When you are in a town or city, move your player by clicking a location. You can walk almost anywhere, but usually you'll be navigating to characters with icons over their heads:
Tournament game: Play these to advance in the game; most objectives revolve around tournament results.

Hat shop: Until you've won the star off of a tournament, you need to wear to a suitable hat from the hat shop. You should buy a hat of the next color before you travel to a town with a star. I generally wear the hat that corresponds to the color of the towns I'm traveling between. For most of the game though, the hat you wear is just for looks.

Cash game: Play these 5-player games for extra cash and possibly houses. Unlock it by raising your reputation in the town. These otherwise have no effect on the campaign.

Bank: Borrow money here. Your borrowing limit is determined by the town you are in, and you carry over debt from town to town. Interest rate is 0%. You might use this early game when your rent income is low, but once you start to own orange towns, you shouldn't need the bank at all.

Modes of transportation: You can travel between towns according to the state map for a fee, or for free if you own the mode of transportation.

Other person of interest: These characters want to play you for some physical asset like a mine or a mode of transportation, or for a place on the notorious player list.

Most of your time will be spent looking at the poker table. The game in GOP2 is no-limit Texas Hold-em. This means that there is only a minimum bet, and a player can bet up to his or her entire stack.

When it's your turn, it looks something like this:
Fold - give up your hand and any bet already made.
Fold & Skip - fold and speed up the current hand until the showdown.
Check/Call - match the current bet in the round.
Bet/Raise/All-In* - increase the minimum bet needed to continue playing/bet all your chips in the pot.

*The Bet/Raise/All-In button works together with the slider underneath the buttons. By default, clicking the Bet/Raise button will perform a minimum bet/raise. If you want to bet/raise further, you need to adjust the slider first, and then click the Bet/Raise button. Notice that the slider is not to scale. Also, if you click the button when the bet amount by the slider is $0, the game will not register your click as a raise; just pay attention when raising.

• GOP2 calculates side pots.
  
• Showing vs. hiding cards: If everyone has folded to you, you can choose to show or hide your cards. If you show that you've bluffed, it could send the AIs on tilt, making them more prone to mistakes. However, I prefer to hide my cards because AIs that are on tilt are more aggressive and unpredictable, and in most situations where I play against a steamy AI, the AI would hit runners to make a backdoor hand on a huge pot. In Pro mode, AIs are much more level-headed and harder to send on tilt.
  
• Clicking on your hat during your turn performs a chip trick. No idea if it affects the AIs, but it looks cool.
  
• Clicking on your hat after the hand is over will blow steam out of your ears (expressing being on tilt). No idea if it affects the AIs, but clicking frantically relieves some of your stress.
  
• If you are unsure about the relative strength of your current hand, you can hover over the information icon in the top right corner to see the following reference sheet:
  Given the table from the first screenshot, the reference sheet tells me I have a pair of 5s.

You don't have to pay too much attention to the campaign itself. Your goal should be to win matches, which makes the money you need to buy everything in Texas you need to progress through the game. The campaign is divided into stages: Yellow, Orange, Purple, and Green. Houses you buy on the map generate income, and by the time you reach purple cities, your daily rent income pays for your buy-ins (assuming you've bought and won enough properties by then). However, early in the game you have to win tournaments because it is your only significant source of income.

NOTE: Rent income is NOT collected while you are traveling (not sure if this is a bug).

Houses can be sold back at 80% of the buying value. Don't expect properties to pay for themselves throughout the game.

*IMPORTANT: When you play for these physical assets, you are paying for the game to win the asset. Win or lose, you will end up with less cash.

As you win the mines and modes of transportation, "boss" players will challenge you heads-up. The Governor will not play you until you've beaten them all. The buy-ins are higher for players higher on the list, but if you win, you keep your buy-in.

Once you have bought all properties, won all assets, and beaten all other notorious players, you can play the Governor. He will ask for a buy-in of $15K plus all the houses in Dallas (for a total buy-in of about $33K). If you lose, you give up your buy-in and lose two places on the notorious player list, meaning that you have to beat two players again before playing a rematch against the Governor. If you win, you become the new Governor of Texas!

First, some observations about the AI and general tips:

• The AIs are not human and not very sophisticated, so don't think too hard about their strategies. The AIs are generally very cautious, except when they are stupid. Example:
  The 10 o'clock and 4 o'clock opponents folded after my raise even though the board is guaranteed to be a split pot.
  
• The AIs like to stay quiet when they hit something on the flop, but tend to raise high if they make a hand on the turn or river, especially if it's a high pair or better.
  
• After the flop, if an opponent opens or raises over 4 times the minimum bet, most of the time it is a bluff. I usually reraise to claim the pot; calling allows the possibility of your opponent making or improving his/her hand on the next card.
  
• Pay attention to when and how often the opponents look at their cards. It gives you insight into what they have or what they are looking for. For example, the AIs like to check if they have a straight draw or flush draw before acting.
  
• Pay attention to whether an opponent starts thinking before looking at their cards and raising. If they do this, it usually means they are gambling the hand.
  
• In later towns, AIs will have more randomness in their betting strategies, but the biggest difference from earlier towns is that they are more likely to not believe that you have a hand. This comes from the AI's evaluation of pot odds, so if you raise high enough and the AI doesn't have a made hand, you can usually still bully them into folding.
  
• In all-in situations, what happens after a call is more about luck than about bluffing.

As with real poker, you should have one strategy for large table situations and another for heads-up situations.

Decide on which kinds of hands you are willing to play pre-flop, depending on whether you have a chip advantage or you are short stack. When more players are involved in a hand, the more important it is to rely on the strength of your hand. Don't hesitate to fold good cards if you know you are beaten.

