Strategies of Poker Texas Hold'em

[Silent Assassin]

15 % is somewhat low,imho. Being able to read situations and understand what cards other players have is essential. Luck is a huge part of the game,but skill is too.
The best hand doesn't win all the times...

I know I just see it that way and it's always different from hand to hand because there are so much variables in this game you never know. But for me luck is definatly a big issue/variable when playing poker.

[Maximus IV]

I know I just see it that way and it's always different from hand to hand because there are so much variables in this game you never know. But for me luck is definatly a big issue/variable when playing poker.

Of course. That ing river screws me every time...

[Legionary Jezza]

My tip is if you start losing accuse the guy of cheating and shoot him with your six-gun

[Silent Assassin]

My tip is if you start losing accuse the guy of cheating and shoot him with your six-gun

LMAO this is not a Western movie my friend

Of course. That ing river screws me every time...

I can't agree more with you, the river can be a pain in the butt, even more true when you play with a guy that as lots of luck with it on some nights and even if you bet hard, even going all in will call you with a possible straight.

[Maximus IV]

I have Kings preflop and raise to 8. ( small/big blind 1/2 ). All players fold except player 2. He calls.
Flop :
5 club
4 diamond
10 heart

This flop is excellent for me,all 3 cards lower than my Kings. I check. Player 2 raises to 15. That was too aggressive,but i was confident. I call.
Turn:
A club

Now i felt uneasy. He may has one Ace at his hand. I raise to 25. After some thought he calls me .
River:
9 heart

No flush or straights on the board. I felt i have the best hand. But i wanted him to bet. I check. He goes all-in. I call.
He had 4 9... Made two pairs with the 2nd pair with the damn river !! I had the lead till the turn..
Who plays poker with 4 9 offsuit? And he called my preflop raise !! Did i did anything wrong? Jeez...
God damn...

[Omnipotent-Q]

I feel your pain Maximus. Sometimes you can think rationally about an opponent in a hand, when really they're just utter utter donkey's.

I would have done a higher raise when the ace hit. I'm a big fan of the Johnny Chan-esque manoeuvre of calling a raise on the flop when you think your hand will hold, then turning it around on the turn with a big raise to get the info on whether the opponent is bluffing or has a big hand. If he goes all-in on the river after calling a big raise on the turn, I'm expecting him to have a big hand - possibly a set, or a two pair - something better than a pair of aces anyway as he'd probably be thinking you raised the turn with a pair of aces.

[Mr Tuna]

Well before the flop any hand can win!! When someone is all-in before the flop anyone can win you just need to be lucky and I must add that being lucky is not being a good player like some folks think.

I play lots of Poker and I'm probably the best player in the circle of friends I play with, we always put 10$ each per game and buy-ins can be made untill a preset time for 5$. Last saturday I had to do a buy-in and finished by winning which was great.

For me Poker and or any other kind of Card game it's 85% luck and 15% being a good player.

Its 100% skill in the long run...

I'll break this down for you.

I have Kings preflop and raise to 8. ( small/big blind 1/2 ). All players fold except player 2. He calls.
Flop :
5 club
4 diamond
10 heart

This flop is excellent for me,all 3 cards lower than my Kings. I check. Player 2 raises to 15. That was too aggressive,but i was confident. I call.

Wowowowow, wait a second, why would you EVER want to do this? In poker, you'll always want to be taking the initiative, be agressive and value betting (=betting because you think worse hands will call you) very wide (with a lot of hands), KK is pure magic in this spot and the only question you should ask yourself is how much to bet, and not think about anything but betting (between 2/3 and 4/5 pot is fine in this spot). A load of worse hands will call us and we'll usually want to be betting all streets with a hand as strong as KK. When he comes out with a 15 bet you've got multiple options. What important is how deep you were at the start of this hand, over 100 bb's (200) or below? How good is your opponent, will he likely put all the money in with just top pair? Usually, we want to be check/raising here if we ever check.

Turn:
A club

Now i felt uneasy. He may has one Ace at his hand. I raise to 25. After some thought he calls me .

I'm not sure what happens here, you 'raise'? Does that mean you checked, he bet and you raised that bet to 25? Or did you mean that instead of checking you lead out with a 25 bet? Anyways, as played, you should have checked to him, he's not likely to have hit the ace (an ace would likely have showdown value after you check the flop, and since he wont be called by worse, he'll likely check it instead of betting 15) so you should give him a chance to bluff at the pot.

