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Rules and Strategies for Walk
into virtually any public cardroorn in America, and you'll find a game of Texas hold'em in
progress. Texas hold'em is the single most popular form of poker played today, and because
it is, it will be the focus of our study in this newsletter. Let's
start with the basics. In
Texas hold'em, each player gets two cards to start with. There's a round of betting, and
then three cards are turned over in the middle of the table. These cards (collectively
called the flop) are common cards or community cards; they're part of everybody's hand.
Thus, if you start with an ace and a king (A-K) and the flop presents you with another
ace, another king and a ten (A-K-T), then your hand so far is two pair, aces and kings,
with a ten kicker. Another player who starts with a pair of queens (Q-Q) would only have
two queens with an ace kicker at this point, so you would have the best hand. After the
flop, there's a second round of betting, and then another common card, called the turn
card, is revealed. If the turn card in this case were a queen, your hand would not have
improved; you'd still have your two pair and your ten kicker. But your opponent would now
have three queens, and you'd be in trouble! After a third round of betting, the fifth
community card, the river card, is placed on the board. There's
a fourth and final round of betting, and then those players still left in the pot show
down their hands. The best five-card hand out of the seven available between each player's
hand and the board is the winner. So if that river card were an ace, your hand would have
improved to aces full, a full house comprised of three aces and two kings, just narrowly
edging out your opponent, with her three queens and two aces, or queens full. In
most public card rooms, the betting is structured, which means that there are fixed
amounts you can bet on any round. The most common structure allows for a certain bet, say
$2, on the first two betting rounds, and double that amount ($4 in this example) on the
last two rounds. So if you sat down in a game of $5-10 limit hold'em, you'd know to bet
(or raise) $5 before and after the flop, and $10 on the turn and the river. Some
casinos offer spread limit betting, such as $1-4-8-8. In this variation, you can bet
anything from $1 to $4 before and after the flop, and anything up to $8 on the turn and
the river. Obviously you'll want to know the betting limits before you sit down to play,
but where will you get this information? You can ask the floor manager, of course, or any
of the other cardroom employees, but if you want to gather information on the sly, just
look for a little brass plate on the table to the right of where the dealer sits. There
you'll find the name of the game being played at that table, the betting limits imposed,
and also the structure of the house rake. The
rake is the money that the house takes out of each pot. It's payment, if you will, for all
the services that the house provides, including a dealer, cards and chips, tables and
chairs, security, and often amenities such as free drinks or food. A typical rake is 5% of
the pot up to a certain ceiling, such as $3 per pot. Sometimes the rake is taken out of
the pot directly, in other cardrooms, each player in turn posts a collection before the
hand begins. There are strategy considerations to be made, depending on whether you're in
a rake game or a collection game, but we'll get to those later. For now, all you need to
do is watch a hand or two being dealt and notice whether the dealer is collecting the rake
before the hand begins or while the hand is underway. Texas
hold'em is known as a button game. That is, there's a round disc, called a dealer button,
which moves from player to player, in a clockwise fashion with each hand. Though players
don't deal for themselves in public cardrooms, the button represents which player would be
the dealer if the deal were advanced from player to player as the game went along. This is
important because some players to the left of the button have to post blind bets, or
blinds, at the start of each hand. In
most hold'em games, you'll find two blinds. The small blind, to the dealer's immediate
left, is usually half the amount of the small bet in a fixed limit game. The big blind, to
the immediate left of the small blind, is usually equal to the full amount of the small
bet in a fixed limit game. If you were playing $4-8 hold'em, the small blind would post $2
and the big blind would post $4. In the case of a game where half the single bet is not an
even amount, the small blind will post either 1/3 or 2/3 of the single bet. In a $15-30
game, then, the small blind would post either $5 or $10, depending on the house rules at
that particular casino. The
purpose of the blind bet is to get at least some money into every pot. If there were no
blinds, then no player would enter the pot with anything except the very best hands. There
would be very little betting; the game would get dull and probably die. With the blind
bet, each player takes his turn entering the pot involuntarily. Then the other players,
acting after the blinds, can decide whether they want to compete for the blinds' money by
contributing bets of their own. The blinds, then, serve to stimulate the action in a
button-style poker game. As
you'll soon see, position is very important in Texas hold'em. The longer you have to act,
the bigger an advantage you gain, with the players in the blinds holding the most
vulnerable position, and the players near or on the button having the biggest positional
edge. Even before we get to that, though, you can see that players posting the blinds are
entering the pot involuntarily, with hands that are probably no better than average.
