Poker strategy - Texas holdem stategy.

Don't play a hand that doesn't have enough potential to improve to a strong hand. A hand like 9/3/9o shouldn't be played against a raise by a good player with a higher up-card if he's not in stealing position. You don't know what he's got, while he will have more of an idea of what you got. You don't know when he improves while you are not likely to imrpove at all.

Even if there's a good chance your opponent is raising with a three-flush or three big cards, as long as he's selective with such raises and is not just stealing, it's probably better to fold.

In general, you want to end up with at least Jacks up. If there isn't a decent chance that you'll ever catch even two pair, fold. Wait for a better opportuinty to contest the pot and get your opponents to call you with such weak hands.

This is an important concept many good players fail to realize and the implication is that you should fold starting hands that you think are better than your opponets.

This concept is related to the previous one. A hand like 5/J/5/Q is very playable against a hand like T/3/T/6 if your cards are live and your opponent's are not. That's because you know that your opponent will probably end up with just ten's while you have a good chance of beating him even if he makes a second pair.

This advice is all the more applicable if you are playing against weak opposition. Against players who get married to their big pairs, play any live pair at least to fourth street, especially if it has additional value. For instance, play 5s/6/s/6c when the spades and -to a lesser degree- the straight cards are live in addition to -of course- the five and the six. There are many ways for you to improve, and there is alot of implied value in this hand if you hit it, since your opponent will keep coming knowing that he started witht he best hand and thus being convinced that he must reach the finish-line first as well.

This concept also applies to live straight draws. For example, a hand like 8/c/9/c/Td is an extremely good candidate for play against an opponent raising with a king when there's another king out and your opponent is predictable enough for you to know that he's definitely got kings or a simliar big pair. If your cards are live, see fourth street even for a raise. There is much implied value in this hand even if you hit little more that a a pair on fourth street, as long as you know what your opponent is playing and you know that he hasn't improved and it's unlikely that he will.

big pairs are disastrous when played against a big field of opponents, especially when your cards aren't very live. If that is the case, play your hand in a forcefull way as if you're trying to announce "I've got aces, get out!".

Elimination requires a very tactical approach. If there have been many callers on third street when action comes to you and your hand isn't very live, call, don't raise. You don't want to build the pot because players will then become attached to it and won't let go of it easilly. On fourth treet, you might want to consider a check-raise if that might assist in the process of elimination.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is to raise on fourth street and then check on fourth street with the intention of raising only if the bet is from a palyer on your right. If it's checked around, consider a check-raise again if the opponent to your right is developing a board that he will likely bet, although it's probably a draw hand. This tactic puts tremendous pressure on other players to fold, after seeing you raise a strong board and is advantagous to you. For one, this play you will get the pot heads up and allow you to easilly win without improving as long as your opponetn doesn't hit his draw. Secondly, you're clarifying his hand. If he's really strong, he might reraise in which case you'll consider folding. If he just calls, your aces or kings are probably still good thus far. And lastly, your opponent is not likely to bluff you after you've shown so much strength; you can therefore safely lay down your hand on the river if there's a bet and you haven't improved or if you are raised.

Obviously, it's hard to hit a straight and it's even harder to hit a flush. Most three-flushes don't get to see a similar suit fall on fourth street and even if they do, you still have to get lucky to hit the fifth one. It is therefore not worth gambling your money on this adventure in a heads-up confrontation, especially for a raise and when the suit isn't very live (there are two out).

Ironically, encouraging a multi-way pot might warrant you to raise in late position or even limp-reraise if the raise is by a player to your left. Everyone will call all these raises; they're trapped no and they will wan tto stay in the hand later on. A hand like Ah/Qh/Jh might be a very good candidate for such play, but any live straight flush draw is a good candidate since there are so many ways for you to improve into a strong hand that'll end up winning a monster pot. Don't worry if you hit to bricks; it'll happen sometimes and you 'll have to fold if it does.