The following is my play style against GOP2 AIs, which has generally worked well for me. These points are vague because a lot depends on the situation.

Pre-flop:

• Under the gun. Call with good hole cards, otherwise fold. Avoid raising.
  
• On the button, no one calls. Minimum raise to try to claim the blinds, unless hole cards are strong, in which case call.
  
• On the button, few calls. Raise with good hole cards, call with big stack, otherwise fold.
  
• On the button, many calls. Call with good hole cards, otherwise fold. Avoid raising.
  
• Small or big blind, many calls. Call or check. Avoid raising. Can fold small blind if cards are like, 2-7 off-suit.

Flop:

• Under the gun, many players. Check.
  
• Under the gun, few players, 3 to a straight or flush absent from flop. Raise with overcards, otherwise check.
  
• On the button, checked, many players. Minimum raise with decent hand, otherwise check.
  
• On the button, checked, few players. Check or high raise.
  
• On the button, minimum bet, many players. Call or minimum raise.
  
• On the button, minimum bet, few players. Call or fold.
  
• On the button, a lot to call, many players. Reraise with best hand, otherwise fold.
  
• On the button, a lot to call, one player. Reraise unless convinced opponent has better hand.

Turn:

• Under the gun, many players. Check.
  
• Under the gun, few players. Check if you open raised on the flop and someone reraised. High raise if you think you can bully them out of any draws.
  
• On the button, checked, many players. Minimum raise with made hand, otherwise check.
  
• On the button, checked, few players. If bets were made on the flop, raise with made hand, otherwise check.
  
• On the button, minimum bet, many players. Call with strong hand or fold.
  
• On the button, minimum bet, few players. Call with good draw odds or fold.
  
• On the button, a lot to call, many players. Reraise with made strong hand, call with good draw odds, otherwise fold.
  
• On the button, a lot to call, one player. Reraise with better hand, otherwise fold.

River:

• Under the gun. Check (check-raise if you think you have the best hand and someone bets).
  
• On the button, checked. Check.
  
• On the button, minimum bet. Call if pot is large and you have high card or better, otherwise fold.
  
• On the button, a lot to call, many players. Reraise with strongest hand, otherwise fold.
  
• On the button, a lot to call, one player. Reraise with better hand, otherwise fold.

In any other position or situation, I play some variation or hybrid of the above points. For example, if I'm the last person to act in a betting round even if I'm not on the button, I treat myself as the button player.

From the above, it's obvious that I like to raise without a made hand, waiting for the other players to fold or call; and sit on a made hand, waiting for the other players to act first. Without a made hand, I like to gather information by seeing how they respond to the raise (the AIs like to check on the flop even when they make a hand, so I avoid giving them a chance to get away with such a check). With a made hand, I want opponents to think I don't have a good hand. Also I like to open limp instead of raising, and this is because my experience with open raises is that the AIs are generally too cautious or too lucky for them to pay off. (They fold or make backdoor hands too often.)

The fact that your decisions are based on only one other player is a great advantage over the AI. Be aggressive, taking advantage of the fact that the AIs are generally cautious. This mode is far easier than tournament games, even in notorious player challenges.

The following is my play style in GOP2 heads-up games:

Pre-flop:

• Big blind, opponent limps in. Minimum raise if good hole cards, high raise if big stack and decent hole cards, check if short stack.
  
• Big blind, opponent minimum raise. Call if decent hole cards, reraise if good hole cards.
  
• Big blind, opponent high raise. Reraise.
  
• On the button. Call only if on short stack with decent hole cards, otherwise raise.

Flop:

• Big blind, opponent limped in pre-flop. Raise.
  
• Big blind, opponent raised pre-flop. Check-raise with the better hand, otherwise check.
  
• On the button, opponent checks. Raise (continuation bet).
  
• On the button, opponent minimum bet. Reraise with better hand, call with good draw odds, otherwise fold.
  
• On the button, opponent high raise. Reraise.

Turn:

• Big blind: Check.
  
• On the button, opponent checks. Check.
  
• On the button, opponent raises. Reraise with better hand, call with good draw odds, otherwise fold.

River:

• Big blind: Check-raise with the better hand.
  
• On the button, opponent checks. Raise with better hand, otherwise check.
  
• On the button, opponent raises. Reraise with better hand, otherwise fold.

In GOP2, it is a good assumption to make that if a heads-up opponent calls you after the turn, they have made a hand. At that point, you can try to bully your opponent out of their hand or play your luck at draws. In later towns, it is rare that opponents will fold their pair after the flop. (Or maybe the AIs are good enough to know that I actually don't have a hand but raised anyway.)

A note on cash games in the green towns: Since the buy-in is only 4 big blinds, it might be best to treat these games as gambles--all-in or bust.

Lucky AIs? A lot of people complain that the odds are stacked against the player or that the AI peeks at the game state, etc. I haven't encountered this behavior; every time I am forced all-in, I know it's because I made a mistake on some previous hand that cost me big because I was too obstinate to fold. Many quads do emerge on the table, but I only encounter them once every few games. I made quads once during my entire campaign, and never have I seen a straight flush in the game. Any poker enthusiast should know that, e.g., if you flop a set and see two cards of a flush, you should seriously consider what the other guy could have. Also, even if the odds of something happening are low, it does not mean it can't happen often.

Finally, some tips from the first Governor of Poker that I find are good bits of advice to carry over:

• Although Ace-Ace is the best starting hand, it's still just a pair.
  
• When you have three of a kind, beware of the three flush cards on the table.
  
• When you have a flush, beware of the pair on the board and a higher flush.
  
• Calling with average hands will make you lose in the long run.
  
• Never let emotion override your reason.

Like in real poker, you need to keep your cool and think. Learn your opponents and mold your strategy around this information, and you will find yourself Governor of Texas no problem!