How To Win Texas Holdem Poker Every Time
Every time you read a Texas Hold'em strategy article, you should be actively trying to absorb the information as you go along. It's all well and good reading a whole bunch of articles, but if nothing is sinking in or making a real difference to the way you play, then it's going to be pretty useless. How to Win at Texas Holdem Poker. Up until the 2000s, seven card stud was the dominant form of poker throughout many parts of the world. But this changed during the poker boom of the mid 2000s, when Texas holdem became the preferred game for every major tournament.
Poker is cool. It’s like playing snap, except that you can win money. And now that there’s online poker, you don’t even have to put your trousers on when you play.
Feeling flushed? Playing the long game is the best way to win at poker.
Did you know there are people who play poker for a living? It’s totally a thing. The best players take home tens of millions of dollars every year.They can do that because poker isn’t a game of chance – it’s a game of odds.
If you play the odds intelligently and consistently, you can win at poker over and over. And over.
How To Win Texas Holdem Every Time above amount will be set as your monthly limit of loss and will be used for KYC and responsible gambling purposes. When the limit has been reached you will get a message which informs you that your loss limit has been reached and you will not be. The goal is simple: win as many chips as you can, one pot at a time. You win a pot by having the best hand or by having all other players fold before the showdown. Basic Texas Holdem Poker Game Rules. Texas Holdem poker can be played with as little as two players, up to a max of ten players. It is played with 52 card deck without joker.
If you’ve never played poker at all the game is easy to pick up. Try a few free sites or mobile apps to learn the basics. Once you have the rules down, these eight tips will transform you from a poker rookie to a pro by the time you’ve finished reading.
Don’t play drunk
The Hollywood image of poker is of hard drinking men in back rooms chomping cigars and sipping bourbon. Truth is, alcohol impairs your judgement – in a specific way – that makes it a no-no for poker. It decreases your inhibitions so you’re more likely to take a chance. To win at poker, you need to be in control of all your decisions.
What if you’re at the table and everyone else is having a beer or three? It depends on the environment and seriousness of the game, but you can make it seem like you’re enjoying something stronger by asking for a glass of soda water in a whisky tumbler, with ice and lemon.
Don’t play angry
For the same reason as you shouldn’t play drunk (or impaired by any other substance for that matter), you shouldn’t play angry, upset or generally in a crappy mood.
This baby probably shouldn’t play poker until he’s calmed down a bit.
Playing when you feel emotional is almost as dangerous as playing drunk. It’s so well known in poker circles that there’s a phrase for it – going “on tilt”.
The expression comes from another Vegas casino game; pinball. If you rock the pinball table or physically lift it, trying to guide the ball, the machine detects it and displays the “TILT” sign. The table shuts down and you’ve lost.
The bottom line? If you’ve just got back from a rubbish day at work, if chavs have keyed your car or your dog’s peed in your slippers – don’t play poker.
Play tight
Poker dudes talk about “tight” players and “loose” players. These types are the tortoise and the hare of the poker world.
Tight players only bet when they have a good starting hand. They only stay in when the flop (the cards on the table) consolidates or improves their hand. They only take it to the river (that’s the last card of the five dealt on the table) when their hand is a potential winner.
As a tight player, you will fold your hand much, much more than you will play – because you (will usually) only play when the odds are significantly in your favour. Slow and steady wins the race.
Know the best starting hands
When playing classic Texas Hold ‘Em style poker, tight players know whether to play or fold before the flop even appears. The chart below – from Wikipedia – shows the best starting hands depending on your position around the table (how far you are from the starting point).
The strongest starting hands are pairs of picture cards, with a pair of aces the strongest of all. Next are combinations of picture cards, with cards of the same suit ranked more highly (as they increase the odds of a Royal Flush or Straight Flush).
The very tightest players will only play starting hands with a rank of 1, 2 or 3 – and the tightest players of all will discard any combo below a picture card with a ten…
Fast and loose loses
Even poker’s beginniest beginners know that to win at poker you sometimes have to bluff. And if you didn’t know that, bluffing is pretending that you have a better hand. We don’t mean leaning back in your chair, stroking your belly and announcing “Ooh wee! I got me some goooood cards!” either. Bluffing is more subtle than that.
Quietly sticking to your guns when you’re not 100% sure of your hand is a core strategy of poker – but it’s not one that you should call on too often. In rookie games you’ll often come across that “bluffing guy” – somone who plays lousy hands aggressively and manages to win big early, before sauntering away from the table.
