caibitefau1977.netlify.com

Texas holdem replay poker: ID Keyword Suggestions Search Volume Results Google Search CPC; 1: texas holdem replay poker: 59217: 563626951: advanced texas holdem: $13.7USD: 2: no limit texas holdem tournament strategy: 51391: 755823596: no limit texas holdem tournament strategy: $42.6USD: 3: texas holdem bonus odds: 98148: 14731927: texas holdem.

Poker is a lot like sex. Everyone thinks they are the best, but most don’t have a clue what they are doing. — Dutch Boyd

• Phil Hellmuth: Betting Checklist ♠♦ Advanced Texas Holdem Poker Strategy Tips from Professionals 2017 Poker Strategy Texas Holdem Online was created to give.
• Poker Coach and Consultant, Author of 'The Myth of Poker Talent' David Williams. WPT World Champion and WSOP Main Event Runner-up. Author of 8 best-selling poker strategy books. Over $7 Million in earnings, 3 WSOP and 2 WPT Titles. WSOP Analyst, former Ultimate Poker.

It is very true, but hopefully by and reading our Texas Holdem Strategy section you will at least have a clue how to do well at one of them!

One of the great benefits of poker is that it is quite easy to learn the basics. The rules are quite simple and allow easy access for beginners. However, on the other hand, it is a tough game to master; there’s always something to improve upon or learn.

The basic strategy below should provide you with the groundwork for developing a dominant poker game. We link to some more advanced material throughout for anyone that is further ahead of the trend.

Get the PDF version of the complete Poker 101 guide for offline use (30+ pages of poker goodness). Use one of the buttons below to unlock:

Thank you for your support. Get your Poker 101 Guide here.

Table Of Contents

• Preflop Texas Holdem Strategy
  • Starting Hand Types
• Postflop Texas Holdem Strategy
• Texas Holdem Strategy: Betting and Raising

Preflop Texas Holdem Strategy

Your preflop poker strategy forms the foundation of your game. Your first decisions will be made preflop during a hand, so it is important to get these decisions right. Thankfully this is one of the easier areas of the game to understand.

So to help you understand let’s take a quick example (click the picture to see the full replay):

We have JTs (J = Jack, T = Ten and the ‘s’ after JT means both cards are of the same suit. An ‘o' after the JT would refer to off-suit)in the first position under the gun (UTG) on a six-handed table with $1/$0.5 BB and SB. We have to decide what to do: we can raise, call (otherwise known as a limp) or fold. There are a huge number of factors which we need to take into account, and unfortunately, I won’t be able to cover them all. But I will try to cover the most fundamental factors in the coming paragraphs.

Firstly, it is very common to see new players play too many hands. They believe that they can outplay their opponents post-flop and turn a profit even with the weakest hands. This belief isn’t the case and often is the main reasons a new player loses money when starting out.

Only Play A Small Percentage Of The Hands You are Dealt

Thus the first preflop poker strategy tip is to play only a small percentage of the hands you are dealt – the type of hands to play will be discussed further on in the text. Players who play a small selection of the hand they are dealt are referred to as tight. Conversely, players who play lots of hands are known as loose.

The vast majority of winning poker players are relatively tight, and for the most part, losing players are loose. Therefore, the first important poker strategy tip:

Preflop Poker Strategy Tip 1: Only play a small percentage of the hands you are dealt.

Luckily, JTs is in the top 12% of hands and therefore is a hand we would want to continue with, in this case. We can determine ‘how strong' a hand is using a program called Equilab. So our options are now to raise or to call because our hand is too strong to fold.

This result leads onto a second reason new players are unsuccessful – frequent limping

Limping is defined as calling the big blind instead of raising or folding. For example, you are first to act after you have been dealt two aces (AA) or like our example with JTs and instead of raising, you just call – this is called a limp.

Limping: Flawed Reasoning

Often, new players limp to see a cheap flop with speculative hands or to trap with strong hands such as AA or KK. Good winning players very rarely limp and there are many reasons why:

1. You give the other players a chance to beat you with their weak holdings. For example, if you limp with AA and your opponent in the big blind checks behind he will have a chance to outdraw you to three of a kind or two-pair. Do not give people a free chance to improve and beat your strong hands.
2. Raising with good hands builds the pot. A big hand deserves a big pot! Typically the only way you will win an opponent’s whole stack (all of their chips) is by raising preflop; winning their entire stack is what you want when you have AA or KK, right?
3. It allows you to better understand what your opponent may have. If we limp in and our opponent is in the big blind, he could have every possible hand; however, when we raise our opponent will fold some of the worse hands and the type of hands he can have become more defined. Experienced players use this to their advantage.
4. Playing speculative hands (hands which could potentially, but infrequently win a big pot) such as 64s (s = suited, o = offsuit) and T2s just is not profitable in the majority of cases, whether you raise or limp, and no matter how good you are at poker.

Preflop poker strategy Tip 2: Never limp preflop

Example: JTs Under the gun

Since limping (i.e. just calling) is not an option our only option is to raise. That poses the question of how much? In this case, we will raise to 3x the BB, so $3 and one player calls our bet as shown. We will cover the reason we use 3x later in the article.

Three times the BB is a standard raise size which we will go into later in this article under the heading “Texas Holdem betting strategy”. But first, a little more on aggression to drive home the point:

You should only raise or fold your hands when first entering the pot. However, calling with some hands after someone else has raised is fine. There are some situations where open limping is a good idea but they are so few and far between that never limping is a good starting preflop poker strategy – especially for a beginner.

