Well The question is can anyone give me any strategic advice on how to play texas holdum poker? I've played a few games but can grasp the concept. I search the NET but every hit is some online casino gambling crap. I need to imprez the other players.

thanks in advance

Its like most other poker games. Bluffing is big. Catching a hand is big. Slowplaying a good hand, but not playing it too slow. Are you a tight player that will only stay in with a good hand? A reckless player who will bet wildly with nothing? A lot of the game is bluffing and reading other people to determine if they are bluffing.

Originally posted by sorbee711
Its like most other poker games. Bluffing is big. Catching a hand is big. Slowplaying a good hand, but not playing it too slow. Are you a tight player that will only stay in with a good hand? A reckless player who will bet wildly with nothing? A lot of the game is bluffing and reading other people to determine if they are bluffing.


IS there any clear cut strategy or is all luck and bluffing?

well, half of it is just knowing your odds in poker. know them well and play the odds most of the time.

the rest is reads from the community and your opponent. reading opponents is no different than any other card game. reading face-up cards is a bit different; it's easier to bluff and be bluffed by numerically 'easy' hands. use this and guard against it. (example: if there are 4 cards of one suit showing in community someone could have a flush rather easily. and even if you don't, you could believably bluff like you do.)

bluffing is much harder in any game with many players because odds are someone who stays in is just going to have a good hand.

bet if u have a good hand and fold when u don't.

It's that simple.

From what I've learned...this is the basics...

You need to know when to hold 'em, know when fold 'em...know when to walk away...and know when to run.

Or so I hear.

Go to a local bookstore - there should be plenty of books on
playing Hold 'em. Doyle Brunson's Super System is supposed
to be a good one.

As a general rule, only play hands that you look at your down cards and go "oh wow". If you go "mmmmaybe", don't play them.

The fewer the players, the relative strength of lower hands improves.

Do some searches for top texas hold'em hands to see how things are ranked.

And the best way to get good is to play- a lot. I play about one tourney a week and am a "decent" player. I would get rocked in a real game.

It's not the cards...you have to play the man.


Go watch Rounders

Don't eat Oreos while playing.

Originally posted by HD-sw20
Well The question is can anyone give me any strategic advice on how to play texas holdum poker? I've played a few games but can grasp the concept. I search the NET but every hit is some online casino gambling crap. I need to imprez the other players.

thanks in advance

throw money at the pot like a mad man.
take a coupple hands right to the end and let people call your bluff... have a fake facial que for when you bluff.

when you get a jesus hand, hit them with the bluff que, and throw $$ at it like a groom in a titty bar...

make them think you are an easy read..

Well, another question is are you looking to play online, or are you playing live with people? Hold 'em is different because depeding on whether you're playing with blinds, and a limited bet amount, it becomes pretty difficult to bluff. High limit or no limit, you usually have to bluff to really win big.

Oh and fyi: Hold'em.

Know the odds.

I've only played once. It sucks to find out you were bluffing when you thought you had a hand. :mad:

Originally posted by fliz
Know the odds.

I've only played once. It sucks to find out you were bluffing when you thought you had a hand. :mad:

nothing is as embarassing as betting into a dead hand...

Buy a book by david Sklansky it will tell you everything you need

Go to www.twoplustwo.com

Fantastic poker site with forums where you can ask questions and not get BS answers, rather get sound advice from skilled players. I frequent the site.

CB

One word: Cheat.

nothing like a hand of 7 queens to show em who's boss

Originally posted by Hamsterstyle
Well, another question is are you looking to play online, or are you playing live with people? Hold 'em is different because depeding on whether you're playing with blinds, and a limited bet amount, it becomes pretty difficult to bluff. High limit or no limit, you usually have to bluff to really win big.


No i will be playing with a group of friends and we play with small and large blind. SO i guess bluffing is a big thing then. Gotta practice bluffing.

Originally posted by HD-sw20
No i will be playing with a group of friends and we play with small and large blind. SO i guess bluffing is a big thing then. Gotta practice bluffing.

Well take everyone's advice and do some research if you're really interested. The key to a bluff generally has nothing to do with what you have, or being random about it. It's paying attention to what the other players are doing, what they may be going for, and allowing them to "tell" you what they have. It's also judging the likeyhood of them geniunally having a good hand. For instance, you probably don't want to bluff if there's four of the same suit after the river...the fifth card. The likelyhood is that someone probably does have that fifth heart or whatever. But that being said, if these guys know what they're doing, they can trick you into bluffing.

My advice is to go and have fun, learn what you can, and don't get in too deep. Play conservative at first and learn. You can read up on it all you want, but you're gonna have to get a little experience to really be any good. Good luck.

learn the hands and the odds first.

Just forget about it now. You'll never make it on the Travel Channel. :p

Local bookstores or Amazon.com, at least for some of the reader reviews.

And as I found out a week ago... having a straight is wonderful, until someone has a higher straight...

So be careful with having a strong hand, it may not be strong enough. Someone may try fast playing it with big bets and scare you off when they had crap. Or they may stick in there and you think they have some decent hand but you are reeling them in, when in fact they are slow playing and drop a full house on you.

