Basic Texas Hold'em Strategy

There is a strategy that can beat any holdem poker game. Not all strategies will work interchangeably. Because you are just learning, the assumption is that you will be starting out at low limit texas hold'em poker games. This article is to help you form a strategy that will beat that game. As you move up in limits and find tougher opposition, your hold'em strategy will also have to evolve.

Beating low limit texas holdem isn't easy. In many ways forming a strategy that consistently wins at middle limit is easier. To begin with, there are many books about texas holdem but most are aimed at the upper limits. Using the same strategy at lower limits often will result in a loss, not a win. Next when you are learning holdem at the low limits, there are rarely any good players to learn from so you get a warped view of how the game should be played correctly. If a player was really good and capable of winning, they would have progressed up the limit ladder to bigger games. You may run into a good player now and then but it is rare compared to the vast amount of poor uninformed players feeding the poker community. Lastly, when you are first starting out, you have no knowledge or bankroll to build upon. Your foundation is little or nothing since there isn't much out there to read or learn. Now with that all said, it is possible to beat low limit holdem and by no means should you think that you need to start higher. The learning curve may be sharp but once you get over the hump you'll find that moving up the ranks is easier then first starting out. You should find comfort in the fact that all the other players are facing the same challenges you are. Taking the step to learn strategy as opposed to just haphazardly playing gives you a major advantage. A study was performed on college students and their post graduate goals. Of those that actually set goals, more then 90% achieved them. Right now because you are reading this you are on your way to becoming a winning player. And as soon as you do win a few times and leave with other peoples money, I'm sure you'll be hooked!

Why do some players win and others lose when everyone gets the same amount of cards? Luck plays a very small role when you start thinking about how many hands a player plays in the course of a year. And remember that each player has the same chance of getting lucky too, so even that isn't biased. Poker is almost exactly like investing in business. The best investor is a person who takes calculated risks and puts their money into ventures that they think have a good chance of succeeding. Have you ever seen a successful investor that put his money into every stock and continued to do so despite the fact that it has lost all chance of improving? That seems crazy right? But if you play cards you'll see people doing that every day in every hand. They will start out with a hand that would take a miracle to win. Then after seeing the flop with little or no help, they invest more into it either ignoring or oblivious to the fact that another player has a better hand. This continues until the showdown where the majority of the time a smarter player/investor gladly takes their money. Notice that I used the word "majority". What's great about poker is that occasionally their miracle happens and they win a pot in spite of their bad investing, in spite of the odds, and in spite of their lack of skill. The reason this is so great is because once they win a little here and there playing badly, they won't stop. In psychology the strongest type of conditioning is random reinforcement. The bad player getting lucky sometimes makes him a liner of the skilled players wallets for life. So as you have guessed, you can't be a winning player if you play every hand. A much more selective strategy is necessary. You need to "tighten" up, meaning playing fewer but better hands then your opponents. You need to take calculated risks and put your money behind them. Another analogy is a sniper. You wait for your cards, your mark, and when it makes itself visible you fire, kill, and take the pot. A bad players approach is like a soldier using a machine gun firing away into the distance. Sure something may hit but this isn't the movies, eventually you'll run out of ammo (chips) so you better take your shots more wisely.

So what hands should you play? Is it just a matter of playing the right hands and avoiding others and a win is guaranteed? If it was only that easy! *smile* Poker strategy is purely situational. Always and never do not exist. The best player is the one that can adapt to different games, different players and even different hands. Because of this it is hard, if not impossible, to give exact rules that can be followed to win. That's the downside. The upside is that because it is so dynamic, the majority of people you will be playing against in your starting phases won't know what to do and will be playing completely wrong.

This article is going to approach winning at low limit hold'em with a number of angles. The first of which is to break poker hands down into a few main categories so you can get a conceptual perspective. The second angle will be to give some specific scenarios to solidify what the categories. The third will be a list of hands. The next angle will be to talk about different games and how tight or loose to play in them so you know how to adapt your style to each game. We will finish up by talking about different types of players, how they play, how you should play against them and how you can learn from them.

The low limit hold'em hand categories are: Big Pairs, Draws, and Milking Hands. Every hand you play can fall into one of these categories and this will decide how you'll play it after that flop.