River:
9 heart

No flush or straights on the board. I felt i have the best hand. But i wanted him to bet. I check. He goes all-in. I call.
He had 4 9... Made two pairs with the 2nd pair with the damn river !! I had the lead till the turn..
Who plays poker with 4 9 offsuit? And he called my preflop raise !! Did i did anything wrong? Jeez...
God damn...

You left some important information out, how much did he move in for and how much was in the pot at that point, its really hard to make a decision without that information.

He certainly didnt play it well but you possible played it even worse.

[Maximus IV]

I feel your pain Maximus. Sometimes you can think rationally about an opponent in a hand, when really they're just utter utter donkey's.

I would have done a higher raise when the ace hit. I'm a big fan of the Johnny Chan-esque manoeuvre of calling a raise on the flop when you think your hand will hold, then turning it around on the turn with a big raise to get the info on whether the opponent is bluffing or has a big hand. If he goes all-in on the river after calling a big raise on the turn, I'm expecting him to have a big hand - possibly a set, or a two pair - something better than a pair of aces anyway as he'd probably be thinking you raised the turn with a pair of aces.

Now that im watching my game again,i did some mistakes as Mr. Tuna describes below.
But that was my first time i was holding Kings since i started playing poker. ( before 10 months - but didn't play much at the start ). Some enthusiasm is expected

Its 100% skill in the long run...

I'll break this down for you.

Wowowowow, wait a second, why would you EVER want to do this? In poker, you'll always want to be taking the initiative, be agressive and value betting (=betting because you think worse hands will call you) very wide (with a lot of hands), KK is pure magic in this spot and the only question you should ask yourself is how much to bet, and not think about anything but betting (between 2/3 and 4/5 pot is fine in this spot). A load of worse hands will call us and we'll usually want to be betting all streets with a hand as strong as KK. When he comes out with a 15 bet you've got multiple options. What important is how deep you were at the start of this hand, over 100 bb's (200) or below? How good is your opponent, will he likely put all the money in with just top pair? Usually, we want to be check/raising here if we ever check.


I'm not sure what happens here, you 'raise'? Does that mean you checked, he bet and you raised that bet to 25? Or did you mean that instead of checking you lead out with a 25 bet? Anyways, as played, you should have checked to him, he's not likely to have hit the ace (an ace would likely have showdown value after you check the flop, and since he wont be called by worse, he'll likely check it instead of betting 15) so you should give him a chance to bluff at the pot.


You left some important information out, how much did he move in for and how much was in the pot at that point, its really hard to make a decision without that information.

He certainly didnt play it well but you possible played it even worse.

I agree with you ( yes on the turn i checked. he bet and i raised that bet.).
But answer me one question: 4 9 offsuit is worth 8 euro calling a preflop raise? I don't have yet much knowledge about poker,but hell i do know 4 9 offsuit is one of the worst hands to play poker. That preflop call was a crazy thing to do. Usually if i raise preflop i continue to bet the flop. ( continuation bet ).

[Zyzyfer]

@ Maximus IV,

Firstly, I think you were asking the wrong question. You should be asking "can the player in question afford calling 8 euro's pre-flop". Secondly, a pair of 4's post-flop in a 1vs1 situation is playable; the ace on the turn just makes it even more interesting. Lastly, when a player goes "All IN" you should expect the player has a better hand than a pair of K's, and due to the ace on the turn, possibly even a better hand than a pair of A's

Edit:
Also to give some extra advice. I'd say know your outs and pot odds.
i.e. the chance of making one of the outs = no. of outs (divided by)/ no. of cards left (that we haven't seen). Whereby,the number of cards = 52(total), 50(pre-flop), 47 (pre-turn), 46 (pre-river).

Example, you start with a pair of Kings:

What is my chance of getting one more King on the flop?
Answer= 12%

Calculation:
First card= 48/50=0.96 (since there is two more Kings left);
second card= 47/49=0.959;
third card= 46/48=0.958.

Therefore, .96 x .959 x .958 = 88.2%;
thus, 100% minus(-) 88.2%= 11.8 %
chance of getting at least one King on the flop = 11.8%, or approximately 12%


What is my chance of getting one more King on the turn?
Answer: 2/47=.0426 or 4.3%

...how about the river?
Answer: 2/46=.0434 still close 4.3%

both turn and river?
Answer: .0009 or .09%

since, turn= .0426
river= 1/46= .0217 (as we only have one King left out of 46 cards).
Thus we simply multiply .0426 x .0217 =.0009

Pot odds
Pot odds= chance of making the out, compared to size of the pot.

