Basic Texas  Holdem Strategy

Congratulations! Since you are reading this you have already taken the most important step towards becoming a winner at online poker because the simple truth is that the vast majority of new players take a look at the ranks of hands and expect to ''pick it up'' as they go along believing that practice makes perfect. Unfortunately for them (but fortunately for us) this approach can lead to the development of some very bad and difficult to change habits. The worst being that they play hoping to ''get lucky'' and that the game is about luck even to the extent that they think that they will win because they have either had a run of bad luck or because they think that they have been a good person and deserve it. The odd occasion they do win reinforces this opinion because they haven't set out to make it to happen, it is uncommon, against the odds and somehow handed down to them by Lady Luck. These are the players that will pay for your holidays for years to come.

There are three ways to bet - haphazardly hoping to get lucky, bet a bit at a time to spread the risk in which case you will lose your money to the house in the rake and to the better players who have calculated their chances of winning and bet more heavily on the best hands and as little as possible on the worst.

There are several factors that influence how good a hand is so to understand online poker we need to break them down one at a time.

    1 The types of hand

  2 Pre-flop strategy

                             3 When to play tight and when loose

4 Types of player

Types of Starting Hand in Texas Holdem Online Poker

Big Pair Hands

These are pairs of tens or better or an over pair (they are of higher value than any of the community cards). The pair may be both of your initial two cards (pocket cards) or made up of one of your pocket cards and one from the community cards acquired on the flop. If one of your pair is a the highest value community card you at least know that no one else has a better pair than you made up from the community cards. A good pair is best against a small number of players and its odds of winning become less against more players and more cards dealt on the turn and river so raise especially pre-flop to deter some of your competition.

Drawing Hands

A drawing hand is one that has the potential to be a winner but still needs cards from either the flop, the turn or the river to get there. They are hands that need more than your two pocket cards to be complete. They would include open ended straights, flushes, and low value pairs you need to become a three of a kind to have a chance of winning with. Drawing hands come off less often than big pairs but when they do you win so you need a big pot to make the risk worthwhile. Big pots need lots of players continuing into and after the flop. If you have drawing hands and only a few players look set to play after the flop you should fold.

Milking Hands

These are when you have the nuts, this is when your pocket cards in combination with the community cards are the best possible hand at the table after the flop. For example your have two Aces as your pocket cards and there are two more in the community cards, no one else could have four aces or a straight or a flush, you have already won, no don't jump up and down just yet because you want to make as much out of it as possible. This is the time to play as if you don't have such a great hand so that the other players bet thinking they may win and stay in the hand. This is called playing slow and you check and call until the later rounds of betting and then raise. Straights, full house and three of a kind are all milking hands.

Pre-Flop Strategy

Your strategy before the flop will depend on your pocket cards, the number of players and your position. If there are a lot of players and a large pot you are better with drawing hands and milking hands if there are only a few players going into the flop you are better with big pairs. Position is very important because if you are the dealer (on the button) you are the last player in the round of betting so you get to see how many players are going to fold and go into the flop and how they are betting pre-flop, remember big pre-flop bets may indicate a big pair hand. A late position player also has a big influence on the size of the pot for the size of his bets by being able to effectively raise everyone in the subsequent round of betting. The best players in light of the increased knowledge gained from seeing everyone else's move in the round before them and the increased level of control over betting tend to play tight in early positions ( immediately to the left of the dealer) and looser in later ones when the situation is right.  

Great, so let's now look at the kind of hands we shall come across, categorise them and decide how to play them.

Paired picture cards and any Ace/King

These are Big Pairs so raise pre-flop to cut back the number of players as these do best with small numbers of players. If you have an Ace/King you should raise hoping to get an Ace or a King on the flop however if you only have a pair of Jacks and there is an Ace amongst the community cards you may fold if you are playing tight in an early position as their is a good chance someone will have another ace to make the pair. 

Non-pair picture cards of the same suit and any Ace/Queen

Not quite as good but suited cards do better than unsuited as they are drawing cards, they could become a flush hand as well as a straight or make up a pair off the board (Community cards). If you are in the late position and many players are going into the flop raise if you have a King/Queen combination because of the high number of winning combinations that these cards have on the flop and the earlier position players have already built up the pot to make the lower odds of winning worth the risk.

Non-pair non-suited nines and above and paired number cards

These are average hands and you need them to improve on the flop to be worth playing into later rounds. If someone is raising don't chase them. If you only have a low pair your chances of a third on the flop are about 12% but only 5% on the turn card so bail out after the flop if the hand doesn't improve. The same goes with the dissimilar cards - if they don't improve to a pair or towards a straight fold after the flop.