Big Pairs: A big pair is how you guessed it, top pair or an over pair. For example a big pair would be when you have AK, and the flop is AQ6. Notice that you have top pair. Another example would be having QQ and the flop is T63. When other people with lessor hands are trying to beat you, you are in a way defending your position. You want to make it as costly as possible to try to draw out on you. If you have the best hand now, everyone is drawing against you. Some people may have legitimate draws, others may be long shots but either way, you have the winner now and want to keep it that way. "Big Pair" hands work best when there are few people against you. The more people in against you, the weaker they become because you have more people drawing and there will be less safe cards that won't help them improve. So when you have this type of hand, you want to play in such a way that will reduce the competition. For example if you have AA or KK preflop, the reason that you raise in a low limit game is to lower the amount of people in. Key Point: Big Pair hands don't like lots of opponents. They win most when there are few players against them.

Draws: A drawing hand is a that still needs cards to improve to the winner. Some legitimate draws you will run into are: open ended straights, flush draws, small pairs, etc. An open ended straight is a hand where either end can hit and you will complete your straight. An example of this would be having KJ and the flop is QT4. Notice that if you hit either a 9 or an A, you will have the straight. An example of a flush draw would be having 9Tclubs and the flop is AcQc4d. Notice that it only takes one more club to make the flush for you. The last draw mentioned was a small pair. These are really draw hands because they need to hit to win usually. For example having 55 and the flop being A53. You would have hit your draw. You'll want to read the section on things to stay away from if you are tempted to go for gutshot straights, backdoor flushes, and catching your pocket pair after the flop. Key Point: Draws favor lots of opponents since they hit infrequently. Because of this, to make them profitable, lots of players need to be in the hand (or lots of money).

Milking Hands: You would like to see these hands as often as possible but they are rarer then having top pair. A milking hand is any hand that you have the nuts, two pair or better. The "nuts" is the best possible hand. For example, let's say that you have Ad5d and the flop is Qd9d2d. You now have the best possible hand and for someone to beat you, they would have to pair the board or get very lucky. Your goal now is to extract the most money from them you can. Often this will be best accomplished by not giving away your hand too early and reducing the number of opponents. Instead you can "slow play", meaning not raising until later betting rounds where the bet size doubles. Another example would be if you have 88 and the flop is A84. Notice that there is no immediate danger in letting people draw cheaply against you so you can just call. Then on later rounds a raise or check raise is used to get as much from them as you can. You'll find that hitting sets like the 8s above makes a lot of money since the hand is so well disguised. The flush, straights, fullhouses, etc will still win but the set is the hardest to read if you are on the other end. Key Point: You want to make the most money on these hands that you can. The specific hand will dictate how you will want to play it.

Now let's go over some specific hands and how you would play them this way and why:

You pick up American Airlines/Pocket Rockets/Pocket Aces: AdAc You are in middle position with a couple callers in front of you. You raise. The reason you raise is because this falls into the Big Pair category and it doesn't do well against lots of opponents. If someone raised before you preflop, reraise them. There is nothing to fear yet.

One more person calls in back of you and the other players call making it four of you. The flop comes back: QdJd4h

The first person bets, on person calls and it is now your turn. The best move here is to raise and try to continue to limit the compeition. They could have anything at this point and reading hands is very hard at low limit. Most likely they either have a Q or a draw (straight or flush). If they do have a draw you want to make them pay as much as possible for it. You raise, the person in back of you folds and the other two people just call.

The turn is: 5h making it QdJd4h5h

They check to you, you bet again and they call.

The river is a 6h making it QdJd4h5h6h

They check to you, you bet and they both call, you win.

Using this example, there are other legitimate hands that could have been in there with you. For example if someone had KT they would have an open ended straight draw. If a 9 or an A came, you could be in trouble. Another good hand here would be having two diamonds like Kd9d. Notice that if another diamond came you would also be in trouble. If you had either of those hands, you would be drawing and trying to improve. You wouldn't want to pay too much money to see the next cards and you would hope everyone would stay in the hand.

We can interchange a number of hands for the AA and you would play it the same way. Some of these would be KK, AQ, KQ, QJ, etc. You would be playing the hand like what we mentioned above as a Big Pair.

What if we had 44 in the above example, that would now give us a set. The poor guy with the AA wouldn't know what hit him, same thing if we had our QJ, or JJ. These would be considered Milking Hands and you would do your best to extract the most best as possible. We already mentioned the drawing hands.

Now let's go over a list of hands. These hands are not from any book and they aren't supposed to be exact rankings of what is best. These are geared to low limit loose games and the point is to help you understand how you would play each and what you are hoping for, and what can beat you. * AKs means AK of the same suite.

