Texas Holdem Strategy For Beginners

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Maybe you’re brand new to the game, or you’ve had a big layoff and are a little rusty on things. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, it can never hurt to learn or review the foundations of a strong game. We don’t like using the term “beginners” because it implies that the tips and strategies are only applicable at the lowest level. With what we have for you today, this is not the case.

These tips and strategies will help you to succeed up into the highest echelons of the poker community. Is there more you’ll need to know to accompany these tips? There certainly is. But, those other tips and information will never replace the importance of these. If you’re ready to get learning or reviewing, let’s get started.

Beginner’s Texas Hold’em Poker Tips and Strategies Maybe you’re brand new to the game, or you’ve had a big layoff and are a little rusty on things. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, it can never hurt to learn or review the foundations of a strong game. Just as there are strategies specific to playing live, there are strategies specific to online Texas Hold’em. A lot of people think that online poker is just clicking buttons. While they are somewhat correct, there is a lot of strategy that is different than playing in a brick and mortar setting.

Strong Fundamentals Are Key

If you’ve ever played sports at all, you know that coaches are always preaching strong fundamentals. If you play basketball, coaches will drill you on simple things like passing, dribbling, and situational awareness. This is because these fundamentals are the necessary building blocks for a strong game. The same can be said for poker. In reality, a fundamentally sound player who knows nothing else should still be able to crush the lower stakes easily.

People love to overcomplicate poker and try and make it out to be an extremely difficult game. Sure, the game is challenging and gets more so as you move up the stakes. But, at the lower levels, strong fundamentals are a sure-fire way to put yourself on the course for victory. In this guide, we’re going to be covering a lot of these fundamentals. We also cover a ton of these in our dedicated Texas hold’em strategy section that you may have navigated to this page from. If not, the link is there for you to check out all the other information when you get done with this guide.

Don’t Get Married to a Hand

Our first actionable tip that we have for you is to make sure that you are not getting married to your hands. Too often, players will get a hand or make a hand and immediately shut off their brain. They will tell themselves they have a premium holding and, no matter what, they are not folding. This sometimes results in a nice victory when their hand holds up but can be devastating when the board conditions change.

You HAVE to realize that after every single action in a Texas hold’em poker game, you have to reevaluate. After every bet, every raise, every fold, and every new card that comes out, things are going to change. More often than not, your opponent is going to be basically telling you what they have, but if you’ve shut your brain off, you’re going to miss it.

The most classic example of this is pocket aces. Yes, this is the best starting hand in the game, and most of the time you’re going to stand to win a big pot with them. However, there are going to be times after the flop, turn, or river that you’re going to need to fold this hand.

Imagine this scenario. You are dealt pocket aces and open for a raise. You get four callers, and the flop comes out 10-9-8. The BB leads out and the next player to act raises. What should you do? Well, this is probably the textbook answer for a time that you should easily fold your hand. But, if you’re stubborn and married to your hand, you’re probably going to lose a huge pot.

We see this hand play out way too often the wrong way, though. The player with aces goes all in and ends up getting called and beat by a better hand. At the end of the hand, they begin to rant about how unlucky they are and how life isn’t fair. In reality, though, yes they got unlucky with four players and that flop, but they really should only have lost the money they put in pre-flop. Sometimes players want to get stubborn just so they can tell people later how unlucky they are.

Here’s the takeaway. Never decide that you’re “going with a hand all the way” before the hand is over and all your chips are in the middle. Assess the situation at every street and make the appropriate decision. This sort of discipline is a must if you have any plans of succeeding long-term in the poker world.

Texas Hold Em Strategy For Beginners

Don’t Just Focus on Your Cards

In your early days of playing Texas hold’em, it can seem like a lot is going on at once. It feels like this because, well, a lot is going on at once. This can cause you to do what our brains are trained to do and only focus on what is in front of you. It’s a survival instinct. The problem is that if you only focus on your cards and not what your opponent might be holding, you’re going to be in a world of hurt.

A lot of new poker players will constantly ask how strong this hand is or how strong that hand is. While you can give generalizations on this, it’s a flawed question. The problem is that the strength of a hand is really only important if you look at its relative strength to what your opponent might be holding. Some people might say that second pair is not a strong hand. But, if you think you’re opponent is holding ace high, then it probably is a relatively strong hand in that situation.

If you have three of a kind, you might think that’s a strong hand, and it usually is. However, what happens if it’s very likely that your opponent has a straight or a flush? Suddenly, the strength of that hand shrinks.

In order to play your cards properly, you need to be paying attention to what your opponents might be holding. Obviously, you cannot see what they have, which is why you have to take the information that they give you and try and construct a range of hands. Most poker players who are successful do not try and put their opponents on one single hand. They will use what are called ranges.

