Starting Hands
Let’s start off with Best Poker Tips absolute #1 rule you need to keep in mind in order to make money consistently, playing No Limit Texas Hold’em.
Even though it might not be quite so obvious, the first rule for success is: Be patient in selecting your starting hands.
Yeah that’s right, patience. Patience, patience and even more patience. Sometimes you have to be so utterly patient it becomes boring. I can’t stress enough how important patience is because it makes all the difference between just playing for the heck of it, or making money on a consistent base.
Wonder why?
Okay, here’s a question for you. What is the most obvious thing you need to have to win a game of poker?
GOOD CARDS
That’s an easy one right? Because the better your hand before the flop, the bigger the chance of you having the best hand after the flop, turn or river.
You should much rather be willing to invest money on a bet that gives you a good chance to win money, then on a poor bet.
Think of it like this, if you get 100 dollar, how would you rather invest it? On a bet that gives you 1 in a million chance of winning, or 1 in a hundred? You’d take the 1 in a hundred right? The one that gives you the biggest chance to win right?
And it’s just the same with Hold’em. The blinds for playing Aces are just as high as for playing 7 2, so which one would you prefer? Why waste money on a bad bet? Right?
Okay. Let’s go on…
It’s not so hard to imagine that with all possible combinations you can make with your two hole cards, it might take a while before you get those Aces (No, I’m not telling you to play Aces only, but it might take while before you get any cards you should be willing to play). And since Texas Hold’em’s basics depend on whoever has the best cards at showdown - providing you’re not sure yet how to make a bluff, spot a tell etc. - it is absolutely crucial to wait for the right cards to come your way.
If you waste your time playing cards like Q2 or 85 you’ll never become a winning player. Why? Because a great deal of Texas Hold’em is about statistics. And if you’re patient and play the right hands only, you keep the odds in your favor.
So which hand should you play? First you need to know there are two extremes in selecting starting hands.
If you choose to be very selective about your starting hands, playing only the very best cards, you would not be involved in many pots, and you would be called a very ‘tight’ player.
If you choose not to be too selective about your starting hands, playing almost every hand, you would be involved in a lot of pots, and you would be called a very ‘loose’ player.
The hard thing is, and now we’re already getting to why Texas Hold’em is such a complex game, the strength of each hand depends on your position at the table, relative to the dealer.
The basic rule is this:
The closer you are to the dealers right hand (looking clockwise around the table), the better your positioning.
And, subsequently:
As your ‘position-strength’ increases, so does de strength of any hand you play!
Crazy huh?
Actually it’s not. It’s very logical. Let me explain:
There are four different positions. Early, Middle, Late position and In the Blinds.
As you can see, the red button at the right side of the table represents the dealer button.
The Green markings represent the Blinds, the Yellow markings represent the early positions, the red markings are middle position, and blue marks late positioning.
It’s not so hard to understand that, if you have late positioning, you get to see what all the other players do before you have to make a decision. So in essence, you can make a better decision, because you have more knowledge.
Let me give you a little example. Say you’re playing a €5/10 No Limit game, holding TT in late position (blue markings). TT’s a nice hand. If all other players fold to you, you can make a nice raise because your TT is probably the best hand at the table. So you have a decent chance of winning the pot.
So now you have the same hand and the same position, but this time someone in front of you opens the pot for €40, the next player raises to €80 and finally he gets re-raised to €200. You can bet your ass at least one of those three players has a hand that beats your TT, so you can easily fold, and still no harm done.
As you can see, in both cases you can make a good decision. Either you fold (without loss) because your hand is no good, or you make a raise knowing that there is a good chance you get to see the flop holding the best hand.
But now imagine you hold the same TT in early position. Say you are right next to the big blind. This spot is called ‘under the gun’ because you are the first to act pre-flop. You make a nice pre-flop raise of four times the big blind, making it €40 to play. But what the heck! You get re-raised, and the raiser get’s re-re-raised! And suddenly your pair of Tens isn’t that good anymore. Once again you can bet your ass at least one of those three players has a hand that beats your TT, so you fold, just like in the example above, but this time it has cost you your initial raise of €40.
What I’m trying to point out is that:
The same two cards can have a totally different value, depending on your position at the table.
If you are sitting in early position, you have to play extremely tight because someone behind you can easily have a better hand. The more you get to late position, the more you can loosen up in your starting hand selection because you get to see what other people think of their cards before you have to make a decision.