This leads to another generalization of how people play poker:

Aggressive vs. Passive

In poker, an aggressive opponent is a player who bets and raises frequently. A passive opponent is a player who calls and checks often and very rarely bets or raises.

Aggression is one of the keys to success in poker for one simple reason: When you bet or raise, you have two ways to win the pot – either your opponent folds or you get to showdown with the best hand.

Unfortunately, when a player is passive there is only one way to win the pot – by having the best hand. This difference is hugely important and is the reason all big winners are aggressive poker players; while most losing poker players are quite passive.

Preflop poker strategy Tip 3: Take the initiative and be aggressive. Bet and raise your strong hands frequently and don’t rely on others to do the betting for you!

The four playing styles

In total there are four player styles:

1. Tight-Aggressive (TAg) – This player type which makes up the majority of the winning player pool. They wait for strong hands and bet and raise them hard, punishing other players who play weaker styles.
2. Loose-Aggressive (LAg) – successful loose aggressive players are few and far between. They play lots of hands and play them very aggressively. It is a tough style to play but also a tough style to combat!
3. Tight-Passive – this player type does not play very many hands and when they do the play them by calling and checking frequently. These players lose their money slowly but surely.
4. Loose-Passive – these player types just don’t like to fold. Loose passive players play lots of hands – sometimes over 50% of the hands they are dealt. They are the complete opposite of tight-aggressive. This player type is the biggest loser and where the big winners make their money.

So what hands should you play? That is a difficult question to answer since it depends on many factors – what position you are in, how many opponents are on the table, how likely your opponents are to raise, the equity of your hand, how many BB you have and how many hands you have been raising recently.

Starting Hand Types

However, there are some basic starting hands that you should almost always be playing:

Premium Hands

There are very few premium hands in poker but when we do get these hands we should be trying to build a pot as big as possible and as quickly as possible. These hands are:

AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK – the top pocket pairs and Ace-King. AK is considered to be a powerful hand because:

• It dominates all other strong non-paired hands (e.g. AQ and KQ),
• Against a pair, it's nearly a coin flip with approximately 45% pot equity (will win the pot 45% of the time if we are to go all-in preflop)
• It blocks AA and KK which are the only two hands which have a significant equity advantage.

These hand should always be raised and often re-raised to begin building the pot.

Strong Hands

Strong hands are hands you should also always be raised when first entering the pot. These hands should be called when someone has already raised before you. These hands include:

AQ, AJ, AT, KQ and 99-TT. Large suited and connected hands such as QJs, JTs, are also considered strong hands. Suited hands derive their strength from being able to make flushes. However, do not overestimate the value of suited hands. Don’t play a hand just because it is suited. The value of a hand is derived from the combination of the ranks of the two hole cards. Example: AQ is much stronger than Q5, AQ is still much stronger than Q5 suited.

Preflop poker strategy tip 4: Do not overestimate the value of ‘suitedness.' Evaluate the strength of the hand from the rank of the two hole cards.

Medium Strength Hands

You need to be careful of this hand type. These hands can make you a big winner if correctly played, but when incorrectly played can cost you lots of chips. These hands include:

KJ, KT, QJ, JT and 22-88. Medium suited connectors such as 87s are also considered to be medium-strength hands.

You will play different hands from various starting positions. Details on this require a separate section – for more on the differences in the positions read position is king which will provide a “beginners starting hand chart.

Summary Of Preflop Texas Holdem Strategy

In summary, preflop you should:

1. You should play a small percentage of the hands you are dealt.
2. Never limp.
3. Take the initiative and be aggressive. Raise and Reraise your strong hands frequently and don’t rely on others to do the raising for you!
4. Do not overestimate the value of ‘suitedness.' Evaluate the strength of the hand from the rank of the two hole cards.

If all you take from this section is these four points you will still have significantly improved your chances of winning.

For a summary of preflop poker strategy see the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNgcJ4AmjGA

Postflop Texas Holdem Strategy

Once you understand right preflop Texas Holdem strategy, the postflop poker strategy becomes significantly easier. When you play weak hands from poor positions poker is quite difficult; nobody likes to play Q7 from out of position (Out of position means you act first, so your opponent will have more information than you)! However, if you play only a narrow range of hands from good starting positions, as is recommended, poker will become a much simpler prospect.

Postflop, there are many factors which we must take into account before we make a decision. The number of variables makes each decision quite complicated for a beginner. However, there are a few guidelines and concepts which can be understood which will help you in the decision-making process.

Postflop Poker Strategy – The Basics

One of the most important considerations is if we are in position (IP) or out of position (OOP). We will cover this in more detail in Position is king.

Secondly, we should be considering what our opponent may be holding. Does our opponent have only strong hands if he is a tight player? Does he play lots of hands meaning his ‘range’ of hands will be quite weak? See more on how to hand read.

A whole book could be written on hand reading, so I won’t go further into it. But it is important as a new player to begin thinking about what your opponent may have. Do not only consider the hand you are holding.

Postflop poker strategy Tip 1: Always consider what your opponent could be holding.

Next, we should consider the board texture. For example, is the board likely to have improved your hand or your competitors? Is the board likely to change very much on the turn or river? These considerations will be detailed further on in this guide.

