Limit Texas Hold'em: Playing the Flop-Beginner To Advanced

The flop is a defining moment in Texas Hold'em as five out of seven possible cards are seen. It is crucial that you determine the relative strength of your hand before you play further.



A lot of players consider the turn to be a more important betting round since the bets are doubled, but it is often the mistakes you make on the flop that create further mistakes on the turn and river. For example, you might decide to draw for the low end of a straight and end up losing to a higher straight when you hit.

The Main Flops

In order to simplify things, there are just a few types of flops that you should learn how to play. Look out for these flops and try to learn them all as they each present different threats and opportunities.

1)Three of a kind
2)High pair
3)Low pair
4)Two-suited
5)Three-suited
6)Two-connected
7)Three-connected
8)All high cards
9)Rainbow with one high card
10)Rainbow of all rags

What You Need to Consider When Deciding Whether to Check, Bet, Call or Raise:

~How strong a hand did you flop?
~Number of players (hard to bluff in a four-handed pot)?
~Did anyone raise before the flop and, if so, who and from what position (expect a follow-through)?
~What pot odds do you have (the size of the pot vs. how many outs you have)?
~What kinds of draws (if any) are on the board?
~What kind of hands are the other players likely to have?
~What position do you have (the later the better)?

Online Poker Strategy: Same Principles Apply As in Live Games-Beginners - Professionals

Many players hold that there are vast differences between playing poker live in a casino and playing online in the comfort of your home.

The faster structure of tournaments, the more hands played online, the blitz of newcomers... the contrasts abound.
Maybe this perception of difference is behind some of the questionable plays often seen online. Don't let yourself get distracted by the meta-differences: at the micro level of hand-by-hand play, the principles of live poker strategy apply equally well online.

One of the major errors I see online is players overvaluing their small pairs. For example, you're under the gun early in a tournament and you have pocket sixes. You put in a standard raise from that position (an aggressive move, to be sure), only to have one player re-raise you in middle position and the cut-off move his stack all-in. The action comes back to you... what do you do?

Most of the time, the pocket sixes will make the call and normally the re-raiser will come along as well, making for a three-way all-in pot. You rarely see this situation in a live tournament setting but commonly occurs online, and it's bad strategy.

In such circumstances, the original raiser with the sixes has to be able to deduce the strength of the hands behind him. A good poker player will figure that if the MP has a re-raising hand, then it could be big slick, big chick (A-Q) or a larger pair in the ranges of eights to jacks. The third raise all-in is the key in this situation.

After seeing two players raise in front of him, the cut-off player who moves all-in will likely have one of three pocket pairs: queens, kings or aces. The cut-off has probably been salivating at the action in front of him and is more than willing to take his chances in this situation. The question is, with your pocket sixes, are you?

Since you are in for only a standard raise, it's best to get out of the way and let the two players who have much more invested in the pot play it out. There will be those occasions where you see those opponents turn up A-K versus A-Q (or worse) but, since you only have an 18% chance to win the pot against a larger pair and an ace-x and a slim favorite (41%-34%-23%, roughly) against two players with big slick and big chick, there are better opportunities to get your chips in the center.

Another error players make in online tournaments is the over-aggressive playing of suited aces. Whether it is ace-rag up to ace-jack or what have you, players seem to play these hands as if they are sitting on pocket rockets. The problem rears its head when the board is somewhat agreeable but still fraught with danger.

If you flop your low card with your ace, you could still be at a significant disadvantage to a player with a larger pocket pair than you have made. If you flop a flush draw, you are only going to make that draw about a third of the time. Even if you pair your ace, you can be facing kicker trouble if someone has a better ace than you do.

In this situation, it is best to see the flop for cheap and, if nothing materializes for you on the flop, to be able to release the hand quickly. Even if you have hit a pair or have a flush draw, you still have to have the ability to calculate the odds on any action after the flop to determine if you have reason to chase it. If there is a raise in front of you pre-flop, then lay those suited aces down and save the chips for a better situation.

