Make the hand you’re looking for, bet it to the limit. If you pull a flush on sixth street, for instance, you should not check. Since some of your cards must be exposed, your opponent will suspect a flush, and not bet into your check. That means you’ll lose a chance to get a double bet by every active player into the pot. If you check and give the active players a chance to get another card, there’s a chance they may draw a hand that might beat your flush, costing you the entire pot. If you’ve got it, bet it.
If your opponent draws a third suited card, or a third card to a straight, only check or call. This is not a point to play aggressively, because if you raise, your opponent will undoubtedly raise, as well. It could end up costing you serious money.
Another situation to beware of is when a player pairs an exposed card on the board. This gives him a good chance to have three of a kind. Even if he doesn’t, he may have a quality hand. Unless you can beat him with a better hand, or you’re looking at a particularly good pot, fold ‘em.
Once you have decided to bet on fifth street, it rarely makes sense to fold before the river. The only exception to this rule is if you can elcarly see that your hand cannot be improved enough on sixth street to beat a threatening hand held by an opponent. If you decide to go through on sixth street, do not fold on the river. If your opponent is bluffing, you have a chance to catch him at it, and you only have to expose a bluff once in a while to make it worth your while to go all the way.
HOLD’EM STRATEGY
Texas hold’em is an illusion. It appears to be a simple game, but you have to understand all the variables and how to make the correct play.BR>
The most important, but probably most difficult aspect of hold’em, is to know what the best possible hand—known as “the nuts”—is, and whether any of your opponents could be holding it. For instance if the five community cards are:
There is no chance any player can be holding a straight, flush or full house. The best possible hand would be three Queens.
By assessing the number of players in the game, and their betting patterns, you’ll get a hint about the best hand. The more players and the more raises in a game, the better the chance that one of the players has “the nuts”.
It’s important that you are able to recognize when you have the best possible hand. If you have the nuts and don’t know it, you can lose out on a very profitable opportunity. But believing you have the nuts, and you really don’t, can be much more costly to you.
And you have an Ace-King, you’re a winner. You should get as much money into the pot and milk it for all it’s worth. But if the Four of clubs is a Four of diamonds, you could lose to a flush.
In Texas hold’em, the betting position is more crucial than with any other poker game. That’s because the game is a fixed-position game, rather than one where the lead-off bet has the high hand.
Since the players only see the community cards, it’s not possible to discern who has the high hand in hold’em, so the betting proceeds from the player to the left of the button.
Since it is always beneficial to act last in any poker game, you should be more selective of the hands you play when you bet from an early position, rather than when you are in a position near the end of the hand.
|
|