Example; your pocket cards= K,J. Folowing flop and turn the board reveals the flowing cards: 4,6,10,Q (here you have the possibility of a straight draw on the river).
Any A or 9 will give you the straight. Therefore, there are x8 outs (x4-aces, x4-nines).
8/46= .17 or 17% or roughly 1 in 6 chances.

Your only opponent bets $10. If you call $10 you stand to win $100. Thus, $100/$10=10 (therefore you stand to make x10 more if you make that call).
Now, because 1/6 > 1/10 the pot odds say make the call.


Bet odds and implied odds is also calculated but here it gets complicated as it involves predicting the behaviours of other players.

[Maximus IV]

Very nice info. Thanks .
I knew my outs...
That play surely wasn't one of my best...
I will learn from that mistake

[Mr Tuna]

Good! Learning is good! But try having fun as you play above all.

And obviously playing 49o is rly, rly bad.

[Silent Assassin]

Good information posted by some of you here, but the main thing about Maximus hand played here is the other player, like said above a one on one with a pair even a small one was a good call from player 2. Even if you went all-in I'm sure he would have called you because I would have with his had and the cards on the table. Like you said there was no chance of Sratight, flush, full this give the player with 2 pairs a good hand for the situation.

When I say luck is a big factor your example is a good one for that, being 3 players or more on the hand the guy would have folded on teh first raise if other had called you, then he got lucky, what player 2 did was a lucky guess and won not because he's a good player just because he was lucky.

[Scipio Afracanis]

Tourney style No limit, The guy across of me has been killing all night at the table, I play Tight Agg when the Flow seems to be his way. My stack is getting small, I decide to bet with A-2 suited to get rid of the fishermen, everyone folds before the flop except the Killer.

Flop 3-4-5, I have a low end straight and a 4 card flush draw.

I go all in figuring he will call because he thinks I am on a draw since I bet before the flop and there are no high cards so I am screwed. He calls.

He reveals 6-7.

Everyone laughed because he had been getting cards all night but to stay in with 6-7 unsuited and flopped the higher nut straight............

I wasn't even mad at that point.

Next week I go back in a 10 man no limit tourney and eliminate everyone of them when the flow was with me.

Not a serious/good player, once in awhile I like to play with family and friends.

[Silent Assassin]

Tourney style No limit, The guy across of me has been killing all night at the table, I play Tight Agg when the Flow seems to be his way. My stack is getting small, I decide to bet with A-2 suited to get rid of the fishermen, everyone folds before the flop except the Killer.

Flop 3-4-5, I have a low end straight and a 4 card flush draw.

I go all in figuring he will call because he thinks I am on a draw since I bet before the flop and there are no high cards so I am screwed. He calls.

He reveals 6-7.

Everyone laughed because he had been getting cards all night but to stay in with 6-7 unsuited and flopped the higher nut straight............

I wasn't even mad at that point.

Next week I go back in a 10 man no limit tourney and eliminate everyone of them when the flow was with me.

Not a serious/good player, once in awhile I like to play with family and friends.

That is definatly luck, it's hard to be mad agaisnt a guy that is just plain lucky, sometimes you get a night like that even if you go see a flop with 7-3 unsuited on the flop you get a full house or atleast 2 pairs what can other players do with that. My only answer would be to try and be as much patient as possible.

I had some games where I was going to see the flop with anything and it always dropped for me on the flop but that is rare and some other nights you go see the flop with AA, KK or AK suited... any 2x big cards and only small cards drops on the flop. Good Poker usually are able to get around thoses kind of nights but sometimes it doesn't that is why I like Poker so much.

[avion365]

i sit there, have one 2 of hearts and one 3 of spades, on the first hand and go all in

[Zyzyfer]

Along with the actual calculations (some examples provided in earlier post), its is actually very easy to calculate the chance of hitting a particular set using outs in ones head using the following shortcut:

"number of outs" multiplied by 2 plus 1.

e.g.

My pocket cards: (NB. just out of interest, the chance of hitting a flush on the flop with x2 suited pocket cards is just below 12%)
A♥ 3♥

Flop
10♥ K♥ 2♣

So what are the chances of hitting an Ace high flush on the turn? (*note I am not including here hitting another "A" as I am assuming an Ace with a low kicker will loose in most situations so I am going for the flush).


To do this we simply work out all the outs. So out of 52 cards we know there are x13 heart suited cards. Now since we already hit x four ♥ suited cards we know there are 9 "outs" that are of ♥ suited still left.