Still other online players misstep when holding paint cards (K-Q, K-J, Q-J) and facing a raise. Depending on the context, it is sometimes best to not even try to out-flop your opponent, as you could be behind from the start. How many times have you played your K-J and hit a king on the flop, only to see your raising opponent turn over big slick or K-Q to out-kick you at the river? Knowledge of your opponents is key here and, as stated before, sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

I'm not suggesting that you fold every hand other than pocket aces, but there has to be some thought before you get involved. There is craziness sometimes in the online game but that's no reason to treat it differently than live play.

The same odds, rules and likelihoods still apply and the goal of the game is to make the optimal decision on every hand. By knowing how to manage problem hands like these, you'll last farther into tournaments, both live and online, and cash more often.

The Bluff-Beginners

All successful poker players must be able to make a well-timed bluff.

The bluff is probably the most talked-about poker concept, although it is not used as often as people believe. Still, to exclude bluffing from poker would result in an uninteresting game: If you never bluff you become too predictable and will not be able to maximize your winnings, much less win at all.

You bluff when you have no chance of winning the pot or when you are trying to steal the pot before all the cards are dealt. In a cash game, it is possible to calculate whether a bluff will be profitable or not. To do this, you compare the odds of making a successful bluff to the size of the bet and the size of the pot.

Therefore, an important skill is the ability to determine the likelihood that your opponents will fold.

The following are some factors to consider when deciding whether to bluff or not:

1)Type of opponent
2)Number of opponents
3)Your table image
4)Your "reading" skills
5)The board (if any)
6)The size of the pot
7)Your position
8)Type of Opponent

Do not bluff weak opponents who call with anything (referred to as "calling stations"). This is the most common mistake. Be sure that your opponent is a good enough player to fold a hand.

Number of Opponents

In general, do not bluff a field of three or more players, especially not in Limit poker. A bluff is much more likely to succeed against one opponent, not only because it is just one player but also because the pot is usually smaller, which makes it less desirable.

Your Table Image

A bluff is less likely to succeed if you have a loose table image rather than a tight one. If you were recently caught bluffing, your opponents will be more likely to call you in the future, although reverse psychology can occasionally prove beneficial in such situations. For example, if a good player caught you bluffing and he regards you as a good player, he might think you would not dare bluff him again.

Your "Reading" Skills

If you "read" the game well and are able to put your opponents on likely holdings, you will be able to identify good bluffing opportunities. This is probably the hardest and most important skill to master.

The Board

If the board looks like it could have hit your opponents or presents many drawing possibilities, a bluff is less likely to succeed. Look for boards without many draws or cards that are likely to improve your opponents' hands. If you can represent a hand, the bluff is more likely to succeed. An uncoordinated board with one scare card that you can represent is usually a good bluffing opportunity.

The Size of the Pot

Your opponents will be more prone to call if the pot is big because they get better pot odds. On the other hand, if you make a successful bluff in a big pot the reward will also be bigger. This is when good judgment comes into play.

Position

If you are sitting in late position, you will usually have more access to information regarding your opponents' hands and, thus, will be in a better situation to bluff. For example, if it is checked to you, the board looks favorable and there are few players in the pot.

It is crucial that you consider all of these factors when deciding whether to bluff or not.

The Fish Call The Shark Raises Beginner plus

The Fish Call, the Sharks Raise

In Limit (and sometimes even No-Limit) games, you'll see a lot of "Raise, Call, Call and Call" going on. Occasionally, you'll want to limp in on hands, but don't make a habit of it. These are the key reasons why you should avoid temptation in this case:

1)Calling shows weakness

2)The raiser controls the hand

If you have a good hand you need to be in there raising, otherwise when you call and hit a draw it will be very easy to spot. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule; you wouldn't raise a pot with jacks if there have already been two pre-flop raisers, and you wouldn't want to bet your draws with more than a couple people in the pot.

Calling Shows Weakness

Any good player knows that, in No-Limit, anyone who calls constantly is a fish saying, "Hit me with your best shot." Calling hands will just get you in trouble most of the time. If the hand isn't good enough to raise, it's not good enough to play in the first place.

Another hazard of calling is that most good players will bet you out of pots you should have won simply because you called pre-flop. When you raise pre-flop you show strength and most players will fold to your bets if they missed the flop.

