Texas Holdem for the advanced player.
Poker for real money is a very boring game. You will need to learn to play with extreme patience (called playing tight). You will need to understand that you will not win every pot. It is common for a tight player to drop out of many pots before he calls a bet. Obviously you will eventually have to put in some chips. With that in mind your first rule should be losing little winning big.
The first order of business is putting a limit on what hands you will call with and how much to bet. When I play tight, I stay with all hands that contain a combination of big cards. Big cards are 10 and up. I also stay with an ace/anything if they are suited. Some other players lower the bar a little bit. While I would drop with J/9, other players may feel that the straight possibilities cannot be ignored. The best hand excluding a pair which I’ll discuss in the next paragraph is A/K suited( suited = two cards the same suit). In this hand you have the possibility of making either a pair of aces or kings, and if you are really lucky, an ace high flush.
Some people stay with all pairs. When I play tight, I stay with nines and up. If I don’t flop trips or top pair I fold. (Top pair = highest pair on the table). The only pair I bet heavy with is aces. Kings are nice, but if you don’t flop a king and an ace comes up, you are already losing the hand. Remember that 20 cards are dealt out at the beginning of the hand and that my friend, is almost half the deck. It is reasonable to assume that one or more players have kept an ace and has now made a pair of aces on the flop.
When to call and see another card is tricky business. You want to make your hand on the flop, but if you don’t, you might want to spend some cash to see another card. My rule is I must match something to even consider staying in. If I have A/J, then I’m looking for either an ace or a jack to come up on the flop. This strategy does not pertain to straights and flushes as that will be covered in the next paragraph. If I stay with a pair, I’m looking for my third card to come up(trips), or that my pair remains the high pair. Remember, if any pair comes up on the flop you should be thinking that you are facing trips (three of a kind). Also if any one card come up higher than yours, you should be thinking your cards are now beat. I gave you an example of that above when K/K is faced with an A/3/2 flop.
In this paragraph I’ll discuss straight and flush draws. If you stick to the rule above, you’ll never have to worry about losing with a flush to a higher flush, but first you need to catch the flush. You must of course have two suited cards in your hand. In addition the two suited cards you are looking for must come out on the flop. With four suited cards after the flop you have two chances to catch your flush. There are two types of draws, open end and inside. An open end straight means you have four cards connected and two possible cards can give you a straight. An inside straight means you have four parts of a straight but only one card can give you the straight. Inside straights are bad, open end straights are better. As with the flush rule, you’ll want to have your straight draw after the flop, so you h ave two chances to make it. Be careful. Flush and straight draws can be very expensive.
In order to lose little and win big, you must play cheap. I bet heavy with aces because I don’t want another player flopping two pairs or better to beat me. I am happy to win small pots as opposed to losing a big one just because another player was luckier than I. In all other hands I want to pay as little as possible to see my cards. That way if I do lose, it doesn’t hurt as much.
The nut hand is the unbeatable hand on the table. The nut is determined by what cards are currently on the table, and what two cards can be added in order to make the best possible hand. If a pair comes out on the flop, then the nut hand may be four of a kind. These hands are very rare and it is unlikely that a player is holding four of a kind. A more reasonable expectation would be trips (three of a kind) or two pairs. Some hands cannot be made without certain combinations being on the table. There will be no full house unless there is a pair on the table, there will be no flush unless there are at least three suited cards on the table. The most common nut hand you will see is the ace high flush.
Reading players is where skill comes in where everything else is luck. Pay attention to the game. Players will not always play tight. Some of them don’t even know the meaning of the phrase "playing tight". See who calls every hand, because players don’t always get good cards every hand. If a player gets caught bluffing, remember it. He may try to bluff you later in the game. Remember who is raising constantly and then folding. Those players are trying to buy pots. The cards in their hand and then on the table should determine how a player bets. It’s not always a sure indication of what a player has, but for the most part, what’s being bet should be a clue of what you are up against. If a player has been labeled as a tight player and bets heavy pre flop, you need to worry that he has a high pair or A/K. If a player bets with three suited cards on the table, then you need to worry about the flush. If a player is betting with a high pair on the table, you need to be thinking this guy has trips. The fewer players participating in a hand means the better the odds of you winning the hand. If a player bets heavy and there are one or more callers ahead of you, you need to make a decision on how strong your hand is. The more players that are in the hand the more chances there are of the pot being raised, which makes for an expensive hand.
Betting position plays a large part of what and how much to bet. If you have a good hand, you’ll want to chase out as many players as possible. You can do this from the front position (group of three players that is first to bet). That is the only advantage to betting first. The last three players to bet are in the back position. Their advantage is in seeing how many players have risen or called the pot before them allowing them to make an informed decision on how to play their cards.
"Trapping" is used to fool a player into believing he has the better hand. Merely check your bet no matter how good your hand is. The opposing player will interpret this as a sign of a weak opposing hand. He may then bet more, than if you had tipped your hand by betting first. Call his bets, and then in the end raise him big, do this when your hand is possibly the strongest on the table. You would not try to "trap" a player with a pair of Kings when there are two suited cards in the flop, possibly giving the other player(s) a flush draw. (Flush Draw = suited pocket cards + 2 of the same suited cards on the flop, one more card of the same suit gives you a flush). Instead you may want to bet that player out, so he never even gets to draw for the flush
Last but not least I want to discuss kickers. Kickers are the cards that make or break your hand. I follow the rules I wrote above about staying only with big cards, then you should always have a decent kicker. There are times when you’ll pull a hand and have a lousy kicker. For instance, lets say you stay in with A/4 suited, and A/A/3 comes out. Now your original intention was to draw an ace high flush. You now instead have trip aces and a lousy kicker. If another player stayed with A/K, he has you beat with the king. Sometimes your kicker won’t matter. In the case of K/J vs. K/10 with A/K/2/3/3 coming out. Both players made two pairs, kings and threes, but remembering that it is the best five cards used, it is the ace that becomes the fifth card negating the difference between the jack and the ten. That pot becomes a split pot.
This tutorial is my interpretation on how to play tight. There are some players that play really tight, staying with only A/K and any pair tens or higher. This tutorial is designed to teach you some tricks and common poker sense, so you guys aren’t staying in with 3/9 off suit.
A big thanks to Phyxius for helping me out. He is a good player.
Bet with your head and not over it. Enjoy and have fun
22wild
www.pokerroom.com
Linear Mode