AA, KK, QQ, AKs, AK, JJ - These are premium hands and no matter what game you'll play you'll be happy to look down and see them. These fall into the category of Big Pairs and you'll raise and reraise with them preflop. AA doesn't have to worry about over cards hitting but when you have KK, QQ, and JJ you will often find yourself with an A on the board and you'll have to decide whether to continue. If lots of people are in, usually someone has the A. When you have AKs or AK, you'll raise and try to catch an A or K, or other draw on the board.

AQs, AQ, AJs, KQs, KJs, JTs - These are also quality hands. And even if someone raises before you'll, you will most likely play. A late position raise with these hands isn't a bad move. Whenever you are suited, you have a much better chance of winning, especially in low limit games where big hands win since so many people are in. Raising a hand like KQs if you are on the button and everyone is in is a great move since you have a good drawing hand (straights, flushes, big cards like a Q or K, etc). These hands pretty much play themselves but be careful for the occasional person who is tight and is only raising with AA or KK. You wouldn't want to bring AQ against one of those hands. This kind of read will be hard though so don't beat yourself up if occasionally you lose AQ to AK. One thing to note here before we go on to the lessor hands is that just because you have a good preflop hand doesn't mean that it is going to win. You're going to still fold a lot of hands after the flop since you won't improve much. With these hands though, when you do catch something it will be strong.

AJ, KQ, KJ, KTs, QTs, J9s, TT, 99, 88, 77, 66, 55, 44, 33, 22 - These hands are middle hands that you won't want to call with heads up against another raiser. You want more people in to justify them since you'll need good flops. If you have a small pair, you'll be looking to catch one on the flop. Don't chase it after though since the odds of you catching it are worse then 1/20. To catch another one of your pocket pair on the flop is about 1/8. When you have a hand like AJ, KQ, etc you'll be hoping to catch one of those cards and it be the highest on the board. If you have a hand like QTs, J9s, KTs, etc you'll be in there for a variety of hands such as straights, flushes, two pair, etc. Becareful though playing hands like J9s and catching merely a J or 9. Often times your kick won't be good and you'll lose to a hand like AJ.

89s, 78s, 67s, 56s, 45s, 34s - These hands are called suited connectors and they are similar to the hands above like J9s, QTs, etc. When you play these hands they are Draws. And if you remember from above that means that they favor lots of people in the pot and you like to play them "in the back" (late position). A great example would be to have 89s on the dealer button, the last position, and 5 people were already in before you (raise or not). You are getting great odds on this hand to play it. You are hoping to catch an openended straight draw, a flush draw, or even two pair. You can also run into hands like 889 on the flop when you have 78s, or you could even flop the nuts like this: 89s and the board is JT7. What you don't want to do is get caught up chasing down draws with these when the odds don't justify it. Also you don't want to play these against few opponents for more then a bet. For example a really bad way to play would be this: you have 89s and no one calls except one really tight old lady in front of you who raises. You call (bad move) and you end up heads up with her. The flop comes back Qs4d3d. You have nothing but a backdoor flush draw (meaning both cards have to hit, which is over 1/20 to do so). She bets, you call and go for it. The turn brings Qs4d3dAs. Now you think you may be lucky so you call again hoping to catch another spade (which is still worse then 1/4). You miss it and she wins since you have nothing. You played really poorly, going against the odds. Your 89s plays well against a lot of people so that the draw is worth while.

A5-ATs, A5-A2s, K9s-K5s, Q9s-Q5s, J8s, T8s, 97s, 86s, 75s, 64s, 53s, 42s - these are marginal at best hands. The only exception would be the ATs. It would probably be best if you avoided them at first until you become more comfortable in the game playing good hands. If the game is very loose though, with lots of people chasing the whole way to the river, these hands can be profitable. We play A5s and below and ATs and above because they both have ways to hit straights as well as the flushes. Notice that A6s can't make a straight using both cards. When you play this type of hand you really aren't looking for the A since your kicker will rarely be good. Instead you are looking for the straight, flush or two pair. Because they are such long shots you'll want lots and lots of bad players in the hand to justify the call preflop. The same goes for hands like K9s, T8s, etc. You'll play these hands in late position, when you see lots of people are in and it costs you very little. Don't get trapped though. If you play a hand like T8s and the flop comes back T high with no other draws for you it would be all right to just get out. There are to many cards that can come and beat you. You would much prefer to see a flush or straight draw.

