1. One of my top Texas Holdem tips is to always be aware of what type of poker player you are up against. For example, you will frequently encounter Nits, TAGs, LAGs, SLAGs, fish and so on. Here is a complete list by the way of all the poker player types and how to beat each one.
2. Good Texas Hold'em Strategy Although it's possible to talk about Texas Hold'em strategy indefinitely, due to the game's subtle complexities, we've compiled three of the most salient pieces of poker advice every aspiring pro should know. Pulling off fancy bluffs and check-raising the river with a small value bet may be enticing propositions.

Texas holdem poker is the most popular card game in the
United States. It’s also hugely popular in Europe and other
countries. Omaha has a firm foothold in other countries, too,
but Texas holdem has a big following just about everywhere.

If you want to be a winning poker player, it’s almost a given
that you’ll need to learn at least the basics of Texas holdem
strategy. After all, you’ll be able to find more games (and more
weak players) at those tables than anywhere else.

The top ten best Texas hold'em starting hands The little 's' stands for 'suited' and the 'o' for 'unsuited' or 'of suit'. Good starting hands are those hands which either don't need to hit the flop (like big pairs) or often make the best hand when they do hit the flop. Good Texas Hold'em Strategy Although it's possible to talk about Texas Hold'em strategy indefinitely, due to the game's subtle complexities, we've compiled three of the most salient pieces of poker advice every aspiring pro should know. Pulling off fancy bluffs and check-raising the river with a small value bet may be enticing propositions. Texas Holdem is one of the most popular gambling games worldwide. Mastering this poker game is not out of your reach with our best Texas Hold’em poker tips. With millions of players worldwide, Texas hold’em, or Hold’em, is undoubtedly one of the most popular poker games. The rules are pretty simple to master.

Texas holdem strategy is a huge subject, too. We have
literally dozens of pages on various subtopics related to the
subject. Below we provide brief introductions to many of the
strategic concepts you need to understand. In almost every
instance, we link to a comprehensive page devoted to that
concept, too.

Low Limit Strategy vs High Limit Strategy

The strategies you use when playing for lower limits differ
from the correct strategies at higher limit games. As a general
rule—and make no mistake, there are exceptions—you’ll find more
unskilled players at the lower limits than you will at the
higher limits.

For one thing, it means that a more direct approach to the
game will often be rewarded. We can sum up this direct approach
in 2 sentence:

Get the hands. Then bet the hands.

First of all, it means don’t bother trying to play second
rate hands. Don’t spend a lot of time trying to bluff. Unskilled
players have a hard time laying down hands, and bluffing only
works if your opponents are willing and able to fold.

Second, it means that when you do get good cards, start
putting your money into the table. Bet or raise. Don’t
cold-call. Don’t check. Get paid off for your hands.

Finally, keep in mind something called “the schooling
effect”. Lots of players at this level are calling stations.
This means that if you have a speculative hand, like suited
connectors, you can often get enough other players into the pot
to get paid off big when you hit a strong flop.

When you start playing in higher stakes games, you have to
get more creative in order to win. Skilled players are likely to
notice if you’re playing ABC poker, and they’ll be able to take
advantage of that. So you’ll have to learn how to mix it up.

Microlimit strategy is another aspect, too. The same
strategic concepts that apply to microlimit games, only more so.

Blind Play

It’s important to know how to play from the blinds. In fact,
the blinds are some of the most important positions in a Texas
holdem game. Correct blind strategy is a complicated subject,
too.

Here are some of the basics:

What most players concern themselves with is defending their
blinds. A situation that comes up often is that everyone will
fold before the action gets to the player before the blinds, and
you’ll wind up with some aggressive player who will raise into
you when you’re in the blinds. They might be holding nothing.

You’ll need to be paying attention to your opponents’
tendencies when deciding whether or not they’re just trying to
steal your blinds. It’s okay to fold when someone raises you in
the blind, especially if you have junk.

But it’s not okay to fold EVERY time someone raises your
blind.

Sometimes you need to call and then raise on the flop.

And sometimes you need to re-raise their raise before the
flop.

Some of this depends, too, on what cards you’re holding. If
you have a solid hand (like KK or AA), and someone raises into
your blind, don’t be afraid to try to get them all in.

In fact, premium hands almost play themselves in this
situation. As long as you avoid slow-playing, you’ll be fine.

It’s the more speculative opening hands, like low pairs and
suited connectors, where you have to start making decisions.

And the best guideline to making those decisions is your
knowledge of your opponents’ playing tendencies.

Playing Styles

If you’ve done ANY reading at all about playing styles in
Texas holdem, you’ll know that players are often categorized
according to how many hands they play and according to how often
they raise or bet.

• Players who play a lot of hands are called “loose”, and
  players who play only their best hands are called “tight”.
• Players who bet and raise a lot are called
  “aggressive”
• Players who call and check a lot are called “passive”

Most experts agree that tight-aggressive play is the winning
formula, especially at lower levels. This means you should focus
on playing good hands, and betting and raising when you have
them.

You’ll also find plenty of players who do well with a
loose-aggressive style. They play a lot of hands, but they bet
and raise so often that they win a large number of pots without
a contest.

If you win enough smaller pots, you can use that money to
“freeroll” your way into hands where you have more speculative
holdings. This is an especially important strategy to think
about when you get into higher limit play.

Guide to Playing Styles

Odds and Probability

Understanding the odds and probability involved in Texas
holdem are a critical skill. The most important aspect of this
to understand has to do with comparing the odds of hitting your
“outs” and the pot odds being offered.

