Texas Holdem Poker

Being in early position in Texas Holdem Poker is not necessarily a bad thing when you only have one or two players in the hand before you.  Ideally, the move we are going to talk about today is an isolation move, but you can pull this off with two players if you are watching the style of play and know that the other pre flop and flop caller has missed their hand. Whether you are playing in casino or online poker sites the strategy apply for both.

The first thing we want to address here is if it is three handed.  This is the more dangerous of the two, but watching will tell you what to do here.  Assume that you are in the BB and you have one limper behind you and late position raises.  Both you and the limper make the call to see the flop.  The flop hits and you either hit the middle pair or are holding a middle pair in your hand.  You check and the limper checks and the raiser makes a continuation bet that is called.

If you have a crafty player before the raiser, they may be looking to make a move and watching how they reacted in similar positions will help you with the size of their bet.  If you have seen them put in a turn bet to steal a pot, your bet is going to have to be enough to chase them off of their hand.  If they usually fold with a turn bet, you can get away with a value bet here to get them out and go up against the initial raiser.

When you have isolation, your move here is pretty straight forward.  You want them to make their continuation bet and then you are looking for something harmless to fall on the turn.  If that card hits, you immediately fire on the turn to give the raiser something to think about.  Unless they are sitting on a big hand, they will more than likely fold here.  If the board has put a draw out there, they may just call and go fishing for the river card to improve them.

This move is going to pick you up a lot of pots as when the stakes get a little higher, players tend to get out versus risking losing a chunk of their stack. The successes that you have with this move should more than make up for those times that you get caught by an actual hand.  If you are successful, this will eventually pay off in a big way when you are lucky enough to have a monster hand and the raiser misreads you as doing the same play and that is what this game is all about.

Folding top pair is not something that comes very easy for a lot of poker players, but it can be a dangerous hand against the wrong opponent. Once again, your power of observation and notes are going to lead you in the right direction and making sure that you know who you are up against will save you a lot of heartache when you think you have a big hand.

When you hit top pair against an aggressive opponent, the normal play is to apply pressure or set up a trap and try to take them for everything that they have. When you are up against a tighter player, everything changes and you have to recognize this situation or you will be walking up to the cashier to get some more chips. It is usually an easy read as long as you are paying attention.

Tight players will normally only come over the top when they are sitting on a monster hand that cannot be beat at that point in time. Assume you come into the hand with a raise in late position with AJ suited and have a tight player in early position that limped in. The SB folds and the BB makes the call along with the tight player. The flop comes out J73 rainbow. The BB checks as does the tight player and you are put on a decision as to how much to bet.

Now you have gotten exactly what you wanted and have hit your hand. The flop is about as good as it gets for you and stringing people along is probably where your head is at and where it should be at this point. You make a half pot sized bet and the BB calls and the tight player makes a move and raises three times your bet. What are you going to do here?

Whether you want to or not, the play is to fold and get out of the way. There are two things that point you in this direction and I would be willing to bet any amount of money that the tight player is sitting on a set. The first of these is that they came over top of you. The J does not scare them and you can be pretty sure that at the very least they sat on KK or QQ hoping to not see an A on the flop. However, it is much more likely that they have a set.

The second factor is what should really scare you here. Regardless of what you do, there is still another player in the game. The fact that they have dismissed you and are making a play with someone else that already has money invested tells you that something is amiss here and your JJ is no good. The set is the call here and you need to take the small hit and wait for the next battle.