Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips
Texas Hold’em is a game most often won by skill, patience, discipline and psychological warfare. Luck actually plays a very small role in Texas Hold’em. If you want to become a winning Texas Hold’em player, just like the fiercest pros in the world, we’re here to help!
We present the Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips, to help you become a better, smarter, more frequently winning Texas Hold’em player.
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #1 – Starting Hand Composition
Not every poker hand should be played. If you want to win, you need to have a tight poker strategy, which means only putting chips into the pot when your cards offer good enough odds of winning from the get-go. The best possible starting hand, of course, is Pocket Aces. Other high pairs, high suited connectors, high suited cards (with an Ace) and high connected cards (with an Ace) are also considered good starting hands. Anything less simply isn’t worth forfeiting the chips to see the Flop.
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #2 – Patience and Discipline
Too many poker players lack the patience and discipline to play a consistently tight poker game. They get frustrated after too many folded junk hands. This is when mistakes occur, and the player’s chip stack suffers. Remain patient and never get emotional.
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #3 – Know Your Outs & Odds
In Texas Hold’em, an Out is any card that will improve your hand. If you are dealt Ah-Kh, and 10h-Js-5h fall on the Flop, how many Outs do you have? You are one card away from the Flush, with 9 more hearts unseen (presumably in the deck), so that’s 9 Outs. You need a Queen to complete the Straight, that’s 4 more Outs. Another Ace would be nice, that’s 1 more Out, for a total of 14 Outs. You can see 5 cards out of 52, so there 47 cards to get these 14 Outs from (we don’t count opponent cards since we can’t see them). 47 divided by 14 is about 3.4, so you have a 1 in 3.4 (about 30%) chance of getting the card you need. Those are pretty good odds! Always know your Outs and compare your Odds to decide whether it’s worth getting into the pot.
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #4 – Starting Hand Fascinations
Be careful not to fall in love with certain starting hands. Pocket Aces are always worth playing, but if you win with K-Q off-suit once, don’t assume you’ll win it every time. Read your opponents, calculate your odds and if your gut tells you to fold, listen to it!
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #5 – Know the Nuts
the Nuts is the best possible hand a player can have, according to the community cards showing. For instance, if 5h-5s-7d is showing, the best possible hand is quad 5′s, next best Full House, 5′s over 7′s, and so on. Quad 5′s is highly unlikely, so a Full House is still very strong. If you have the Nuts, go for broke! If another player is willing to risk it all with a gleam in his eye, assume he has the nuts and back down before you lose your stack.
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #6 – Monster Hands
When you are finally dealt that guaranteed, monster hand, be careful how you play it. If your opponents are all playing tight, start out slow to get more players in the pot, then raise to get the most out of it. If you’re playing against loose players, start with a raise and continue draining their stacks as much as you can. Too many players will make small bets, resulting in a small pot at the showdown. You must take advantage of these opportunities when they arise, cause it won’t happen often!
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #7 – Play Your Position / Bluffing
When you’re in late position, you’re hand strength increases. From early position, it decreases. The reason for this is that, from late position, you get to read every prior opponent. If there is little confidence in betting, you can toss a few extra chips in to steal the blinds. If they do show confidence, they know you are watching and expect you to fold a junk hand. If you raise them back, you may be able to psych them out and still take the early pot. A semi-bluff (decent starting hand, but not premium) is recommended for this. Be very careful about large bets in early position unless your hand is strong enough to call a big raise from a late position bettor.
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #8 – Reading your Opponents
As we said, psychological warfare plays a key role in Texas Hold’em. You need to be able to read your opponents quickly and efficiently. This allows you to predict their behavior in certain situations, which in turn gives you a read on their hand strength. Practice by focusing in on a single opponent. Watch for situational betting patterns and poker tells. Once you can accurately predict his behavior, move on to the next. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to read everyone at the table within a few hands of play.
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #9 – Bankroll Management
Proper bankroll management is extremely important in Texas Hold’em, or any poker game for that matter. Your total bankroll should come from a separate poker fund, much like a savings account. Only put extra funds in your bankroll. Never take cash from the bill money or other budgeted funds. When you take a seat at a poker table, never bring more than 10% of your entire bankroll.
The amount you bring should correspond with the stakes and limit of the Texas Hold’em Game. The following chart should help you know how much cash to bring to a single poker table:
Fixed Limit: 100x Big Blind
Pot Limit: 400x Big Blind
No Limit: 400x Big Blind
Top 10 Texas Hold’em Tips: #10 – Know When To Quit
A good poker player always knows when it is time to quit. Set a predetermined goal of how much money you’d like to walk away with; something reasonable of course. 5x your starting bankroll is a nice profit. Once you’ve won this amount, unless the table is full of fish and incredibly easy to read, call it quits. If you stay in the game, select a point at which you will quit if your stack drops. If you’ve won 5x your bankroll, quit if it drops to half. That way you still have a profit. If you’re not having a good day at the tables, the obvious time to quit is when your chip stack hits 0.