The first concept to understand is the concept of “outs”. An
“out” is a card that will complete your hand and give you the
winning hand.

You have 2 cards in your hand, both hearts. And the flop also
has 2 hearts on it. So you have 4 cards to a flush.

There are 13 hearts in a deck of cards. 4 of them are already
out there, so 9 of them are left in the deck. And there are 47
cards left in the deck.

Those 9 cards are your “outs”. Those cards will give you what
you need to have a winning hand. (Assuming that you have the top
flush at the showdown, anyway.)

You can compare those odds to the odds that the pot is
offering you to decide whether or not to call a bet.

In this case, the odds of hitting the hand you want are 9/47,
or about 1/5, or 4 to 1. But you get 2 chances at it.

Suppose there’s $100 in the pot, and it only costs you $10 to
call and stay in the pot. You’ll lose 4 times for every time you
win, but you’ll win 10 to 1 on the 5th time. Overall that’s a
profitable play.

Comparing pot odds to the odds of hitting your hand is just
one example of probability in action during a Texas holdem game.

Another factor expert players consider is how likely it is
that other players will fold. You have to take this into account
when making decisions, too.

If you’re playing against a super-tight opponent in the
blinds, and you estimate that there’s a 90% chance he’ll fold
against any raise, raising is almost always the correct play
there.

But you can’t estimate these kinds of odds unless you’re
playing close attention to your opponents’ playing tendencies.

Preflop and Postflop Playing Strategy in Texas Holdem

The first 2 cards you’re dealt in a hand of Texas holdem are
your hole cards. That’s considered your “preflop” hand, and you
need a strategy for how to play them. We’ve seen estimates that
suggest you can break even if you master preflop play, even if
you’re only an average player after the flop.

We mentioned a tight aggressive approach, earlier. This holds
especially true when playing before the flop. It’s also
important to take into account position when you’re playing
preflop.

It’s easy to find a lot of suggestions about which hands you
should and shouldn’t play from various positions before the flop
in holdem. Our favorite way to think about these hands is to
categorize them.

Here are some categories of preflop hands to think about:

High Pairs

High pairs are 2 cards of the same rank that are ranked 10 or
higher. The higher they’re ranked, the better. Aces and kings
are super hands to play preflop, but the value of these pairs
drops dramatically when you’re looking at queens, jacks, or
tens.

Most experts recommend raising from any position with a pair
of aces or kings regardless of what your opponents have done.
But you need more judgment when dealing with a pair of queens or
jacks. If you’ve seen 3 players before you bet and raise
repeatedly, those queens might be an underdog. Some of this
depends on your opponents’ tendencies, too.

Smaller Pairs

Smaller pairs are legitimate starting hands, too, but you’re
hoping for them to improve on the flop. The higher the ranking
of the lower pair, the better off you are. A pair of 9s isn’t
terrible, but a pair of 2s borders on worthless. That’s because
even if you hit another 2 on the flop and make your 3 of a kind,
there are a lot of other potential 3 of a kinds that could beat
you.

Suited Connectors

Suited connectors can be some of the most interesting
starting hands to play. These are 2 cards of the same suit which
are also close in rank. The 10 and J of spades would be
considered suited connectors. These are speculative hands,
because you need them to improve in order to win. But they have
lots of potential—you could make a flush or a straight, for
example. And if the suited connectors are high enough in rank,
you might even wind up with a big pair.

Big-Little Suited

Big-little suited is even more speculative, because you’re
missing some of the straight possibilities. The higher the
cards, the better. An AK suited or an AQ suited is almost as
good as a pair of queens or jacks, but an A4 suited is pretty
speculative. Everything needs to go right in order for you to
win a hand with those cards.

The tendency is to want to bet and raise with your really
strong hands before the flop, but with more speculative hands,
you want to check and call, hoping to get into the hand cheap
with a lot of other players so you’ll get paid off if you hit
your hand.

Who has acted before you and what they did is also super
important to your decision here.

We have entire sections devoted to preflop play, starting
hands, and starting hand charts. All of these topics are closely
related.

Tournament Strategy and Sit n Gos

Tournaments require a different strategy than ring games,
because the goal is to be one of the last men standing in a
tournament. In a ring game, you can play forever, and the chips
are worth what the chips are worth.

But in a tournament, the values of the chips change as the
game continues. The blinds increase on a regular basis during a
tournament, too, so your strategy has to change based on the
size of your stack versus the size of the blinds.

Some Texas holdem players specialize in tournaments. Others
prefer ring games. The thing about tournaments is that they have
a higher variance. Some players like this, but others prefer a
steadier stream of winnings.

Here’s what we mean:

You might play in a dozen tournaments with an average buy-in
of $100 each. You might only place in the money in one of them,
but you also might win $4000 in that one, so you’re profitable.
But it took you a while to become profitable.

A ring game player, on the other hand, might play steadily
and win $1000 a month consistently 5 months out of 6, having a
losing money only occasionally.

Your temperament will determine which is better for you.

We have sections about tournaments in general and about sit
in go tournaments specifically, too. (A sit n go is a specific
type of tournament that’s most prevalent on the Internet.)

Psychology, Tilt, Tells and Texas Holdem Strategy

The psychology of Texas holdem covers multiple subjects. For
one thing, understanding what your opponents’ emotional
tendencies are can be a big edge in any Texas holdem game. If
you know that one player likes to be the sheriff (he calls a lot
of hands to make sure you’re not winning money by bluffing),
you’ll know the best way to extract the most money from him.

