Texas Hold’em Fever

Deception is a very important aspect of both live and online Texas Holdem Poker. By employing deception, a Texas Holdem player induces his opponents to act differently than they’d do if they could see his hand, or make them think that he has a particular hand, while what he has is totally different from what they think he’s got. Basically, deception is divided in two general branches: bluffing and slow play. Slow playing is a deceptive trick, when a player pretends to have a weak hand in order to attract more money into the pot, because if opponents see that a player is weak, they’ll pounce on any show of weakness. Bluffing is a form of deception that is roughly opposite to slow playing: betting strongly with a weak hand than rather betting weakly with a strong one. The opponents won’t call aggressive bets, unless they have very strong hands.

Once you have mastered the basics of Texas Holdem, you may be ready to move on to some advanced topics. One area where advanced Texas Holdem strategy comes in is in short handed games. A short handed game is one which has six or fewer players at the table, as opposed to a full ring game of nine or ten players. How do you adjust your strategy for this type of game?

For one thing, you must play many more hands. The likelihood of certain holdings to be the best increases considerably in a short handed game. Often an ace high is the strongest hand dealt out, much more often than in a full game. In addition, players will be trying to steal more often, since there will be fewer players they have to get past to win the pot. For this reason you must be prepared not only to enter more pots, but to call and re-raise more often than you would in a full game. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the most important concepts of Texas Holdem strategy is relationship between the odds of winning and pot odds. Term “ pot odds” refers to the ratio of the pot size to the actual size of bet, necessary for a player to stay in the pot. For instance, if you have to call $20 in order to have a chance of winning an $80 pot, not including your $20 call, your pot odds are 4 to 1. In order to have a positive expectation, your odds of winning must be bigger than pot odds. That means that if your odds of winning are 4 to 1 (20% winning chance) and if you are planning to play 5 games, then your expected return is zero – one winning to four losses.

The next concept, implied odds, is more complicated, though it is also related to pot odds. In Texas Holdem, as well as in the other poker games, the implied odds on a hand are based on the expected size of the pot in the end of a hand, not current pot size. That means that, for example, when facing an even money situation described in the previous item and holding a premium hand like a flush, a Texas Holdem pro will consider calling a bet, or even opening proceeding from their implied odds. That is true for the multi-way pots, where it is likely that one or more players will be calling all the way to showdown.

In Texas Holdem strategy, the gap concept states that you need a better hand to act against a player who had already opened the betting or raised, than you’d need if you’d open the betting yourself. That means that the gap concept reflects behavior of the majority of players, who prefer to avoid open confrontations with their opponents that already displayed strength. Proceeding from this, the gap concept states that calling only has just a single way to win – by holding the strongest cards, while opening may also result in an immediate victory in case if other players fold.

Basically, the style of play in Texas Holdem poker is divided in two groups: tight and loose play. Loose players are usually playing more hands tending to act even with weak starting hands and tight players usually play few hands tending to act just with good starting hands. The following is a list of statements referring to loose games, while their inverses are true for tight games.

• Bluffing has lesser effectiveness in loose games, because loose players tend to continue playing even with poor starting hands, not to fold.

• Requirements to continue playing with drawing hands are lower, because the majority of loose players may also be playing with poor hands.

• Drawing to incomplete hands, like straights and flushes, is more valuable, because draws are often getting more favorable pot odds and a better hand is frequently required in order to win in multi-way pots.

In Texas Holdem Poker, raising, unlike calling, has a potential extra way to win, because your opponents may fold and from a strategic perspective, an opening bet can be considered a raise. The following is a list of general reasons for raising given by winning poker pros:

• You raise, when you have a strong hand and want to attract more money into the pot – raising to increase pot value.

• You raise, when you have a very strong hand and want to drive out your opponents, who, in other case, can improve their hands during next betting rounds.

• You raise, if you have a poor, or a drawing hand and want to mislead your opponents. A player that has a stronger hand may fold, misled by your raise.

• You raise, if you have a drawing hand and want to get a free card, because your opponent may check you during the next betting round, giving you a chance to get a free card and thus improve your current hand.

• You raise, if you have an uncertain hand and want to check the potential strength of your opponents, if you are called. You can use opening bets in later betting rounds in order to evaluate your opponents’ hands by being raised or called by them. Sometimes this can immediately win you the pot, because your opponents may fold.

• You raise, if you thing you have the second best hand and try to drive out worse players, who can improve their hands during next betting round, which can increase the expected value of your hand, giving you a better probability of success, if you will improve your hand during next betting rounds.

• You raise, if the previous player with a drawing hand bets before you, in order to make opponents behind you fold, even if they have better hands. This method is frequently referred to as “isolation play”.