Learn Texas Holdem

Question: I'm still a beginning poker player. Texas Hold'em is my game of choice, and I tend to play home games mostly (no-limit tournaments if possible). Having a weekly game with predominantly the same players presents some issues. Playing against the same people regularly, you tend to learn a bit more about the way they play than you would just watching 15 min at an online table, or sitting down to a game in a casino. I tend to be the agressor when I play, stealing pots from the tight players. This has made me vulnerable to traps. If I raise before the flop, bet out on the flop and get called and make a stab at it on the turn, I've invested a lot of money into the pot. If my opponent goes over the top of me, or raises me on the river I have to consider if they had been trapping me the whole way.

The first question I ask myself is, "What kind of player am I up against?" Do they bluff a lot? Do they trap? What kind of hands do they play? I look at the board and think about what they could have had at each round. Does that gel with what they've done in the past?

I've taken some big hits and gotten myself knocked out of some tournaments because I didn't trust what my knowledge of them was. Too often I'd see it getting down to a short table and realize that play SHOULD loosen up. I'd say to myself, "This player plays very tight and only bets big when they've got a monster. But there's only 3 people left, so he's got to be playing looser." Just because it's probably a good idea to loosen up your game, and just because that's what 'I' would do, doesn't mean that's what my opponent is doing.

This is one way to lose big. Don't overestimate your own skill, but don't try a check-raise semi-bluff against someone who's just started learning. Don't overplay the opponent. If you're playing against someone you KNOW to bet huge with huge hands (and only then), get out of the way when they come out firing. If you were wrong, and they went against everything in the nature of how they played and stole that pot from you, so be it. It's one pot. In a no-limit game, it could have been your entire stack and your chair to boot.

Another way I found that I overplayed was to assume that the strategy I had used to win in the past would have to change playing against the same opponents. I thought they would catch on to my style and get a read on me. I wanted to change gears to keep them guessing, but I wound up playing a style that was not advantageous, and that I was not terribly comfortable with. I busted out early in that game.

My opponents would certainly begin to learn things about how I played, but I never waited to see how they reacted to the old, winning style. I assumed they had me pegged before the first cards even hit the table. What I should have done was start out playing how I had (it was good play, for the most part, not good cards) and adjust mid-game as needed. If my opponents hadn't altered their play I could have stole a lot of pots from them again, but I overanalyzed the situation and made drastic changes that were unnecessary.

This site has many great articles on Texas Hold'em and they can give you a wealth of information on how to go about refining your game. But knowing what you should do is worthless if you don't have the discipline to follow through with it. So if everything you've learned, and every intuition you have tells you to lay down that hand, LAY IT DOWN! Don't bust out because you're stubborn or curious.

Cory M. Bishop

Answer: Thanks for sending this in Cory. Good points...

As you become a better player your goal is to have an arsenal of styles that can beat any type of opponent. Sometimes the style you have to use isn't glamorous or tricky, it is just basic ABC, wait for a good hand and bet it style. Save the bluffs and tough reads for the WPT where they might bet more respect.