If you know that a player makes bad decisions when he’s mad,
and if you notice what makes him mad, you can subtly manipulate
his anger to take advantage of those bad decisions. In fact,
this is a serious phenomenon called “tilt”.

A player who is tilting is putting money into the pot because
of anger, not because it’s the mathematically correct play. It’s
easy to take advantage of players with that tendency.

Understanding your own psychology is just as important. You
have to know when you’re on tilt. You also need to know how to
avoid tilt to begin with. If you realize you’re on tilt, it’s
time for a break. You might even need to take the rest of the
night off from playing poker.

Tells are another aspect of poker psychology. Tells are
subtle physical clues as to what kinds of cards your opponents
are holding. Most players have tells. And most players aren’t
good at spotting them.

Entire books have been written about spotting tells at the
poker table. Tells are only one aspect of Texas holdem strategy,
but they’re a “sexy” aspect of it. Some players, especially
beginners, spend too much time and energy thinking about and
trying to spot tells.

Texas Holdem Tips and Advice

We have pages devoted to Texas holdem tips and Texas holdem
advice, too. These are a great way to get introduced to some of
the more basic concepts in holdem.

We can provide you with a couple of quick pieces of advice
and a few tips, here, too:

You’ll find a lot of really great books with
in-depth treatments of poker strategy. The Theory of Poker by
David Sklansky is essential reading for any poker player,
regardless of which game you’re playing. Super/System by Doyle
Brunson (and others) is also worth reading, especially the
sections about limit and no limit holdem. Anything by Ed Miller
is worth your time, too. And those are just for starters. Expert
Texas holdem players are almost always well-read Texas holdem
players.

Texas Holdem Tips And Tricks

If you’re playing online, you should use the
note-taking function in the poker room software to take some
notes on your opponents. If you’re playing live, you should keep
a journal and write about what’s going on. You should keep book
on your opponents, but you should also track your results and
how you got them. Texas holdem is a thinking person’s game. Few
things clarify your thoughts on a subject better than writing
about it.

Good players bet and raise. Weak players
check and call. You can find loose aggressive players who are
profitable, and you can find tight aggressive players who are
profitable. What you can’t find are passive players who are
profitable. Loose passive players are calling stations, and they
lose money right and left. Tight passive players are rocks, and
they lose money, too—just more slowly than calling stations.

If you’re a beginner, you probably need to play
fewer hands. As you grow more proficient, you can play more
hands. You might even be the type of player who can succeed as a
loose aggressive player. But we don’t recommend that as a
starting goal. That’s something to experiment with once you’ve
mastered tight aggressive play.

If you’re new to the game, play for stakes you
can easily afford. Microlimits online are a great place to
start. If you’re playing live, start with the lowest stakes
limit games you can play. You can move up in stakes as your
bankroll grows and as you become more confident in your skills
as a player.

Find some buddies who can talk intelligently about
playing Texas holdem, even if they’re only online buddies. You
can find excellent discussions of poker strategy on various
forums. Two Plus Two is one of our favorites, although they’re
not as friendly toward newcomers as we would hope.

Being detached from the outcome of each hand is a
crucial mental skill that many players can’t master. If you’re
getting mad about results all the time, you’re going to have a
hard time playing correctly. How do you become detached from the
outcomes? Pat yourself on the back for making the correct play,
regardless of the results. You might also spend some time
studying meditation techniques. These can help you get your
emotions under control.

There are no advantages to being drunk at the
poker table. Alcohol impairs your judgment, period. It’s better
to just stay sober. We know players who “pretend” to be drunk at
the table in order to take advantage of other players. But most
of them are not really pretending. If you smell like booze,
you’re probably drunk.

A lot of players try clever fancy
moves at the poker table because they’ve watched too many
episodes of World Poker Tour. Here’s the secret about those
shows: they’re heavily edited. Most poker hands are boring in
the extreme. They show you the most exciting ones. But it’s easy
to get confused and think poker is played one way based on what
you’ve seen on television, but it ain’t necessarily that way in
real life.

We mentioned this before, but Texas holdem is a
thinking person’s game. If you want to succeed, you need to pay
attention to what’s going on, even when you’re not involved in
the hand—which is going to be most of the time, because most of
the time you won’t have playable cards. Think about the numbers.
Think about what cards the other players might have when they’re
making their decisions. This will go a long way toward improving
your game.

Our best Texas holdem advice?

Don’t get suckered into thinking you’re a great player just
because you’re on a winning streak. This is the biggest mistake
most new players make. Texas holdem is a high variance game.

That means luck is a big factor.

Advanced Strategy

We have an entire section devoted to advanced strategy for
Texas holdem players. We won’t get into a lot of detail about
advanced tactics on this page, but we will say that advanced
strategies only start to matter when you’re playing other expert
players.

You don’t need advanced strategy to beat novice players.

Solid ABC poker is good enough to beat novice players.

But once you start dealing with thoughtful, expert players
with lots of experience, you have to start taking things like
game theory into account. You have to start bluffing and
semi-bluffing occasionally. Deception becomes more important.
(We also have a section explaining Texas holdem and game
theory.)

Raising with your good hands and folding your bad hands is
good enough to win when you’re playing novices, but when you’re
dealing with advanced players, you need a more multi-dimensional
approach.

Cheats, Cheaters, and Cheating

We don’t recommend cheating at Texas holdem. It’s an easy
enough game to beat if you play honestly—if you’re willing to do
the work of becoming an expert player. And the risk-reward ratio
for cheaters is awful.

