With high bets usually means high value hands and Brock's hand is a 3 Of A Kind while yours is a 2 Pair. Think about what the AI might have, and if you think the betting is getting to high, just fold.

Some tips to refresh the content:

- Don't start betting the house and a year's worth of taxes before the flop even comes out, as this will result in folds by most if not every memeber of the table, and you are left with a small sum at the end.

- Try to come out with big bets near the end of the hand, as most of the money is sunk into the Flop and Turn cards. With no other choice other than 'lose all your money', your opponents will be forced into continuing or folding.

To bluff is a hard thing to pull off in real life poker with risk of giving away your secret, but in Poker Night 2, its harder. The AI has a tendency to just roll with whatever bet you put in, even if their cards are ♥♥♥♥ (I'm looking at you Ash).


To pull off the bluff is a wonderful feeling though, the thrill of outsmarting a computer is so joyful sometimes. Just ask GLaDOS.

But I digress.

The term 'to bluff' means that you are placing a high value on something (A big bet) that is of lower value to your bet (Say an all in $20,000 for a pair of 4's) This works well in real games as the mind is torn between 2 choices, 'Lose money', when they fold, or 'Risk losing money', when they play the hand on.

With bluffing, it will do you well to remember that bluffs work best near endgames, where most of the money has already been put in, but one card can still be a game changer for any player. The aim of this would be to make players feel helpless and tight in their situaltion as they either A: Cough up the hefty bet that you make for the bluff and risk losing or B: Fold the cards and lose all the money that they put in. It is a devilish practice and comes in great handy when you are versing just one other player.

The key is to make the bet unreachable to the opposition without a great risk, so as to make them torn between the 2 choices, having a good amount of money helps here.

Now we move on the the most crucial bit of this entire guide, Tells. Because without them, this game would be so much harder.

Tells are the unhidable things that people do when certain things happen, for example when beating a tough video game, most people would start cheering and clapping for joy. Not saying that every poker game is going to have people clapping away when they get their Straight, but you get the point.

Every character has tells, good and bad ones. Knowing these tells and being able to distinguish them will be what wins you many tornaments. Some tells are more obvious than others, for example Brock might want to take some anger managment classes to stop the steam comming out his ears when he gets a bad hand.

With all the characters, tells will be able to notify you of when you need to bring out the big bucks, or to keep those wads of money tucked away for another hand. Buying drinks using inventory tokens makes tells more common and noticible, the more drinks, the more tells. Some examples of tells are.

Claptrap:
- When he adjusts his retina lense = POSSIBLE GOOD HAND / IN THOUGHT
- When he leans forward after being delt in = BAD HAND

Ash
- Makes a slashing motion with his right hand = GOOD HAND
- Picking his teeth = PLEASED WITH HAND / GOOD HAND

Sam
- Tugs at his collar = BLUFFING
- His betting patterns are good to note.
- Straightening his tie = GOOD HAND

Brock
- Scratching the back of his head = POSSIBLE GOOD HAND / IN THOUGHT
- Whispering while making bets and checks = BAD HAND

Well this guide is now being brought to a close. Let me know what you thought of the guide and if it helped your poker experience, For the tells section, I did use the Poker Night 2 Wiki, If you want to check that out: http://theinventory.wikia.com/wiki/Poker_Night_at_the_Inventory_Wiki

(I apologise for the walls of text, here is a picture of a sad dog after reading these text walls)