It’s more common in online poker than real world poker – but it still happens. It can make it look like fast and loose is the way to play, but when those guys lose they lose big and they lose often. All it takes is one good hand to bring them down.
How Do You Win At Texas Holdem Every Time
Look for patterns
In poker movies (check out Rounders, House of Games or Casino Royale) the big loser is usually betrayed by a “tell”. This is some non-verbal giveaway that lets Matt Damon or Daniel Craig or that bloke who voiced Fat Tony in the Simpsons know that his opponent is bluffing.
If only real life were that simple. People may have “tells” but they’re usually far too subtle to spot. You can begin to predict behaviour over time when you play the long, tight game though. Quietly compartmentalise your opponents into categories as you observe their play. Make mental notes of who plays tightly, who’s loose and look out for habitual bluffers. Look for when people fold too. It’s amazing how many players will try to play every hand until the fourth or fifth card emerges, regardless of what they’re holding.
It’s easy to miss the less flashy players; those who seem to be winning small or not at all, but they could be your trickiest opponents. Use your accumulated knowledge to adapt your play when you’re faced with that opponent in the end game.
Matt Damon winning big in ‘Rounders’. If he can do it, so can you.
Lose strategically
Your opponents will be keeping an eye on you too, so it’s OK to strategically mix things up a bit when the stakes are low and try to take a less than stellar starting hand to the end of the round.
It’s best to try tactics like this early on in a game, when you’ve still got plenty in your pot and when you’re in a late position on the table. It works best with a borderline hand, like a pair of eights or a picture with a lower, suited card.
If most of your comrades hold or fold, try a cheeky raise to see where it goes. Remember the aim is to either win or lose small so that you get to show your cards. The idea is to lull your opponents into believing you’re more loose than you actually are.
Roll with the punches
You’ll lose some hands, so it’s important to maintain your cool. The most common reason rookies (and some pros) lose is because they go “on tilt” after a couple of bad hands. Anyone can get a bad card on the river or discover they were playing against a superior hand all along.
In other words, you can be as tight as a gnat’s chuff and still lose a hand. Don’t let this rock you. Imagine the other guy sitting at home in his bedsit, crying into his Tesco Macaroni and Cheese for one – and just move on.
Image credit - Danny Maxwell
Whether you're playing with friends or at an online site, the goal of poker is to win. Of course, this is easier said than done today when you consider that there's a wealth of poker strategy available today. But that certainly doesn't mean your case for becoming a successful player is hopeless. This is especially the case if you read the following step-by-step guide on how to win at Texas Holdem poker.
Basic Texas Holdem Poker Strategy
meaning you need better than a 3:1 chance of hitting your drawing hand to make this a profitable call.Study Opponents and Focus
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based on their previous actions. This is only something that can be gained by watching your opponents during every hand—including the ones you're not involved in.The goal is to build a profile of everybody at the table so you can figure out what range they play in each situation. For example, if you see another player get caught trying to steal blinds with 6-5 unsuited in late position, you know that they have a wide range in these situations, allowing you to call against them with more hands.
How to be Good at Poker - Intermediate Tips
Tools for learning Poker Strategy
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- Poker Articles - Abundant, and very good for learning the basics of how to win at poker. It's especially nice when articles are categorized in beginner, intermediate and advanced sections.
- Poker Books - These are a good way to get inside the head of a pro and see how they think when playing the game. Just be sure that the concepts are relevant and not outdated, though.
- Training Videos - There was an explosion of training videos in the late 2000s, as players moved away from books/articles and craved visual strategy. The great thing about training videos is that you get to see players actually playing online poker as they discuss different topics. But beware that not everybody who does training videos is a long-term winner.
- Live Streaming (Twitch) - This has become one of the most-popular ways to learn poker tips because you get to watch skilled pros in real-time. Plus, you might also be entertained by some of the better Twitch performers. Jason Somerville,Bertrand Grospellier and Jaime Staples have become stars through live streaming.
- Coaching - You can get one-on-one training by hiring a coach. The quality of coaching you get often depends on whom you hire and how much money you spend. But this option is worth pursuing if you want a good player to critique your play and explain what you need to do to get better.
- Heads-Up Displays (HUDs) - These are tools that help keep track of various stats on opponents and your own play during a session. Some online poker sites have banned these tools while others still allow you to use HUDs since they aren't technically cheating.