Another consideration is how many players made it to the flop. If the flop is heads up (only you and your opponent) the strength of each hand is much better than if five or even six people made it to the flop. The more players that see the flop, turn, and river the less likely you are to win a showdown with a weak holding such as one pair. For more information on the differences between multiway and heads up pots, head over to pokernews.com.

Postflop poker strategy Tip 2: The more players there are in the hand, the less likely you are to win and the weaker your holding.

Finally, we need to consider how many chips are in the pot, how much we have left behind in our stack and how many chips our opponent has.

After these considerations, we can make a decision on how we are going to proceed in the hand.

So first let’s have a look at board texture:

Postflop Poker Strategy: Notation

Before we discuss post-flop poker strategy and board composition in detail, we need to make sure the notation is clear to everyone.

In some cases, pictures will be used to show board textures, but often just text will be employed. When describing the board with text (i.e. letters and numbers), each card rank is represented by either its number or the first letter of its name. To take an example, the board:

This texture is described by 5♥ K♣ 5♦ and is often shortened to 5hKc5d. It is sometimes shortened further to 5K5r. Here the ‘r’ means rainbow (the flop is all different suits). When the flop has a flush draw (i.e. not a rainbow board) the board could be represented by 5K5s. Here the ‘s’ represents suited.

There are many types of boards, but in general, they can be broken down into two types: dry board textures and wet board textures.

Dry Board Texture

Dry board textures are ones which the players in the hand are less likely to have connected with the community cards. Also, dry also means a board which the strength of your holding is unlikely to change over the course of the hand.

Examples of dry board textures are:

Texas Holdem Techniques

Why are these boards considered dry? Well on the K55 board there are not many hands that will change the strength of your opponent’s or your holdings. If for example, you held KQ, then the only way your opponent can now beat you is if he has:

Well on the K55 board there are not many hands that will change the strength of your opponent’s or your holdings. If for example, you held KQ, then the only way your opponent can now beat you is if he has:

If for example, you held KQ, then the only way your opponent can now beat you is if he has:

• An Ax (e.g. Ace-Queen or Ace-Seven) hand and hits an ace on the turn or river.
• A pocket pair such as 77 which hits his set on the turn or river (unlikely).
• A hand such as QJ which hits a runner-runner straight (two cards in a row – for example, the turn is a Ten, and the river is an Ace resulting a straight Ten to Ace) or runner runner full house (two Queens or two Jacks).

Texas Holdem Poker Practice

The most important factor is that neither of these two board has many straight-draw or flush-draw possibilities. The lack of draws means that if you have a hand like A5 on the K55 board or 44 on the 742 board you are very unlikely to be beaten by your opponent if he is behind on the flop.

Additionally, dry flops are inherently difficult to hit and hence makes continuation betting as the pre-flop raiser (you raised first, and someone called your raise) especially useful on dry boards. Continuations bets will be detailed further on in this section.

Wet board texture

On the other hand, wet board textures are boards where the board is very likely to change over future streets.

Looking at the QT9s board, there are many cards which will modify the strength of many hands. If we have AQ or TT on this board we have a strong hand; but on many turn cards such as a K, J, 8 or any heart, the strength of these hands will significantly degrade. Also, there are many hand types that your opponent may have hit this board with:

• Any 8 or K is an inside straight draw (4 cards will complete the straight).
• Any J is an open-ended straight draw (8 cards will make a straight)
• The majority of opponents plays Queens, Tens, and Nines.

Therefore, your opponent is likely to continue with a large proportion of his hands on this board.

We can directly translate all these points to the 432s board; except for the last as this board has cards of lower ranks. On the 432s board, however, every Ace has an inside straight draw. Aces will be played quite frequently by most opponents.

Every other board type will be somewhere in between the dry K55r and the wet QT9s. Understanding how wet or dry a board is and adjusting your strategy correctly is the key skill at play in this scenario. For more information on board textures, see this excellent article.

Continuation betting

A continuation bet, as its name suggests, is when you follow up on your previous aggressive action with another bet. For example, you raise pre-flop and then continue to bet on the flop. Continuation bets are extremely useful postflop poker strategy for two reasons:

1. It is tough to connect with most board types; therefore player who bets first will often win the pot
2. The player who last raised pre-flop will typically have the strongest hands; thus will get the benefit of the doubt when he bets again.

The rate at which you continuation bet should be, on a very basic level, determined by the wetness of the board.

The dryer the board, the less likely your opponent hit and therefore the more often we will want to bet so that we can take down the pot.

But we should also be more prone to bet when we have a chance to win the pot when called. In other words, we have pot equity in the form of a draw or overcards.

Postflop poker strategy Tip 3: The dryer a board texture, the more likely we are to win the pot by continuation betting (cbet).

Example 1: A Good Spot To CBet

So let’s take a few examples of good examples of continuation bets. Continuation from our previous example of JTs from UTG (click the picture to see the full replay):

We opened to 3bb from UTG and got one call from the Button. On the flop of 9h7s3s, we have an inside straight draw and two overcards. This board is ranked medium for wetness and how the opponent connects; our opponent can have a few straight and flush draws as well as top pairs.

JTs is a good hand in this situation as we can make robust pairs on the turn and river and also can make the nut straight. Thus this is a good spot for a cbet as a bluff. We expect him to fold hands which are better than ours. However, if he does continue, we have a good chance of making a stronger hand with a J, T or 8.