The problem with small straight and flush draws is that it's more likely that you will have to hit your straight or flush in order to win. Pairing up will frequently just get you in trouble. Imagine the following scenarion:

You are playing a 4/5/6 against what seems to be a pair of kings. You have 4/5/6/4/T/3/6. You improved on fourth street, then you picked up a draw on sixth street and finally you made two pair on the river. However, your opponent improved as well. He's showing */*/K/J/2/2/* and he bets the river with what seems to be kings up but now the pot is too big to let it go so you keep him honest and call, only to show down the losing hand.

You knew deep down inside of you all along that you were chasing but you were trying to sneak up from behind and surprise your opponent with a small straight or perhaps trips. It didn't quite work out the way it was supposed to and you end up paying him off instead.

Where did this hand turn south? At the very beginning!! You don't realize that you got lucky and caught two pair but so did your opponent. He was just as lucky as you but since he started with a better hand he finished with the better hand as well. You didn't have enough ways to get lucky on him to make the hand playable. Now contrast the previous scenarion with the following one:

You are playing K/Q/9 against a jack door card who raises on third street. On the river you have K/Q/9/T/Q/3/5. Your opponent checks with */*/J/9/6/A/* and you check behind him and show down you queens to win the pot. You had an inside straight draw and missed but your hand had outs which you hit on fifth street. Neither one of you improved any further and you won.

In both cases you missed your straight but in the first one you didn't have anough ways to get lucky while in the second you did.

All draw hands are chase hands but in the right condition they can be good playable chase hand. This is because there is sufficient pot odds and there is also implied odds in case you hit your hand.

However, when there is a better draw hand out there, you might hit your hand and still lose. Why go such great lenghts to make a hand that possibly won't be any good? In addition, it's simply a bad bet mathematically, since you can only win if you hit AND the other draw does not hit.

Furthermore, if you do hit your hand and your opponent hits his better draw, it will usually cost you more than one bet (usually on the river) when you raise your opponent and/or you get raised when you are holding the second best hand and -unlike a mediocre hand-your hand is too good to lay it down for a raise.

This is obvious since the basis of poker to outsmart your opponent by knowing what he's got while attempting as much as possible to conceal your real hand and thus force him to make mistakes by betting when he shouldn't bet or calling when he shouldn't call, etc...

Concealing your hand can be done in many ways. You will sometimes not raise with a made straight/flush on fifth or sixth street and you will sometimes raise with a draw hand on fifth or sisth street. You will sometimes raise/reraise right away with a big pair and you will sometimes play it slowly and see how the hand develops. When pairing your door card you will also apply different strategies to throw your opponent off guard.

There are many more ways to conceal a hand and you'll develop concealing skills as you play. What you don't want to be is one of those obvious players whose opponents allways know what he's got since he always raises with the highest door card when having that rank paired and never bets or raises with a draw hand etc...

This tactic should be exercised in moderation. It is most effective against weak players ho won't play back at you but they will pay you off. These players are in essence giving you free cards while they've got the edge but are not smart enough to abandon their hands when they're beat.

A typical example would be reraising a jack door card with T/A/T. Not only will you not get reraised and your opponent will check to you on fourth street, but if you make two pair -even little ones- you will still be able to bet the river for value.

This tactic should also be applied when the pot is big enough not to fold your hand. Say, for example there was lots of raising going on on third street. You are to the left of someone who is representing queens and has made the last raise. On fourth street you have 9/T/9/A and your opponent catches a blank. You should now go for a check-raise since this has a very good chance of eliminating some -if not all- the other players. It is clearly incorrect to fold at this point if yor cards are live. You should therefore try to limit the field, making it easier for you to win. You're not really afraid of a reraise but it really doesn't matter. The pot is big enough that you don't really care about putting in two extra half-bets when you're a slight underdog.

This concept is extremely important, and is most effectively used against good players. A good player will abandon his straight draw on fifth street if you're showing three-to-aflush. He will also abandon many other strong hands when your board is strong which he wouldn't have folded had he known what you really had.

