Tips texasholdem

Texas Hold'em strategy is a huge topic, with countless web pages, books, podcasts, videos, and every other medium imaginable, wholly devoted to the subject. A comprehensive strategy guide to Texas Hold'em Poker, that would fit all experience levevls, is completely unfeasible, so this article will be aimed at beginners, and have the perspective of examining just a few of the common pitfalls that Texas Hold'em beginners often make.

So, without further ado, what not to do when playing Texas Hold'em Poker...!

Not knowing what hand you have

Learn the hand rankings and learn to without failure identify what hand your hole cards plus the so-far revealed community cards make! Don't forget about straights and flushes!

Ignoring what hand the opponent has

So you played your K4 and the flop came down, T, A, K. You hit a nice high pair! So you bet the flop, bet the turn, and go all-in on the river, right?

Well, hang on. Is it possible your opponent has a better hand? There's an Ace on the table. Any hole card Ace crushes your KK hand! What else?

• They could have TT, making a three-of-a-kind.
• They could have QJ, making a straight.
• They could have their own king with a higher kicker!

There are tons of hands that beat your really impressive-looking royal pair!

Ignoring what else is on the table and ignoring how the other players have acted so far, just merrily playing your own hand, is a super common beginner mistake. Always use your opponent's actions, and the cards at the table, to inform your estimate of what they could have - are you likely the one with the strongest hand or not?

Limping

To "limp" is poker lingo that means "calling the big blind", that is, in the pre-flop betting round, you only call the minimum amount necessary to stay in the hand. Now, there is some place for almost every play... But in general limping is considered a mistake the majority of the time. Why?

• If your hole cards are good, then you're better off betting so that you get more chips when you (hopefully) win the hand!
• If your hole cards are playable but not fantastic, then you're better off betting so that hopefully some or all of the other players fold, so you don't have to win against them all at showdown!
• If your hole cards are bad, you should fold them! Limping terrible hands is a certain way to bleed chips until you suddenly find yourself with the smallest stack and are eventually eliminated.
• The big blind player is already in. If everyone limps, you let the big blind see the flop for free, giving them a free chance to improve and win the hand they would otherwise have folded. Any Poker player can tell you about loads of hands where they were the big blind, everyone limped, they got to check their terrible hand as the BB, flopped a miracle improvement, and won the hand.
• Someone after you can raise, and you'll have to fold your bad or mediocre hand, losing your limped bet. You would have saved the chips if you folded immediately.

Again, it sometimes makes sense to limp. But if you are the type of player who already limps the majority of your hands, this is almost certainly a huge leak that you should plug ASAP. Later, you can bring back limping for the select hands and situations where it may make sense.

Calling too often

Corollary to the above, a related, also very common beginner pattern is to call excessively, as opposed to re-raising or folding.

• When you call you will not make the opponent fold! If you want to make the opponent fold (whether you are bluffing or semi-bluffing), you must re-raise.
• If you don't think you have the best hand, and you don't think you can make the opponent fold by raising/re-raising, you must fold, not call!
• You call because you want to see the next card, or see showdown, right? That's the only reasons to call, if you want to accomplish anything else you should choose another action! But when you call while not being the last to act, it is easy for someone after you to re-raise. This puts you in a very difficult position, as suddently you're not allowed to see the next card unless you pay more, much more than you would like to pay. This, being caught between a raise and a subsequent player's re-raise, is called being sqeueezed in poker lingo, by the way. It's as uncomfortable as it sounds.
• For goodness sake, don't "call as a bluff". Don't call if you have nothing! Re-raise if you want to bluff!

Never believing other players

Poker is a game of communication. You communicate with the other players via your bets and actions. As in any communication, statements can be truthful, or untruthful.

Perhaps because Poker is probably the first game anyone thinks of when saying "bluffing", some players play as if they never believe what any of the other players are saying. This again ties into "Calling to often" and "Ignoring what hand the opponent has", above.

If your opponent bets or raises you, they are saying: "I think I have a better hand than you!"

If your opponent calls or checks, they are saying: "I'm not sure who has the better hand, I'd like to see more cards / go to showdown."

Sometimes they will be telling you the truth. Not always. But at least make sure you have listened to what they are saying before you make your decision.

"But what if they don't have it?" Well, what if they do? Are you willing to lose the game on this hand if they do?

Oh, and if you are playing against this type of player who never believe others have anything... Don't bluff! They won't believe you and they will call your bluff! :)

Never folding

From the above topics - Ignoring the opponent's hand, limping, calling too much, and never believing other players - we can see an overarching theme: the tendency among many newer players to be overly reluctant to fold. Of course many players also have the opposite problem of playing too nitty and folding way too many hands. But in general, it is more common that beginners fold too seldom, especially pre-flop, and get into way too many pots with terrible hands, losing huge amounts of chips in the process.

• Folding has a known value - zero! You cannot lose more chips by folding. In that sense, folding is "safe".
• If you are going to fold - fold early! You are escaping so much more cheaply folding a bad hand pre-flop, than being forced to fold it on the turn with 10 times as much in the pot.

Ignoring position

Lastly, let's try to summarize a huge topic on which there have surely been entire books written.

In poker, the player acting last has a big advantage - they get to see what all the other players do first, to inform their own choice! Being after someone else to act is called playing in position to them, and acting before someone else is being out of position to them. In a multiway pot you can be in position to some players and out of position to others. On the flop, turn, and river betting rounds, the dealer is always in position to everyone, making it the best seat to have.

If you are in an early position, out of position to many players, all hands become a lot more tricky to play, and there are many more ways they can go wrong.

• In early position, fold a lot more hands. When you're the button, be willing to play far more hands.
• Calling in early/middle position opens you up for a great risk of being squeezed.
• Small blind is a difficult position. If everyone before you have folded, you know you only need to make one player (the big blind) fold to take the pot. On the other hand, you are out of position to the big blind in all betting rounds. If you bet with a mediocre hand and they call, or you miss the flop, you can be in trouble. If multiple players are still in the hand when it's your turn to act, the small blind is a very tough position - You are out of position to everyone and the big blind can even squeeze you right now!
• Big blind has the advantage of being last to act pre-flop, but then you are early, and often first, to act in every subsequent betting round.