In fact, we’re firmly convinced that cheating at gambling is
a bad idea for lots of reasons. Karma is one of the significant
ones.

If you don’t want to get cheated, don’t try to cheat other
players. Being a good player is more fun and more satisfying,
anyway.

And there’s not much risk involved in becoming an expert
player.

Bluffing and Semi-Bluffing

New players think that bluffing is a more important part of
Texas holdem strategy than it actually is. There are several
things to keep in mind about bluffing. Most of them just flat
out have to do with the math.

Let’s look at an example of a situation where you might want
to bluff:

The first player to act bets. The 2nd player to act raises.
Player 3 re-raises. A couple of players fold, so now it’s your
turn to bet. (This is preflop.)

Trying to bluff these 3 players doesn’t make a lot of sense
from a mathematical standpoint. They’ve all indicated a strong
hand—sure, one of them might be bluffing, but all 3 of them?

Unlikely.

After all, the good cards have to be somewhere.

Let’s look at another situation. You’re the last person to
act before the blinds, and everyone has checked. (Again, this is
preflop.)

You fire off a raise.

But you don’t have good cards. You’re just hoping that
everyone else has weak cards.

What are the odds that the player in the small blind, the
player in the big blind, and all the other players who checked
have weaker hands than you do? And even then, what are the odds
that if they all have weaker hands that they’re all going to
fold? Or that some of them won’t improve?

You then have to compare those odds with how much you’re
going to get paid off if they do all fold. There would have to
be a lot of money in the pot.

Let’s say you assume that each of these 4 players at the
table have a 50% chance of folding in the face of your raise.
50% X 50% X 50% X 50% = 6.25%. That’s the probability that
they’ll all fold in the face of your raise. That’s about 15 to
1.

So to make that a profitable bluff, you’d need to have at
least 15 units in the pot for every unit you bet. With that much
money in the pot, even some of the less sophisticated players
are going to stay in just in case their longshot comes through
for them.

Semi-bluffing, on the other hand, often makes a lot more
sense. This is when you bet and/or raise even though you
probably don’t have the best hand, but you still have a chance
at drawing to the best hand.

An example of this is when you have 4 cards to a flush on the
flop. You figure your opponent has a high pair. He’s the
favorite to win, but when you add together the chance that
you’ll outdraw him with the chance that he’ll fold in the face
of your bet/raise, you have a positive expectation situation.

You have a 33% chance of hitting your flush (roughly). But
suppose you also have a 30% chance of him folding. You don’t
need a lot of money in the pot to make that a bet worth making.

We have an entire page devoted to the subject of bluffing and
semi-bluffing, too.

Cash Game Strategy

Earlier we mentioned that there’s a difference between
tournament strategy and cash game strategy. We want to reiterate
that here and point you toward that section of our site.

Your goal when playing in cash games is to maximize the
amount of money you win per hour. That might seem obvious, but
when you’re mapping out a specific strategy for a specific game,
you need to start with what winning looks like. In cash games,
it means maximizing the amount won on average per hour.

Contrast this with strategy during a tournament. Your goal
isn’t to maximize the number of chips you win per hour. Your
goal is to maximize your return on investment on the entry fee.
The chips have no real value. Another way to look at it is to
say that the value of the chips varies based on where you are in
the tournament.

If you’re “on the bubble”, which means that almost everyone
has been eliminated except for the players who are going to land
in the money, a short stack of chips might be “worth” a lot more
than your starting stack of chips.

This has interesting implications for your playing strategy.

Coaches, Coaching, Trainers, and Training – Where to Get
Texas Holdem Lessons

We’re not convinced that everyone needs a poker coach.
Coaching is probably not a bad idea if you’re serious about your
game, though. The distinction between a Texas holdem coach and a
trainer is probably not great—we don’t know of any training that
differs in any significant way from coaching. In fact, we’re
confident in saying that the two words are synonymous in this
context.

Where to get Texas holdem lessons?

We’re not convinced that you need them, but if you’re looking
for a poker coach who gives lessons, we suggest taking a look at
some of the more reputable poker forums online. Get to know some
of the players there, develop some relationships, and when you
start to get comfortable with some of these folks, ask someone
for a recommendation.

We offer more observations and tips about finding poker
coaches and lessons on a page devoted specifically to that
topic.

When to Fold in Texas Holdem

Really you can ask multiple questions about betting options
in Texas holdem:

• When should you fold?
• When should you bet?
• When should you call?
• When should you check?
• When should you raise?
• When should you bluff?

None of these questions, including “when should you fold”,
have definitive answers. Some situations are clear folds—if
you’re out of position before the flop and you have 27 offsuit,
you should probably fold. If you’re in late position facing lots
of callers, and you have pocket aces, you should almost
certainly raise.

The goal is to get your money into the middle of the table
when it’s a positive expectation move to do so.

The other goal is to avoid putting money into the pot when
it’s a negative expectation move to do so.

We go into a lot more detail about when to fold in Texas
holdem on our main page.

Conclusion

Texas holdem is a lot of fun. Luck’s a big factor, but Texas
holdem strategy is the difference between long term winning and
long term losing.

We’re constantly expanding this section. Entire books have
been written about some of these concepts. We’ve tried to
provide comprehensive explanations of each off these concepts,
but we might have left out a detail here or there.

If you see a mistake we’ve made, or if you think we should
add something to cover the subject more completely, please
contact us and let us know.

