Poker Strategy -
Starting Hands
The first thing you must understand when
you play Texas Holdem is which hands are good and which are bad. Though
it depends on the number of people in the game and the type, here is a
general guide to use when you are just starting out but want to be a
winning player at the lower limits. I suggest starting out at a fixed
limit of $1-2 or lower.
Note: the following guidelines are
only for fixed-limit Hold'em
These are 'premium hands' that you want to jam the pot with preflop:
AA, KK, QQ, AK, JJ, AQ, TT
You want to see the flop with these hands and then decide. Do not call
three bets with these hands, call only one or two.
AJ, KQ, QJ, JT, T9 (only if of same
suit), 99, 88, 77, Ax (same suit)
Poker Strategy - Pot
Odds
When you see a flop, you will generally
be in one of three situations.
Situation #1: Your hand totally misses
the board.
You have nothing, so you should check and
fold.
Situation #2: You hit the flop well and
hold a strong hand.
In these situations, you should generally
bet or raise.
Situation #3: Drawing hand
The third possibility is that you
currently do not hold a strong hand, but it is possible for you to make
a strong hand if the turn or river brings you a good card. This
situation is known as "drawing." Example:
In this situation, a spade will make you
a flush, and an Ace or King will bring you top pair.
When you are drawing, there are several
tools that will help you make your decisions. One important tool is "pot
odds." Calculating pot odds is fairly simple. First, you must count the
number of outs you have. An out is a card that will improve your hand.
In this example, your outs are 4 Aces and
4 Nines, or 8 outs total. To calculate your percentage of hitting an out
on the next card, you take the # of outs times 2, then add 1. In
the above situation with 8 outs, you have roughly a 17% chance of
hitting on the turn.
Once you figure out your chance of
hitting a draw, you multiply it by the pot plus the bet to see what the
maximum bet is that you can call.
For example, if the bet is $10 and the
pot is $90, the bet plus the pot is $100.
Now let's say you have 6 outs (6 cards
will help you). This means you have about a 13% chance of hitting. If
the pot is $90 and you must call $10, you should call because you can
call as long as you have at least a 10% chance to hit (10/100, the total
pot is 90+10). However, if the bet to you was $20, you should fold,
because that would require a 18.2% chance of hitting (20/110).
Poker Strategy -
Deception
Poker is not just a mathematical game. It
is also a game that entails a lot of psychological combat. Three of the
most important psychological weapons in poker are bluffing,
semi-bluffing, and slowplaying.
Bluffing
Contrary to popular belief, bluffing is
almost useless in a low limit game (anything less than $2-4). Rarely
will people not call to a showdown, so there is no point in scaring
people out of the pot. I suggest waiting to bluff until you play at a
higher limit. When you play at a higher limit, it's best to bluff when
you 'represent' something and there are only one or two opponents in the
pot. For example, betting at the flop with a high card on the board
'represents' a pair, raising when a flush is possible 'represents' the
flush. Bluffing is also much more useful in a no-limit game than a limit
game.
Semi-Bluffing
Semi-bluffing is the same as bluffing
except you possess a strong draw.
You currently only have Ace high, but you
may hit a spade flush or make a pair of Aces or Kings. Thus, if you bet
with this hand, you are bluffing at the pot but have a high likelihood
of possessing a strong hand on later betting rounds. Semi-bluffing is a
very useful technique at times, especially in no-limit games.
Slowplaying
Slowplaying means deceiving your
opponents into thinking you have less of a hand then you do.
You flopped a full house! There is no
need to scare people out of the pot because there is little chance of
someone drawing out on you. Thus, you should wait to the turn or maybe
even river to jam the pot with bets and raises. You should slowplay if
two conditions are met:
1. You hold a whopper and there is almost
no chance of someone drawing on you
2. You will only get action if some other
cards come out that will improve your opponents' hands. Nonetheless,
these cards are not good enough to make their hands beat your hand.
Poker Strategy - Tilt
Being on tilt means letting your emotions
disrupt your ability to play. All poker players go on tilt at least once
during their career, but limiting these episodes is essential to winning
at poker. Poker is a game that requires reason. If you have
Q J,
and the flop comes A Q 10,
and there is a lot of betting action, you need to know to fold. If you
were on tilt, you would let your emotions take control and make you do
whatever it took to take down the pot. You would keep chasing, hoping to
catch a king and hoping that no one had a flush.
In general, people who get upset and
don't stay focused and reasonable will lose all the money they brought
to the table. Poker is almost anti-human in the way it triggers emotions
but rewards people who are made of stone. I don't mean to scare you or
act as if all poker players are unemotional stones, but it is imperative
to stay focused and rational while at the poker table.
Generally, most players tilt due to a bad
beat or if they just can't seem to win a hand. Some players have a
slight tilt after they win a big hand or two, but those episodes
generally are much shorter than tilts caused by losing.
