Texas Holdem Tips

Improve your poker

I have articles and a question and answer section on this site where a lot of strategy is discuessed. A lot of the time though, I think of something that is useful, but it doesn't fit into anything I already have here, so it kind of just goes to waste. What I'm going to do with this section is just keep a list of different tips; some may be a few sentences only, others a page. I'll keep adding to these tips as time goes on. There will be tips here for both no limit holdem and limit, as well as cash games and tourneys. If you think you have a tip or lesson that is helpful, send it in and I'll add it.

By the way, if you would like to, I could put up your email address so that other readers can get in touch with you to further discuss the matter. But you have to explicitly tell me in the mail that you want me to put out your email and I don't take any responsibility whatsoever for any possible misuse of your email.

Texas Holdem Tips

  • The Poker Uniform
    The poker uniform has become as ubiquitous as the garb professional athletes wear (in fact, a basketball jersey is often part of the ensemble). Clearly there are no requirements as to what to wear to your no-limit Texas hold'em game (and if you are playing online poker, no requirement to wear anything at all), but you might ask yourself what the merits are of various poker accoutrements.
  • Practice Texas Hold'em Online
    The advent of Internet poker has probably contributed to making Texas hold'em the most popular game in the world. If you want to become a master of Texas hold'em, booking as many winning sessions as you can, you're going to have to practice. A great way to practice Texas hold'em is online.
  • Poker Bonuses Explained
    Are you looking for a place to play your favorite game? Today there are hundreds of online poker rooms competing for your attention with various bonus offers and other promotions.
  • The Most Common Methods For Calculating Rakeback
    If you're considering joining a rakeback program, you're not alone. A great many online poker players are discovering the next great way to increase their win rate is through rakeback. Rakeback is essentially a discount the online poker site offers you for playing there. You pay a rake as a fee to the site hosting the game, and rakeback returns some of that fee to you, the player.
  • Comparing Online Poker Bonus Offers and Rakeback Deals

    Hunting down great promotions is a big part of online poker success. The major promotions online poker players are looking for are online poker bonuses and rakeback deals. Due to the proliferation of online poker sites out there and their need to drive new traffic to their sites, there are a great many online poker bonuses and rakeback deals to be had. As a successful online poker player, you need to know how to negotiate and compare these different types of promotions.

  • Table Image
    It cracks me up when I go into a cardroom and I see a bunch of people with sun glasses on, their collars up and their hats low, trying to give the impression that they are forces to be reckoned with. The main reason I find it so funny is that if you were really so good, why would you want your opponents to think that?
  • Barry Greenstein: Ace On The River
    I don't sell books here or anything, but I would definitely recommend Barry Greenstein's new book called Ace On The River.
  • Winning And Losing: Stopping A Session
    This tip is about how you know when you should leave and when you should keep playing. Poker is like gambling in the sense that you never want to leave the table.
  • Betting Amount In No Limit Holdem
    Learning how much to bet in to no limit holdem is one of the trickiest parts of the game. It is always a battle between risk and reward. For example, you would like to get paid off on your good hands, but if you bet too much you chase everyone away and if you bet too little to keep them in, it runs the risk of backfiring by giving them odds to draw.
  • Baby Steps: Online Texas Holdem Cash Games
    One thing that is easy to do when playing online poker on multiple tables is to kind of get spun out. You see so many hands per hour that it is easy to lose perspective and you start to get involved in too many pots.
  • Idle Practice
    While learning how to bowl, I was reading a book and in it the author mentioned that if you go to the alleys without a clear idea of what you are trying to hone, your efforts are largely useless -- idle practice. This is true in poker too.
  • Beating Tougher Games
    There are different kinds of games. Some games are easy, some are tough. The same play that beats one game won't beat the other.
  • Why There Are So Few Winners
    I've heard figures thrown around estimating what percentage of poker players actually are winners; sometimes I hear 15%, sometimes only 10%. As hard as these numbers are to believe, I do believe them.
  • Urge To Play
    Note: this is for cash games only, not tournaments. I'm looking down at a piece of white printer paper with the following notes jotted down in black magic marker:

    - Submit to position

    - Dry cards, urge to play

  • Know Your Weaknesses
    So much of our time goes into playing and very little goes into thinking about the game away from the table. And the little time spent away from the table finetuning our game rarely is spent on weaknesses. One major tip I can give you is to understand your own strengths and limitations.
  • The 2/4 Rule For Calculating Odds
    One of the hard things to do in holdem is to calculate odds on the fly. Regular flush draws and straight draws are easy to figure, since you run across them so often. What is difficult is calculating weird drawing hands.
  • Entitlement
    Fundamentally, winning at poker boils down to you getting paid off on your good hands and avoiding your opponents good hands. Many players have a problem with the latter of the two.
  • Remember Winning
    Yesterday one of my buddies, after going through a dry spell, finished up the week with a good sized win (at one of the larger limits he plays at). On the drive home while dicussing the days events, he made the comment how he had a few hands that he normally would have gotten involved with, but he wasn't going to today because he didn't want to give any of it back (it being a little of the 7 racks in front of him).
  • Don't Overthink It
    The vast majority of the time, things are as they appear. As you become a better player, you run into the problem of losing touch with your prey. What I mean by that is that you forget how they think, and you can overthink hands and end up making fancy plays at the wrong time.
  • Betting Versus Calling
    New players often overvalue slow playing. It is ok to trap opponents, but with marginal hands that are worth calling, a bet is usually a better play.