Poker is a lot like sex. Everyone thinks they are the best, but most don’t have a clue what they are doing. — Dutch Boyd

It is very true, but hopefully by and reading our Texas Holdem Strategy section you will at least have a clue how to do well at one of them!

One of the great benefits of poker is that it is quite easy to learn the basics. The rules are quite simple and allow easy access for beginners. However, on the other hand, it is a tough game to master; there’s always something to improve upon or learn.

The basic strategy below should provide you with the groundwork for developing a dominant poker game. We link to some more advanced material throughout for anyone that is further ahead of the trend.

Get the PDF version of the complete Poker 101 guide for offline use (30+ pages of poker goodness). Use one of the buttons below to unlock:

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Table Of Contents

• Preflop Texas Holdem Strategy
  • Starting Hand Types
• Postflop Texas Holdem Strategy
• Texas Holdem Strategy: Betting and Raising

Preflop Texas Holdem Strategy

Your preflop poker strategy forms the foundation of your game. Your first decisions will be made preflop during a hand, so it is important to get these decisions right. Thankfully this is one of the easier areas of the game to understand.

So to help you understand let’s take a quick example (click the picture to see the full replay):

We have JTs (J = Jack, T = Ten and the ‘s’ after JT means both cards are of the same suit. An ‘o' after the JT would refer to off-suit)in the first position under the gun (UTG) on a six-handed table with $1/$0.5 BB and SB. We have to decide what to do: we can raise, call (otherwise known as a limp) or fold. There are a huge number of factors which we need to take into account, and unfortunately, I won’t be able to cover them all. But I will try to cover the most fundamental factors in the coming paragraphs.

Firstly, it is very common to see new players play too many hands. They believe that they can outplay their opponents post-flop and turn a profit even with the weakest hands. This belief isn’t the case and often is the main reasons a new player loses money when starting out.

Only Play A Small Percentage Of The Hands You are Dealt

Thus the first preflop poker strategy tip is to play only a small percentage of the hands you are dealt – the type of hands to play will be discussed further on in the text. Players who play a small selection of the hand they are dealt are referred to as tight. Conversely, players who play lots of hands are known as loose.

The vast majority of winning poker players are relatively tight, and for the most part, losing players are loose. Therefore, the first important poker strategy tip:

Preflop Poker Strategy Tip 1: Only play a small percentage of the hands you are dealt.

Luckily, JTs is in the top 12% of hands and therefore is a hand we would want to continue with, in this case. We can determine ‘how strong' a hand is using a program called Equilab. So our options are now to raise or to call because our hand is too strong to fold.

This result leads onto a second reason new players are unsuccessful – frequent limping

Limping is defined as calling the big blind instead of raising or folding. For example, you are first to act after you have been dealt two aces (AA) or like our example with JTs and instead of raising, you just call – this is called a limp.

Limping: Flawed Reasoning

Often, new players limp to see a cheap flop with speculative hands or to trap with strong hands such as AA or KK. Good winning players very rarely limp and there are many reasons why:

1. You give the other players a chance to beat you with their weak holdings. For example, if you limp with AA and your opponent in the big blind checks behind he will have a chance to outdraw you to three of a kind or two-pair. Do not give people a free chance to improve and beat your strong hands.
2. Raising with good hands builds the pot. A big hand deserves a big pot! Typically the only way you will win an opponent’s whole stack (all of their chips) is by raising preflop; winning their entire stack is what you want when you have AA or KK, right?
3. It allows you to better understand what your opponent may have. If we limp in and our opponent is in the big blind, he could have every possible hand; however, when we raise our opponent will fold some of the worse hands and the type of hands he can have become more defined. Experienced players use this to their advantage.
4. Playing speculative hands (hands which could potentially, but infrequently win a big pot) such as 64s (s = suited, o = offsuit) and T2s just is not profitable in the majority of cases, whether you raise or limp, and no matter how good you are at poker.

Preflop poker strategy Tip 2: Never limp preflop

Example: JTs Under the gun

Since limping (i.e. just calling) is not an option our only option is to raise. That poses the question of how much? In this case, we will raise to 3x the BB, so $3 and one player calls our bet as shown. We will cover the reason we use 3x later in the article.

Three times the BB is a standard raise size which we will go into later in this article under the heading “Texas Holdem betting strategy”. But first, a little more on aggression to drive home the point:

You should only raise or fold your hands when first entering the pot. However, calling with some hands after someone else has raised is fine. There are some situations where open limping is a good idea but they are so few and far between that never limping is a good starting preflop poker strategy – especially for a beginner.

This leads to another generalization of how people play poker:

Aggressive vs. Passive

In poker, an aggressive opponent is a player who bets and raises frequently. A passive opponent is a player who calls and checks often and very rarely bets or raises.

Aggression is one of the keys to success in poker for one simple reason: When you bet or raise, you have two ways to win the pot – either your opponent folds or you get to showdown with the best hand.

Unfortunately, when a player is passive there is only one way to win the pot – by having the best hand. This difference is hugely important and is the reason all big winners are aggressive poker players; while most losing poker players are quite passive.

Preflop poker strategy Tip 3: Take the initiative and be aggressive. Bet and raise your strong hands frequently and don’t rely on others to do the betting for you!

The four playing styles

In total there are four player styles:

1. Tight-Aggressive (TAg) – This player type which makes up the majority of the winning player pool. They wait for strong hands and bet and raise them hard, punishing other players who play weaker styles.
2. Loose-Aggressive (LAg) – successful loose aggressive players are few and far between. They play lots of hands and play them very aggressively. It is a tough style to play but also a tough style to combat!
3. Tight-Passive – this player type does not play very many hands and when they do the play them by calling and checking frequently. These players lose their money slowly but surely.
4. Loose-Passive – these player types just don’t like to fold. Loose passive players play lots of hands – sometimes over 50% of the hands they are dealt. They are the complete opposite of tight-aggressive. This player type is the biggest loser and where the big winners make their money.

