When To Bluff in Texas Holdem
August 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment
When bluffing is right in Texas Hold’em
A good bluff is the move ever poker player wants to make. After all, if you ask people what comes to mind when they hear the word poker, most people will say bluffing. Unfortunately this sets the wrong tone for most poker players. See, bluffing is something that should be done with tact and cunning, not simply because it has been popularized in culture and because it seems like the thing to do. Rather bluffing is a well timed move during a moment of opportunity that helps one maximize his or her profit. In this article we will actually focus on what some of these texas holdem bluffing opportunities are. We will discuss three situations that you should look for that indicate a good time to bluff and also what cues will indicate a weak player or a weak situation.
Three Opportunities to Bluff Playing Texas Holdem
- 1. When the flop is awful: When a poor flop falls you might find yourself in an excellent position to bluff, especially if you are in middle or late position. When nothing great comes on the flop, there are a few things going on. For starters, unless players were pre flop raising with big pocket pairs, the likelihood of someone having anything real great is pretty low. What a bluff does in this situation is simply discourages passive players to continue or it convinces other players that despite the awful flop, you hit a piece of it with your bad starting hand and now you have something. Either way, a bluff on a bad flop is usually a pretty good move.
- 2. When it’s a check fest: Many times in hold’em, especially in the low limit games, players get in the horrible habit of simply checking around and around the table. Well, this is a great opportunity for a bluff. Basically what happens is a mob mentality ensues and everyone silently agrees that their hands are awful and its best to just see the next card for free. Well, this is where you need to step in and put an end to the festivities. Next time you’re playing some cards on FullTiltPoker.com and this situation comes up, make a bet and let the table know that you won’t tolerate check fests and that you have a hand anyways despite everyone else’s grim outlook. All that even if you don’t have a hand because it’s an excellent time to bluff!
- 3. Against tight players or few players: We have long preached that the key to bluffing is noticing the situational advantages that make it a good move. Tight players are definitely one of them. Tight and aggressive players are dangerous, but just straight up tight players can be walked all over. A well timed bet against a cautious, tight player can often yield excellent results. This bluff can work regardless of where you are in relation to the tight player. A well timed bet or raise in front of the tight players often times is more effective than a raise after the tight player has already bet. The reason for this is that if a tight player bets, they might have a fairly decent hand.
- AA (pair of aces)
- KK (pair of kings)
- QQ (pair of queens)
- JJ (pair of jacks)
- AKs (ace king suited, big slick)
- AQs (ace queen suited)
- TT (pair of tens)
- AKo (ace king offsuit)
- AJs (ace jack suited)
- KQs (a king and a queen of the same suit)
- Play Tight With your Starting Card Selection. One of the biggest mistakes new players (and old vetrans alike) make is playing too many starting hands. If you are brand new, I suggest you start off playing as a ‘rock.’ This means you are playing the top 10 starting hands. AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, AKs, AKo, AQs, AQo, 99. If you stick to only playing these hands when you start off you will avoid loosing large amounts and you will probably be a winner. This is not an ideal strategy, but to start out, it is fine to play super tight. Tight is right. Once you get more familiar with Texas Holdem you can open up your starting hand requirement.
- Play Aggressively when you do play. This means raising or betting instead of checking and calling. If you have one of the top 10 texas holdem hands listed above you should be raising pre-flop, not just calling the blind and seeing the flop. Be the bettor and the raiser, not the checker and the caller. When you bet or raise you give yourself additional ways of winning the pot other than just ‘hitting’ your hand. You could bet and someone could fold a better hand, this is impossible if you are only calling or checking.
- When you get check-raised on the turn, it usually means a monster. Especially when playing Limit Texas Holdem. Most limit players will simply call you on the flop and stick the raise in on the turn. This is also true when playing no-limit but even more so when playing on limit. When you get check raised on the turn, you have to fold your hand unless you have a monster yourself or a draw to hit one and the pot is fairly large.
- Show down the winner. I know this sounds obvious, but if you are a beginner you are most likely playing in low stakes online games or even playing Free Texas Holdem Online, right? Well at those levels the other players are sticking around and seeing the river, and showing down their hands… ie they will not fold. This means that you have to have a hand that can win at showdown against other reasonable hands. If you have bottom pair on a board of AKT95, your 56s is probably not good if there has been action before you. Fold this hand and do not take it to showdown.