We should keep bluffing to a minimum when playing small stakes and especially at play money poker. But in this case, it is almost a perfect situation for a bluff.

Example 2: Another good spot to CBet

Another situation for a good cbet is below:

We raised with 22 from the Button and got two callers from the SB and BB. Both check to us on the flop. This situation is a clear spot to value bet (value betting and bluffing are discussed in the next section). The flop is relatively wet, and two players can draw out us with straights and flush draws. Therefore, we want to charge them to see them next card.

Also, we have a robust hand (the second or third strongest depending on whether our opponents will re-raise KK preflop). We can get lots of value and win a big pot by betting; thus this is an excellent spot for a value bet.

Cbetting for value is a fundamental aspect of our postflop poker strategy and is one of the primary sources of profit at small stakes. Ensure you understand and utilize continuation betting fully by reading our in-depth article.

Example 3: A bad spot to Cbet

Below is a dangerous situation to continuation bet:

We raise a limper with 98s and get a call from the BB and the player who limped. The flop is terrible for us as we have a small amount of equity and this board is likely to have hit one of our opponents. Thus it is not a good spot to continuation bet (cbet), and we should check behind and fold to any future bets.

Postflop poker strategy Tip 5: Do not cbet on board textures where your opponent is likely to call, and you have little chance of improving on later streets

Continuation bets can also apply to the turn and the river. For example, we refer to betting the flop, turn and river as a continuation bet.

Continuation bets are how a significant proportion of your winnings will be generated at small stakes and free money poker. People often give up when they do not hit anything so take advantage of this fact.

Stack sizes

The number of chips you have bought in for or currently have on the poker table is known as ‘stack depth.'

If you are playing ‘short stack’ poker, it means you are not playing with very many chips on the table – for example, 40bb. We do not recommend shallow stack play. Shallow stack poker means we have fewer chips on the table and hence we can win fewer chips from the weak poker players at the table.

Conversely, deep-stacked play means you have a lot of chips at the table – e.g. 200bb deep.

The shallower your stack depth, the more likely you should be to go all in. In poker terms going all-in is called ‘stacking off.'

Stack depth has a profound effect on your preflop and post-flop poker strategy so ensure you are aware of your stack depth at all times.

For example, it would be appropriate to allow yourself to get all in with post-flop with top pair good kicker such as KQ on K72 if you had a stack depth of 40bb; however, not if you had a stack depth of 100bb or greater.

Postflop poker strategy tip 5: The greater your stack depth, the stronger a holding you need to stack off. Always be aware of your stack depth before entering a pot.

Before playing a hand pre-flop, you should be checking the stack depth of you and your opponents. Checking stack depth ensures you understand how many chips are at play.

One mistake often made by new players is not considering effective stack size: if you have 100bb and your opponent has 40bb then the effective stack size is 40bb; this is because your opponent can win no more than 40bb from you. Hence your effective stack size can vary from hand to hand, and you must adjust your post-flop poker strategy accordingly.

For a summary of post-flop strategy see this video below:

Texas Holdem Strategy: Betting and Raising

Betting is the fundamental aspect of poker which makes it an exciting game to play. The ability to wager money as a bluff inducing your opponent to fold is one of the biggest selling points of the game; it is the first thing people think of when discussing poker!

But it's not all about bluffing as Hollywood has led you to believe. A lot of a winning Texas Holdem strategy just involves getting your bets in when you have a better hand than your opponent.

Poker betting strategy: reasons to bet

There are three reasons why one would want to bet:

1. For value – to get worse hands to call meaning we will win a bigger pot. For example, you value bet AK on an Ace high board (such as A72) to get AQ, AJ, etc. and worse pairs to call.
2. As a bluff – to get better hands to fold so we can win the pot with a poor holding. For example, you may be QJ on the A72 board to get hands such as non-paired Kings (KQ, KJ) to fold.
3. As a semi-bluff – A semi-bluff is much like a natural bluff only that when we are called we will still have a good likelihood of winning the pot. With a semi-bluff, we have a lot of pot equity. An example of a semi-bluff would be betting or raising with a flush draw: a weak non-made hand which has the potential to make a robust hand. See more information on semi-bluffing.

Before betting, consideration should be made as to why a bet is being made. Can worse hands call our bet and provide us with value? Can we get better hands to fold? If neither is the case, you typically shouldn't be betting. This concept is integral to correctly implementing a solid poker betting strategy.

Poker Betting Strategy Tip 1: Always consider when betting, will your bet either get your opponent to fold a better hand (bluffing) or call with a worse hand (value betting).

This concept can difficult to grasp as a new player. But generally, you should be just betting with your strong hands; and if you are playing small stakes or especially free poker, keep bluffing to a minimum. People at low stakes or even play money poker do not fold; thus bluffing at these stakes is a complete waste of money.

Poker betting strategy: Bet sizing

Bet sizing is one of the most complicated parts of NLHE and is one of the most challenging aspects to grasp for a new player. For simplicity sake there a few rules to stick to which won't lead you too far wrong:

1. Preflop raise to 3 times (3x) the BB with all hands you are opening. Do not vary your bet sizing depending on your hand strength. Changing your bet sizing based on your hand strength is a sure-fire way to let your skilled opponents what you are holding.
2. The same applies when re-raising another player preflop, make your raise three times the initial raise. For example, a player in a 100Nl game might open to $3. In that case, when you re-raise him with your strong holdings such as AA or KK, make it $9.
3. Postflop bet between 1/2 and full pot size bets. That means that if on the flop, the pot is $10 you should be betting between $5 and $10. Any smaller than that and your opponent can easily call with a lot of hands. Allowing your opponent to call with lots of hands means you miss value with strong hands; also, your opponent isn't likely to fold when you are bluffing. This is a bad result either way!

