Texas Holdem Tip #1 Dont Fall In Love With Your Start Another very hard lesson to learn. Who doesnt find it nearly impossible to fold two queens, or AKs? Or even a pair of tens? Who doesnt hate the idea of folding on the turn after flopping two pair? Or a set? Everyone wants to see these great starts to the river. Problem is, there are other people in the game. Though it may make your eyes light up when you get top pocket cards, or have three of a kind after the flop, these hands are no guarantee of winning. Failing to re-evaluate the strength of your hand at every step of the way is a sure way to lose a lot of money. Texas Holdem Tip #2 Stop To Think Too often players act without thinking, getting carried away by emotion instead of considering a bet calmly and rationally. This happens especially in live poker, where you may feel vaguely defined urges not to be a coward, take a shot, or to go big. These urges often are setting you up to lose. Texas holdem tip always, when confronted with a big decision, pause to review your reaction, your instinct. Very often our natural instincts need to be rerouted into poker instincts. For the beginner, this process involves a full stop, and an open-minded consideration of the situation. Good players feed on the natural reactions of the less skilled. So dont react. Think. Texas Holdem Tip #3 Consider The Pot Something I often see, but will never understand, is players using all-in bluffs to win tiny pots. This, to me, is the height of bad poker playing. Pot odds are a huge part of the game. When youre taking a risk, you want to be entirely sure youll be justly rewarded for it. Thats why some players can make a living at holdem. They know the odds, and know consistently staying in on gigantic pots, and quickly giving up small pots, will pay off in the end. This concept is closely tied to expected value (EV). These good players may lose the big pot nine out of ten times, but the tenth time more than pays for the other losses. Factor the current and potential size of the pot into every decision you make. Texas Holdem Tip #4 Strong Players Bet Big On BIG Hands This is why theyre strong players. If youve made your hand, and are up against a tight player whos raising you big, take a good look at the board. Possible flush, straight, full house? Chances are shes hit something. The best players bet big when chances are very slim that they can be beat. This means you should very often take their implicit advice and get out--especially as a beginner. Unless youve got the nuts, or near it, yourself, that is. In that case, raise the hell out of them. Texas Holdem Tip #5 Be A Rock, Except This is the best texas holdem tip I can give you. Being a rock is a very good way to start out. Though it may seem unexciting to some, who long for the high-stakes stack-pushing (highly edited) drama of the TV-poker world, poker is a game of inches. A waiting game. Throwing 80% of your hands, at least, is the only way to win in multi-player games. Bet only on the best hands, semi-bluff very occasionally, and bluff almost never. This is a winning recipe against 90% of the poker players youll meet at low-limit tables. As a beginner, consider yourself a hunter sitting calmly in a blind, waiting hours for prey to fly overhead. If you go the other way, take your shotgun and go walking around in the jungle, very often youll get eaten by a lion. |