The Raiser Controls the Hand

When you raise a hand you show dominance by revealing your serious intentions to your opponents. If they miss the flop, you'll take no prisoners. This is true for any type of poker game, but more so for No-Limit. In Limit it's harder to bet people out of pots since the big bet is always small and constant. If there's a short-stacked player in a Limit game, you may be able to bluff him out of some pots after you raise.

After raising any hand, I almost always bet the flop as long as there are fewer than three people in the pot. I've already showed strength pre-flop so even if they hit the flop they must play very carefully. Most of the time your opponent won't hit strongly enough to call your raise on the flop.

Here's a good example of why sharks raise pre-flop:
Two people limp in pre-flop and you raise with Ace-King. You totally miss the flop and a player who limped and then called your raise has 8-8. The flop comes J-Q-5 and you bet out. He immediately folds even though he had the winning hand.

Be the raiser, not the caller.

The Lobby and Table Selection Beginners

Via the poker room application you are automatically directed to the lobby. The lobby shows all available cash games and tournaments with respective game details per table (such as number of players seeing flop, pot value, hands played per hour, etc., each of these as a moving average value for the last 20-30 hands or so). Some rooms also have a find-a-player function and other useful features.

As a beginner it can be a good idea to check out the special/freeroll section of the tournaments as there can be some good freerolls which will fill up to the maximum number of players quickly. Most strong players use the lobby extensively in order to locate games where the flop percentage, average pot, profile of player per table and other such features seem advantageous to their style of play. This is called table selection.

Some poker rooms choose not to publish information such as view flop percentage in order to curb strong players looking for weak/loose games. Often these players can still locate the loose games fairly easily by looking at the average pot (although some of the tables with high pots can be tight and aggressive with lots of hands going to showdown).

Table selectionis important in order to both maximize profits and find your favorite type of action. Almost all poker rooms allow you to enter waiting lists for specific tables if there is not an open seat at the moment. If you do not ask for a seat at a specific table you will only get in line for the next game at that limit, which might not be as good for you. You will automatically be called when a seat is available. Often you can be in line for at least four tables, so you can afford to be picky and wait in line.
See in-depth details on table selection further down in this series, in "Choosing tables that fit your style." or

download the table selection tool Poker Usher here for free.

Online Poker Explosion (Beginners)

The popularity of online poker has increased at an astounding speed recently. Besides the obvious - poker is an intriguing game with great recreational value - the main reasons are the flexibility, speed and global 24/7 access afforded by playing online.

Poker as a sport has received substantial media coverage since the inception of the TV show World Poker Tour in 2002 and the win of online amateur player Chris Moneymaker at the WSOP Main Event in 2003. The coverage has resulted in a self-perpetuating trend where the growing base of online players fuels interest in the WSOP and WPT, which now get prime-time TV slots on a weekly basis, inspiring even more viewers to take up online play.

In effect, the live and online poker industries are benefiting greatly from each other. Few people seem to remember today that live poker was in decline as recently as the year 2000 (!), with an aging demographic and a low profile, to such an extent that most casinos had shut down their poker rooms.

Online poker with real money began in 1998 at Planet Poker and saw moderate growth in the subsequent three years, after which point Paradise Poker muscled its way into a dominant market position. The big upswing came with the entry of aggressive marketers such as Pacific Poker and the televised World Poker Tour events in 2002. In 2003 alone online poker game volume increased about 500%. With such massive growth, the online poker market showed gross earnings of about $1 billion in 2004.

The online poker business is very profitable for the established rooms, but the competition is heating up as a result. This is good for you as a player. Online poker rooms today spend more and more money on advertising as well as giving more value back to the players with higher and better re-load bonuses, promotions and other perks.

The brick-and-mortar poker world has also benefited greatly from the explosion in interest in the game, with poker rooms again flourishing in casinos. Today many new players start out playing online and then move on to play at home games and casinos around the world.

What makes poker particularly fascinating for a larger crowd is that in the short term, any decent player can compete and even win against the world's best players. Luck and hidden information play a large enough role in poker to make this possible. In many other skill games, the most highly skilled player almost always wins, even in the short term.

