Poker Strategy - Content

General information about playing Texas Holdem Poker

Unlike draw and stud poker, Texas Holdem is played with ‘community’ cards. These are cards which belong to every player and, with his ‘hole’ or personal cards, allow him to make up a poker hand of five. The player may only need one hole card and use four of the five community cards, although a player may use both or neither of their hole cards.

With the introduction of hidden cameras for televised viewing and the growing enthusiasm for online poker, this game of big pots has become the most watched and played throughout the world. There are essentially 4 variants of Texas Holdem which we will discuss in turn. They are:

Limit
Pot Limit
No Limit
Tournament Texas Holdem in any of the above styles

Rather than with an ‘ante’ Holdem is usually played with ‘blinds’, anywhere from one to three, though two is common. Before any cards are dealt the person to the left of the dealer, the ‘small blind’, makes a forced bet, usually half the minimum bet, but may differ by prearrangement. The next player, the ‘big blind’, makes another forced bet twice the ‘small blind’ which is usually equal to the minimum bet. The dealer then deals clockwise starting with the ‘small blind’ until all players have two down-turned ‘hole’ cards. Betting starts with the player to the left of the ‘big blind’ and continues around the table to the ‘small blind’ who can then call, raise or fold, still having put only half the minimum bet into the pot. Last to bet, the ‘big blind’ can then either call, raise or fold. If they raise, betting proceeds until all players have called. When the betting is resolved, the dealer deals three face-up ‘community’ cards commonly termed ‘the flop’.

The ‘blinds’ only exist for the first round and betting now opens as it would in other games, to the player on the left of the dealer who now may ‘check’ if they so wish. Betting proceeds around the table in a clockwise direction until all players have either called, raised or folded. Now a single face-up community card called the ‘turn’ is dealt. Up to this point, betting has either been forced, as with the ‘blinds’, a percentage of the minimum or it has been the minimum bet. With this third round, the betting begins with the maximum allowed, again beginning with the player to the dealer’s left. Once all players have either called, raised or folded, the dealer deals the final face-up community card, ‘the river’. Betting for this round also begins with the maximum, starting with the player to the dealer’s left.

LIMIT TEXAS HOLDEM

A game for the mathematicians among us, in Limit the maximum raise is a pre-set amount which is determined by your table choice. So if you sat down at a Limit $5/$10 table then the blinds will be $5 and $10 and the maximum raise you can make is the big blind. Limit has the advantage that you won’t lose your shirt if you are wrong in your reading and lose a hand, but equally there is less scope for bluffing because calling a bluff is cheaper than other forms of poker. This is therefore more of a game of mathematical probability than Pot or No Limite Holdem. You can make good money playing limit poker provided you fully understand the concepts of outs, odds, and pot odds and have the patience to grind out hour after hour of playing percentages.

POT LIMIT

Pot Limit has much more in common with No Limit Texas Holdem. These two variants offer players more excitement as the amounts at stake on a single hand of cards can rise considerably. In Pot Limit raises, as the name suggests are limited by the size of the pot. In reality this can equate to very significant pots and/or ‘all in’ situations very quickly. The essential difference then is that with Pot Limit Holdem you will see more flops than you otherwise would in a No-Limit game because the price of seeing the flop is often lower or capped by the pot itself.

NO LIMIT

No Limit Texas Holdem Poker is the most popular version of poker played today. It is an exciting game of skill which takes time and experience to master. Far more complicated and intellectually challenging than the 5 from 7 cards would suggest this is the version as seen on television and played as the Main Event at the World Series of Poker.

In the No Limit game your betting level is only dictated by your confidence in your hand, your ability to bluff and the number of chips in front of you. This most common of all poker games is a difficult to master and a dangerous place for new players to be. So much so that new players are often referred to as “fish” due to their inexperience and the ease with which experienced players will win.

New players usually believe poker is a game of chance, that a lot of luck is involved and that the cards you hold are all important. In reality poker, particularly the No Limit variant of Texas Holdem is a skill game with only a small element of chance involved in each hand. Cards are not the most important element of this game, how you play them and how you read your opponents being more important than the cards you hold.

Texas Holdem is the only card game where you can win with the losing hand so the issue is more how you play not what you play. This is most graphically demonstrated by the televised competitions where fields in excess of a thousand begin and yet the final tables usually comprise a range of familiar faces that we see time and again on our television screens such as Daniel Negrano, Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey or Doyle Brunson.

TEXAS HOLDEM STRATEGY

Texas Holdem Poker Strategy is all about situational reading and adjusting to cir*****stance. A mix of table position, bluffing, betting strategy, and just occasionally the cards you hold. There are differences between land based and internet play which are primarily to do with the nature of tells being different (you do get tells in internet play) and rake is usually more expensive in a land based card game due to higher overheads.

At the end of the day not everyone can be a good poker player, but all new players will benefit from understanding the game and various strategies in order to improve their play. Different people have different levels of perception so it follows that some play well and others cannot, and never will. Texas Holdem Strategy cannot be covered in a short write up so I’ll break this down into bite sized chunks covering different game types.

