Texas Holdem Strategy - Part 1
“They” (whoever they are) say that poker is 70% luck and only 30% skill. Having said that, describing Texas Holdem Strategy can come across as dictating rules to winning the game. However, nothing can be farther from the truth. Strategies are guidelines to what works best in most typcial situations. A poker game, of course, with multiple individuals, each with their own personalities, and all with the same singular desire to win, is many things – but rarely a typical situation. Therefore, take these guidelines not as hard and fast rules, but as insider information as to what is most commonly considered wise game play.
At best, these strategies will make you a contender in any game, regardless of your experience level and that of your competitors and can hopefully get you started learning how to develop your own less rigid and structured style of play. At worst, you’ll be able to identify the tricks and techniques that your (allegedly) poker-savvy opponents are attempting to use on you. Either way, learning basic Texas Holdem strategy is a win-win situation. Plus, if this doesn’t work out for you, you can try to find a great casino bonus and just play craps all night long.
Starting Hands
In Texas Holdem, your two hole cards are the only ones that make your hand distinct from your opponents’ which makes them one of the (though not the sole) most important factor in determining how (and whether) you should play the hand. There are precisely 169 starting hands possible. At least half of these are considered totally unplayable (unless, of course, you go into the hand planning to bluff, in which case, any hand is playable).
Widely considered the best starting hand is A-K suited, though some will argue that a Pair of Pocket Aces is even better. The arguments for each are strong, making it worth considering both of these starting hands as “the best”. That said, many playes, professional and otherwise, proclaim other hands than these two as their favorites to start with.
Extrapolating from there, a player serious about winning might seriously consider folding out of a hand should their hole cards feel to be a Pair or a Suited Connecter (two numerically consecutive cards – or pictorially, ie. J, Q, K – of the same suit).
If you start with a Pair (of anything) and don’t pull “Trips” (or 3-of-a-Kind) on the Flop, then at that point you might want to consider folding. If you start with a suited connector and don’t pull 2 more cards towards a straight or a flush after the flop,, your fantastic starting hand is suddenly not so fantastic.
Another worthwhile starting hand is Royalty (J,Q, or K) with a Suited Kicker. The kicker is the card in your hand that does not help make your actual hand. A novice may consider this a throwaway card, but it’s much more valuable than that. In the case of a tie, it is this card that determines the winner. Therefore, the higher your kicker, the better your hand (which is also why many players prefer high suited connectors as a starting hand rather than a pocket pair – as with a pair you have no kicker other than the highest shared card on the table, but if you have a high suited connector, you could still conceivable pull a high pair and have the remaining card as a killer kicker). That said, being dealt a J,Q, or K and an unsuited kicker is also a decent (though not great) starting hand.
After the Flop
As suggested above, if you start with a pair and don’t pull a 3rd of that kind on the flop, you’re treading in dangerous waters. 3-of-a-Kind is not that hard to come by, and at a poker table of 6-10 people, if you don’t have one by the time the flop comes, there’s a good chance someone else does.
Speaking of 3’s, many people chase flushes and straights with only three cards towards them (ie. three hearts or 9-10-J of any suit) after the flop – called Three-to-a-Straight or Three-to-a-Flush, depending. This is more often a losing battle than not and therefore generally considered unplayable. The odds of the next (and only) two remaining cards – the Turn and the River – both filling out your potential straight or flush are so slim that you’re better off bluffing (if feasible, based on the cards on the table) or cutting your losses and folding out of the hand.
The exception to this is if you have Three to a Straight Flush. This may be worth investigating a little further. The odds are still slim, but depending on how much it costs to stay in, it may be worth it to see if you can nail this rare and killer hand.
If you have four to a straight, you’d be best served distinguishing whether it’s an Inside Straight Draw (ie. 4-5-7-8) or an Outside Straight Draw (ie. 4-5-6-7). As should be obvious, the odds of pulling that straight are significantly better for an outside straight draw than an inside one, to the point where the former is often worth playing and the latter usually not.The exception to this is an outside straight draw with an Ace (either A-2-3-4 or J-Q-K-A) as in each instance there is still only one card that can help you, not two, making an outside straight draw with an Ace as hard to make as any inside straight draw.
Now you know the basics – the hands typcially worth staying in and those that aren’t. This, of course, is with Bluffing notwithstanding, but we’ll save the intricate topic of bluffing for another article altogether. In the meantime, you can now at least feel confident sitting in at a Texas Holdem table knowing in the most basic sense what hands to hold and what hands to fold.
As in life, though, nothing in poker is that simple, which is why we’ve given this article a companion piece on Texas Holdem psychology or Playing the Player. This will give you a deeper insight into what’s really going on behind those hole cards and poker faces. So read on, if you dare…!
Until part 2 comes out, why don’t you check out these great casino bonuses online.