- Be super tight when it comes to calling a raise! Hands like KJ, QT, A9 etc… not good hands to be calling medium to large raises with. If you have someone raise it is fine to let these hands go unless the player is just constantly raising and raising pre-flop. These hands are often dominated by hands like AK, AQ, KQ etc… Dump them and save money in the long run. These hands are sometimes fine to play when there have be no raises, but you need to be tight when it comes to calling raises generally speaking.
- Pay attention to your position – Closest to the Button is the best position. The more people who have to act before you the better. If you do want to open up and play a wider range of hands like some suited connectors and smaller pocket pairs, make sure you can do so when you have a good position. The button is best.
- Play within your bankroll. If you deposit $100 to an online poker room you can not afford to be playing at the $50 max buy-in tables (if the $100 represents your entire bankroll or as much as you want to wager). A general rule of thumb is you need 500x the BB to play in that game. If you were playing $1/2 no limit you would need to have 500x $2, or $1000 in your bankroll to safely play in this game. If you lose on your first session you need to move down to .50/1.00.
- Take advantage of the freerolls offered at the major online poker sites for excellent table time practice without risking any of your bankroll.
- Invest in your poker education. Read poker strategy articles and watch online poker training videos like the ones you get from signing up for our newsletter.
In addition to the points made above, the main things to focus on in terms of bluffing are players acting weak and lots of checking. Players check really for one reason, because their hand is bad and they want a free card. Less frequently players will check in order to deceive. This however is an altogether different situation and is for another time. For now, focus on bluffing in one of the three situations listed above and you will find yourself extracting more money while at the same time protecting yourself from foolishly throwing away chips because someone told you to bluff.
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Five Texas Holdem Tips
January 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment
Five Full Tilt Low Limit Hold Em Tips
New to poker? Start out playing limit texas holdem. This is where bets have fixed sizes, unlike no limit which is any bet amounts at any time.
Limit Hold Em is a great way to cut your teeth and get some great experience without having to risk your entire stack in one hand. There are many pro’s who play primarily limit poker at the highest of stakes and feel that it is the best form of poker although this author believes no-limit holdem is the purest form of the game. Regardless, Limit poker is a great way to start out playing in real money ring games online. You can start as small as a few cents per bet.
There is no place online that you will find more Limit Hold Em tables then on FullTilt.com Poker.
Making money playing limit poker on Full tilt does require patience, but if you remember these Texas Holdem Tips, it can be highly profitable! Follow these five Full Tilt Poker tips and make money playing low limit holdem!
Find The Fish!
Full Tilt Poker is the home of thousands of players online, and you are bound to be able to find some fish. One of the most important things is to seek out those loose fishy tables in the Full Tilt Poker lobby. In limit poker, most of your profits are going to come from you opponents poor play and mistakes. Even when you first start playing limit poker on Full Tilt, keeping these things in mind will give you an immediate advantage.
Look for tables with high percentages of players seeing the flop (anything 40%+ is usually super juicy) and with as little re-raising pre-flop. You want a table with lots of limps or if there are raisers at the table, you want to find a table that has very little RE raising pre-flop.
Position Is King!
In the limit poker games at Full Tilt and virtually everywhere, you will often see people misplaying their position. Use your poker fundamentals, and know that in late position you can play more hands like suited connectors and small pocket pairs if you already have lots of people in already. Position is so over looked in low limit poker that you can easily use it to your advantage.
If It Is Not Premium Hand, Don’t Call A Raise playing Limit Texas Holdem
One of the biggest mistakes players make playing is playing way to many hands for a raise. If the pot is raised and you are not folding your mediocre unpaired hands, then you are playing to loose. Calling too many raises at the table and having to fold the flop can prove to be a major detriment to your bankroll and a leak in your game.
When it’s ok to call a raise? When there are lots of players already in and you are getting great expressed odds from the pot. If there is $14 in the pot and it costs you $2 to call, you are getting 7 to 1 pot odds and virtually any reasonable hand is worth a call.
Raise Your Strong Hands – Don’t Slowplay
You want to bet and raise your strong hands in limit poker. You will often find your table is full of weak passive players who will check and call your bets but who will not bet into you allowing you to check raise. Go ahead and bet and you will show more profit over the long run. On Full Tilt Poker, you will often see many people limping into the pot with a mediocre hand, make them pay. You shouldn’t be slow-playing against weak opponents, build the pot by betting and raising.
Always Know The Pot Size!