These are all examples where good players are likely to fold because they figure they may be drawing dead or that it's too likely that you have a hand that's too strong to justify chasing you down given the money in the pot.

In many of these cases, you won't have much in the hole; yet you will get your opponent to lay down a hand he would have called or even raised with had he known what you really got. According to Sklansky's Fundamental Theorem of Poker, this is always advantegous to you.

On the other hand, with some of these very same hands you won't even think about betting if your board wasn't strong. But even in cases when you do have a trong hand and you consider betting it, you shouldn't do it sometimes with a weak board and when you know you're going to get called anyway.

Consider having one big pair on sixth street with an inside straight draw. Your opponent's board looks weak and it seems that he only has one smaller pair perhaps with some sort of draw. You're high on board but your cards are mostly dead and it doesn't look like you're going to improve on the river. This is a scenario where you would bet with a strong board hoping that your opponent folds his very same hand that he would have called you with against your weak board. It is correct for your opponent to call you at this point and he is making a mistake by folding and you want him to fold (because the pot is big).

Many opponents make the big mistake of slowplaying strong hands in the hope of "trapping" your opponents into the pot. The reason this is sometimes wrong is that you would have gotten more action by fastplaying. More action at a point when you are holding a very strong hand is always adavantagous to you. Ironically by the time you you decide to come out of your hole and show strength you are frequently already beaten and you are raising or calling against a stronger hand thus making you the chaser. Often if you had fastplayed from the start, this opponent would have never played that hand and come this far. You have thus figuratively commited suicide. You have allowed someone with a weak hand to catch miracle card and beat you.

A good example is rolled-up trips. Realize that most of the time you don't improve at all. While many of your opponents won't improve either or they will improve to a lesser hand, they wouldn't have folded for all your raises and reraises anyway. As a matter of fact, all these raises and reraises you make on third street, motivates them to stay in all the way to try to beat you or keep you honest and you want them to since you are far ahead of them.

You should therefore not slowplay aces when you know you're going to get action anyway. Make it obvious that you have aces; they'll stay in with you anyway. The same applies to small rolled-up trips. anyone with a big pair will stay in against you at least to fifth street and sometimes the straight and flush draws will also call many raises and reraises on third street hoping that they will catch the perfect card on fourth street. Of course, you are heavilly favored to win against any of such draws and against anyone holding a pair smaller than your trips.

This is a corollary of tip 9. In SCS you must use your board as a weapon.Most players pay good attention to their opponents' boards and if you are showing a strong board they slow down considerably and you get to control the pace of the action, which is a big benefit to you.

In addition, by showing strength on fourth street when you are showing a suited connector, you are increasing the chance that if you do catch another card of the appropriate suit or sequence, your opponent will fold a better hand and this -of course- is also a huge benefit to you. No matter how convinced you feel that you're going to hit your draw, it's still a draw (or small pair) and you want the big pair out so that you can win right then and there.

If you opponent does not have a pair to go along with his draw, he has many fewer outs against your two pair even if they are small. If he does not have a pair, he must hit the draw in order to win and if you hit your boat along with him, you're in for a nice ride!

On the other hand, if your opponent is calling on sixth street with a small pair and three overcards, then he has 11 outs instead of the usual 8 or 9 outs for the straight/flush. Even if your pair-holding opponent on sixth street only has two overcards to your two-pair he still has 9 outs, which is the number of outs the draw has (at best!). On fourth street or fifth street, the big pair is even more favored than the draw since there are many more card combinations that will result in two pair than the combinations that will yield a straight/flush.

This is why two small pair on fourth street should allways be bet heavilly if you think your opponent has a big open-ended straight draw (such as TJQK) whereas you don't mind checking or just calling on fourth street if you think your opponent has a big pair.

If your opponent has a gutshot draw only, then he's in even worse shape. In fact, it is wrong for him to call on fourth street with a hand like KTQA against your 5665 if he knew what you had. And you might recall Sklansky's Basic Theorem of Poker: Every time you call against a hand you would not have called if you knew what it was, you lose! and the same applies to your opponent.

