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Texas Holdem Poker Tips

Saturday, March 12th, 2011 by Phil

Winning Texas holdem is hard. Playing well is a skill. Texas holdem poker tips can minimize the learning curve.

Some of the most basic Texas holdem poker tips are unknown to many poker players. And some of the most useful Texas holdem tips are the most obvious tips. Here are four basic Texas holdem poker tips:

1. Never Open Limp
2. Learn How to Size Your Bets
3. Stop Making Bad Bluffs
4. Learn to Make Solid Folds
   

Texas Holdem Poker Tip #1 – Never Open Limp

If you open limp at all, then you can instantly increase your win rate by never open limping again.

Why is open limping such a bad strategy?

Think about respected players like Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey. If I could pick on word to describe their play, it would be “aggressive.” Tom Dwan and Phil Ivey NEVER open limp into a pot. If you see them limp, then you were probably watching them play in a tournament, where that move is sometimes profitable.

Open limping is never profitable in cash games.

An open limp gives away the strength of your hand. Open limps also strip of you credibility. The only hand you MIGHT open limp with would be a weak or mediocre hand. Your goal might be to save yourself some money if you miss the flop.

Guess what? The other players are going to know that. You might as well be playing with your cards face up.

Instead of open limping, make a raise preflop. Give your opponents a reason to believe that you have a strong hand from the very beginning. You can continue your aggression on the flop, and you’ll win a lot of pots when other players fold.

Open limps are considered dead. A raise will take it away.

If you have a weak or mediocre hand, then fold it. Or raise with it, if the situation warrants. (If you’re in position or trying to steal blinds.) But don’t open limp.

Texas Holdem Poker Tip #2 – Learn How to Size Your Bets

Sizing your bets correctly can make the difference between winning big and winning small. Making solid value bets earns money in Texas holdem. Betting $5 instead of $3 might only be a $2 difference, but over 1000 hands, that adds up.

Part of sizing your bets is analyzing your opponents. Low limit games often have more preflop callers than middle stakes or high stakes games. Keep that in mind.

You can also use your position and table image to decide how to size your bets. If you’re in early position, raising with a strong hand will eliminate some of the lucky lou’s who want to see flops with trash hands.

Seeing a flop with eight other players is almost always a bad idea, because your chances of winning get a lot smaller with more players in the pot. They could have ANYTHING in the hole.

In online Texas holdem games, bet sizing depends more on the number of players in the pot than it does on the number of players at the table.

In live Texas holdem games, it’s easy to make bigger raises in early position. But online players are more likely to pick up on an unusual raise.

Consider your opponents.

It’s harder to decide on the size of a raise than it is to decide on the size of a bet. In fact, many bet sizes can be pre-determined. You might raise 4 times the big blind preflop if there are no limpers, but you might raise 5 times the big blind preflop with one limper, and so on.

But your raises depend on the other players. I you have a premium hand a loose player ahead of you raises, then you should reraise more than usual for value. On the other hand, if a tight player raises before you, your reraise should be smaller.

Understand why you’re raising too. How do your opponents perceive your play? Will your overbet look like a bluff? Will your value bet look like strength?

Only one thing matters more than what cards you hold–what cards your opponents THINK you hold. A value bet can often be a better bluff than a massive all in overbet. When a player has a strong hand, he’ll often try to extract value from it instead of trying to get everyone to fold with a huge bet.

Think about each decision. Deciding how much to bet and/or raise isn’t hard if you think about it.

Texas Holdem Poker Tip #3 – Stop Making Bad Bluffs

The easiest way to lose money in Texas holdem is to bluff badly and often. Don’t get caught up in a hand and refuse to fold. That’s self-destructive.

You don’t need a poker face to succeed with a bluff. What you need is a believable story. You also need an opponent who is capable of folding.

Bluffing a calling station is just throwing money away.

Don’t bluff unless you’ve first considered what kind of cards your opponent might be holding. Always put your opponent on a set range of hands. You can’t decide whether or not a player is likely to fold or not unless you know what kinds of cards he might be holding.

If you put your opponent on a full house, a straight, or a flush, then you’re unlikely to be able to bluff your way into winning a pot.

Of course, it’s impossible to know which cards your opponent holds. Make an educated guess though.

What you’re holding in your hand doesn’t matter so much when you’re bluffing. In fact, if you have a strong hand, you’re not bluffing–a bluff, by definition, is a bet and/or raise made with a weak hand.

How do you convince your opponent that the story you’re telling warrants a fold on his part? If you made a preflop raise and a continuation bet on the flop, then a bet on the turn is more likely to succeed as a bluff. If you checked preflop and checked again on the flop, then a bet on the turn is lot less likely to win a pot.

Texas Holdem Tip #4 – Learn to Make Solid Folds

A great fold pays off just as well as a great call. Money saved spends just as well as money won. Cutting your losses can be better than potential wins.

Taking down a big pot is glamorous, but the allure often drives players to make bad calls. Folding a big hand offers no glory. But it’s what separates the biggest winners from the losers. And as you go up in stakes, you’ll see that players call down less often.

Small stakes holdem players are more likely to make mistakes than high stakes holdem players. You’re more likely to get called down by weak hands in a small stakes game.

Take advantage of chances to cut your losses by making solid folds from time to time. Don’t fold every decent hand you get, but don’t make calls with mediocre hands either.

Think about how many hands you can beat. If your opponent is more likely to have a big hand than a small or bluffing hand, you should be certain that you have them beat.

Calls with hands that can only beat small number of hands are called bluff catchers. Cut bluff catchers out of your Texas holdem game.