Before continuing, how do the hands above fit into our three categories? Big Pair hands include things such as AA, KK, AK, QK, etc. Any situation where you have the top pair or over pair would be this. Drawing hands would include lots of hands above like suited connectors, small pairs, etc. Milking Hands really can be anything where you get hit hard on the flop and these would be two pair or better (three of a kind, sets, full houses, straights, etc).

Position: - Position plays a big role in poker, even in low limit. The reason last place, on the button, is so great is because you get to see what everyone else does before you. The best players play tight in the front and loose in the back. You wouldn't want to play some of the hands above in first position, "under the gun", but you would play them in the back. A good example of a hand like this would be T8s. In a really loose game with everyone in in front of you, you would play it. Also position changes how you play individual hands. You would play JTs anywhere in a really loose game but you might raise it in the back preflop just because it is the type of hand that does well against lots of players. So when you think of your starting hand selection, you want to play tighter in the front, and looser in the back. How tight and how loose will be up to you since you'll have to see the game before setting those guidelines.

Blinds: - Playing out of the blinds is different since you are already in the hand some. You'll play looser here but not too loose and how loose or tight depends solely on how many people are in the hand. If you have a hand even as weak as 79 off suit in the big blind and everyone is in (a "family pot") with a raise then you would call. The reasoning behind this is that you are getting great odds for your money. This same approach is true across the game. The less money out there, the better hand you have to have since you aren't getting good odds. The more money in the pot the weaker your hand has to be to play since if you do win even a small percentage of the time you'll profit.

So know that we know a little about starting hands, how do we know how loose or tight to play in a game? That's a very hard question and the better you get the more you'll be in tune with the answer. There is no absolutes though and you will lose hands. What I'll try to explain here is how to size up a game as being a loose one that you'll get away with some lessor cards or a tight one where if you played those same hands too much you would get slaughtered. If you sit down at a game and see lots of people in preflop, even with a raise, then it is a pretty loose game. For example if you consistently see 4/5 or more people in before the flop then it is pretty average. If you see almost everyone in every hand and going all the way to the river then you have a really loose game. In contrast if you see a game where about 3 people are in preflop with a lot of raising then it is a pretty tight game and you probably will want to play something else. In very tight games you'll see one person raise and another person battle it out with them. In those games having four people in is a "family pot" while in a regular low limit game a family pot is only when everyone is in (all 9/10 players). That isn't as rare as you might imagine. When you are first starting out and you see that the game is very loose, it wouldn't be a bad idea to still stay away from hands like 57s, etc. You would still want to play KJs, QTs, JTs. If you can discipline yourself to only play those loose hands in the back (late position), then you would be playing ideally. Even a hand like A5s in the back is a great hand if everyone is in. So here are some general guidelines for how loose to play: Average Game (4/5 people in the flop): play your premium pairs, small pairs, big cards and suited connectors. Very Loose Game (7+ people in the flop): play just about anything we mentioned above in the correct position. Wait for the flop to give you a really good hand or draw and then make them pay.

The key point here is to remember how loose your cards before the flop are depends on two things: your position and the amount of people in the hand before you. The more people in, the weaker your hand can be.

Since we are taking our starting hands against other players and their hands, what can we expect to see in the cardroom? Let's discuss some of the various types of players you will see and how they usually play. This will help you form one of your most valuable tools as a poker player, and that is to put someone into a player category. It helps you narrow down the possible hands they could have and gives you an idea of how good your good your current hand is in comparison with theirs. When you are playing, do your best to categorize each player into the following (better types of players are listed last):

Calling Station: - this is the worst type of player and the most prevalent (sometimes called a "fish"). The calling station does what his name implies, he just calls. He has poor hand selection. On the flop he will call with just about anything, and will continue to do that all the way to the river. This person has very little skill or discipline. They will be in every hand no matter if there is a raise before them. In the face of a better hand (like when a straight or a flush is on the board and they don't have it), they will just call it down. Most of the money you'll make will be from this type of player. The reason this play is so bad is that it is the exact opposite of what you should be doing. Instead of being selective and waiting for good opportunities to put your money behind you spread it out over every hand, good or bad, and in the end that can't work. Remember our bad investor analogy above. With these kinds of people in the pots, you'll just play your cards and see what happens. What that means is that you can't really put them on any kind of a hand since they could easily have AK as they could have 92. If you have a hand (like top pair with a good kicker) then just bet it and see what happens. You will want to watch out for them if they raise you though. Usually a calling station is a fairly passive player and when they raise it means something. If you can make some good folds now and then, you'll be a better player. If you can't fold a losing hand then you'll be a calling station and a losing player. When a person raises and what they raise with is another important item that you will want to watch for. It helps you not only categorize them but helps you select the hands that you play against them. When a calling station raises before the flop it could mean anything but usually they have a good hand (AA, KK, QQ, JJ, etc). Because of that, be careful about playing against them if you have a hand that could be easily dominated like KQ, KJ, KT, etc. If you notice that they are raising all the time with just about any hand they play then you may have found the next category.

