Texas Holdem Beginners Guide

By: Lou Krieger

Imagine yourself watching a hold'em game on television, or in a casino, or online at Titan Poker and thinking, "This looks like lots of fun. I want to join in. But I don't know how."

Before getting your feet wet and seeing if the game is really as enjoyable and exciting as it looks, you figure you ought to at least know something before you plunk your money down - even if it's a play money game where all you can lose is your pride.

Texas hold'em is a very front-loaded game, and once the flop is exposed, 71 percent of your hand has been defined. While there are only two more cards to come, there's a round of betting once the flop has been exposed, and another round on the fourth communal card (the turn), as well as on the fifth and final communal card (the river). In most fixed-limit games bets double on the turn and river. As a result, your best values in hold'em are found up front; you get to see seventy-one percent of your hand for a single round of betting.

Staying for the turn and river demands that you either have a strong hand, a winning draw, or good reason to believe that betting on a future round may cause your opponents to fold. Because there are only two additional cards dealt after the flop, coupled with the five communal cards that can play in everyone's hand, there are fewer draw-outs in hold'em than you'll find in other forms of poker.

The First Two Cards Are Critical: In a lot of low limit hold'em games, you'll hear people say that any two cards can win. While that's true as far as it goes, it doesn't go far enough. The whole truth is this: While any two cards can win, they won't win enough to warrant playing them. Like all forms of poker, you need some starting standards. If you do not incorporate good starting standards into your game, you will simply take the worst of it far too often.

Hold'em Is a Very Positional Game: Unlike 7-card stud, razz, and 7-stud/8 where betting position can change from round to round depending on who has the strongest exposed cards, betting position in hold'em is fixed throughout the hand. If you're last to act on the flop, you'll be last to act on the river. Acting last is a significant advantage because you have the benefit of seeing what your opponents do before you are required to commit yourself. As a result, your strategies should differ significantly, depending on your position.

What Should You Start With? Here's where hold'em starts becoming complex. Since it's a very positional game, some two-card holdings that can't be profitably played from early position are cards you might even raise with when you're on the button. There are other considerations too. Certain hands, like T-9 suited, because they offer possibilities of making a big hand like a straight or flush, play better against a large field than against few opponents. Other hands, like a pair of jacks, play better when you're up against fewer adversaries.

When you're in early position, you simply shouldn't play many hands. You usually ought to play any pair of sevens or better, and also play A-K, A-Q or K-Q. If the game is passive, and you don't figure to see many raises before the flop, you can play hands like A-J, A-T, K-J or Q-J. But if you're in a ram-and-jam game, with lots of raises before the flop, you need to restrict yourself to playing hands strong enough to stand a raise. And remember, a hand that's strong enough to call a raise is generally stronger than one you'd raise with yourself.

In middle position you can loosen up a bit, and play a few more connectors and smaller pairs. If you are raised, you're probably up against a bigger hand, and even if you flop top pair, you won't know whether you have the best hand. Your opponent might have raised with a bigger pair, which means you're still an underdog. But if the game is passive, you can take the flop with hands like J-T or T-9. You'll wind up tossing your cards away the vast majority of the time, but on those occasions when you make a big hand, you stand a good chance of winning a big pot.

In late position, you can even raise with hands like J-T suited, as long as no one else has raised before you. Even if you hold a weak hand like A-8 unsuited, and no one has called the blinds, go ahead and raise. Your ace might be strong enough to beat the blinds even if the flop doesn't help you. Remember, the blinds are playing random cards, and any ace is likely to be the best hand.

In no-limit games, your decision about playing or folding before the flop is based on many other features, such as how many chips you have and how many your opponent has, the likelihood that you can take all your opponent's chips if you make a very big hand - you'll learn a term later called implied odds, which is an educated guess about how much you might win if you make your hand - your position in the betting order, and your opponents playing tendencies. In no-limit, all else being equal, you want to play hands that can make very big hands, not necessarily hands that can become merely "good" holdings.

For example, if you can see the flop for one bet, you might want to play a pair of pocket treys in a no-limit game. You figure to flop a set a little less than 12 percent of the time. When you do, you'll probably have the best hand. When you don't, which is the vast majority of the time, you can easily throw your hand away if someone else bets.

It's a case of log odds offering you a big reward. But in a fixed-limit game, you probably don't want to play a pair of treys because the odds against improvement are long and they are not offset by the kind of payoff available when you can win an opponent's entire stack. In a fixed limit game, the amount you can win is limited, and the equation is not balanced in favor of playing small pairs.

You might even want to raise with a hand like K-Q in a fixed limit game, and try to grind out a win based on the odds that you are starting with, and will finish with the best hand. In no limit, you probably don't want to get involved with this kind of hand, especially if you have a lot of chips in front of you because you have too much to lose on a hand that may be ahead of the pack, may be behind, but stands a good chance of being run down even if it is in the lead before or even on the flop. Simply put, it's not the kind of hand you generally want to risk too many chips on, and in a no-limit game, all of your chips are at risk whenever you're involved in a hand.

The Flop Should Fit Your Starting Cards: No matter how sweet your first two cards may appear, the flop can render them priceless - or nearly worthless. A key strategic concept is that the flop must fit your hand. If the flop doesn't strengthen your hand or offer a draw to a very strong hand, you should usually release it.

For example, suppose you called on the first round of betting with Ad-Jd, and the flop is Qd-5d-3s. You don't have a strong hand at this point. What you do have, however, is a hand with extremely strong potential. If another diamond falls on the turn or the river, you'll make a flush. Not any flush, mind you, but the best possible flush, since your ace precludes any of your opponents from holding a higher flush.

As a rule of thumb, if you've got a drawing hand and there are two or more opponents, the pot will be big enough so that your wins will more than offset those times when you flop a flush draw and don't make your hand. So go ahead and draw to your flush under these circumstances in fixed -limit games.

Beyond the Flop: It is impossible to map out a precise and immutable strategy for play beyond the flop. Because the potential combinations of holdings and flops are almost infinite, you need some game experience before you'll feel comfortable. But if you're a first time hold'em player, don't continue beyond the flop unless you've got a strong pair with a decent kicker, or a draw to a straight or flush with at least two opponents to ensure that the pot is offering a big enough payoff to make your draw worthwhile.

You'll also have to pay attention to game texture - the relative aggressiveness or passivity exhibited by the players in the game. But a feeling for the game's texture and how it should influence your play can only be obtained from live game experience. But in the absence of that experience, err on the side of caution. It costs less. And when all else fails, keep flopping aces. In times of crisis, they're known to help. And isn't that what beginner's luck is all about?

Learn more about the Poker Hand Ranking

Back to top