It was one of the most expensive video games of all time to develop and is played by millions of people across the globe. Red Dead Redemption 2 is a western video game classic with a faithful rendition of frontier living – including poker.
Games have developed so much in recent years that we’re actually at the point where it can be daunting sitting down at the poker table in Red Dead. This is why I’ve revealed a couple of traditional strategies that will boost your chances of winning.
Have an understanding of hand values
There’s a good reason why the packs of cards that are supplied with poker sets come with a clear illustration of hand values. Knowing the values of the cards in poker is a tactic that not only works in a traditional home game of poker, it’s also a great strategy for winning on Red Dead.
The reason that knowing the hand values works is that it’s a long term approach – any player can luck their way into a big win, in just the same way the reverse can happen, but it’s about understanding why it happened and then replicating it.
It’s really not rocket science. In fact, it’s how you should play every card game. For instance, the basic blackjack strategy tells you how to act based on the value of your hand – giving you a mathematical approach to get the maximum from your games. When playing poker in Red Dead, knowing the value of your hand will help you work out the odds for each possible outcome – allowing you to get max value from your session.
This is the basis for the popular strategy of counting cards, a trick that relies on you keeping track of what has been played to determine when high cards are left in the deck, essentially meaning you can cheat the system. You may ask, is card counting illegal? It’s absolutely legal; the danger is in the big casinos catching you doing it. That’s not a problem in the virtual wild west.
Don’t be held back by the flop cards
I told you earlier that knowing the poker card values is one of the best traditional strategies for winning on the Red Dead. Now, this still holds true, but there are times when you shouldn’t be beholden to your card values – no, I’m not talking about bluffing, I’m talking about those times when you don’t flop top pair or better.
While the players you square up against on Red Dead aren’t total idiots, they’re certainly not as sophisticated as you might fear. They’re often more aggressive than their hand gives them license to be, meaning that if you’ve made a pair of queens from a king-high flop, then there’s still a good chance you’ve got the best hand.
Not allowing the flop cards to hold you back is a strategy that’s always been used in poker and it’s one that I use myself. However, what you should not do in Red Dead is to take it a step further by using the traditional strategy of bluffing. This is because the game’s players will call you down with pretty much any hand. This means that if you have nothing, you’re almost certain to lose.
Red Dead Redemption is one of the most popular Western-style video games ever released. Its poker element adds a sense of realism to the game, along with giving you a gentle way of playing the world’s most popular card game. By knowing the card values and not being held back by the flop cards, you’ll improve your chances of winning at Red Dead – so make sure you use them next time you play!