For a more advanced guide on poker bet sizing see: Pokerlistings.com

A big mistake new players often make is using the same bet size as the pot grows on each street. For example: betting 5$ into a $10 pot on the flop and then betting $5 into a $20 pot on the turn. Your bet sizes should be relative to the pot! As the pot grows so should the size of your bet. Think fractions, not dollar amounts!

Poker Betting Strategy 2: As a general rule always raise at least three times the previous bet or raise. When betting post-flop bet between 1/2 to a full pot-sized bet.

These bet sizing rules aren't optimal; they are approximations. However, they should provide you with solid groundwork to get you off to a good start in your poker career.

Once you begin to understand the merits of betting and raising and develop a more comprehensive poker betting strategy you can start to see when it is appropriate to deviate from these rules.

See this video on value betting for more information.

Further Reading

That's it for Texas Holdem Strategy. If you are really keen on learning poker quickly, we would suggest you check out our home page for more information to accelerate your poker learning.

There is still a lot to learn so here are some further reading:

Common poker mistakes.

Or return to poker 101?

Last updated: 26 October 2020

Most Texas holdem books and strategy web sites are filled
with general advice aimed at beginning and intermediate players.
If you think about this it makes sense, because over 90% of the
population of poker players fit into one of these categories.

It’s also much easier to offer advice to the larger group
because most of the players are so far from playing correctly
that you can help them get huge increases in their results if
you can get them to adjust their game in a few simple ways.

When you start looking for advanced Texas holdem strategy
advice you can’t find much, and what you do find rarely goes
beyond the things being taught to low limit players.

The bottom line is that advanced Texas holdem strategy is
hard to teach and it’s hard to learn. Most players can’t handle
the concepts needed to excel at the top levels of play and will
never dedicate enough time and work to getting to a place where
they can.

The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky is one of the most
important poker books that have ever been written. But if you
read it before you’re ready it may hurt you as much as help you.
I know this because I read it early in my poker career and it
didn’t help me at all. I went back a year later and read it
again and it was like a light bulb suddenly came on. I wasn’t
ready for the lessons the first time.

What you need to understand about the advice on this page is
that you may not be ready to fully utilize it in your play right
now. If you’re not, don’t feel bad or be ashamed. Simply come
back and read it again in a couple months and a couple months
after that until it starts sinking in.

And even the few that do reach a point where they can
completely grasp the lessons needed for advanced play have a
hard time finding someone to teach them. They usually have to
learn by trial and error at the tables. This can be costly, but
it helps reinforce the lessons as you learn them.

So if it’s so hard to learn these advanced strategies and so
few players need them, why would we dedicate an entire page to
them? Because in the quest to have the best Texas holdem
resource available if we didn’t have advice for advanced players
the quest would fall short.

We also are firm believers in providing as much solid
information as possible and letting the players figure out what
they can use and what they should wait on. If you can pick up
something in these advanced strategies to improve your game by
1% it can mean thousands and thousands of extra dollars to you
over the course of your poker career.

Psychology

At the simplest level of play Texas holdem is about math. You
use a deck of 52 playing cards and a set hierarchy of hand
values so you can determine hand probabilities and odds in any
situation. You don’t have complete information because you don’t
know what cards your opponents hold, but you can even use
mathematical equations to consider what you don’t know and still
come up with the best play from a mathematical standpoint in
every situation.

You can even use math to determine the best way to play a
hand before you even get your cards.

If you’re in the small blind and haven’t seen your cards yet
and don’t know anything about any of your opponents, the
mathematically correct way to play the hand is to fold. This is
based on studies that show on average you lose money from the
small blind with an average hand. If you haven’t seen your cards
yet you have to work on the assumption that you’ll have an
average hand.

As you get more information you use the new information to
determine the new best way to play the hand.

If you get your cards and look down to see pocket aces,
instead of folding being the most profitable way to play, you
need to raise in order to make the most money.

Any player without a learning disability who’s willing to put
in the time and effort can learn how to play Texas holdem at a
respectable level. You can learn how to determine the best plays
and if you work long enough and hard enough you can start
winning more than you lose at the Texas holdem tables.

This isn’t a guess or sales pitch. Plenty of players have
proven this is possible, and you can do what it takes to be a
winning player too. But if you’re not to this point yet you need
to start on some of our other strategy pages and come back to
this one later.

So why would we start a section about psychology with a math
lesson? The last time we checked math and psychology aren’t very
closely related.

After you master the mathematical part of Texas holdem and
are ready to advance to the highest levels of play you have to
start improving your psychological game.

You have to combine superior skill with the mathematical side
of the game with an advanced ability to think about the game and
your opponents at a deeper level than you’ve ever done before.

Have you ever heard that you need to play the players instead
of the cards or in addition to the cards?

This is what we mean about Texas holdem psychology. You have
to start playing the game beyond the basic levels. To do this
you have to consider not only how you think about the game but
how your opponents think and play and how everything that
happens changes the way they play and react.