For example, take this hand I played
recently.
I bet at the flop and was called.
10came
on the turn. I bet, he called. River was 7.
I bet, and he raised. I decided to just call, thinking he may have
actually had KJ. No, he had 7 7 .
The idiot had called me to the river with little hope but won on a very
lucky river catch. Needless to say, I was not playing well the next
couple of hands.
While going on tilt is natural, you need
to limit it. Generally, the best way is to sit out a couple of hands and
go for a walk.
Another good way to handle a bad beat is
to just think about all the bad beats you have laid in the past. After
the bad beat I mentioned above, I sat back and thought about the time I
stupidly went all-in during a Pot-Limit Omaha with bottom set.
My opponent had the best hand when all
the money went into the pot. I was lucky enough to catch a backdoor
flush on the turn and river and took down a huge pot. That day, I went
on to win the most money that I have ever won. If I had lost that hand,
I probably would have called it quits and never would have won all of
that money. Thinking about the time I pulled off this bad beat and went
on to win such a huge sum helps me get through the times that some idiot
rivers me.
Listening to music is another way to
avoid tilt. The positive vibes you get from a song you enjoy will help
counteract the negative emotions from a bad beat. I would also suggest
changing songs or CD's after you have suffered a bad beat. This way you
distract yourself from getting too emotionally caught up in the poker
game.
Many people, myself included, tend to
curse at the computer if they get bad beat. However, for myself at
least, cursing is not nearly as therapeutic as thinking about that huge
bad beat I laid at the Omaha table. Cursing tends to make you more mad
and will cause you to develop some bad habits. When you are about to go
on tilt, sit out and think of happy thoughts (as cheesy as it sounds,
it's true) and hopefully you can resume playing your best.
Poker Strategy - Keep It
Simple
When you start to play poker, you will
more than likely be playing lower limit games. To beat these games does
not require you to become a masterful poker player, it primarily entails
that you are able to outplay poor opponents. To beat good players at
higher limits can be incredibly difficult, entailing many complex moves.
However, winning at low limits is pretty straightforward.
What do I mean? Basically, other players
won't be paying attention to you. They only care about their own cards;
they don't care about you or your cards. They will play their hand as
they always play their hand, regardless of whether or not you are in the
pot. You are basically a ghost to them...but hopefully you will be a
ghost that's slowly taking their money! If you want to beat these types
of players, you simply need to a play a straightforward game that will
win in the long run. For example, play tight, don't do any fancy bluffs,
bet aggressively when you probably have the best hand, and utilize pot
odds for your drawing decisions.
When it comes to deception with these
players, slowplaying can work. These players are easily fooled into
thinking they have the best hand when they hit a pair on the turn, so
giving them a free card when you hold the stone nuts can be to your
advantage. However, bluffing is simply an exercise in futility. These
guys want to see if they have the best hand. They'll pay to see your
cards just so they can see them sometimes! Don't expect to scare any
fish at lower limits with an extra $2 bet.
Master the art of choosing starting
hands, employing pot odds, and aggressively betting your winning hands.
However, psychological strategies are generally useless. Your opponents
are not thinking too deeply, and attempting any fancy plays will only
hurt you.
Poker Strategy - Think
For Yourself
A disturbing trend I've
noticed in the poker community is that people seem to want to follow
strict guidelines when they play poker. Many want to treat poker like
blackjack, where there is always an optimal strategy in every situation.
This is simply not the case. Any and all
advice are just some general hints that can never take the place of
proper situational judgment skills. Poker is a game of people and a game
of situations. It is not a game of optimal, pre-planned strategy. All of
the best poker players vary their play and make decisions on the spot.
Poker players that rely on a ready-made recipe are doomed to fail
because they will play very predictably, and they won't take into
account many important situational factors when making decisions.
There really is no way to teach someone
situational judgment skills. The only advice on this topic that I can
give is to practice and pay attention to your flaws. What are some
situations that could be played differently? How often do you correctly
place opponents on their hands?
Something that may be helpful is online
poker hand histories. Some, but not all, poker rooms will display the
hands of all the losing players who called a showdown (it will show muck
on the screen but will show at the bottom of the hand history for that
hand). Some poker rooms that I believe do this are
Paradise Poker
(European), and
Poker Room
(US/Canadian). When you beat someone who called you to the river (or
you turned a lucky draw), request the hand history for this hand and see
what your opponent has. This will help give you an idea of how often you
correctly judge your opponents.
If you are going to play poker, have
confidence in yourself. Think for yourself. Don't worry if your play may
be violating textbook guidelines. A winning poker player's arsenal
combines general poker knowledge with situational judgment skills.
Losing poker players don't think for themselves or simply don't think at
all.
Poker Strategy - Ego
Poker can be an exciting game. Because it
is played against other players and not against the house, it is also
possible for a player to win at it in the long run.