Non-pair but suited number cards between 3 and 9

These are drawing hands they are suited connectors which means that they may become a flush, two pair, or an open ended straight on the flop, (meaning that the flop may leave you with a series of four consecutive cards needing only one more card at either end to make the straight). Remember though that drawing hands need a big pot and so lots of players post flop to be worthwhile, don't get into a battle with a normally tight player and only a few players left in as your hand may not improve and you could be easily beaten for the sake of a small pot.

An Ace and a suited card of five and below or an Ace/Ten combination

These pocket cards are the poorest you should consider playing pre-flop. They have the same potential as earlier better hands to make pairs (all be it lower value) and flushes but although they can still make a straight it is not open ended, the correct three cards must fall between the Ace and the five or between the Ace and the ten rather than having the last cards fall at either end of a sequence of four cards which is much less likely to happen making this statistically a worse bet. Only play them if at all in a very late position with lots of players and a large pot and fold if they don't improve on the flop.

Tight or Loose Play

Just as different players may either play tight  (only bet when they have good hands) or loose  (bet on anything they are dealt all the way to the river) at some tables the  players in general may play tight or loose. If play is generally tight with everyone only betting when they have a good hand you need to do the same only play into the flop with better hands than normal. If people are playing generally loose you can get away with playing slightly lower hands particularly in the late position when the situation is right with lots of people going forwards and a large pot to play for. The advantage of this is that if you are playing too tight you will fold too many hands and your pot wins per hour of play will be low. So although your loses will be low so will be your wins and overall you will make less.

A tight game would be only three players of ten going into the flop, average would be four to five and loose seven or eight, very loose would be the whole gang of ten chasing all the way to the river card.

You should consider this factor to be something that regulates your standard play. 

Types of player

The Fish

Sometimes called a calling station because they don't have a game plan, as you now have, so they are unable to make any quantifiable judgements and resort to going with the flow, betting on everything and ''trusting to luck'' so they just call whatever the previous player has done. Fishes' hands are difficult to read generally because they tend to do the same thing regardless of their hand or the other players moves but if they raise before the flop it usually means that even they have realised that they have a good hand unfortunately for them so do you because they have given it away by changing their betting pattern. So if a fish raises pre-flop don't chase them unless you have a very big hand.

The Maniac

These players also play nearly every hand but raise at every opportunity attempting to intimidate the opposition in a loose and aggressive way. You can soon spot the maniac because nobody gets great hands every time so after three hands you have them pegged. If there are a couple of maniacs at the table the pots can become very big so make them pay but remember that just because they act as if every hand they get is great it doesn't mean that their hands are all poor either, every so often they will get a good hand. The key is to use your judgement of the odds as we have covered but don't be intimidated by the maniac's antics.

The Rock

The rock plays only when they get great pocket cards like two Aces two Kings or an Ace/King combination, when they play they raise. They are better players than Fish and Maniacs as they are selecting which hands to put their money on, so at least they have a plan, but they will play these Big Hands into the flop and beyond regardless of how many players also go into the flop. As we have seen Big Hands don't do well against large numbers of players, they are up against just too many combinations of hands. Rocks are relatively easy to spot so avoid playing against them unless you have drawing hands and there lots of players going into the flop with a large pot. Don't go head to head with them with a pair of Jacks you will loose.

Tight but Weak

Tight players are good players who have good judgement and knowledge of the game but sometimes they can lack the confidence to back that judgement up and so they are considered to be weak. They can be intimidated by raises and since they know the game they can figure out what you might have and so are  susceptible to bluffing (bad players don't try to figure out what you may or may not have and can't be bluffed only intimidated by aggressive play). Bluffing conversely is not part of their game however. They maybe bluffed by a big raise in a later round believing you have been waiting for the pot to build before going for it and so (they think) giving away that you have a great hand.

Tight and Aggressive

This is the strategy you will play. You will not play many hands but take control when you do. You will play slow when you have a great hand luring the other players into the later rounds of betting. When your pocket cards are a Drawing Hand and you are in a late position you will play when there are lots of players in up to the flop and the pot is large otherwise you will fold. You will also fold average and poor hands when the flop doesn't improve them. You will adjust your play if it is a tight or loose game and when the cards are right you will put your money behind them without being intimidated. You will not win every game but you will win more than most.