Loose Aggressive: - A loose aggressive player is one who plays as many cards as the calling station does but they are inclined to raise, reraise and cap hands that they shouldn't (like A5 offsuit, Q9s, etc). You'll know very quickly if a person is a loose aggressive player. A person can't get great cards all day and if they are raising three hands in a row then chances are all those hands aren't premium. When you have two or more of these types of players in a game the pots can be very large, but it can also cost you a lot of money if you lose. Two points when playing against them: remember that when they raise they don't always have AA so you can play against them with hands that you would normally just call with. A reraise when you have a decent hand to try to isolate them isn't a bad move. The second thing to remember is that even if they are raising every hand it doesn't mean that they aren't going to get a good one now and then. So with that said don't cap it with a maniac player if you just have top pair. That could be costly. Sometimes you'll find these loose aggressive players, maniacs, only do that before the flop but afterwards they tighten up some. Try to pick up on things like this. Lastly, don't be afraid of them just because they like to raise. If you have a good hand, make them pay. Some typical loose aggressive players are young asian males and guys with a short man complex (no offense).

Rock: - a rock is a super tight player who only plays premium cards. When they raise you know exactly what they have (AA, KK, AK, etc). They will not be in on many hands and when they are, it will most likely be with a raise. Now a rock is better then a calling station and a maniac but they aren't playing correctly for low limit hold'em (or even other limits). The problem with low limit hold'em they run into is that when 6 other people are in a pot against their AA, it isn't going to hold up much. In the upper limits they won't get any value for their hands since the other players can read them so well. What you can learn from a rock though is that they pick good cards and try to put their money behind them. That is correct. They just aren't playing enough cards. It is the opposite of a calling station. You want to stay out of a Rock's way if you can. For example you wouldn't want to bring KJoffsuit up against a rocks raise preflop. But if you are in a multi-way pot with lots of people in and the rock raises then you would want to play your drawing hands. One good thing about playing them is that they are very predictable. When they raise you, the almost always have it so don't pay them off. Anyone who is watching the game at all can see what types of hands they are playing. You will run into some rocks playing low limit. The main reason for that is that if you are a rock it isn't easy to progress up levels, you're gonna get stuck at the low stuff because anyone who can play the game at the upper limits will cut them to pieces as fast as a calling station. The stereotypical rock is an old lady.

Weak Tight: - a weak tight player is fairly rare at low limit. This type of player has most of the skills that a wining player possesses with one exception, they are a little scared. Moving up in levels sometimes creates weak tight players. You fear the other players and they can read into that so you can sometimes get bullied around by raises. The creation of a weak tight player can also be the result of too rigid rules. Remember poker is situational. You shouldn't be tied to any one book, saying, or system. Let your experience mold you into a good player. When you are playing a weak tight player you should watch out for them most of the time since they aren't going to be putting too many "moves" on you: they won't try to bluff you at all. It's interesting to put a loose aggressive player against a weak tight one. The weak tight player gets bullied around waiting for good cards instead of basing his hand selection on the other players. If you do find yourself in a position where something scary hits in a hand and the weak tight player is your opposition, you may have found a good time to bluff. Weak tight players are big believers, especially if the raise is on a later round with the bet size is larger. Bluffing isn't a big part of the game, but even in low limit it applies to this people since they are good enough to see what you may have and "smart" enough not to call. It is much easier to bluff a good player then a bad one since the bad player doesn't pay any attention to what you may have.

Tight Aggressive: - This is the top of the pyramid. The tight aggressive player is the good investor, the laser, the sniper, the smart bomb in the poker world. This is your goal. The tight aggressive players ability to adapt to different games and players, as well as the confidence to back their moves with their bankroll makes them fierce opponents. To recognize a tight aggressive player is to see a person who doesn't play that many cards but when they do they take control. They slow play great hands. They use their position to play weaker cards when the odds justify it. They are able to fold hands that other players would be trapped in. A better hand will be any player but you'll find it difficult to make any money against a tight aggressive player. The best advice is to just play very good hands against them and hope to break even. You won't run into many of these at low limit so don't worry.