In limit poker, you are often going to find yourself priced in much of the time. However you still want to consider the size of the pot in order to make adjustments to your play. I like that if you are playing at FullTilt, you can set the table settings to display the pot size so you always know exactly how much is in the pot with a quick glance at the table. When the pot gets big, you need to take every action that you can in order to take it down. If the pot is huge and you have something that will get you paid if you hit, and you are only facing one bet, then you can call here. Knowing the pot size will also help you in playing your draws properly. There is no need to chase a draw only to win a very small pot.
Limit Hold Em can be a very tricky game for those just starting out, but it can also teach you discipline and patience and give you a strong understanding on which hands can be played profitably.
There are a lot of limit games to choose from on Full Tilt Poker, and at the lower limits, these Low Limit Poker tips should help you take down a lot of pots.
Texas Holdem Poker Hand Odds
April 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Common Texas Holdem Odds You Need to Know
One problem with people who consistently make calling and betting mistakes while playing texas hold’em is that they don’t do their poker odds research. And it is very easy to make a bad call when one has no idea what they’re facing with regards to their texas holdem poker hand odds.
Fortunately, it’s also very easy to study texas holdem odds charts to make poker odds simple. Even better, hundreds of people before you have done all the hard mathematical work to calculate the odds of poker so you won’t have to. All you have to do is simply sit back and read what’s already been determined.
The best place to start with common texas holdem odds is before the flop happens. Your probability of getting a pair pre-flop is 1 out of 16 times while your odds of getting a certain pair like pocket rockets is 1 out of 222 times. The poker hand percentages odds of picking up suited cards is a lot better at 23.5 % while getting connecters will happen about 15.7% of the time, although after I downloadPoker Stars and started playing there I have to say my opponents seem to get unreal odds to draw out on me, but that’s for a different article.
Once the flop hits, that’s when things get really crazy and it’s tougher to keep track of the odds of each hand in poker. If your hole cards are suited the odds of flopping a flush or three suited cards is only going to happen about 1 out of every 119 times. In fact, your odds are better on holding unsuited cards and making a flush on the river. However, odds aren’t too bad of getting a flush draw when holding two suited cards as this happens about 1 out of every 9 times.
If you happen to be holding a small pocket pair and really need to flop trips or quads in order to have a made hand, it will happen about 11.8% of the time. The probability of getting any kind of hand in a pair, 2 pair, trips, or quads after the flop is 32.4% of the time. But don’t really count on the quads part of the equation that much as even when holding a pocket pair you’ll only get them 1 out of every 407 times.
If you’re looking for an inside or gutshot straight draw to come through, this will happen about 16.5% of the time while the open-ended draw will be a lot more reliable as it occurs 31.5% of the time. If you’ve got a flush draw, your chances of getting the last card on either the turn or river will occur about 35% of the time while, if you’re lucky enough to have cards allowing for a flush and open-ended straight draw, your hand will hit 54.1% of the time.
When you know these excerpts from texas holdem odds charts, it makes it a lot easier to calculate texas hold em pot odds. And once you master the two and put them together, your poker hands odds cards will improve greatly and you will put yourself in much better position to start winning more playing Texas Holdem.
Texas Holdem Starting Hands
February 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Texas Holdem Hands
If you want to learn texas holdem and develop a strong strategy it is important to first learn texas hold em hand ranks (what hold em hands beat what) and learn which texas hold em starting hands are the best to have pre-flop.
These are the basics of Texas hold em and it is critical for new players to commit the hand rankings and top starting hands to memory before moving on to anything more advanced in Texas Holdem. Without knowning “what beats what in Texas Hold Em” you will not understand how the game works, and strategy on how to play the game.
Rank of Hands in Texas Holdem
Let’s start with what Texas holdem hands beat which. It is always super important when playing to know what Texas Hold Em hands can beat yours so you can figure out which hand is the ‘nuts’ based on the cards on the board.
Below is a list of Texas Holdem hands in rank from best hand to worst.
Texas Holdem Hand Ranks
Royal Flush
Five cards consisting of the A, K, Q, J, and Ten all of the same suit.
example: Ah,Kh,Qh,Jh, and Ten of h (h=hearts).
Straight Flush
Five cards in sequential order all of the same suit.
example: 4d,5d,6d,7d and 8 of d (d=diamonds).
