Best Texas Holdem Tournament Strategy
- Best Texas Hold Em Strategy
- Texas Holdem Tournament Tips
- Texas Holdem Tournaments Near Me
- Nl Holdem Tournament Strategy
- How To Run A Texas Holdem Tournament
If I were teaching a new player to play no-limit hold’em, and my goal were to get this player up to a professional level of play, how would I do it? What would my lessons look like?
Let’s say I had only three months to do it. With most people, I will admit, it would be a tall order. The learning curve is steep these days, and I don’t think everyone could make it from zero to pro in that short a time.
In this article we will point out some of the best live and online poker tournament strategy tips you can use to improve your game as quickly as possible. Tip 1: Play The Right Starting Hands Whether it be lack of patience, or an unfamiliarity with opening ranges, many tournament poker players still open too wide. Playing fewer hands is one of the best Texas Holdem strategy tips you can ever get. If you avoid unnecessary hands pre-flop, you will have much less room to make mistakes postflop as well, so naturally become a better player.
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I’d have to make compromises. I couldn’t try to cover every possible situation. I’d have to find the important bits and skip the rest.
I’d also have to tailor the lessons a bit to a specific type of game. The most important skills in some game types are not as important in others. With this in mind, here are what I think my top five lessons would be for a new player trying to beat the $2-$5 no-limit hold’em games in Las Vegas.
Lesson No. 1. Don’t limp into pots ever. And don’t call preflop three-bets unless you are trapping with an ultra-premium hand.
Limping into pots, calling the preflop raise, and then check/folding the flop when you miss is an enormous leak. It’s also one that nearly every player who hasn’t been specifically coached out of it exhibits.
In my opinion, most players would see an immediate improvement in their winrates if they simply refused to limp in with any hand, especially if they chose to instead fold most of these hands.
For most players, refusing ever to limp means playing much tighter, particularly from out of position. Until you’re already an established pro player, tighter is better.
Lesson No. 2. Don’t pay off big turn and river bets.
This lesson might be different in some types of games, but in the Las Vegas $2-$5 games, it’s easily a candidate for the single most important piece of advice. Do not pay anyone off. When someone makes a big turn or river bet or raise, your one pair hand (or whatever other hand you’re thinking about calling with) is a bluff-catcher. That means, in the great majority of cases, your opponent won’t be trying to make a value bet with a worse hand. Either you’re beat or your opponent is bluffing. And players in these $2-$5 games do not bluff often enough to make calling worthwhile.
So you don’t pay off. I know it can be frustrating to feel like you’re getting muscled out of a huge pot, but the fact is, most players in these games do very little muscling. They try to make hands, and then they bet the hands they make. A big bet usually means a big hand. You don’t need to call to find out for certain.
Lesson No. 3. Your opponents will limp into pots, call raises, and check/fold flops. Take advantage of this weakness by raising lots of hands with position, betting the flop, and often also betting the turn.
It’s a simple play, but it’s one that generates a very consistent profit in these games. Players play too loosely preflop, are too willing to call preflop raises after limping in, and are too willing to check/fold the flop or turn if they miss. With many players, you can ignore your cards and raise the limps, bet nearly all flops, and bet most turn cards as well.
Say two typical players limp in a $2-$5 game. You raise to $25 on the button. Both limpers call.
The flop comes 10 8 2. They check, and you bet $50. One player calls.
The turn is the 5. Your opponent checks, you bet $120, and he folds.
In this scenario, and in many like it, it doesn’t matter what you have. Your opponents are beating themselves by playing call/call/fold so often. All you have to do is put the bets out there and let your opponents run repeatedly into the brick wall.
Yes, there is some nuance to this, and some boards are better bets than others. But against many opponents at the $2-$5 level, most flops, turns, and even rivers are good bets. Keep betting until your opponents prove to you that they won’t beat themselves by folding too much.
Lesson No. 4. With value hands, don’t try to blow opponents out of pots. Instead, play most value hands with the goal of keeping a player in through the river.
Value hands — hands like top pair, two pair, or any other hand you think is a favorite to be best — lose their value when all your opponents fold. If you win without a showdown, you might as well have been holding 7-2. (See Lesson No. 3.) With your value hands, you generally want opponents to get to the river.
Most players like to see showdowns if they feel like they can see them without losing too much money. No one likes to fold and think, “What if I was good?” If your opponents get to the river, often it’s an easy sell to get them to call a final value bet (as long as you don’t make it too big).
Calling these value bets is one of the biggest mistakes that $2-$5 players make. (See Lesson No. 2.) Allow your opponents to make this mistake.
Most players try to end hands early when they feel like they have the best hand. “Don’t want to get drawn out on,” they think. But this is backward thinking. End hands early with strong bets when you have nothing but a weak draw. Allow hands to reach showdown when you actually have something to show down! (Makes sense when I put it that way, doesn’t it?)