I've played ALOT of Hold-Em. Studied the starting hand strategies and all.

One piece of advice reigns above all others:

Be disciplined. Know your mathematical chances for making a given hand, and don't think for a moment that the Poker Gods will be on your side.

Some others:

1. Get to know your opponents. If you have a hell-bent gambler on your table, don't try to bluff him. If you have a super-conservative player, bluff him, but not often enough to be predictable.

2. "Tells" are overplayed in both dramatization of poker and the color commentary of the now-popular cable poker tournaments. Know what a tell is, and recognize it if you can, but don't lay your bank on it. Also, be willing to set up a poker n00b with a false tell, to burn him with it at the best possible moment.

3. Just because you won the last pot doesn't pre-destine you to win the next one. You shouldn't make stupid calls when you're the chip leader any more than you would with your last chips. Treat each hand as a stand-alone event, and play that hand by your strategy. When it's over, win or lose, forget it and play the next hand.

Originally posted by imprezton
...
Be disciplined. Know your mathematical chances for making a given hand, and don't think for a moment that the Poker Gods will be on your side.
...

What's an easy way to do this? When I watch the shows, the
guys go "75% chance here to win..." when I'm still thinking
about how many Aces are left in the deck.
I'm decent at math, but there must be a cheat sheet/easy way
to tell? Or no?

3. Just because you won the last pot doesn't pre-destine you to win the next one. You shouldn't make stupid calls when you're the chip leader any more than you would with your last chips. Treat each hand as a stand-alone event, and play that hand by your strategy. When it's over, win or lose, forget it and play the next hand.

yep you will see even the best playes try to let the momentum carry a poor hand...

i makes no diffrence to the cards if you have $250k or $25bucks in chips.

One more thing. Learn what "The Nut" is. The nut is the very best possible hand on the table, given the value of the board cards. For example, a pair on the board suggest that a person has a chance of having a full house, and that there is a very high probability that there are two-pairs and trips in the pot. 3 suited on the board point at a flush if the board is unpaired, or a full house if the board is paired. 4 suited almost guarantees a flush, and the race is on for the kicker.

You may need to tell yourself things like, "I'm chasing a straight, but the board is showing a possible full house nut. Is anyone betting in a manner that would suggest they have the nut? If they are or aren't, are they trying to mislead me?"

Originally posted by andywrx
What's an easy way to do this? When I watch the shows, the
guys go "75% chance here to win..." when I'm still thinking
about how many Aces are left in the deck.
I'm decent at math, but there must be a cheat sheet/easy way
to tell? Or no?

just play, and take notes on big hands.
work out the odds later. then as you get better at counting, you can make a rough estimation as you sit there playing with your stack of tens...
i hate it on tv when they tell you the odds before you even get to think about it.

Originally posted by andywrx
What's an easy way to do this? When I watch the shows, the
guys go "75% chance here to win..." when I'm still thinking
about how many Aces are left in the deck.
I'm decent at math, but there must be a cheat sheet/easy way
to tell? Or no?

be careful about the shows. They are showing you omniscient odds. That is, knowing what each competitor has in his hand AND what has been thrown away. You will not have this information at the table.

There are strategy books that, given hand and the board hand at any stage of the game, approximates your odds for drawing the hand out in the end. There's little more to do than try to memorize them until you get a gut feel for the quality of your hand live.

OK, thanks. I should try to sit down and record the possibilities.
Gotchya on the shows knowing the hands, but even when we
play with friends, one guy always goes "54% chance here..."

I figured it was mostly memorization, but thought there might
be a sheet somewhere that says "Flop is K 5 9, holder of K has
40% chance of win" or something like that.

That would be a very large sheet :lol:

And the one guy is most likely full of ish. Hee been watching too much Travel Channel.

Originally posted by andywrx
OK, thanks. I should try to sit down and record the possibilities.
Gotchya on the shows knowing the hands, but even when we
play with friends, one guy always goes "54% chance here..."

I figured it was mostly memorization, but thought there might
be a sheet somewhere that says "Flop is K 5 9, holder of K has
40% chance of win" or something like that.

I'm sure there is some sheet that will say the odds of the top pair winning, given the outs the other player has (straight, 3-of-a-kind, etc)

Originally posted by andywrx
What's an easy way to do this? When I watch the shows, the
guys go "75% chance here to win..." when I'm still thinking
about how many Aces are left in the deck.
I'm decent at math, but there must be a cheat sheet/easy way
to tell? Or no?

They can calculate chances to win a pot because they see everyone's hole cards.

What you need to do is simple math and counting.

For example, let's say you hold an 8 and a 9, and the board shows 67A. You have an open ended straight draw. A 5 or a 10 gives you the hand you need. There are 4 of each 5 and 10 cards, giving you a total of 8 cards that can help you. 8 out of a total 52 card deck. Translate that to you have 1/6.5 chance to hit the card you need.

