Basic Texas Holdem Strategy

What are the aspects of basic strategy that you need to be successful in online poker rooms?  While knowing the basics won’t guarantee victory, it will give you a good foundation that you need if you are to become a strong player over the long term.

Hand Selection in Texas Hold’em

The first thing you need to learn about Texas hold’em is that
you need to have stringent starting requirements. In early position,
you should only be playing very strong hands like aces through jacks,
AK, AQ and KQ. In middle position, you can play more pairs and other
big cards, and in late position you can consider very small pairs and
cards that are suited and connecting, like 4s5s. Remember that if you
start out with the best hand, you are more likely to end up with the
best hand, so if you only play hands where you are likely to have the
best hand starting out, your chances of long term success should
increase.

Position in Texas Hold’em

Why does it matter what position you are in when deciding whether or
not to play? Consider that if you are in early position, meaning one of
the first to act, and decide to play a hand like 55, you are really
hoping to see the flop cheaply to find out if there is a 5 in it. But
if you flat call, there may be six or seven people after you who like
their hand enough to raise. Now you will probably have to throw your
hand away and that money was wasted. On the other hand, If you decide to play a hand like 6c7c on the button, the flop comes ace high and everyone checks to you, you might be able to win the pot with a bet, since no one has shown strength, even though you have nothing.

Predictability in Texas Hold’em

It’s important, especially in no limit games, to vary the way
you act in certain situations. If you always act weak, check-calling
reluctantly, when you have a big hand, and always bet out forcefully
when you miss the flop, opponents will catch on quickly. It’s crucial to keep opponents guessing with your patterns of betting and behavior.

If you feel ready to test out your skills then give Pokerstars a go, they have excellent software and lots of holdem tournaments and holdem cash games.

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.

The 50 Best Starting Hands in Holdem.  

When the starting hands are pitched by a computer against every other holdem starting hand, with bet-calls all the way to the river, this is the average big bets won by the starting hand.  No surprise to see AA,KK,QQ,JJ at the top

1. AA 2.32
2. KK 1.67
3. QQ 1.22 
4. JJ 0.86 
5. AKs 0.78
6. AQs 0.59
7. TT 0.58
8. AKos 0.51 
9. AJs 0.44
10. KQs 0.39
11. 99 0.38 
12. ATs 0.32
13. AQos 0.31
14. KJs 0.29
15. 88 0.25 
16. QJs 0.23
17. KTs 0.20 
18. A9s 0.19 
19. AJos 0.19
20. QTs 0.17
21. KQos 0.16
22. 77 0.16
23. JTs 0.15
24. A8s 0.10 
25. K9s 0.09 
26. ATos 0.08
27. A5s 0.08 
28. A7s 0.08
29. KJos 0.08 
30. 66 0.07 
31. T9s 0.05
32. A4s 0.05
33. Q9s 0.05
34. J9s 0.04
35. QJos 0.03
36. A6s 0.03
37. 55 0.02
38. A3s 0.02
39. K8s 0.01 
40. KTos 0.01
41. 98s 0.00 
42. T8s -0.00 
42. K7s -0.00 
43. A2s 0.00 
44. 87s -0.02
45. QTos -0.02 
46. Q8s -0.02
47. 44 -0.03 
48. A9os -0.03 
49. J8s -0.03 
50. 76s -0.03

There are 1326 unique possible starting hands in holdem.   But because As Qc is exactly the same as Ah Qd in rank (ie they are both AQos) then this number reduces down to their being 169 holdem hands, ranging from AA (the best) to 27os (the worst)