On fourth street, a big pair is generally not trailing that badly if he has two overcards. This is because he can catch many cards to beat your small two-pair, as long as we assume that you do not improve the two-pair.

However, as the streets progress and your opponent ctaches blank after blank, your chances now go up. They go up even more drastically if your opponet had dead cards and this the case even if your cards are dead too. Therefore, don't hesitate betting in to your opponent or rasing him on sixth street if he is catching your cards and you're catching his. This is to your advatage because he needs to improve and you don't! You don't mind the fact that he's "killing" your cards since you are in turn killing his cards as well.

In very sever cases, your opponet's cards could be so dead that an open-ended straight draw would have been much more desirable. He might have only 3-4 outs (on sixth street) instead of the usual 10.

These two conditions are interrelated because you can make a much more accurate judgment about the liveliness of your draw when there are many players in and therefore many exposed cards.

A "strong draw" is relative. What's strong in one situation is weak in another. For example, if you have 9QKJ and all your card are live while your opponents are all showing shitty cards on fourth street, then you have a strong draw since any improvement will beat them. On the other hand, if you are holding a straight draw -even an open-ended one- against several players who have just caught suited cards and are showing interest in their had, your draw is bad and you should not even call since you're chasing both ways. You're praying to beat the litle pairs AND that the flush draw don't hit.

Also, a big flush draw such as AQ98 against a hand like J8J6 is very strong. You should usually bet out if you're first to act and raise if there' a bet to you. With your two live overcards plus all the flush cards in the deck, you're a favorite at this street because your draw is so strong!

I see many players often violate this rule by betting a hand they shouldn't be betting. This rule may apply on an early betting round when you have a strong hand (like kings or queens) against an opponent who almost allways bets fourth street heads-up if you check. He's trying to buy the pot! By betting you are showing strength and your opponent will now tend to fold his garbage. If you check you are in essence inducing him to acquire an interest in a apot that isn't his. I emphasise a strong hand like queens because if you have a small pair you can easilly get beat. You want your opponent to fold and you are therefore betting to try to get him out! you don't want to seduce him to get involved in the pot.

This rule more often applies on a later betting round, however, most commonly on the river. Specifically, if your opponent is on a draw and he does not hit he will almost never raise you on the river as a bluff. But if he thinks you're weak he might take a shot at you after you check, and since you only checked in order to induce a bluff you will obviously call and hopefully win an extra bet.

NOTE: It's important to remember to call your opponent's bet if you're inducing a bluff. It's easy to start out on an inducement and then get overcome by your opponet's exhibition of strength and convince yourself that you're beat. You -sort of- fold intuitively "feeling" that you're beat even though a second earlier you decided to check as a bluff-inducement. ALLWAYS CALL if you're checking to induce a bluff.

Many good, aggressive players make the mistake of allways betting a mediocre hand if checked to and they think that they have the checker beat. It is true that checking is a sign of weakness 90% of the time for most players and virtually 100% for those who don't check-raise. Still, it is common for players to`??????¾?ž? check with strong draw hands or with a big pair when they're up against scary-looking boards. These checked hands are usally almost as good as yours and sometimes even better. You should therefore not make it habit to bet those marginal hands.

An important determinant of whether to bet a hand you think is very marginally better then your opponent's is your assessment of what your opponent is holding. If you think you know what he's holding you should be more inclined to bet but if you're not sure check. Am example would be a hand like 5659 vs xxKJ. In a three-way pot the KJ checks and the other player checks too; you should often check along. But if you are convinced that the K9 started with the likes of AQK and he has now caught a blank, bet it. You are betting not because you are now convinced that you have the winner; you think you have the winner anyway since he checked! You are betting because you know where you're at. If your opponent catches another high card and you don't improve, you're out if he bets. If you do improve to two pair you'd stay in EVEN if he's showing a big pair on board because you have a "read" on him. Not having a read on your opponent forces you to check marginal hands that you think are currently the best.

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