Our strategy section includes a page
that’s dedicated to the subject of psychology in Texas holdem.

Playing Texas Holdem Like a Chess Match

If you hope to be a good chess player you have to be able to
consider the current situation, how every possible move will
change the possible future outcomes, and how things can change
how your opponent will react.

New players concentrate on the current move possibilities but
rarely think about the entire game, or even their next move.

As most player’s game improves they start considering how one
move might set up the next move or two, but thinking beyond one
or two moves deep is rare.

But the most advanced Texas holdem players think about every
decision and consider how it can alter and set up future
situations.

In a pot limit game it’s important to determine if you have a
hand where you want to build a big pot or one where you want to
limit the pot size. When you want to build a big pot you need to
make at least a small bet on each round because every bet and
call makes the possible bet on the turn and river bigger.

But if you have a drawing hand or other hand that requires a
lower commitment you want to avoid putting any money in the pot
on the early rounds so you can manage the risk verses possible
reward.

This sounds simple, but unless you consider how every action
is going to set up the end of the hand you’ll frequently find
that another player was able to manipulate the hand and pot size
to fit their long term goals, not yours.

Another example is how you play certain hands against
opponents who’re good enough to track your play. If you always
check to them on the river when you miss your draw they’ll learn
this is how you play and use it against you. They’ll start
betting on the river after you check even if they don’t have a
strong hand because you check every time you’re weak.

But you can also build this belief in this opponent and then
use it against them. Once they believe they know how you play
the river you can start betting sometimes when you miss your
draw, because they’ll fold good but not great hands because they
think you won’t bet without a good hand.

Take a few minutes and think of some of the situations where
thinking and planning like this can come into play.

When you start considering all of the possible applications
at the holdem tables you can start seeing why you need to start
thinking about poker like a chess game.

If you want to advance to the top levels of Texas
holdem play you need to start playing chess like poker, and more
importantly start thinking like a chess player instead of a
gambler.

It’s Not a Single Session, But It Is

Most poker players think about each time they sit down to
play Texas holdem as a single session. If they play for three
hours and then go do something else they had a single session.
This isn’t the way advanced Texas holdem players view the game.

Advanced players understand that you’re in the middle of one
lifelong Texas holdem game that doesn’t end until you die. It
doesn’t matter if you play six hours a day for eighteen straight
days, or sixteen hours a day for three days in a row, it’s all
just a small part of your single long session.

If you want to play at an advanced level you need to
constantly be concentrating on making the best possible plays
and putting yourself in the best possible situations to win the
most money. Of course this involves doing everything you can to
win during the current playing time, but your short term results
don’t mean anything as long as you’re making the best plays.

If you get all in with ace king against ace queen and your
opponent hits a queen and you lose a big pot it can make your
balance for the day negative, but it has nothing to do with your
long term profitability. You know that if you can get in that
situation often it leads directly to profit.

Your expected value in any situation is the average amount
you win or lose if you can play the exact same situation
hundreds of times. At the most basic level, being a long term
winner at the Texas holdem tables is simply about putting
yourself in more positive expected value situations than
negative ones.

Everything else takes care of itself if you do this. Nothing
else really matters because it’s a simple mathematical law that
shows if you do this you’ll win in the long run.

What most players call luck is just short term variance and
if you’re in a situation where your expected value is $10 every
time you play the situation, if you do it 100 times you’ll win
$1,000. Sometimes you’ll lose and sometimes you’ll win more or
less than $10, but in the long run the expected value always end
up where it’s supposed to.

So remember that being an advanced Texas holdem winner isn’t
about the short session, but about the life long session. Then
concentrate on setting up and exploiting positive expectation
situations as often as possible.

Big Hand Poker

Some players seem to win a lot of pots and others can sit
back and only win a few pots per day, but still show a long term
profit. How can they still turn a profit when they only win a
few hands in comparison to other players?

In a no limit Texas holdem game the blinds are $10 / $20 and
the average stack size is over $2,000. On average, you have to
post $100 per hour in blinds. The table is aggressive and has a
couple loose players. You play a six hour stint and play
extremely tight, looking for opportunities to win big pots while
letting the other players fight over smaller pots.

This is a perfect situation to illustrate the big pot way to
long term profit. Even if you folded every blind for the entire
six hour stint and were able to break even on the few smaller
pots you play, you still have the chance to win big. Folding all
of your blinds costs $600, so you have to win enough to overcome
this. Let’s look at three big hand possibilities.

You see a flop with two other players, you have the ace and
queen of clubs and the flop is king of clubs, jack of clubs, and
10 of hearts. You bet, one opponent folds and the other moves
all in. You call and your opponent turns over an ace queen as
well. Most of the time you’re going to split this spot, but when
you hit your flush you scoop the entire pot.

The next hand is when an early position player raises and you
raise with pocket aces from late position. One of the blinds
calls, the early position player moves all in, you call, and the
blind folds. The early position player has a pair of kings and
you win a huge pot.

On the third hand six players see the flop in an un-raised
pot, including you from the big blind. You flop a straight, five
through nine, so it’s not easy to determine you have such a
strong hand. You’re able to build and win a nice pot, but aren’t
able to get anyone all in.

Even if you only split the first pot, stacked a short stack
of $800 on the second hand won $400 on the third hand your
profit for the day is $600. That’s $100 an hour and all you had
to do was break even on small hands and win a couple big hands.

