Texas Holdem Poker

Well, your just going to have to trust me with this one. No Limit Texas Holdem Poker is an easy game, with no perfect solution to becoming a winning player. Playing in a cash game or in a tournament are two very different things, but you can play similar games when approaching either. So I am going to try and walk some of you new players, or some old ones who are struggling through the easiest way to be a winner. Now this is important, this knowledge doesn’t guarantee you will win, but it should help you become more consistent. The irony of the whole thing is that you need to play a more boring, calculated game in order to help you get the success you are looking for. I am going to give you some basic knowledge on how to play out of the blinds, in early position, it late position and what might be the right times to make a bluff.

Playing out of the Blinds

When in a blind it is very easy to make mistakes, and commonly the worst position for all players at the table. Before you start calling pre flop bets from the big or small blind you need to realize that you will be the first to act after the flop. Therefore if you have a hand that will be tough to play post flop you might want to fold to aggressive raises pre flop. Some examples of tough hands to play are ace rag (ace with a low second card), small connecters and small pairs. Here is the deal with playing out of the blinds, sometimes you will be getting laid a good price to call a hand pre flop, this will happen when a lot players are in the hand maybe to a min raise or small raise, this will be the time for you to try and hit a big hand with your suited connectors or small pairs. As an example your playing $1/$2 and the person in first position makes a minimum raise to $4 and gets five callers before its your turn to act, the pot is $26 and you are in the big blind. It costs you $2 to makes the call and you have a pair of deuces, you are being laid a price of 13 – 1 (26 -2) to make the call, this is a perfect time to try and spike a set with the two’s. Basically pay close attention when you in the blinds, don’t let aggressive players in late position push around for to long and monitor the pot sizes to know when it is time to take a shot.

Playing in Early Position

Early position play is easy, you have nothing in the pot and there is no reason to step out and make big plays with mediocre cards when there are so many people to act behind you. No the range of cards you should playing, I will not give you that range, it varies from player to player. But you should be playing big pairs and high suited cards (AK or AQ), everything else should be an easy fold. If you like to get into pots well then I suggest you raise when playing less then stellar hands in early spots at the table and by this I mean a real raise not just a small min raise. When you do pick up a hand you want to play feel free to make a raise, in fact it is suggested. When rasing you need to put the pressure on all the players left to act behind you so raise a good amount, 4 – 5 or even 6 times the big blind. By doing this you will not allow other players, especially the blinds to sneak into the hand with lesser cards and beat you. So rule of thumb play tight in early position, make sizeable raises if you are going to play and don’t make unnecessary mistakes like big bluffs. The more you play the game the more creative you can get when playing in these positions.

Playing in Late Position

When playing this basic style, this is where you can make a lot of your money. When playing on the button (dealer) or in the cutoff (right of dealer), feel free to open up your game and take more chances. If the hand gets folded to you, feel free to raise with any two cards, the object might be to steal the blinds and quickly move on to the next hand. The stealing of blinds can be the difference between winning and losing especially if you are playing in a tournament. Here is where things can get a little more advanced, by raising often out of late positions, the players at the table will stop respecting the moves you make. By making these blind steals you can frustrate your opponent and when you do pick up a big starter, you have a better chance of getting action then if you don’t raise. When playing on the button you need to remember that you will be the last to act after every street, which can make it easier to pick up loose pots.

Bluffing

It’s a common thought, that you can not win at Texas Holdem Poker without bluffing. So here are a few basic pointers. It is a lot easier to bluff from late position, but always be aware of the slow players, and do what ever you can to not fall into there traps. The easiest boards (flops) to bluff are ones with high pairs, straight and flush possibilities. As an example your on the button and the flop comes A – A – 4, you have nothing, but the action gets checked to you. Feel free to make a bluff, your opponent will have no choice but to think there’s a chance you have that ace and might even fold the four thinking they might be drawing dead. If you make a sizeable bluff and get called, you will have to make the choice to bluff again after the turn or shut it down and give control back to your competitor.

This is not fool proof, but it is a basic strategy you can try out, have fun at the tables.

If you are a poker tournament player you already no this, but there no perfect way to play a poker tournament. Whether you play online poker, in a casino or just in home games, you can’t win them all. To help improve your tournament game there is a few basic things you can do.

First and foremost you need to know that you can’t win them all, consistency is the key to becoming a successful Holdem tournament player. For example if you play $10 tournaments online where the winner takes home $60, winning one of six should be your minimum expectation. Style doesn’t necessarily matter, but it is easier to find consistency if you are a tighter player. You need to know yourself as a player in order to find a way to be a winner over the long run, so the first step is always to look in ward and know your own strengths and weaknesses. I am going to go over a few steps that will help you become a better tournament player, and not necessarily game strategies.