If I have top pair, I’d much rather get called for $30, $50, and $80 on flop, turn, and river than get called for $30 and then blow my opponent out of the hand with a $100 bet on the turn. The chance to win $160 with the hand instead of $30 outweighs the risk that I’ll get outdrawn.
Lesson No. 5. Think every hand about what strategies your opponents are using and how they’re thinking, and (almost) ignore the two cards in your hand.
I’ll put it bluntly. Most $2-$5 players beat themselves. They tend to play strategies that are extremely transparent, overly simplistic, and inflexible. You can beat some of these players simply by betting every time it’s your action (See Lesson No. 3.) You can beat other of these players simply by waiting for hands that beat top pair/no kicker and then making value bets. (See Lesson No. 4.)
Your job as a poker player is to identify the strategy each opponent is using and deploy a counter strategy. In many cases, the two cards in your hand become irrelevant. My experience is that the players that are always thinking about their hands never figure it out. It’s the players who are thinking on the next level that do. ♠
Ed’s newest book, Playing The Player: Moving Beyond ABC Poker To Dominate Your Opponents, is on sale at notedpokerauthority.com. Find Ed on Facebook at facebook.com/edmillerauthor and on Twitter @EdMillerPoker.
The 6-max no-limit hold’em format is gaining immense popularity among online poker players, sometimes even overrunning the full-ring games. If you’re in the mood for more action-packed poker,here are a few poker tips on basic 6-max strategy.
Those who have already played 6-max cash games know that they’re faster, more intense, and more aggressive than what is typically the case at the regular nine-handed tables. More often than not, the 6-max battles are won and lost in position as the shorter-handed table means you’re going to spend more time in the blinds and playing from late positions.
Best Texas Hold Em Strategy
It’s only natural that the game logic of 6-max NLHE suggests greater success will be enjoyed by the more aggressive players. However, you should still keep your head clear as even here too much does not necessarily mean good play. If you wish to try playing 6-max and stay on the winning side, here are five rather simple strategy tips to consider.
1. Play Tight
Aggressive play is often the right play from late positions. However, you should really know what you’re doing as it’s going to be really hard to keep up the same level of aggression when playing from the blinds and early positions.
Many new 6-max players tend to start out playing too many hands and playing them too aggressively. You should still fold around two-thirds or even three-fourths of your hands and not get involved in the pot. This means that any suited-ace or suited connectors should be returned to the dealer before the flop if it costs more than one big blind to continue, unless you’re on the button. This might sound boring, but when playing from out of position at the 6-max table, tight often means right.
By not playing too many hands you will not only save your chips, but will also have more time to study and get to know your opponents which is also very important.
2. Don’t Forget to Be Aggressive
That said, aggression is the key to success in all poker disciplines and 6-max NLHE cash games are no exception. Aggressive players can win with the best hand as well as make their opponents fold. Aggression is such a powerful weapon that a number of pros have built their entire careers on its foundation.
This means you should raise almost every hand you decide to play. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing a mediocre hand from the button or a monster from the blinds — take the initiative before the flop and oftentimes keep it up afterwards.
3. Play in Position
At the 6-max tables, do try to play the maximum number of hands from favorable positions. This concept is as important as playing aggressive.
Poker is a game of information which can be best obtained by playing in position. Because of this, you should play stronger hands from the early positions and a more wide range of hands from the late positions. In this way before making hard decisions you will be able to observe and better read your opponents.
From the early positions you should narrow your hand range to middle and higher pairs, strong aces, and suited kings and queens. Meanwhile let yourself improvise when on the button.
4. Believe in Your Opponents
Another golden poker rule is that even the weakest players can have a good hand — don’t forget that. If your opponent is playing solidly and responsibly, take that player’s raises or reraises as a reliable sign and retreat.
If in such situation you’re not sure whether you’re winning, just fold and move on. This is the right move. Smart bets by your opponents indicate they’re looking for value.
5. Isolate the Limpers
Texas Holdem Tournament Tips
There are few pieces of poker advice that begin “never” or “always,” but it is more or less the case that in 6-max games it makes sense never ever to let your opponents see a free flop. Don’t limp yourself and don’t let others do it.
Texas Holdem Tournaments Near Me
Limpers are usually weak players looking for value with small hands. Don’t let them do it even if you have a monster and are looking for easy profit yourself. By leaving the limper in the pot, you will only have yourself to blame.
Nl Holdem Tournament Strategy
If you’re seriously into poker, these strategy tips should not be entirely new to you. However, some basics are always good to remember.
And if you’re looking for a good place to try 6-max NLHE cash games, we recommend an up-and-coming independent site Tonybet Poker. One huge advantage to playing at Tonybet Poker is that the site charges zero rake from its hold’em and PLO cash game tables. What’s more is that being a rather new site it has a solid population of weak players driven by the overwhelming amount of freerolls being offered, which means you’ll have plenty of room for learning and putting these tips to a good use.
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How To Run A Texas Holdem Tournament
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