Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Texas hold em strategies
There are many texas hold em strategies a new player must learn when becoming a master of the game. I refer to three different levels of player, the fish, the piranha, and the shark. I myself am by no means a shark, I rank somewhere in the piranha level. The piranha level is by far the hardest to graduate from as the level of skill required to become a shark takes years of practice. Thanks to internet poker players are able to learn much more quickly, but without playing in live games as well, skills such as controlling your adrenaline while in a live game will be non-existent.
The most important part in any strategy is to learn what beats what. If you think a flush loses to a straight you’ll be folding winners and will have no chance of ever coming out ahead. After you’ve learned hand rankings you graduate up to hand selection. At first it’s important to learn how to fold the majority of the hands you see. Why? Because hand selection is very important, especially when you’re first learning. If you’re playing a lot of 7 3 offsuits in the beginning you’ll develop bad playing habits that will be harder to break in the future. Just because you are winning a few times with a bad hand from early position doesn’t mean you’ll always be winning with those hands. The odds are against you.
So once you learn how to fold you’ll start to learn about position at the table. Position has to do with where you are sitting in relation to the dealer button. Those who have to decide if they want to play or fold first are in what is known as “early position.” This is a bad place to be as you will have to bet first throughout each betting round. You do not want to play many hands out of early position because you have no idea what everyone else is holding. They can make moves and plays on you leaving you at the disadvantage of having to call away chips in hopes of making hands.
After early position we have what is known as “middle position.” Here you can start to play a few more hands but still want to make sure you are playing quality hands. Finally we have what is known as “late position.” Here you can play more hands, especially if you are “on the button.” On the button means the dealer button is right in front of you and you are last to act on every round of betting. This is a powerful position because you can make raises to force other weaker hands to fold, as well as see cheap flops or turns if no one else has bet. From late position you can play more hands because you can fold if someone bets large and you didn’t make a hand or you can check your straight draw if no one else has bet leaving you with more free cards. There is no wondering what other players will do from late position because they’ve all already made their decision. You can see who is weak and make a play on them or you can take free cards if you so wish if no one else has bet.
After learning position different playing styles can be learned. Do you want to be aggressive, tight, tight aggressive, see lots of flops, chase straights and flushes, or just play like a maniac raising a lot of pots? You’ll learn your table image the more you play and you’ll learn how to adjust based on how other players at the table are playing. If a lot of people are trying to see cheap flops why not make it cost them more to see the flop? If someone is raising every flop start playing tight then when you pick up a good hand re-raise them. Learning how to play in different scenarios and with different players is key to becoming a great hold em player.
Once you’ve mastered these texas hold em strategies you’ll be ready to move on to bigger pots and against better opponents.
The most important part in any strategy is to learn what beats what. If you think a flush loses to a straight you’ll be folding winners and will have no chance of ever coming out ahead. After you’ve learned hand rankings you graduate up to hand selection. At first it’s important to learn how to fold the majority of the hands you see. Why? Because hand selection is very important, especially when you’re first learning. If you’re playing a lot of 7 3 offsuits in the beginning you’ll develop bad playing habits that will be harder to break in the future. Just because you are winning a few times with a bad hand from early position doesn’t mean you’ll always be winning with those hands. The odds are against you.
So once you learn how to fold you’ll start to learn about position at the table. Position has to do with where you are sitting in relation to the dealer button. Those who have to decide if they want to play or fold first are in what is known as “early position.” This is a bad place to be as you will have to bet first throughout each betting round. You do not want to play many hands out of early position because you have no idea what everyone else is holding. They can make moves and plays on you leaving you at the disadvantage of having to call away chips in hopes of making hands.
After early position we have what is known as “middle position.” Here you can start to play a few more hands but still want to make sure you are playing quality hands. Finally we have what is known as “late position.” Here you can play more hands, especially if you are “on the button.” On the button means the dealer button is right in front of you and you are last to act on every round of betting. This is a powerful position because you can make raises to force other weaker hands to fold, as well as see cheap flops or turns if no one else has bet. From late position you can play more hands because you can fold if someone bets large and you didn’t make a hand or you can check your straight draw if no one else has bet leaving you with more free cards. There is no wondering what other players will do from late position because they’ve all already made their decision. You can see who is weak and make a play on them or you can take free cards if you so wish if no one else has bet.