A range is simply defined as the complete list of possible hands an opponent might be holding. In our dedicated strategy section, we talk a lot more about building ranges. The idea we want you to start getting into your mind now is that you need to be thinking about more than just what you’re holding. The strength of your cards is always going to be relative to what your opponent may be holding.

You Should Be Folding More

Out of all the tips and fundamentals in this guide, this is the one that will probably save a new player the most money. You need to fold more. We’re not telling you this because we are scared to have you get involved in too many pots until you’re ready. You need to be folding more regardless of how good of a player you are.

Winning poker is not always fun poker. You can’t be playing every hand under the sun and expect to make money. Ideally, you should be folding somewhere in the neighborhood of 75-80% of your hands. This is a generalized number that usually is affected by a lot of criteria, but it should give you an idea of roughly how involved in pots you should be.

If you’re playing too many hands, a few things are going to happen. One, you’re going to be hemorrhaging money on all the flops that you miss. Two, you’re going to be in there with marginal holdings way too often to be profitable. You’ll end up being dominated in hands where you think you have the best of it, all because of decisions you made pre-flop.

The bottom line here is that you should play fewer hands than you think you should.

Bluffing Is NOT Required

For some reason, new Texas hold’em players think that the key to victory is bluffing. They think the only way they can turn a profit is if they are running a wild bluff every 2-3 hands. Thank you, TV for this one. This is NOT the case. In fact, if you never run any wild bluffs at the lower levels, you’re going to do just fine. Your opponents are going to make enough mistakes that you’re not going to need to bluff.

The only bluffing that you’re really going to need to be doing is small semi-bluffs like continuation bets or betting when you have draws. Outside of this, you don’t need to be firing off the big highlight reel bluffs. Most of the times that people do this they get caught because their hand makes no sense. There’s no reason to torpedo your stack just because you want to look cool or do something you saw on television.

If you play sound, fundamental poker without any bluffs, you’re going to do very well at the lower levels. And by lower levels, we don’t mean like $0.01/$0.02 low levels. We mean like $1/$2 and even the $2/$5 levels sometimes. You can make good money by simply playing fundamental poker without running wild bluffs.

On another token, bluffing is a lot more complicated than newer (and sometimes seasoned) players give it credit for. In order to bluff properly, you have to tell an accurate story that makes sense to your opponent and relates well to what they might be holding. That means that you not only have to know what you actually hold, but you have to have a strong idea of what your opponent’s range is, and then you have to be able to know what range of hands you’re going to represent and how to tell that story accurately.

Sound like a lot? It is. This is why people are so terrible at bluffing. They assume it’s just firing massive amounts of chips and money into the pot and hoping their opponent folds. Do this for us. Until you read the bluffing section of our strategy guide, don’t set your money on fire.

Take Your Time

This is a simple tip, but one that can often be overlooked by new players. When you’re playing live or online (mainly live), the other players who are more seasoned are going to be playing quickly for the most part. Your poker muscles might not be ready to move at this quick of speed. That is ok. Take your time. Think through all of your decisions. If someone gives you a hard time, let them know that you are new and you are entitled to time to think.

Players will sometimes try and bully you into playing quicker than you want. This is because they are action junkies and also because they want you to make a mistake. Don’t let them win. Stand up for yourself and take the time that you need. Don’t purposely go slower, but if you need a few extra seconds to think before each decision, that’s completely fine.

Remember, you aren’t there to make the other players happy or amuse them. You’re there to make money. And they aren’t going to be paying your bills or losses when you make a mistake because they rushed you or you rushed yourself.

Don’t Do Everything at Once

When you’re new to the game, you can be tempted to try and change every facet of your game all at once. As we touched on in the main guide, this can be detrimental to your success. Think about scientists. When they are testing to see if something works or not, what do they do? They change one thing at a time and then record the results.

Your poker game should be worked on in the exact same fashion. If you change 100 things at once, then it’s going to be really hard to determine what is working and what is not. You don’t have to go overkill with this, but make sure that you aren’t changing too much that you’re unable to tell the difference between what is working and what is not.

You also want to be careful that if you make too many adjustments, you aren’t breaking the parts of your game that are working properly. Remember, poker is not going anywhere for a long time. There is no reason that you have to try and learn everything overnight. Take your time and improve your game gradually. You’re going to see better results and ones that last a lot longer.

Split Your Time Wisely

When the military goes to learn something new, they spend a decent amount of time in the classroom studying, and then they take that knowledge to the field. This ensures that they are able to process the new information properly and then are able to make sure they know how to employ it in a real-world environment.

