Learn Texas Holdem

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As you start out, you'll find yourself in games that have a number of players in preflop, with really weak hands, making many big errors. The style of poker that will consistently beat this type of game is to just wait for solid hands where you know you have an edge. Just the act of folding more hands than the other players will probably guarantee you'll win in the long run. As the games become tougher though, you can't just do this anymore and expect to win. A tough game is one in which the players are skilled, there are few players in preflop (usually most pots are heads up or threeway), there is usually a raise and reraise preflop and lots of aggression. What happens in these games if you just sit there and wait for good hands is that the other players will avoid your raises and be aggressive when you don't have a good hand, forcing you out. The opponents will have a means of beating you, but you won't have a means of beating them.

I want to list a few key points for learning how to beat tougher games:

1. Blind play. Defending your blinds is necessary because you'll notice that players are raising with position more just to steal your blinds. The hands they are raising with aren't typical premium hands. Because they are raising more, you have to defend more. This is most likely the first adjustment you'll make when you sit in tougher games and try to figure out how to beat them. This alone isn't going to make you win though, I think it will actually make things more difficult if used alone. Notice what is happening at a fundamental level so you can do this yourself. The other players who are raising your blinds are forcing you to play hands that you don't really want to at a time when they have a big advantage because of position. So instead of being able to wait for quality hands, you are stuck playing marginal hands out of position. The only way to counter this is to defend your blinds some, realizing the inherent weakness of your position, and also doing the same thing back to them. You need to start raising more hands in late position to draw out the good players and force them to play marginal hands too.

2. Tough games are tough because the edge you have over another player is smaller and to win you have to exploit smaller edges. You can't just wait for times to raise when you have the nuts since those situations don't come around often enough. Instead, you have to use position and aggression more -- much more than you would in a weak game. Aggression combined with position are very hard to thwart if you are a solid player playing out of position with a hand that isn't that great. Let me give you an example.

Let's say you have a hand like A8off, one position off from the button and everyone but the player to your right folds. The player raises (this is a limit holdem game). We've concluded that this player has been raising so many hands in this spot that it is likely the A8 is at least on average as good as what he would raise with. What we do here then is to three bet him. Notice how difficult this is for him to play against. You're forcing him to flop a hand and he has absolutely no idea what you have. The A8 figures to be a favorite over any number of hands -- King hands, Queen hands, and even against a pocket pair, you'll flop an Ace a good percentage of the time. Even if you flop nothing, by betting, you turn his logical thinking mind against himself. It is uncomfortable for a good player to play well with nothing postflop against a reraise. Notice also that if you miss the flop completely and the other player has shown an interest, you can get away without losing much since you have position.

3. You need to start placing more emphasis on position. For the first half of the table, early and middle position, you play regular solid poker. For late position you need to start valuing your hands on how they might fair against the blinds. A hand like A8 isn't that great against a large field but against two random hands, it figures to be ahead. Next, in limit holdem, don't be afraid to threebet preflop more often. You don't have to know that your hand is better to threebet. Threebetting isn't only done when you think you want more money in the pot preflop. It has other advantages. That extra bet sets you up well for the rest of the hand. It makes it hard for the blinds to call, you pin down the initial raiser and you ensure you have the button. Also, it is important to realize that if you take this type of play too fair, it will be a big hole in your game.

Balance is key. A big part of this strategy hinges on you playing well in other positions too. If you play way too many hands, especially weakly, you'll get nailed. If you have a solid image, these plays, if done selectively, will make you really tough, while if you are seen as a bad player, you'll just get yourself into more trouble because the players won't respect the raises. You'll just be seen as a loose aggressive raiser and the opponents will adjust and try to trap you. Do it sparingly in the right spot. Another advantage to these raises is that when you do actually have a great hand, chances are you'll get lots of action.

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