Texas Holdem Strategies

Lets Talk Poker I mean Texas holdem style. My name is Nate and i have been playing holdem for about 12 years now and I think I got the grasp of about almost every strategy out there, when it come to bluffing, reading people and when to fold and such. I want to let people know the passion and knowledge about poker and how fun and pleasing it can be. Ill go over some hand

Picking Your Hand:

The hand first of all, when it come to the hand you want to make sure that you play all hands, yes even 7 2 but it all depends on what the blinds are and if some one bets, do you stay in or out. Say that your big blind if it checks all around of course you stay in but what about small blind, if the blind is not to much to put in go with it, but if someone bets a descent amount say the blinds are 5$ to 10$ small and big blinds, if he bets 20$ and you have a 6 2 spades, take a look at your possibility, a 6 2 can make a inside straight, there both spades so flush could be nice, but not really a good pair if you hit any, but say you stay in and the flop comes out being A 6 8 so you made a pair of 6 witch is lowest pair out there the chances that they have a 8 or a ace make it more difficult for me to stay in because even though you made 6's you have a crappy kicker so depending on if anyone bets would have to fold this hand. So picking your hand all depends on the bets people place, always play your aces if you have one play it but be careful with what kicker you have if you don't know what a kicker is if you have 6 2 and you made 6's your kicker is 2 so if someone has 6 3 they out kick you and win. All in all play every hand unless the bet is high.

Pocket Pairs:

although pocket pairs are nice looking they are a disaster waiting to happen, low pocket pairs like 2's to 8's can be really bad if over cards are out in the flop, so having pocket pairs you would have to bet high before the flop to get them people that are just waiting to see the flop, but i must say that pocket pair can be played slowly cause there very hard to find out if some one has pocket pair so if you have 2's and you flop a three of a kind your most likely going to win, just watch whats on the board.

When to Bluff:

Bluffing is a Unique skill to learn, how to tell people if there bluffing is hard to do, so lets start off by learning how to bluff, lets go by rules..

Rule 1: don't fidget: looking around or twiddling your thumbs acting nervous
Rule 2: Keep a straight face have no emotion try to do this on every hand not just when your bluffing.
rule 3: learn your cards look at them once and then keep them down
Rule 4: Be aggressive, when betting you need to be aggressive.
rule 5: most important, know your opponents weakness if he shows weakness bluff him out, but don't be fooled he might be slow playing some big cards

now lets talk about calling someones bluff, yet hard to do, just like bluffing, before calling anyone's bluff play a few rounds with the opponent, get to know them, see how they tick, this could help you figure out how he acts with the winning hand or a bluffing hand. Remember to also watch your opponents face, some people just have a look in there face when they lie or bluff also they seem to talk a lot more then they would or less then they would, also ask them a few questions while in a hand, see how they react.

Looking at the flop, the turn, the river:

so you are looking at the board and your trying to see if you can win, well look at the board, what are your possibility, see what all you can make with your hand and what you can make with your hand, if a card comes out in your favor for example say you had 7, 8, of hearts and the flop came out, 6 hearts, 5 clubs, J hearts, look at all you can make with this hand.

#1: you have a open ended straight
#2: you have a flush possibility (hearts)
#3: you can pair up with 7's or 8's
#4: even possible two running 7's or 8" for a three of a kind

now look at what we have here, we have pretty good outs here the chances of you hitting your cards is pretty good, i would say arounf 30-45% you might get your cards on the next two cards so if its a bit to much to pay i would stick in cause your outs are high at this point. Always look at what you can make and what you have to determine if you should stay in the hand or not.

Online Holdem:

although online poker takes away the hole interaction of people so you can determine if there bluffing or not, you can still tell in other ways if there bluffing
on how they bet and how long they take, that's the only thing you have to work with when playing online, its harder to grasp and tell if people are bluffing either they bet high hoping to make some money or they want the pot so they bluff.
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thank you for reading this article and if you have any questions please leave a comment.