So what hands should you play? That is a difficult question to answer since it depends on many factors – what position you are in, how many opponents are on the table, how likely your opponents are to raise, the equity of your hand, how many BB you have and how many hands you have been raising recently.

Starting Hand Types

However, there are some basic starting hands that you should almost always be playing:

Premium Hands

There are very few premium hands in poker but when we do get these hands we should be trying to build a pot as big as possible and as quickly as possible. These hands are:

AA, KK, QQ, JJ, and AK – the top pocket pairs and Ace-King. AK is considered to be a powerful hand because:

• It dominates all other strong non-paired hands (e.g. AQ and KQ),
• Against a pair, it's nearly a coin flip with approximately 45% pot equity (will win the pot 45% of the time if we are to go all-in preflop)
• It blocks AA and KK which are the only two hands which have a significant equity advantage.

These hand should always be raised and often re-raised to begin building the pot.

Strong Hands

Strong hands are hands you should also always be raised when first entering the pot. These hands should be called when someone has already raised before you. These hands include:

AQ, AJ, AT, KQ and 99-TT. Large suited and connected hands such as QJs, JTs, are also considered strong hands. Suited hands derive their strength from being able to make flushes. However, do not overestimate the value of suited hands. Don’t play a hand just because it is suited. The value of a hand is derived from the combination of the ranks of the two hole cards. Example: AQ is much stronger than Q5, AQ is still much stronger than Q5 suited.

Preflop poker strategy tip 4: Do not overestimate the value of ‘suitedness.' Evaluate the strength of the hand from the rank of the two hole cards.

Tips For Texas Hold'em Poker

Medium Strength Hands

You need to be careful of this hand type. These hands can make you a big winner if correctly played, but when incorrectly played can cost you lots of chips. These hands include:

Best Texas Holdem Poker Free

KJ, KT, QJ, JT and 22-88. Medium suited connectors such as 87s are also considered to be medium-strength hands.

You will play different hands from various starting positions. Details on this require a separate section – for more on the differences in the positions read position is king which will provide a “beginners starting hand chart.

Summary Of Preflop Texas Holdem Strategy

In summary, preflop you should:

1. You should play a small percentage of the hands you are dealt.
2. Never limp.
3. Take the initiative and be aggressive. Raise and Reraise your strong hands frequently and don’t rely on others to do the raising for you!
4. Do not overestimate the value of ‘suitedness.' Evaluate the strength of the hand from the rank of the two hole cards.

If all you take from this section is these four points you will still have significantly improved your chances of winning.

For a summary of preflop poker strategy see the video below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNgcJ4AmjGA

Postflop Texas Holdem Strategy

Once you understand right preflop Texas Holdem strategy, the postflop poker strategy becomes significantly easier. When you play weak hands from poor positions poker is quite difficult; nobody likes to play Q7 from out of position (Out of position means you act first, so your opponent will have more information than you)! However, if you play only a narrow range of hands from good starting positions, as is recommended, poker will become a much simpler prospect.

Postflop, there are many factors which we must take into account before we make a decision. The number of variables makes each decision quite complicated for a beginner. However, there are a few guidelines and concepts which can be understood which will help you in the decision-making process.

Postflop Poker Strategy – The Basics

One of the most important considerations is if we are in position (IP) or out of position (OOP). We will cover this in more detail in Position is king.

Secondly, we should be considering what our opponent may be holding. Does our opponent have only strong hands if he is a tight player? Does he play lots of hands meaning his ‘range’ of hands will be quite weak? See more on how to hand read.

A whole book could be written on hand reading, so I won’t go further into it. But it is important as a new player to begin thinking about what your opponent may have. Do not only consider the hand you are holding.

Postflop poker strategy Tip 1: Always consider what your opponent could be holding.

Next, we should consider the board texture. For example, is the board likely to have improved your hand or your competitors? Is the board likely to change very much on the turn or river? These considerations will be detailed further on in this guide.

Another consideration is how many players made it to the flop. If the flop is heads up (only you and your opponent) the strength of each hand is much better than if five or even six people made it to the flop. The more players that see the flop, turn, and river the less likely you are to win a showdown with a weak holding such as one pair. For more information on the differences between multiway and heads up pots, head over to pokernews.com.

Postflop poker strategy Tip 2: The more players there are in the hand, the less likely you are to win and the weaker your holding.

Finally, we need to consider how many chips are in the pot, how much we have left behind in our stack and how many chips our opponent has.

After these considerations, we can make a decision on how we are going to proceed in the hand.

So first let’s have a look at board texture:

Postflop Poker Strategy: Notation

Before we discuss post-flop poker strategy and board composition in detail, we need to make sure the notation is clear to everyone.

In some cases, pictures will be used to show board textures, but often just text will be employed. When describing the board with text (i.e. letters and numbers), each card rank is represented by either its number or the first letter of its name. To take an example, the board:

This texture is described by 5♥ K♣ 5♦ and is often shortened to 5hKc5d. It is sometimes shortened further to 5K5r. Here the ‘r’ means rainbow (the flop is all different suits). When the flop has a flush draw (i.e. not a rainbow board) the board could be represented by 5K5s. Here the ‘s’ represents suited.