However, always remember to keep your
poker ego in check. First, the vast majority of people who play poker
lose. For someone to win at poker, someone else has to lose. Also, the
house takes a rake. If everyone at the table were of equal skill,
everyone would expect to lose in the long run because of the amount of
money paid in rake (of course, this doesn't apply to home games). So to
win at poker, you need to be more skilled than your opponents, and you
need to be skilled enough to beat the rake.
Furthermore, don't be naive and think you
can be a guaranteed winner overnight. Poker is a tough game. Some people
have played poker for years and still cannot become winning players. You
are not going to just read a few articles and become a dominating poker
player right off the bat. It takes skill, practice, and patience to
become a good poker player.
Also, just because you do well at one
type of poker does not necessarily mean you will do well at other forms
of poker. For example: someone who dominates his home poker game may
very well lose in a more competitive setting such as a casino or online.
Another example: many ring game players are horrible tournament players
and vice versa. Keep track of your poker statistics so you can analyze
which form of poker you play the best. If your statistics have shown
that over a fair amount of time you have consistently lost a fair amount
of money at a certain poker game, you need to be cognizant of the fact
that your poker skills are not good enough to beat that game over the
long run.
Poker can be fun, relaxing, and
potentially even profitable. However, always have the right mindset when
you are playing at the table.
Poker Strategy - Common
Beginner Mistakes
When people sit down in a game, they
want to play. Often, this means they even will play hands like
J 4 .
This is a cardinal no-no. Hopefully, the articles on this site will
help improve your starting hand selection.
This goes without saying. Sometimes the
gambling and money aspect of poker gets to people too much. They
become greedy and play in games they cannot afford or games where the
competition is simply too stiff.
At first, stick to a consistent, lower
limit. Learn how to play and beat the game before you play in
higher-stakes games.
Bad beats will happen. Losing sessions
will happen. Annoying opponents will happen. Live with it and do not
let your emotions sway your judgment at the table.
If your hand needs improvement, the
concept of pot odds can help you determine if you should call to see
the next card on the board. Few beginning players understand pot odds,
and they often call too much.
When most people think of cards, they
think of two colors, red and black. The suits are displayed like this:
Well, I have news for you. Some online
poker rooms give you two display choices: the traditional two-color
deck and a four-color deck. A four-color deck would have four unique
colors for the four suits, like this:
 
While this may seem unusual at first,
it will make things much easier on you with time.
Believe me, if you use a two-color
deck, there is a good chance that you will at some point misread your
hand. You might think you have a flush when in fact you do not. Using
a four-color deck is a simple way to prevent yourself from making
stupid mistakes.
This is a mistake that brick and mortar
beginners make. When you want to make a raise, you should not say, "I
call your bet and raise you XYZ." Your initial action is considered
your final action. So if you say, "I call ..." it means you just want
to call. If you want to raise, say "raise" and state the amount you
want to raise, if it is a no-limit game (the amount of the raise is
obvious in fixed-limit games).
A lot of people learn how to play poker
by playing in a similar fashion to other people. They may just imitate
others at the table, or they may try to play like a professional they
saw on television. This is the wrong way to go about playing poker.
Many people who play poker are simply
bad at it. Imitating a poorly-skilled player means copying a lot of
their bad habits. Furthermore, trying to imitate what one saw on
television is also a recipe for disaster. What is shown on television
is almost always a tournament, and their hands are highly situational.
The reasons for the professional's decision probably has little
applicability to your own game.
It is important to understand how to
make decisions at poker. Succeeding at poker is not done through
imitation; rather, it is done through understanding the complexities
of the game.
All gambling involves luck. While luck
tends to even itself out over the long run, people naturally focus on
the short run and on their fluctuations.
Because gambling involves randomness,
people will often blame or chalk up their luck to some random event
that coincided with how they fared at a certain gambling session. This
may be as innocent as believing in a lucky shirt. However, some people
take these superstitions too far. They start to believe that if they
constantly move seats or change their socks that they will somehow
become the next WSOP winner.
You cannot affect the "luck" factor of
gambling. Luck evens itself out over the long run. The only thing you
should concern yourself at the poker table is playing well. If you
play very well at poker, you will win over the long run. If you do not
play well, you will lose. It's as simple as that.
Having a suited hand is a plus.
However, you should not play a hand just because it is suited. The
first two things to consider about a starting hand are the ranks of
the cards and if the cards are paired. These are by far the most
important factors in the value of a hand. After this, you should
consider if they are suited or connecting.
A hand like A K
is much, much more valuable than a hand like 10 3.
A K
is a top starting hand, whereas 10 3
should be thrown in the muck.
This may sound obvious, but many
beginners make the mistake of calling to see the flop with any two
suited cards. The probability of flopping a flush or a flush draw with
two suited cards is just under 12%. This is fairly low; you need other
reasons to play a starting hand besides it being suited.
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