General Strategy

Texas holdem the most aggressive of all poker games, the best chance a player has is to be dealt a pair of high hole cards. Before the ‘flop’, bet aggressively to eliminate weaker players from the round and to build the pot and increase the ratio of your chances. If the ‘flop’ in conjunction with your hole cards gives you three of a kind, that’s what you’re looking for and you can continue to bet aggressively. If you have two high hole cards that aren’t paired, it is also a good hand, and you can be bet in the same way as long as it’s before the flop.

If the flop gives you three of a kind, it is possible that another player has the same hand since the pair now belongs to every player. Beware of the flop that has consecutive denominations or three of the same suit since it is likely that a flush or straight will develop for another player.

Watch how your opponents are betting and if a player that doesn’t usually bluff is betting for a straight or flush, then it’s only worthy your while to stay in if the investment is affordable or the odds of a superior hand are good.

If you haven’t made a full house or better on the ‘turn’ of this type of hand, then fold since the odds of someone having a straight or flush are good. It is generally accepted that if the flop disposes to a flush or straight, the good player won’t play for the low end of either, since an opponent will probably be playing to the high end. Again, watch the betting. Keep in mind that betting for a straight or flush is usually characterised by more cautious ‘passive play’.

Only draw to a straight if your hole cards don’t sit on either end of the hand, but sit together or close at the high end. If the flop leaves you with two options, one of a high straight and another good hand, maybe a flush or three of a kind, then you have a good hand and can quite comfortably bet and raise to increase the pot and eliminate players who didn’t receive useful community cards.

With the understanding that high pairs or two high hole cards will make a player who is not bluffing bet aggressively, it is sometimes worth your while to stay in if you have a mixed bag. If you’re dealt a high card and a low card or maybe two consecutive low cards for a straight, then judge the betting of the other players. It is much easier to do this if your betting position is last or close to last. If you are first to bet and are unsure, then a ‘check’ might be the best play and you can always fold if you find other players are betting aggressively.

It is always wise to gauge your potential hand against the players proposed hands which should be suggested in their approach to betting. Of course, the longer you play an opponent the more informed you become about their style of play, how often they bluff or if they do at all. Always use bluffing sparingly, as it doesn’t work if players expect it of you.

Table Position

One of the most important, arguably the most important element of Texas Holdem Strategy is the concept of Table Position and how to use it. In a poker game the blinds and the button pass from one person to the next each hand in a clockwise direction. The person who acts first is known as being “under the gun” because they have to bet first with no knowledge of anyone elses hand. The player last to act (the Big Blind) has a great advantage in that they see everyone’s bet and also their expressions, mannerisms and other tells before betting themselves.

Poker and No Limit Texas Holdem in particular is an informational game where position provides many opportunities to pick up pots. A variety of situations will occur where you are in late position and the pot receives only one or two blind sized calling bets. These are opportunities to raise on a bluff and pick up blinds and called bets, especially where there are no early position callers and if you have been playing solidly (i.e not bluffing often).

There are 169 possible starting hand combinations so it stands to reason that a top 10 hand will appear once every 17 hands on average. As such there will often be no really good hands in play (every other round in a ten handed game) so bluffs from tight players in late position often work.

Poker Tells

The land based game is well know for poker tells as many people are unable to keep body language under control in certain situations, particularly high starting hand combinations such as a pair of aces or kings. Online Texas Holdem also has tells, they are just more subtle. Tells online usually take the form of time delay and bet size in relation to “normal behavior”. At any poker table a good poker player will always size up and classify the competition prior to playing. This is easy to do online because you can watch tables before sitting down to play. It is important to watch people in order to work out their playing styles which will fit into one of the following categories:

Rock
Calling Station
Loose
Aggressive
Very Aggressive – otherwise known as Maniacs

A Rock is a player that folds regularly and only bets with strong hands. It is a safe playing style to play against, the best strategy being to get out of the way when they do bet or make sure you have the “Nut” hand

A Calling Station is harder to guage – someone who rarely if ever comes out betting but calls most bets and raises. This style of play often characteristic of card catchers who ultimately are weak because they are chasing cards. Over the long term chasing cards is a poor strategy. To play against a calling station one has only to raise with good hands and you should pick up chips. Overall the odds are they they don’t have a good hand so if you do then bet at them.

Loose Players/Aggressive Players – A difficult style to play against. The more aggressive a player is the more difficult they are to guage and ultimately defeat. Players that do not mind losing from time to time to protect their good hands can often lure you into a false sense of security which will cost you if you have a moderately good hand and they have a better one. The best poker strategy for playing against loose players is to avoid them in the first place which you can do if you have observed a number of tables before stepping into a card game.

Maniacs – This is a term associated with a player that bets too much too often. They are easy to play against because you simply have to be patient and wait for the big hand before calling their bluffs. The best strategy here is to wait for the big hand and simply call the Maniac down. Their bets will become larger as they get more desperate to push you off your hand. Hold out and clear them off the table.

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