Seven Texas Hold Em Poker Secrets

September 7, 2007

Poker Tips & Strategies for the Beginner Holdem Player

Want to know the best kept texas hold em poker secrets that all beginning players need to know? The best kept hold em secret? It’s easy, to learn how to win you first need to avoid the common and simple mistakes that most beginning poker players make.

I don’t suppose that sounds like much of a “Texas Holdem Poker Secret”, but you might be surprised when you learn the most common mistakes that Hold Em Poker Players make, and how to make sure that you don’t make them!

Also keep in mind that most Texas Holdem poker secrets aren’t really “secrets” after all, they are tips, strategies and certain plays that you can make in certain situations. This article will review some quality Texas Holdem tips and strategies for beginning players.

As a beginner poker player, there are seven simple mistakes and errors that can cause you to lose you a lot of money if you do not know about them. Some of these mistakes are quite obvious, whereas others are a less well known but can have a huge impact on your hold em bankroll. Learn these Texas Holdem Poker Secrets and resolve them. However, a much faster way to learn and improve is to read texas holdem poker tips & strategies from more experienced poker players, who have been through the same learning process as you.

Here is our list of of the top seven mistakes made by new Texas Holdem players. Watch for these mistakes and adjust your texas holdem stradegy to avoid these mistakes and improve your game. Avoid making these Texas Hold em blunders and your opponents will wonder what secrets you know that they don’t.

Texas Hold Em Poker Secrets

1. Most Texas Hold Em Players Play Too Many Hands
Especially new and beginning players. Both new and old Texas Holdem players to play far too many hands pre flop and after the flop. This is the most common problem theme I see in virtually all new players games.

To change this, you need to tighten up. Playing too many hands will land you in a lot of trouble, and in a lot of difficult decisions situations. When you are first starting, you need to play tight. If you want to see if you are playing tight you should not be seeing the flop anymore than 20% of the time.

You must be selective about the hands you wish to play with. If you only enter pots with good hands, you will improve your chances of winning. Entering pots with sub-standard hands is just asking for trouble.

So, What is a ‘good starting hand’? Read the first entry on this article on holdem tips and strategies.

2. Don’t Chase Expensive Draws

When you are on a draw such as a straight or a flush draw, you should try and avoid calling large bets and raises in the hopes of making your hand by the turn or the river.

How to determine if a bet is ‘large.’ Bet size is dependent on the size of the pot. A $100 bet in to a pot with $1000 in it is a tiny bet, whereas a $100 bet into a pot with $100 in it is a ‘large’ bet. So, that answer is it depends. When starting out, an easy rule of thumb is if the bet is less than 1/3^rd of the pot then it is most of the time ok to call with your straight and flush draws.

Remember this secret - It is better to call bets and raises if they are small in relation to the size of the pot and when your opponent has enough chips behind to make hitting your hand pay off big. By only calling bets that are small enough when you are drawing will allow you to see cards cheaply to make your draw and “hit your hand.”

If you are calling large bets and raises with your draws on a regular basis you will, over the long term, lose money.

3. Don’t Over-Value Suited Cards

Suited Connector Secret - Just because a hand is suited, it only improves that hand’s chances of winning by 2%.

Suited cards are all too commonly over-valued by hold em players of all abilities, so it is not just a beginner thing. Suited cards look attractive because they appear to have a lot of potential to make a flush, rather than if the cards were unsuited. However, playing these suited cards too often is a bad texas holdem stradegy for new players.

Here is the secret about these hands in holdem, suited connectors are HARD to play well post flop even if you flop a draw. You will so rarely flop a flush or a straight that you will almost always need to play strong post flop with these hands.

Suited connectors are hard to play post flop for most players. Also, if you are playing any two suited cards, like 62 suited because they are suited then you will win so few pots and the pots you win will be small… plus when do hit a flush and get action you are almost certainly beat by a higher flush.

4 - Don’t Bluff Too Much

One of the most attractive aspects of poker is the ability to win big pots without even having a hand. You can usually find an amateur player somewhere trying to bluff opponents off their hands all too frequently, only to get called in numerous spots and losing a lot of money.

Although bluffing is a good way to pick up an extra pot here and there, it is not essential to becoming a winning player. When you are new, don’t bluff.

Texas Holdem Bluffing Secret - It is possible to be a winning poker player at the low stakes without ever needing to bluff,! It’s true, especially if you are playing low stakes texas holdem games online.

We are not saying to never ever bluff ever. Bluffing for beginners needs to be a RARE event. Bluffs at the lower stakes just do not work very well for a handful of reasons. Low stakes players have a very difficult time folding any reasonable hand (even 3^rd pair) and it takes a lot of practice to learn how to bluff successfully. Use the bluff very sparingly, and only use it when you are almost 90% sure that you will be able to get your opponent to fold. If you cannot be this sure, just bet with the hands that you know that you can win with.

5 - Learn to Play Position

Position plays a vitally important role in every poker hand, especially so in the game of Texas Holdem. The player with the advantage over the rest of the players in each hand is the player that is last to act on each round, the best position on the table is the player who is the button.

Having a good position allows you to see your opponents actions before you have to decide how to play your hand. The later in the hand you act, the more information you have about what your opponents are doing and you will be able to make more educated and profitable decisions.

If you just have to play hands like suited connectors, make sure you are playing them from good position!

6 - Learn the rules of Texas Holdem

As strange as it might sound, there are many players that are not familiar with the rules of the poker game they are playing. So obviously, if you are unfamiliar with the rules of the game, you are setting yourself up to lose money to other players at the table who know what they are doing.

You need to obviously understand the poker hand rankings (what beats what). Don’t be the player that loses his entire stack because he thought that his straight beats a flush, it doesn’t.
7 - Choose Weaker Opponents to Make Money

Texas Holdem Secret - Create a list and keep it by your computer of the screen name of the terrible players you see at your table. When you are ready to jump online and play some poker then do a player search for the players on your list.

The aim of poker is to win money, not to try and beat the best players. By playing in games where you know you are outclassed is a great way to lose your money, so try to avoid doing so. There is nothing wrong with playing against players worse than you, as it is the only way to make money from the game. As you improve you may be able to play against opponents that were once better than you, but for the time being it makes sense to play against weaker opponents because that’s where all your money is going to be.

Hopefully you found this article on these so called Texas Hold Em Secrets for Beginning players and maybe you spotted a few tips and strategies that will help you tighten up your game. Don’t be afraid to take a step back and analyze your hold em game from time to time to see where you may be losing money, as you can’t develop as a player and improve your texas holdem stradegy if you try to ignore the problems.

If beginner poker players can master the above texas holdem poker secrets, they will have a solid foundation to develop their higher level poker strategy.

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