There are many types of boards, but in general, they can be broken down into two types: dry board textures and wet board textures.

Dry Board Texture

Dry board textures are ones which the players in the hand are less likely to have connected with the community cards. Also, dry also means a board which the strength of your holding is unlikely to change over the course of the hand.

Examples of dry board textures are:

Why are these boards considered dry? Well on the K55 board there are not many hands that will change the strength of your opponent’s or your holdings. If for example, you held KQ, then the only way your opponent can now beat you is if he has:

Well on the K55 board there are not many hands that will change the strength of your opponent’s or your holdings. If for example, you held KQ, then the only way your opponent can now beat you is if he has:

If for example, you held KQ, then the only way your opponent can now beat you is if he has:

• An Ax (e.g. Ace-Queen or Ace-Seven) hand and hits an ace on the turn or river.
• A pocket pair such as 77 which hits his set on the turn or river (unlikely).
• A hand such as QJ which hits a runner-runner straight (two cards in a row – for example, the turn is a Ten, and the river is an Ace resulting a straight Ten to Ace) or runner runner full house (two Queens or two Jacks).

The most important factor is that neither of these two board has many straight-draw or flush-draw possibilities. The lack of draws means that if you have a hand like A5 on the K55 board or 44 on the 742 board you are very unlikely to be beaten by your opponent if he is behind on the flop.

Additionally, dry flops are inherently difficult to hit and hence makes continuation betting as the pre-flop raiser (you raised first, and someone called your raise) especially useful on dry boards. Continuations bets will be detailed further on in this section.

Wet board texture

On the other hand, wet board textures are boards where the board is very likely to change over future streets.

Looking at the QT9s board, there are many cards which will modify the strength of many hands. If we have AQ or TT on this board we have a strong hand; but on many turn cards such as a K, J, 8 or any heart, the strength of these hands will significantly degrade. Also, there are many hand types that your opponent may have hit this board with:

• Any 8 or K is an inside straight draw (4 cards will complete the straight).
• Any J is an open-ended straight draw (8 cards will make a straight)
• The majority of opponents plays Queens, Tens, and Nines.

Therefore, your opponent is likely to continue with a large proportion of his hands on this board.

We can directly translate all these points to the 432s board; except for the last as this board has cards of lower ranks. On the 432s board, however, every Ace has an inside straight draw. Aces will be played quite frequently by most opponents.

Every other board type will be somewhere in between the dry K55r and the wet QT9s. Understanding how wet or dry a board is and adjusting your strategy correctly is the key skill at play in this scenario. For more information on board textures, see this excellent article.

Continuation betting

A continuation bet, as its name suggests, is when you follow up on your previous aggressive action with another bet. For example, you raise pre-flop and then continue to bet on the flop. Continuation bets are extremely useful postflop poker strategy for two reasons:

1. It is tough to connect with most board types; therefore player who bets first will often win the pot
2. The player who last raised pre-flop will typically have the strongest hands; thus will get the benefit of the doubt when he bets again.

The rate at which you continuation bet should be, on a very basic level, determined by the wetness of the board.

The dryer the board, the less likely your opponent hit and therefore the more often we will want to bet so that we can take down the pot.

But we should also be more prone to bet when we have a chance to win the pot when called. In other words, we have pot equity in the form of a draw or overcards.

Postflop poker strategy Tip 3: The dryer a board texture, the more likely we are to win the pot by continuation betting (cbet).

Example 1: A Good Spot To CBet

So let’s take a few examples of good examples of continuation bets. Continuation from our previous example of JTs from UTG (click the picture to see the full replay):

We opened to 3bb from UTG and got one call from the Button. On the flop of 9h7s3s, we have an inside straight draw and two overcards. This board is ranked medium for wetness and how the opponent connects; our opponent can have a few straight and flush draws as well as top pairs.

JTs is a good hand in this situation as we can make robust pairs on the turn and river and also can make the nut straight. Thus this is a good spot for a cbet as a bluff. We expect him to fold hands which are better than ours. However, if he does continue, we have a good chance of making a stronger hand with a J, T or 8.

We should keep bluffing to a minimum when playing small stakes and especially at play money poker. But in this case, it is almost a perfect situation for a bluff.

Example 2: Another good spot to CBet

Another situation for a good cbet is below:

We raised with 22 from the Button and got two callers from the SB and BB. Both check to us on the flop. This situation is a clear spot to value bet (value betting and bluffing are discussed in the next section). The flop is relatively wet, and two players can draw out us with straights and flush draws. Therefore, we want to charge them to see them next card.

Also, we have a robust hand (the second or third strongest depending on whether our opponents will re-raise KK preflop). We can get lots of value and win a big pot by betting; thus this is an excellent spot for a value bet.

Cbetting for value is a fundamental aspect of our postflop poker strategy and is one of the primary sources of profit at small stakes. Ensure you understand and utilize continuation betting fully by reading our in-depth article.

Example 3: A bad spot to Cbet

Below is a dangerous situation to continuation bet:

Texas Holdem Poker Casino

We raise a limper with 98s and get a call from the BB and the player who limped. The flop is terrible for us as we have a small amount of equity and this board is likely to have hit one of our opponents. Thus it is not a good spot to continuation bet (cbet), and we should check behind and fold to any future bets.

Postflop poker strategy Tip 5: Do not cbet on board textures where your opponent is likely to call, and you have little chance of improving on later streets

Continuation bets can also apply to the turn and the river. For example, we refer to betting the flop, turn and river as a continuation bet.

