The Story of Texas Holdem Poker
This is the story of Texas Holdem Poker. Where to play, when to play, and how to play poker. Here you will find tips and tricks about Texas Holdem and how to use Texas Holdem to make money. If you are dreaming of playing in a big money tournament then this is a good place to start.
The best pair in Texas Holdem Poker is a pair of Aces. If you held this pair for every hand you would win about 60% of the time and could play in every hand. Since you are not going to hold the best pair every time in Holdem Poker you should be aware of the 40% of the time that you will loose with Pocket Aces
Going, "All In" is a Texas Holdem term meaning that you are betting your entire stack of chips on this one hand. In a tournament, it may be your last hand if you loose. Some tournaments allow you to rebuy chips. At a brick and mortar casino in a regular Holdem Poker game you can rebuy as many times as you can afford.
The art of poker has been called the art of raising. If you play, as I do, only a few hands an hour then it is essential to get as much money into the pot as possible when you have a winning hand. There are people who will call any raise even if they could not make a poker hand out of the next ten cards. These people are known as LOSERS. If you do not have a hand after the flop or the possibility of the best hand then you need to drop and try again the next hand.
No limit Texas Holdem is the peak of poker. Before you try it out be sure that you know what you are doing, have played in lots of limit games and are at least the the break even point. The biggest difference with no limit holdem is that you can actually make a bluff work. Unlike the limit games with it's tight money the no limit game blows the lid off.
There are times to bluff and times not to bluff. Some people cannot tell the difference. You most certainly want to get caught bluffing a time or two a night just to make sure that you do not get pegged as a tight player. You must pick your time to bluff very carefully. A very good bluff that does not even look like a bluff is raising before the flop with Big Slick Ace/King. Before you do this you must be mindful of your position on the table. Cool, if you are the dealer or acting just before the dealer but of less use as you travel back toward the blinds.
When the button moves around the table you will find yourself from time to time two places to the dealers left. That means it is time for you to post the Big Blind. The Big blind is usually equal to one minimum bet. The blinds in Texas Holdem are a mechanism to build the pot. Without them there would be, "Check,Check,Check,Check,Check," heard from around the table on every hand. Why pay anything to see the flop if you don't have to?
Playing from the Big Blind can be trying. Although you already a minimum bet in the hand you should be cautious calling a pre flop raise. If the blind is $5.00 you should not think of it as costing you five dollars and start thinking, "In for a penny. In for a pound. Rather think of the money that you are forced to post into the blinds as an average fee that you are paying for playing all the hands dealt to you. So instead of thinking of it as posting $5.00 for one hand. Divide it by ten(Or the Number of Players) and think of it as fifty cents. You are a lot less likely to call a raise with a poor hand if you are only defending fifty cents.
Before you decide that you are going to bluff. Look at the reward if you pull it off. The first consideration is how much money is in the pot. There is no point in risking a bluff if the payoff is low. Some people call this pot odds, and have a whole lot of complicated calculations to make before they decide. I just look at it. There is either a large stack of chips or a small stack. If there is a large stack of chips I will attempt a bluff. Bluffing is simply selling an idea. The idea is that you have the best hand. It helps a lot that your opponent can see right on the table that there is a possible straight or flush. Is there a pair? You might have three of a kind or a full house.
When you are playing Texas Holdem you are going to want to check raise from time to time. The check raise seems to some people to be sneaky and underhanded. Coming as it does from a hand that first checks, pretending to have a weak hand, to a hand that will raise. It can really ruffle some feathers, especially those guys who are trying to limp into the hand. They want to get all the way to the river without spending any money. You want them to spend money. The other day I was playing and was dealt the seven of spades and eight of spades. I know that there are long odds of catching a flush on the flop and the eight has lots of over cards that will beat it, but I was feeling lucky. The flop comes seven of diamonds, seven of hearts and a king of clubs. Cool, I flopped a set. Fortunately for me another player flopped kings over sevens. His two pair looked pretty good to him. I could tell because he was eager to bet. I thought about it for a long time, making him wait. Then checked. He bet his KK/77 and I raised him. It changed the whole complexion of the game. He had thought he was top dog until I raised. He called me. On the turn the fourth seven came up. It gave him the full house and me the nut four of a kind. I checked again. He could barely hide his glee as he bet.
Only the very inexperienced do not take the kicker into consideration when assessing the value of the hand. While you may live or die on the River you kicker can put a knife in your heart fast. The one and only time that you need not worry about your kicker is if you have flopped four of a kind. If you have four deuces and a trey kicker you are going to win the hand the greatest per centage of the time, by far. That is why you do not waste time and money playing suited hands like [8d,2d] The eight is essentially your kicker in the flush draw. Even if you ignore the odds that over 90% of the time you will not end up with a flush by the end of the hand. Some poker player luckier than you may have come in with an [9d,3d] You loose.
Strategy
Let's talk about Big Slick for a minute. AK is a terrific hand BEFORE the flop. After the flop you might want to discard Big Slick like it was 6, 9 off suit. Before the flop you will want to raise. You raise to get people out of the pot who might be able to beat you. Let's face it, if the flop gives him a pair of deuces he has you beat so you want to pull in your horns if the flop did not significantly improve your hand. It is a good idea for the beginner whose patience is being tested, by seeing bad hand after bad hand to watch out for the trap of over enthusiasm.
It has happened to me more than once. I will let hand after hand go by and not be able to play for an hour. When I begin to get bored with not playing I am making a big mistake. You are there and should be paying attention to ALL the hands weather you have money invested or not. Use the time to begin cataloging all the players. I watch the guy on the button. Will he play any cards delt no matter how poor they are because he likes the position? If no one has raised the blind will he raise to try and steal the blinds? Texas Holdem is a lot like war. If you can cut through the fog of war with information you will make money.
Pay particular attention to the two people to your left. Once you have passed the button on to them you may be able to buy it back with a raise. Raising in late position will confuse the enemy. He will not be entirely sure of the reason for the raise. Are you running a bluff? Are you looking for information? Or are you just trying to get folks out of the game because you do not have a real strong hand like AK? If you have AA or KK you should be raising anyway. You are sitting with the best pre-flop hand with Ace,Ace. It is time to try and drive as many out of the game as possible. Make them take a long hard look at what they can gain(The size of the pot) compared what they have to risk to get it. You do not want someone holding suited hole cards to be able to see the flop on the cheap. Even if you hold Ace, King and draw the not straight he can beat you with a flush. Make him pay to see the flop.
There are just some times that it is just too much trouble to drive up to the Casino. Instead of sitting around the house wishing that I lived in Las Vegas and was able to walk out my front door and have a choice of casino poker rooms within a few miles. I get up to my computer and log onto a poker game. There are also times that I do no want to play for real money. So I click on the free poker link. That opens up hundreds of games for all different money levels that I can play for free.