By the same token, poker is deceptive, as many less-skilled players are not sufficiently aware of their long-term outlook to win, let alone break even. As most people know, poker is a game of skill and the best players will win money over time. Luckily, by following some simple rules you will be able to minimize your losses very quickly. The articles in the Beginner Poker Strategy section of the site will familiarize you with these strategies.

Learn Strategies Plus Tips for Texas Hold EM Beginners To Professionals

Ok so poker is getting more and more popular,expecially "Texas Hold Em". I wanted to go ahead and give out my experiences on what helped me "up my game". This can be for complete beginners to more advanced. I will update this periodically. SO you will want to check out My other posts on the right. Thanks!

P.S. Remember that you never can know enouph about anything that your trying to be good at. I have been playing for years now, and I dont know everything.

Here Is some stratagies for beginners

Online Poker Strategy: Same Principles Apply As in Live Games

Many players hold that there are vast differences between playing poker live in a casino and playing online in the comfort of your home.


The faster structure of tournaments, the more hands played online, the blitz of newcomers... the contrasts abound.

Maybe this perception of difference is behind some of the questionable plays often seen online. Don't let yourself get distracted by the meta-differences: at the micro level of hand-by-hand play, the principles of live poker strategy apply equally well online.

One of the major errors I see online is players overvaluing their small pairs. For example, you're under the gun early in a tournament and you have pocket sixes. You put in a standard raise from that position (an aggressive move, to be sure), only to have one player re-raise you in middle position and the cut-off move his stack all-in. The action comes back to you... what do you do?

Most of the time, the pocket sixes will make the call and normally the re-raiser will come along as well, making for a three-way all-in pot. You rarely see this situation in a live tournament setting but commonly occurs online, and it's bad strategy.

In such circumstances, the original raiser with the sixes has to be able to deduce the strength of the hands behind him. A good poker player will figure that if the MP has a re-raising hand, then it could be big slick, big chick (A-Q) or a larger pair in the ranges of eights to jacks. The third raise all-in is the key in this situation.

After seeing two players raise in front of him, the cut-off player who moves all-in will likely have one of three pocket pairs: queens, kings or aces. The cut-off has probably been salivating at the action in front of him and is more than willing to take his chances in this situation. The question is, with your pocket sixes, are you?

Since you are in for only a standard raise, it's best to get out of the way and let the two players who have much more invested in the pot play it out. There will be those occasions where you see those opponents turn up A-K versus A-Q (or worse) but, since you only have an 18% chance to win the pot against a larger pair and an ace-x and a slim favorite (41%-34%-23%, roughly) against two players with big slick and big chick, there are better opportunities to get your chips in the center.

Another error players make in online tournaments is the over-aggressive playing of suited aces. Whether it is ace-rag up to ace-jack or what have you, players seem to play these hands as if they are sitting on pocket rockets. The problem rears its head when the board is somewhat agreeable but still fraught with danger.

If you flop your low card with your ace, you could still be at a significant disadvantage to a player with a larger pocket pair than you have made. If you flop a flush draw, you are only going to make that draw about a third of the time. Even if you pair your ace, you can be facing kicker trouble if someone has a better ace than you do.

In this situation, it is best to see the flop for cheap and, if nothing materializes for you on the flop, to be able to release the hand quickly. Even if you have hit a pair or have a flush draw, you still have to have the ability to calculate the odds on any action after the flop to determine if you have reason to chase it. If there is a raise in front of you pre-flop, then lay those suited aces down and save the chips for a better situation.

Still other online players misstep when holding paint cards (K-Q, K-J, Q-J) and facing a raise. Depending on the context, it is sometimes best to not even try to out-flop your opponent, as you could be behind from the start. How many times have you played your K-J and hit a king on the flop, only to see your raising opponent turn over big slick or K-Q to out-kick you at the river? Knowledge of your opponents is key here and, as stated before, sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.

I'm not suggesting that you fold every hand other than pocket aces, but there has to be some thought before you get involved. There is craziness sometimes in the online game but that's no reason to treat it differently than live play.

The same odds, rules and likelihoods still apply and the goal of the game is to make the optimal decision on every hand. By knowing how to manage problem hands like these, you'll last farther into tournaments, both live and online, and cash more often.