You should approach your poker learning the same way. If all you do is sit home and study, you’re going to have issues when you try and take all of that new information to the felt. If all you do is play and you don’t study, though, you can’t expect to get any better. The key here is that you want to have a balance. You should be spending a decent amount of time away from the felt learning new concepts, but you also want to make sure that you’re practicing using those in a real-world environment.

This is a balance that should always be going on. You don’t want to spend six weeks studying and then try and take all of that knowledge to the felt. It will be too much to try and change at once, and you’re going to be lost, and you may have lost all the other work you’d put in prior.

Regarding what that split should be, it depends on where you are in your poker career. The newer to the game you are, the more time you should be spending studying. This is because you have a lot of fundamentals that you need to learn. Without these, you are probably going to be losing at a pretty quick rate. It’s ok to lose some when you first start out, but you’d ideally like to minimize those losses to a manageable level.

If you’re further along in your poker career, you should spend a healthier mix of the two. If you’re a winning player, you’re going to want to keep playing so you can keep money coming in (especially if you’re playing for a living). It’s funny; the newer players have a tendency to want to play more than they want to study, because that’s the fun part. The more seasoned players can have a tendency to want to study more than they’re playing.

Find the right mix that minimizes losses if you’re new and allows you to keep bringing in money if you’re a more seasoned and winning player. The mix should allow you to sustain these goals while still improving your game at a steady rate.

Use the Tools at Your Disposal

Poker and Texas hold’em today are at a much different point than they were years ago. The only way to learn years ago was by getting onto the felt and continually running your head into the wall until you learned how to turn the corner. Today, though, there is an infinite number of training tools and aids that can help you learn. You need to take full advantage of these and use them to better your game.

The fact that you’re here reading this now is a great first step. You should be having to pay for this level of information, but it’s here for you for free. In addition, there are training sites, free videos, interviews with pros, training camps, forums, and a whole lot more out there to help you get your game to the next level.

Take advantage of these. We can guarantee that your opponents are. The important thing to remember is that you need to make sure that the information you are getting is solid. There are several resources out there now that are putting out less than optimal information. Make sure that the places you are getting help from are worthy of giving you help. The only thing that’s worse than not learning is learning bad information.

Drop Your Ego Now

THIS IS A MUST READ IF YOU EVER WANT TO MAKE IT IN POKER. Sorry for yelling, but this is that important. The second you let your ego get in the way of your learning is the second you decide that you do not want to succeed in poker. When you are first starting out, this is easy. You know that you don’t know anything, so it’s easy to be open to learning. The problem comes in when you start winning.

You start to feel that you’re the best and that you can run over the games. Remember this. There is only one player who is ever the best in the world. If you are not that player, then you have more to learn. The number one killer of people’s poker games is ego. Now, this doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t have some competitive juices flowing. It’s good to have a little ego when you’re playing.

However, when it comes to getting better, you have to be willing to admit that you always need help. Do not become complacent just because you start winning. The game will catch you and pass you by. You’re also never going to be able to jump stakes unless you admit that the players there are better than you. Do they always have to be better than you? Heck no! But, if you realize that initially, they are, you can channel that knowledge into driving you to get better.

Texas Holdem Strategy For Beginners Youtube

We normally would have a wrap-up section to tie all of this together, but we want to finish with this ego section. It’s THAT important. Promise us and promise yourself that no matter how successful you get at the game, you’ll never let your ego get in the way of trying to learn more and get better. Your wallet is going to appreciate it.

Poker is a simple game. Or so it seems at first. But you soon realise it is full of nuance. To be successful you need a beginners poker strategy to play better Texas Holdem poker.

This guide will help you to work out how to get better at poker, what hands to play when, and is essential for beginners and useful for intermediate players.

Poker strategy for beginners; Position

One of the most important things to understand is position on the table and how to play it. The best position to be is the dealer, as pre-flop there are only two players to act after them and post flop they are the last person to act, which means they get to see what their opponents do. This yields a massive advantage, and means that pre flop you can afford to play weaker, or any, hands, and get away with a big bet post flop which allows you to take the hand down, depending on the action before. If you want to know how to get better at poker then understanding positional play is the first step.

Table position cuts down a lot of hands you might want to play. That’s because if you are in an early position on the table, even with good starting hands, you might have to throw them away, and your chips. The reason being if you don’t hit the board on the flop and there are big bets in later positions you will have to fold. That is why it’s good to get to know optimal starting hand play by position. Check out the table below and along with the winning hand rankings we have been through, memorise it.