That's why the button moves with every hand: so that each player takes his or her fair
turn at posting the blinds and at being in late position, near or on the button. To
practice Texas hold'em, deal yourself a bunch of two-card hands and ask yourself
which you think are the strongest hands and why. Also think about why a player in late
position has an advantage over a player in early position. Finally, find a hold'em game in
a cardroom (or online cardroom) and take note of the start hands players in that game
favor. It won't be long before you can
take a seat among them. A Couple Of Important Things To Remember With Poker Strategy The summer can be a quiet time for major sports, which is usually when a lot of sports bettors shift more of their focus into poker. Before you dive right in, we've got a couple of beginner poker strategy tips for you to get you started: Wait For The Right Hand When it comes to poker, the best tip you can learn, especially if you're just starting out, is that you don't have to play every single hand that comes your way. Folding can be the smartest play you make on a hand instead of just hoping and praying that the cards you need to come your way do indeed come up. If you don't, you have to be very good at bluffing, which is one of the toughest skills to learn in poker, but that is only if you're playing in person. If you are more of an online poker player, bluffing is almost impossible because you can't read the other players' faces. At the same time, it is alright to back out of a hand after the flop if you don't have the cards, which is something that not enough people do. Manage Your Bankroll One of the keys to poker strategy is to pay attention to the financial aspect and not just the game. Look at your bankroll, the bankrolls of the other players, how high limits are, etc., and then make your plans according to that. You can go broke in a matter of minutes by not paying attention to the finances, which should really always be how you plan to make your moves because if you don't, you'll end up betting too much of your bankroll on one hand, then you lose and you're left with 25% of what you expected to spend, which means you'll probably put more in and then the cycle continues until you have nothing left. Don't play over your skill level. The importance of starting hands in Texas Hold'em There are many crucial elements of Texas Hold'em to take under consideration, even before the game, that many unexperienced players tend to forget. The importance of the pre-flop potential of your starting hands is something not to be overlooked. Recognizing their true value and learning possible ways of playing them out against your opponents will help you outsmart them and make sure you are able to win as much of the pot as possible under the circumstances. Anybody familiar with standard poker hands order will quickly recognize that the initial value of some cards you start with is greater than others, showing the promise of scoring something big and take advantage of the opponents. Pocket aces are the most obvious example. While it is possible to come out loosing even with the advantage that great cards give you, it is always better to receive them on regular basis. Two Kings and two queens come next in the hierarchy and can dominate a lot of other cards out there. You should surely throw some combinations of aces and high figures, and you have yourself something to consider. Sometimes of course, especially when the antes and blinds rise or stacks are low, there is a natural temptation or even the need to play with something significantly less. Looking for the absolute worst hand to be dealt with, many sources will point to the infamous off-suited 2-7 pair. Even if your personal encounters with it shows different history, it is hard to imagine making something out of those. You cannot make a straight with both of them, they would build small pair and miserable and unlikely flush (not much better when suited). Pretty much the same goes for other small numbers like 2 and 3 paired with slightly higher but still enough apart to make a straight hard to get. Unsuited face plus low cards are no help either. Having some action with those, as well as failing miserably with good cards, it's not completely impossible. Some promising combinations can become problematic along the way. However, there are hands more likely to give you a headache than other. For once, many people are drawn to the deceiving charm of small pocket pairs. Scoring a set will definitely give you a big advantage and perhaps a nice piece of the pot. The chance of flopping one can be exciting but it is approximately mere 12 %. The other 88 % when this doesn't happen will make you wonder what to do next. Slow play should be much more effective but not always too profitable. Not even considerably strong pair of Jacks should fool you to take more aggressive stance, as it is one of the most overplayed hands. Not handling them properly could mean a lot of trouble. Finally, there are some otherwise very appreciated cards like Ace-Queen, Ace-Jack, King-Jack or King-Ten, which while opening up some opportunities for good hands may just as well create plenty of dangerous moments in terms of coming across someone cooking up something better. Especially AQ combination, pretty great thing to have in many circumstances, is known for its problematic tendencies and causing troubles for amateur and professional players.
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