Continuation bets are how a significant proportion of your winnings will be generated at small stakes and free money poker. People often give up when they do not hit anything so take advantage of this fact.

Stack sizes

The number of chips you have bought in for or currently have on the poker table is known as ‘stack depth.'

If you are playing ‘short stack’ poker, it means you are not playing with very many chips on the table – for example, 40bb. We do not recommend shallow stack play. Shallow stack poker means we have fewer chips on the table and hence we can win fewer chips from the weak poker players at the table.

Conversely, deep-stacked play means you have a lot of chips at the table – e.g. 200bb deep.

The shallower your stack depth, the more likely you should be to go all in. In poker terms going all-in is called ‘stacking off.'

Stack depth has a profound effect on your preflop and post-flop poker strategy so ensure you are aware of your stack depth at all times.

For example, it would be appropriate to allow yourself to get all in with post-flop with top pair good kicker such as KQ on K72 if you had a stack depth of 40bb; however, not if you had a stack depth of 100bb or greater.

Postflop poker strategy tip 5: The greater your stack depth, the stronger a holding you need to stack off. Always be aware of your stack depth before entering a pot.

Before playing a hand pre-flop, you should be checking the stack depth of you and your opponents. Checking stack depth ensures you understand how many chips are at play.

One mistake often made by new players is not considering effective stack size: if you have 100bb and your opponent has 40bb then the effective stack size is 40bb; this is because your opponent can win no more than 40bb from you. Hence your effective stack size can vary from hand to hand, and you must adjust your post-flop poker strategy accordingly.

For a summary of post-flop strategy see this video below:

Texas Holdem Strategy: Betting and Raising

Betting is the fundamental aspect of poker which makes it an exciting game to play. The ability to wager money as a bluff inducing your opponent to fold is one of the biggest selling points of the game; it is the first thing people think of when discussing poker!

But it's not all about bluffing as Hollywood has led you to believe. A lot of a winning Texas Holdem strategy just involves getting your bets in when you have a better hand than your opponent.

Best Tips For Texas Holdem Pokerer

Poker betting strategy: reasons to bet

There are three reasons why one would want to bet:

1. For value – to get worse hands to call meaning we will win a bigger pot. For example, you value bet AK on an Ace high board (such as A72) to get AQ, AJ, etc. and worse pairs to call.
2. As a bluff – to get better hands to fold so we can win the pot with a poor holding. For example, you may be QJ on the A72 board to get hands such as non-paired Kings (KQ, KJ) to fold.
3. As a semi-bluff – A semi-bluff is much like a natural bluff only that when we are called we will still have a good likelihood of winning the pot. With a semi-bluff, we have a lot of pot equity. An example of a semi-bluff would be betting or raising with a flush draw: a weak non-made hand which has the potential to make a robust hand. See more information on semi-bluffing.

Before betting, consideration should be made as to why a bet is being made. Can worse hands call our bet and provide us with value? Can we get better hands to fold? If neither is the case, you typically shouldn't be betting. This concept is integral to correctly implementing a solid poker betting strategy.

Poker Betting Strategy Tip 1: Always consider when betting, will your bet either get your opponent to fold a better hand (bluffing) or call with a worse hand (value betting).

This concept can difficult to grasp as a new player. But generally, you should be just betting with your strong hands; and if you are playing small stakes or especially free poker, keep bluffing to a minimum. People at low stakes or even play money poker do not fold; thus bluffing at these stakes is a complete waste of money.

Poker betting strategy: Bet sizing

Bet sizing is one of the most complicated parts of NLHE and is one of the most challenging aspects to grasp for a new player. For simplicity sake there a few rules to stick to which won't lead you too far wrong:

1. Preflop raise to 3 times (3x) the BB with all hands you are opening. Do not vary your bet sizing depending on your hand strength. Changing your bet sizing based on your hand strength is a sure-fire way to let your skilled opponents what you are holding.
2. The same applies when re-raising another player preflop, make your raise three times the initial raise. For example, a player in a 100Nl game might open to $3. In that case, when you re-raise him with your strong holdings such as AA or KK, make it $9.
3. Postflop bet between 1/2 and full pot size bets. That means that if on the flop, the pot is $10 you should be betting between $5 and $10. Any smaller than that and your opponent can easily call with a lot of hands. Allowing your opponent to call with lots of hands means you miss value with strong hands; also, your opponent isn't likely to fold when you are bluffing. This is a bad result either way!

For a more advanced guide on poker bet sizing see: Pokerlistings.com

A big mistake new players often make is using the same bet size as the pot grows on each street. For example: betting 5$ into a $10 pot on the flop and then betting $5 into a $20 pot on the turn. Your bet sizes should be relative to the pot! As the pot grows so should the size of your bet. Think fractions, not dollar amounts!

Poker Betting Strategy 2: As a general rule always raise at least three times the previous bet or raise. When betting post-flop bet between 1/2 to a full pot-sized bet.

These bet sizing rules aren't optimal; they are approximations. However, they should provide you with solid groundwork to get you off to a good start in your poker career.

Once you begin to understand the merits of betting and raising and develop a more comprehensive poker betting strategy you can start to see when it is appropriate to deviate from these rules.

See this video on value betting for more information.

Further Reading

That's it for Texas Holdem Strategy. If you are really keen on learning poker quickly, we would suggest you check out our home page for more information to accelerate your poker learning.

There is still a lot to learn so here are some further reading:

Common poker mistakes.

Or return to poker 101?

Last updated: 26 October 2020