Hands in the first four positions. (Small blind, big blind, UTG and UTG+1);

Hands in the middle positions;

Late position opening hands. Dealer, the cut-off, the cut-off +1;

Poker strategy for beginners; Folding

You shouldn’t be playing too many hands. Generally about 15% is recommended when you start playing poker, which means you are throwing about 85% of your hands away. This is very frustrating when you want to play and have fun. As you get better and learn a bit more about the play you can open up slowly and play a broader range, increasing the percentage of starting hands. But poker is about mathematical probabilities, and while playing the four and six of clubs in early position might end up getting you a big hand, most of the time it won’t, and you will lose way more by constantly playing hands like this than you will win over time. If you want to make that sort of play, you have to act as if you are starting with a pair of aces, then follow it through post flop, turn and river, but you only have to get one person not believing you – and some players are very good at reading your likely cards – and you will be in all sorts of trouble.

So be prepared to fold. Beginners call bets way too often, why not after all its fun, but most will get crushed and give their chips or cash away. This is basic Texas Holdem strategy.

Poker strategy for beginners; Aggression

If you want to know how to win at Texas Holdem poker, aggression should be your friend. When you have the right cards, this is a basic poker strategy for beginners. We have established that you should only be playing a small percentage of the hands you get, but when you do get them, you need to be aggressive. You need to be betting and raising, not just calling other peoples bets. A poker axiom is ‘never a caller be’. If you start with pocket pairs (a pair in your hand, i.e. AA, KK, QQ, etc), raise pre-flop. There are many reasons for this and one is that you want to eliminate marginal hands that players might limp in with in the hope of hitting two pair or better. If you limp in the pot with a big hand hoping to make a disguised big hand, you might, but not very often. Take control and raise pre-flop.

Poker strategy for beginners; C-Betting

If you raise with high cards and the flop is below them, hit the board hard with more chips. This is called a continuation, or C-bet. You raised, representing strength, and you follow it up with a C-bet to hammer home the point. If your pair is mid range and higher cards come on the flop, think carefully about what to do. Could the other person have hit? It might be worth putting out a good sized seed bet to see if the other players fold, and if you are prepared to call a twenty dollar bet you should be making the bet. You need to make the other person have to think about their action. You don’t want them making you think about yours. If you get re-raised you let your hand go, and if you get called and it goes to the river, you take it very easy and carefully consider your next action. You don’t want to keep leaking chips.

If you are in late position with your premium hand, and you don’t hit, but the table checks around to you, this is a good position to C-bet, because you probably do have the best hand, and even if you don’t, the other players can’t call your bet if they also hit nothing. But in early position, you can’t do that action because you don’t know what the players behind you will do.

And then…

On the turn keep on betting if you have a good hand and you don’t feel your opponent has a good hand. If your opponent is aggressively playing their cards, be prepared to fold. The worst thing you can do if you haven’t made a hand yet, is to check – call, you are throwing chips away. And if you have made a really good hand, the best thing you can do is check –raise, which gets your opponent thinking and wins you pots.

Texas Hold'em Strategy For Beginners

Keep your game simple and clean. If you think you have the best hand or have a really good draw to a straight or flush, bet. Build the pot so when you win its full. Otherwise be prepared to throw your cards away to an opponent’s bet. It’s a lot to learn but you have to understand it if you want to understand how to master poker.

Poker strategy for beginners; Bluffing

You might be thinking that if you want to play better Texas Holdem poker you should bluff a lot. It might seem like a strategy to win in poker, but it isn’t and you shouldn’t. What we are talking about here is big bluffs for big pots, not the C-bets when you are in position and haven’t hit. Most professionals don’t bluff much, and neither should you. If you do at all, it should only be once or twice in a game. There is a saying in poker you need to pay attention to; ‘you can’t bluff a fish’. This means that if there is a poor or inexperienced player in the hand you shouldn’t try to bluff them because they will either fail to recognise the possibility that you have a great hand, or they will say to themselves ‘Lets have some fun and see if I can improve my tiny hand’, and they call anyway with their low hand. And you lose all your chips.

Poker strategy for beginners; Summary of the best poker strategy

• Be prepared to fold. A fold made is chips saved. You don’t get many great hands in Texas Holdem poker. You should be throwing a lot of hands away. Patience is a valuable asset when you start to play.
• Position is vital. Don’t play many hands in early position. Play a wider range in later position.
• Aggression wins games. When you have good starting hands, or a good hand on the board, be aggressive.

None of this guarantees you will win in poker, because you can do all the right things and you still lose. There is no single strategy to win in poker; you have to adapt. In this way you will learn how to master poker. As well as understanding the above poker strategy for beginners, the best answer to ‘how to get better at poker’ is to play, and learn the best poker strategy for you from experience.

Free Texas Holdem Strategy For Beginners

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