Four of a Kind
Four cards all of the same rank.
example: K,K,K,K,6
Full House
Five card hand consisting of three cards of one rank, and two cards of another same rank, or three of a kind plus a pair. This is also called a ‘boat’ or a full boat.
example: K,K,K,6,6
Flush
Five cards all the same suit.
example: 3c,5c,9,Jc, and A of c (c=clubs).
Straight
Five cards in sequential order (suit does not matter)
example: 2,3,4,5,6
Three of a Kind
Five card hand consisting of 3 cards of the same rank.
example: 5,5,5,J,7
Two Pair
Five card hand that consists of two cards of the same rank.
example: 5,5,7,7,J
One Pair:
Five card hand that consists of two cards of the same rank.
example: 5,5,7,9,J
One of the best ways to memorize the ranks of hands is just by playing some practice games online. Download Texas Holdem Games for free at a respected online poker room like Full Tilt Poker or PokerStars.com and start playing. There is no charge and you do not ever have to deposit any real money until you are ready.
Based on the above chart of Texas Holdem Hand ranks, you now know that if you have a flush, your opponent(s) will need either a higher flush or better to beat you. Being aware of all possible hands based on the board is a vital skill needed to enhance your Texas Hold Em playing skills, this is called ‘Reading the Board’.
You should ALWAYS try to figure out ‘the nuts’ on every hand. Figure out the nuts, the near nuts and what the future nuts could be on the turn and river. Also you need to understand your common texas holdem hand odds.
Now that you know the best hands according to five-card hand ranks, let’s talk about what are the best two cards to have in your hand during pre-flop betting in Texas Hold Em.
Top 10 Texas Hold Em Starting Hands
In the chart below, we will list out the top 10 Texas hold em starting hands. In this list, you will notice that some starting hands have a “s” next to them, and others may have an “o” next to them. When referring to starting hands in Texas hold em, a “s” means that the two starting cards you hold are suited, and the “o” refers to two starting cards that are off-suit (ie, NOT suited – are of two different suits).
Also, keep in mind that these Texas Holdem hands are ranked based on their worth PRE-flop (before any community cards are on the board). You will want to learn how to bet each of these top 10 starting hands based on your position at the table. For now, let’s focus on learning what the best starting hands are in Texas Hold Em and committing them to memory. Please note we are talking about your individual hole cards.
Ten Best Texas Hold Em Starting Hands
Tips to Playing Strong Texas Hold Em Starting Hands
Playing these top ten Texas hold em starting hands properly pre-flop is important to winning more pots with them. You want to raise appropriately and be aggressive to encourage those with weaker starting hands to fold. You may find many players at a Texas Hold em table that will “limp in” with just about any two cards regardless of the starting hand rank those cards may have. These hold em players play their game based on luck as opposed to skill, but they can still beat you if you don’t raise aggressively pre-flop to get them off the pot and to fold.
While Texas hold em strategy changes when you are playing short-handed Texas holdem (just a few players as opposed to a full table), it is always important to represent your strong starting hands with strong pre-flop bets. Another quick tip to maximize your winnings is to use a valid bonus code when you sign up, check out the FullTiltPoker.com Bonus Code for bonus offers.
You will find that if you base your game on the odds of strong Texas holdem Hands and less on the possible luck of any two cards, you will rake more pots to you in the long run. You will also develop a strong image at the Texas hold em table as a player who only plays premium cards. This is a valuable reputation to have! As your game progresses, you will be able to change up your style of playing your Texas hold em starting hands and become a more feared player at the table.
More texas hold em Tips and Strategy
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Seven Texas Hold Em Poker Secrets
September 7, 2007 | Leave a Comment
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 1/3rd 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 3rd 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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Tips and Strategies on Texas Holdem Poker
September 4, 2007 | 1 Comment
Use these quick tips to get a hand up on your competition at the Texas Holdem Poker Tables. These tips and texas holdem strategy can give you a quick boost to win more money playing texas holdem.
Most of these tips and strategies are designed for beginner texas holdem, not the high stakes ultra competitive cash games where it requires many, many levels of thinking.
Texas Holdem Tips and Strategies
These tips and strategies on texas holdem poker are the start to our texas holdem tutorials and can serve as instructions on how to play texas holdem for beginning and learning texas holdem players. To really learn how to play texas holdem poker you simply need to put in the time at the table and play hands, play a lot of hands. Texas Holdem is an easy game to understand but it is impossible to master, so don’t worry if you start out loosing. Most everyone does. Just be sure you start out small and play at the free money tables for as long as you want to make sure you understand the nuances of the game.
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Texas Holdem 101
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