Picking Your Tournaments

I can never say this enough “Know Your Limits”, if you can’t afford the tournament, don’t play in it. As I stated earlier you can’t win them all, so if you can only afford to play one you might be throwing your money away. Picking your tournaments is made easier if you are an online player, depending on what software you use, your probably going to have a lot of options. There are few questions you need answered before you sign yourself up, What is the buy in?, What is the blind structure?, What is the payout structure and How long will the tournament last approx. ?. This is where is becomes important to know yourself, picking the right poker tournaments is the first step to becoming successful, here are some guidelines. For tight players, you will look for long blinds giving you time to set up your game and you might want a payout structure that pays out more places then a bulk to the winner. For the more aggressive player a faster blind structure will be fine with you, the higher the blinds the bigger your advantage will be over the tighter players. As for the time the tournament last, it’s a pure time to money ratio thing. Why would anyone play a $1 tournament that is going to last 4 plus hours for the chance to win 10 dollars, the only reason is to waste time.

Getting Started

Now that you picked your game and have been assigned a seat, its time to play. For me personally I like to get to know my opponents over the first few hands or blind levels, learning there tendencies and hopefully picking up some tells. Other people will tell you to get in the action immediately, by doing this you will let the table know that you are there to win. Of course none of this matters if you pick up pocket aces on this first hand, the more tournaments you play the more comfortable you will become during the start. Early in tournaments its important to realize that it is long game and to put your chip stack at risk with a big bluff or marginal hand might not be the wisest decision. As an example you pick up pocket aces on the third hand of a tournament, the cards come out Jd – !0d – 9d – 8c – and 2d, there are flushes and straights out there and you have neither. If your opponent puts you to the test, this might be a good time to lay down those aces. Basically early in tournaments, be patient, pay attention and let the game develop.

Be Yourself at the Table

Once again back to knowing yourself, if you’re a talkative person then go ahead and talk, if your are quite then be quite. The minute you change who you are obvious tells will show up in your game, and yes no matter what you think, you have tells. To avoid giving off obvious tells, be who you are, if you don’t talk when you are playing hands, then for your sake don’t start talking when you are bluffing. It sounds simple, but you will be surprised by the amount of players who make these very simple mental errors. Some rules to follow, Never let someone get you off your game, Always be consistent with your demeanor, relax and have fun at the table. You cannot avoid tells, but by being your self and being consistent at the table at least you will make your opponents work to find out what they are.

Texas Holdem Poker Tournament is an art form, not a math question, there is no perfect solution. If you follow some of these basic steps you will become more successful and have more fun at the tables, because we all know winning is more fun then losing. I will never be able to stress this enough, You Can’t Win Them All, so its very important to know your spending limits. The best Holdem players in world are what they are because they have played a lot and learned a lot of these lessons along the way. Putting strategy aside, if you follow this basic knowledge and you will see a positive impact in your results, if you don’t you might want to consider changing the way you play. Holdem tournaments are fun and exciting and I hope you enjoy every minute at the tables.

Many beginning players will take up Texas Holdem Poker and then wonder why they do not win. They see what looks like a simple game on television and then they try to play the game and find out that they are just donating money to the game. Let’s take a look today at a few leaks in a beginner’s game that can lead to frequent disaster.

First, many beginning players play too many hands. This sounds worn and cliché but many players don’t get what this means. Always playing two face cards or any ace is a sign of someone playing too many hands. You should be sticking to a tight aggressive strategy when you begin as a new player. Otherwise, your bankroll will take massive downswings.

Next, many poker players will overvalue their hand in Holdem. A great example would be someone that has pocket aces and the board has three spades on it. The player bets their hand big because they have aces and continues to push the hand when their opponent raises back at them. In this case, they are behind to a flush and will lose the hand. Another example is someone that commits a good sized stack with A-K. A-K is a good hand, but it is still a drawing hand. Sometimes a player will push and get called by an inferior hand. Most times they will be in a race situation.

The most common leak that you will see in new beginning players is tilting. The player picks up pocket kings and then gets outdrawn by A-5 or some other marginal hand. They then out of frustration or anger start playing any garbage hand. This spells disaster and devastates more beginner bankrolls that players would like to admit.

Another leak that is seen way too often is known as “playing TV poker.” This partially goes along with playing too many hands, but it involves a little more. There are players that will watch TV and then try to imitate the same moves or play the same types of hands they see players such as Gus Hansen play. They don’t understand the strategy behind the moves that they have seen or even the hands that led up to the play.

Sometimes players will be hyper-aggressive with their betting because they see other players bully players around. They then get a rude awakening when someone wakes up with a hand or someone with a decent hand decides to look them up. These same players will also make ill-timed bluffs or will frequently bluff just for the sake of bluffing.

While some of the above leaks seem elementary in nature, so many players make them that it bear mentioning. If you are a new player, take note and try to keep from making these mistakes when you sit down to play your next game of Holdem.