After learning position different playing styles can be learned. Do you want to be aggressive, tight, tight aggressive, see lots of flops, chase straights and flushes, or just play like a maniac raising a lot of pots? You’ll learn your table image the more you play and you’ll learn how to adjust based on how other players at the table are playing. If a lot of people are trying to see cheap flops why not make it cost them more to see the flop? If someone is raising every flop start playing tight then when you pick up a good hand re-raise them. Learning how to play in different scenarios and with different players is key to becoming a great hold em player.
Once you’ve mastered these texas hold em strategies you’ll be ready to move on to bigger pots and against better opponents.
Sunday, October 4, 2009
Texas hold em tips and tricks
There are many texas hold em tips and tricks but none more important than this – do not ever attempt to bluff a new player. There are thousands of books written on how to play texas hold em, many of which tell you to play the odds against the new players. My honest opinion is avoid them as much as possible. Play with the new players who play tight, you can figure out what they’re going to do quite easily, but avoid the new players who call every hand and will call on the river with a pair of twos. Well, don’t entirely avoid them, but don’t land yourself in a coin flip situation with them either. Wait until you pick up something they can’t beat then take all their chips.
As for beginning tight players, intermediate players and advanced players just don’t outthink yourself. If you think you have the winning hand, you probably do. If you’re playing with a group of intermediate players and you see a possible straight or flush on the board and there are more than two people in the hand betting, it’s safe to assume someone has the straight or the flush and you should fold immediately. The intermediate and beginners will play for straights or flushes more often than a great player. The great players know odds, outs, and what not so if you’re playing a numbers game you’re much safer against the good players than the bad.
Then again the good players will bluff you out of certain hands you could win, but if you think it’s a lost hand, well you already lost the hand. If you feel you have the hand won, then call or bet. Pick your spots to bluff, and know your opponents. You can study their habits, hand selection, etc while you’re not in the hand. Keep track of what they’re winning with. People have patterns about them. Professionals are professionals because they are good at switching up how they play depending on the situation and the opponent but they still have an underlying style to which they play. If you’re playing tight, they may switch to a more aggressive style to take advantage. Pick a spot to move in. Wait for your chances. This isn’t a game where you have to play every pot or win every battle. It’s a war. Take down the pots you can and throw away the ones you can’t. It’s that basic. You don’t have to bluff everyone every five hands to pick up chips. Pick your spots. Think football or hockey. When you’re on offense you want to win the pot. When you’re on defense you want to prevent your opponent from taking your chips. It’s basically that simple. Fold when you can’t win as you’re preventing your opponents from taking any more of your chips and bet when you have a good hand. You may not win every pot you’re betting, just like in football you don’t score a touchdown every time, but you’re going in with the intention of taking down the hand.
There are millions of texas hold em tips and tricks that can be given out. The most important one is protect your chips. Take from your opponents without letting them take from you. Don’t make bad calls and you’ll be fine.
As for beginning tight players, intermediate players and advanced players just don’t outthink yourself. If you think you have the winning hand, you probably do. If you’re playing with a group of intermediate players and you see a possible straight or flush on the board and there are more than two people in the hand betting, it’s safe to assume someone has the straight or the flush and you should fold immediately. The intermediate and beginners will play for straights or flushes more often than a great player. The great players know odds, outs, and what not so if you’re playing a numbers game you’re much safer against the good players than the bad.
Then again the good players will bluff you out of certain hands you could win, but if you think it’s a lost hand, well you already lost the hand. If you feel you have the hand won, then call or bet. Pick your spots to bluff, and know your opponents. You can study their habits, hand selection, etc while you’re not in the hand. Keep track of what they’re winning with. People have patterns about them. Professionals are professionals because they are good at switching up how they play depending on the situation and the opponent but they still have an underlying style to which they play. If you’re playing tight, they may switch to a more aggressive style to take advantage. Pick a spot to move in. Wait for your chances. This isn’t a game where you have to play every pot or win every battle. It’s a war. Take down the pots you can and throw away the ones you can’t. It’s that basic. You don’t have to bluff everyone every five hands to pick up chips. Pick your spots. Think football or hockey. When you’re on offense you want to win the pot. When you’re on defense you want to prevent your opponent from taking your chips. It’s basically that simple. Fold when you can’t win as you’re preventing your opponents from taking any more of your chips and bet when you have a good hand. You may not win every pot you’re betting, just like in football you don’t score a touchdown every time, but you’re going in with the intention of taking down the hand.
There are millions of texas hold em tips and tricks that can be given out. The most important one is protect your chips. Take from your opponents without letting them take from you. Don’t make bad calls and you’ll be fine.
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