And the up side is huge. What if you won the freeroll for
$2,000 and won $2,000 on the second hand and won $1,000 on the
third hand? All of these are possible with average stack sizes
of $2,000. Now you won $4,400 for the day, or over $700 per
hour.

What about if you had terrible luck on the smaller pots and
only was able to win one big pot? Let’s say you lost your $600
in blinds and another $1,000 on small pots. But you still were
able to double up, winning $2,000 on a single big pot. You still
make $400 for the six hours.

Of course it sounds simple enough for anyone to do it when
it’s spelled out like this, but don’t you think it’s realistic
that you can find a single big hand to win in a six hour playing
stint?

You just saw how you can still make good money playing Texas
holdem by only winning one or two big pots a day, so why aren’t
you playing in a manner that gives you the best chance to win?
Why are you playing so many marginal hands?

If you can play a smart patient game you can
greatly increase your long term profits. Now that you see how
profitable this type of game can be, hopefully you can use this
information to play fewer hands and take advantage of the
players who play too many hands.

Win the War, Forget the Battles

This goes hand in hand with the last section, but it’s so
important if you truly want to learn advanced strategies that it
needs to be covered in more depth or at least in a different
way.

It doesn’t matter how many hands you win. The only thing that
matters is how much money you win.

This doesn’t change anything that we discussed in the single
session section. You still have to consistently put yourself in
positive expectation situations but too many players focus on
winning hands instead of money.

If you ask them what they want to do they always state they
want to win money, but their actions at the table suggest
they’re more interested in winning hands than money.

Of course you have to win some hands to win money, but would
you rather win 10 hands worth $100 each or one hand worth
$1,200?

This is a mindset that you have to develop and work on if you
want to use it to your advantage. Good poker players are
competitive and want to win everything they touch. It’s easy,
even for the best players, to get too focused on winning every
hand instead of winning the most money.

The problem with focusing on winning every hand is you start
making plays that aren’t the most profitable in the long run.
When you miss your draw instead of folding and conserving your
money for a more favorable situation you fire a bluff hoping you
can force your opponent to fold because you want to win the pot.

Chips Are Limited Resources

Blind play has been mentioned a few times, and it plays such
an important role to winning poker players that an advanced
strategy page needs to at least touch on it. Even though this
section isn’t titled with anything that looks like it has to do
with blinds, they’re a perfect example of the concept that chips
are limited resources.

To play a winning game of Texas holdem you have to have an
amount of money to risk in order to win some money. If you run
out of chips you can’t win more chips.

Advanced holdem players understand that sometimes it isn’t
about winning chips in a hand or situation, it’s about learning
which situations require the conservation of chips so you can
use them to make more money later.

Building a big bankroll is important if you want to be able
to win as much money as possible, but everyone has some sort of
limitation to how much they can wager. Let’s look at a specific
example of how not conserving your bankroll costs you money.

You’re playing in a no limit Texas holdem game with $10 / $20
blinds and are in the small blind four times per hour. In the
eighth hour of the day’s session you get all in against a player
with a $5,000 stack and win. You only have a stack of $1,500 and
you’ve completed the blind bet half the times you’ve been in the
small blind and haven’t won a hand from that position all day.

Most of the hands have been poor or average at best, but you
think it’s only half a bet so why not gamble a little?

So if you’ve played 14 hands for an extra $10 each you have
$140 less than if you’d have folded all of them. So instead of
winning $1,500 on the all in you could have won $1,640.

Texas Holdem Online

$140 is less than 10% of $1,500, but it’s still a significant
amount of money. And if you only did this once a week you end up
costing yourself $7,280 a year. And if you do this four times a
week instead of once you cost yourself $29,120 a year.

This is enough money to turn some losing players into winning
ones. And this is how many players look at the small blind. They
think it’s only half a bet so why not?

If you play too many hands from the blinds you need
to stop immediately. You need to conserve your chips for more
favorable situations.

This concept needs to be used in every area of your Texas
holdem game, not just in the blinds. Though you need to try to
have enough money to play in any favorable situation, you may
need to pass on a small edge to have enough money to take
advantage of a larger edge later.

If you have a situation where you’re a 52 to 48 favorite and
know that later you’ll have a situation where you’re a 60 to 40
favorite you want to be able to place money on each situation.
But if you have a limited bankroll you may have to skip the
first situation.

This discussion isn’t meant for you to put too much emphasis
on your bankroll. You want to have as big of a bankroll as
possible, but it’s almost as important to understand how to use
your bankroll as a tool and how to protect it so you have the
best chance to profit in the long run and in the maximum
possible amount.

The Best Play Isn’t Always the Best Play

After reading all of the preaching about always putting
yourself in positive expectation positions you’d think finding
contrary advice on the same page would be unlikely. But the
truth is that the answer to so many Texas holdem strategy
questions starts with it depends and this is an area where the
lines are somewhat blurred.

At the lower levels and limits where the competition isn’t
very good the best play is always the best play. What this means
is that you need to always make your playing decisions based on
what the math says is the best play.

But at the top levels of play many of your opponents also
know the best play and use this information to help them figure
out what you have based on the situation and how you play. When
this starts happening you have to occasionally make plays that
aren’t the most profitable from a pure mathematics standpoint so
you can make more money in the long run.

It’s possible we lost some of you with the last paragraph,
but remember this is an advanced strategy page so a few of the
concepts are difficult. Let’s look at it another way.

