Increasing your chances in the game of holdem.

There are a couple of very important concepts which apply specifically to Texas Holdem.   The first relates to pre-flop vs post-flop.

Texas Holdem is a community card game with just 2 starting cards, yet 5 more cards to come.

Therefore pre-flop you only have 2/7ths of your total potential playable cards, or 28.6%, however as soon as the flop is dealt you have 5/7ths of it, or 71.4%.   The moral of the story being, that playing more of your texas holdem post flop, and less pre-flop will lead you to much more confidence in your play and your hand value.

The second concept relates to post flop connectivity.   156/169 pre-flop hands are “unmade” hands ie non-pairs.   Therefore in the vast majority of occasions a player will be looking to connect with something on the flop.   And in the majority of those occasions he will actually miss.   This opens up very good opportunities to call with relatively nothing, but then to bluff someone off the pot post flop.   You will sometimes here this refered to as a stop-and-go.  You make the call, knowing you are going to push on the flop, relying on this concept of ‘it’s more likely they will not connect than they will’ and also knowing that even if they connect bottom or 2nd pair there is a good chance of still inducing a fold.