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Texas Hold'em Strategy

Some basic Texas Hold'em strategies are paying attention to your seat position at the table, solid starting hand selection, knowing when to 'chase' a hand, and bluffing.

One strategy involves being aware of where at the table you are, and keeping in mind the betting order. Basically, the rule of position play is that he/she who gets to act last has a greater advantage. Being the last player to bet has a couple of advantages: 1) they get to observe the betting patterns of the other players to see how strongly they feel about their cards, and 2) before they have to make a decision about making a wager they know how many people are competing for the pot. Keep in mind that the player acting first has no position advantage, and the more players that get to bet after him/her the stronger they have to feel about their hand to justify their bet.

Consider the following example that shows how position play is advantageous. For this example your hole cards are an A-10, while this is not the best starting hand it's not the worst either. The flop when dealt is A-Q-3. The following round of betting has the first and second players checking and then it's your turn (in the last position) to act. Although there is no guarantee, you have a reasonable expectation of having the only Ace. If the first player had bet and the second player had raised you would start to think that perhaps you don't have the only Ace, or that another player may have two pair or even three of a kind. The playing of this hand would be up to you, but it shows how the last player to act gets to observe how the others bet before they have to act, and how this observation can help you form an opinion about the strength of their hands.

It goes without saying that a pair of hole cards that has the potential to turn into a solid poker hand is the best place to start when playing a game of Texas Hold'em. Here are a couple of starting hands that look good but can get players into trouble, two suited cards and an Ace anything combination.

A starting hand of two suited cards that has the potential to become a flush looks at first like a very good hand. However, sometime playing these two cards just because they are suited isn't your best move. You have two problems: 1) you may not make the flush and 2) if you do make the flush it may not turn into the best flush at the table. A player holding the second best hand at the table is in worse shape than one who finds they have a 2-7 off-suit as their hole cards (it's more expensive).

Another starting hand mistake is always playing an Ace any other card hand. If the second card in your hand is not suited the same as the Ace it can never develop into a powerful Ace high flush. Also if the second card is not particularly strong and that card is called into play as the tie-breaking "kicker" (as it will if Ace is turned as a community card and another player has an ace hole card). If this situation comes up you could place second best again, so think (before you play an A-7 off-suit) about what the showdown result could be.

Another Texas Hold'em skill to look at is deciding when a player should 'chase' a hand and when to lay off. The term chasing cards is used to describe the situation where a player has a good but incomplete hand after the flop (say four cards of the same suit, or four cards in sequence) and they decide to stay in the game hoping the turn or river card will complete the straight or flush. This type of hand is known as a 'drawing hand' as you need to draw another card to complete the hand.

The minimum a player needs to know about drawing hands is that the most common ones (drawing to an open-ended straight or a flush) have odds of landing the card needed to complete the set of about one in five. How does this help? Easy, a successful poker player when they have to bet to see the next card will make sure they don't pay too high a price for the privilege of seeing it.

How does a player know when the price is too high? Simple, whenever the amount in the pot (include the bet you are being asked to make in this amount) is at least five times larger than the bet, in the long run you will be ahead making the bet. While the odds are not in your favor to make the flush or straight; when you do make it you'll win a big pot as a reward, large enough to justify taking the risk. However, if the pot value is not more than five times the bet, there is insufficient potential reward to justify taking the risk in paying to see the next card. The price is too high.

As an example, if you have four hearts in your hand and have to pay $2 for the privilege of seeing the next card. You pay to see the card if the pot is worth at least $10 (and remember to count your bet in with it also, so $9 in the pot + my $2 bet will make $11). When the pot value is less, say $6, "chasing" the flush is ill-advised, the potential reward of winning the pot isn't large enough to justify the low odds of drawing the card needed to make the flush. The comparing of the odds of making your hand to the amount of gain you stand to make is called 'Pot Odds'. The above example only looks at a basic pot odds situation, but even knowing this little will help you keep chips in your stack rather than wasting them chasing cards that aren't worth chasing.

The last Texas Hold'em strategy mentioned is the art of bluffing but this strategy is a little bit advanced for beginners. There are two things to remember when you thinking about bluffing: 1) bluffing may not be worth the time at low-limit tables, at these tables so little is at risk players are likely to call your bet and find out you have nothing and 2) keep in mind that you need to fool all the players at your table with your bluff, if even one player is not fooled you've busted and have given up your chips for nothing. So, in summary, don't bluff at low-limit tables and don't bluff when a large number of players are chasing the pot.