While it’s the most profitable way to play to raise from
early position with pocket aces every single time you have them
at the lower and middle limits, the way to get the most long
term profit from pocket aces in early position at the top levels
is to raise with them around 95% of the time.

You have to make it as close to impossible as you
can for an opponent to put you on a hand while maintaining your
long term advantage with your best hands. If they know you raise
every time from early position with pocket aces it can cost you
money on some hands, but if they know you raise almost all of
the time, but not every time, it’s valuable to you because they
can’t rule out pocket aces if you limp from early position.

The biggest problem with this is it’s a fine line between
altering your play just enough to throw off your opponents and
doing it so much that you cost yourself more money than you make
up for with the altered play.

Texas Holdem Poker Free

Know Your Opponents

On the other side of the last section is you need to be the
opponent who knows how the other players play their hands and
what their playing tendencies make them do.

If you know a player always checks on the river when they
miss their flush or always raises from early position with
pocket kings and aces you know something you can us to make
money when you play against them.

Some players never play anything worse than pocket queens
from early position, so if they enter the pot in early position
you can put them on a very narrow range of hands.

Every little thing you can learn and exploit is worth a
certain amount of profit in the long run. The more of these
small things you can exploit the more money you set yourself up
to make in the long run.

The Small Edge

This is possibly the most important advanced Texas holdem
strategy that you’ll ever learn.

The best Texas holdem players in the world understand that if
they can improve their game a fraction of a percentage it can
mean huge returns in the long run. So they constantly search for
any small edge they can possible find.

How much do you have to make a year playing Texas holdem to
make what you consider a good living from the game? Some players
would be happy making $30,000 a year playing poker, while others
think $100,000 is a good living. Others might think anything
less than a million isn’t enough.

Here’s a simple chart that shows how much a year in increased
profit a player can get for a few different increases in their
winning percentage.

As you can see if a player is making $30,000 a year playing
Texas holdem an increase of 1% is only $300, but even this small
amount is valuable. The same 1% increase for a million dollar a
year player is $10,000.

And the key is that these increases work much like compound
interest. If the million dollars a year player can improve their
game by 1% this year and another the next year and another 1%
the following year they not only increase it on the million
dollars, they also get the increase on the increase from the
previous year or years.

Even if you only find one extra edge and never improve on it
you can earn a great deal more over the course of your poker
playing career.

If you’re making $100,000 a year and increase your return by
2%, if you play another 40 years you’ve made an extra $80,000
over the course of your career.

A million dollar player earns an extra $800,000 over the
course of their career with the same one time 2% improvement.

Even the smallest edges are worth finding. If you can find
four different areas to improve your game a quarter of one
percent you’ve improved your overall returns by 1%.

Plan for Everything

The best Texas holdem players are able to visualize and plan
for almost every possible outcome of every hand they play in.
They already know how they’re going to react to a situation
before it happens.

This gives them an advantage because it gives them extra time
to determine the best play and quickly make adjustments if
something out of the ordinary happens.

When you plan everything you start working as soon as you
start looking for a table to join. You consider the current
players and what you know about them. In order to plan
everything out you need to be able to have an idea of how
certain players play in certain situations.

Of course you plan for every possible way an opponent can
play a hand, but by understanding the most likely way they react
in certain situations it helps you focus more energy on building
a profitable situation more quickly.

Advanced Poker Tips Texas Holdem Tournaments

Before the hand starts you know you’ll be playing from the
button, which is the best starting position at the table. This
means that you can play more hands from here than at any other
position at the table. You also know that the blinds are both
weak and tend to call from the blinds with a wide range of
hands. This means that the odds of stealing the blinds are low,
but it also means you can count on them putting more money in
the pot if you need to build the pot.

The two players in early position are tight and aggressive
and the two middle position players are not very good.

You receive ace queen suited and instantly start thinking
about how you’ll play it in every conceivable situation. If it
gets around to you in an un-raised pot you’ll probably raise,
and if you have to call a small to medium raise you’ll probably
do so, unless there’s a raise and a re-raise, opening the
possibility of a push behind you. You also know that an ace
queen suited plays well in a multi way pot and can play well
heads up at times, but can also be easily dominated heads up.

As each player acts you receive additional information and
adjust the possible paths the hand can take. When you see the
flop you have additional information and new decisions to make
depending on what can happen.

• What will you do if you face a raise?
• What if it’s checked to you?
• What do you know about the remaining players?

As you work through a hand you need to be prepared for any
possibility. The more you’re able to plan for the more your long
term results will improve.

Summary

Becoming a long term winner at the advanced Texas holdem
tables is more about thinking than acting. Many self-help books
suggest that you need to stop thinking about things so much and
start acting right now. But if you want to learn the best
advanced Texas holdem strategies you need to think.
If you simply study the strategy details you just finished
reading and implement one thing you learned every month for the
next year you’ll be a much better holdem player. And even if
you’re such a good player that you just picked up an extra
percentage you just saw how many thousands of dollars this can
be worth to you over the rest of your life.

You learned two simple strategies that can make a huge
difference in your long term profitability. The second was the
small extra edge and the first was the big hand theory. If you
don’t do anything else from what you learned on this page make
it a goal to find an extra 1% edge somewhere and focus on
winning one or two big hands every day instead of battling over
a bunch of small hands. These two tactics alone will advance
your play quickly.

So what are you waiting for? Take action by getting started
thinking right now.