So:
9x2=18+1=19

Therefore, in this case we have approximately 19% of hitting our Ace-high flush on the turn.


Eg2. (for a straight)

Pocket Pair
6♦ 7♣

On the Flop:
9♠ 8♠ A♥

So what are my chances of hitting my straight on the turn? Well here we have x8 outs (x4 FIVES and x4 TENS).

So: 8x2+1= 17% of hitting a straight on the turn.

N.B. 8 "outs" on the turn and river combined = approx. 31%. *note: if you miss the turn your chance on the river again drops to approximately 17%.


Thus, based on the number of outs, we can calculate the chance of hitting our desired hand (interestingly based on the number of "outs" against us we can also calculate the chance of a particular hand beating ours). With that said one still needs to be careful. While, hitting our Ace-high flush might be grand, it might still not be the winning hand if there is a full-house on the board. Therefore one should NOT just play his/her hand but should also ask one-self, and address the following questions during play:

1. What hand might the opponent have?
2. What hand does the opponent think I have?
3. What hand does my opponent think I think he has?

And obviously playing 49o is rly, rly bad.

Agree, this hand it is junk and I would usually throw it away. Just on a side note, in "no limit" games the "big hands" e.g.. "AA", "KK", "AK" loose value; this indirectly means the smaller connecting card particularly of same suit gain value. This is because there are so many hands that can still massacre "AA" type hands. Also interestingly, the biggest loses in "no limit" poker is acquired via paired hands.

Now, statistically big hands (AA, KK, AK etc.) usually win, and they hold great value in "limit" poker because of this factor, and also the second factor that is, when you loose at "limit" game you usually loose a small amount (due to the imposed limit). However, in "no limit" poker you can loose your whole stack in one turn. What this means is that in "no limit", big hands like "AA" often pay-off other players well. This is because it is obvious when an "Ace" appears on the board. In "limit" poker, players would still play such hands "AA"; as over the long run they should win more often than loose (based on pure statistics), and again coming off second best usually means only a small loss. However, in "no limit", players are much more weary when high cards come on the board as coming off second best could mean the end of the game for the player. In this respect its the sneaky hands (such as small suited connectors that tend to win the really large pots). With that said, "AA" is still the best starting hand, and likewise "KK" is also a great hand so I would play it, I would just be very careful with it in "no limit" games. My other point is that with "4-9", you know what you're getting (junk), so it's easy to throw away, while "AA" and "KK" type hands can sometimes be hard to "let go" (particularly for novice players).


One final note (the obvious boards aside). Be aware of a board with repeated cards. This is a recipe for a full-house (here if my opponent went "ALL IN" I'd be relying on psychology and my knowledge of my opponents playing style to hopefully come to the conclusion to fold).

i.e:
Board: 3-10-K-A-3

my cards: AK;

opponents cards: 3-10 <- full house.

p.s. you know why they call "AK" Anna Kournikova? because she looks good but hardly ever wins.

[Legionary Jezza]

I'm playing with some firends later, got any decent tips?

[Mr Tuna]

I'm playing with some firends later, got any decent tips?

1) Have fun
2) Dont get pissed about losing a hand
3) Dont call out people because they play bad
4) Dont play for money you can afford to lose

Actual game tips
1) Play thight
2) When you think they'll pay you off with worse, bet big (4/5th pot is a good rule of thumb).
3) When you dont think you'll get called a lot, it might be a good spot to bluff.
4) When stacksizes get relatively lower (that is, if you were playing a tournament), try to make a decision preflop when stacks are about 15 big blinds big (either all-in or fold).

[Legionary Jezza]

Also from what I have done playing on the PC is only playing when I have a picture card (not the right term but you know what I mean) and folding if I just have numbers, is this a good or bad thing?

[Mr Tuna]

(from the 1st page)

This is a good rule of thumb for a beginner. You usually want to play big cards vs people who call a lot (because you can make decent pairs and bet for value) and connected suited cards vs people who fold a lot (since you'll be bluffing a lot vs them and those type of cards make bluffing easier). Always try to take the lead with betting, agression is the key to winning poker! Dont overdo it though, when stacks are shallow (between 1 and 40 big blinds) there wont be much room to bluff so you would like to keep your preflop raises smaller (not to bloat the pot). A good rule of thumb for stacks above 40bb's is opening for 3 big blinds and adding a big blind for every limper (=people who've just called the big blind preflop).