You have to break it down like that. You have to calculate on the fly how many cards will help you, and get a percentage out of it. Then you can look at pot odds and see if it's worth it. Pot odds are a different animal, but basically it means is there enough money in the pot to make your call worth while. If you have a 1/7 chance to hit your straight, and there's already $45 in the pot and you have to bet $6, it's a good call. But if there's $20 it's not worth it.

CB

If you're holding a K, and flop shows K 5 9, I think your odds are more like in the high 80's, btw :lol:

Make the pot expensive for someone before they draw out a straigh on your ass :)

I know what you mean, though

Originally posted by cwb124
They can calculate chances to win a pot because they see everyone's hole cards.

What you need to do is simple math and counting.

For example, let's say you hold an 8 and a 9, and the board shows 67A. You have an open ended straight draw. A 5 or a 10 gives you the hand you need. There are 4 of each 5 and 10 cards, giving you a total of 8 cards that can help you. 8 out of a total 52 card deck. Translate that to you have 1/6.5 chance to hit the card you need.

You have to break it down like that. You have to calculate on the fly how many cards will help you, and get a percentage out of it. Then you can look at pot odds and see if it's worth it. Pot odds are a different animal, but basically it means is there enough money in the pot to make your call worth while. If you have a 1/7 chance to hit your straight, and there's already $45 in the pot and you have to bet $6, it's a good call. But if there's $20 it's not worth it.

CB

8/47. Because you already know 5 of the cards that have been removed from the 52, and they don't include the needed cards ;)

And it gets more complicated than that. You can be working a possible straight and a board-high Pair. The odds intermingle and aggregate, like in decision-tree analysis.

Originally posted by andywrx
OK, thanks. I should try to sit down and record the possibilities.
Gotchya on the shows knowing the hands, but even when we
play with friends, one guy always goes "54% chance here..."

I figured it was mostly memorization, but thought there might
be a sheet somewhere that says "Flop is K 5 9, holder of K has
40% chance of win" or something like that.

AFIK those odds are only calculatable if you are compairing hands.

mordy, the guides are made using decision tree analysis, given the possibility of your draw versus the possibility of a better draw.

But you can calculate odds based on how many different hands could beat you, and the odds that somebody would be dealt the two cards required to win.

Speaking of odds....I was watching and after the flop the top hand was an 80% favorite.

The turn card helped neither player, but the top hand was only a 74% favorite after the turn. I was :confused: .

(Percentages may be made up...but you get the picture).

Decision tree? Time to bust out a double linked-list and random
number generator and write a program to do it for me. ;)

I see what you mean, was hoping for a quick way out (like in
blackjack). I just need to spend some time on it. w0rd.

Originally posted by imprezton
mordy, the guides are made using decision tree analysis, given the possibility of your draw versus the possibility of a better draw.


I know what you mean. But the % odds to win are only applicable when compairing two or more hands. You know, like say the flop is K A 3

one guy is holding a K 4
one is holding A 10

The guy with the ace has a higher % of winning.

If you are only looking at one hand, as the point of view of a player. You only can only measure how good your hand is.

I'm not expert here, but i do know math :p

Limit or No Limit?

These are two completely different games with completely different strategies.

No limit changes everything.

Originally posted by xfactor834
Limit or No Limit?

These are two completely different games with completely different strategies?

No limit changes everything.


We play no limit you can bet what chips you have. We all start off with the same amount of chips and the winner takes the pot.

Originally posted by mordy_2v
I know what you mean. But the % odds to win are only applicable when compairing two or more hands. You know, like say the flop is K A 3

one guy is holding a K 4
one is holding A 10

The guy with the ace has a higher % of winning.

If you are only looking at one hand, as the point of view of a player. You only can only measure how good your hand is.

I'm not expert here, but i do know math :p

True. as to one hand, you can look at the overall percentage of hands you can expect to win, blind of other hands, based on your hand and the probability of a player having a better hand.

However, it's more an art than a mathematical science, and the true odds are affected by the personalities around your table. You are much more likely to get River'd on a straight by someone holding a 2 5 offsuit if you are playing on a loose table than a strategic one.

Some pro players make the donation and call to the flop on low off-suited cards, just to mix up the opponents' ability to gage what thy're up against.

http://teamfu.freeshell.org/poker_odds.shtml

http://www.slospin.net/texas_hold.htm

The second one is pretty cool. Remember to randomly vary from the best strategy, or they'll read you like a book.

Cool links. Will check those out in more detail later - thanks.

Originally posted by wrpmission
Buy a book by david Sklansky it will tell you everything you need
Hold 'em poker and Advanced Hold 'em are both excellent books.

They only way to get better is by playing, alot. Here are some more useful tips.

• Be careful not to call too much. This flaw usually comes along with playing too many hands to begin with. Many loose players will call it down with any piece of the board - or worse - call all they way though just to fold at the river.

• Don’t carry bluffs too far. It’s one thing to bet in order to determine the value of your hand, but it isn’t worth sacrificing all your chips to convince someone. Pay attention and fold down your hand when you know you are beat.

• You never get done with learning poker. Quite a few people just don’t take the lessons they’ve just paid for. Re-play your hands in your mind after each session and figure out which hands you could have played better.