Texas Holdem Strategy

This is a collection of my Texas Holdem strategy articles. No Limit Texas Hold'em is my best game and naturally I'll have more to write about this game than any other. I'm pretty much completely self-taught (which isn't necessarily a good thing), so hopefully you don't have to make the same mistakes I did when I was coming up as a poker player. One of my goals by writing these strategy articles is to prevent you from making those mistakes. Avoiding mistakes is naturally a great start. Great decisions is another.

Texas Holdem is a game of risks - even small mistakes can turn into big losses, but, small right things may as well turn into big winnings. So if I had to describe Texas Hold'em, one of the first words would be "risk-taking". Be prepared for swingy games but in this game profits (generally) show-up a lot more quickly than they would, say, in a game of Pot-limit Omaha.

You need to believe in yourself, believe the results will come. For a game so simple, it's amazing how much variance and different skill-levels there still are. 20 buy-in/month winners at $5/$10 are quite much behind 20 buy-in/month winners at $10/$20 - if these two played against each other, the edge would be clear. Realistically, let's say there are levels up to $200/$400 and the thought process between a player on high stakes and, say $2/$4 is just enormous.

You've got a chance to decide just how swingy and aggressive Hold'em games you want to be playing. There's a huge difference between the strategy of heads-up, 6-handed and 9-handed Holdem games, and I recommend trying out all of them to see what fits the best for you. You can't play that many hands in 9-handed games (some players are arrogant enough to think they can win just about every hand), and there's a whole lot more of waiting to do. It's going to be slower and you'll be in the best positions (dealer button and cut-off) only about 22% of the time.

I prefer more action and that's why my Texas Holdem strategy is mostly about heads-up & 6-handed games. Poker is about adjusting, but generally you'll need to be aggressive when it comes to heads-up & short-handed games. So that's something to think about - do you want to be "in the action" a lot of the time, or rather spend time observing your opponents, making possibly more notes and play less hands. This suits greatly for some people (also, if the more selective & passive style of 9-handed games works for you but you get bored, you can always play multiple tables). Try out all of those games.

It isn't the easiest thing in the world to learn how to play Texas Hold'em. Like the saying goes, "takes a minute to learn but a lifetime to master". You deal with situations where you just have to risk some money in order to learn. It's a never-ending cycle of difficult decisions, but on the other hand you just have to get over 50% of them on point to make money in the long run. I certainly hope my Texas Holdem strategy articles will help you with those decisions. And you'll really learn how to play Texas Hold'em.

Winning Texas Hold'em

How to Play Texas Holdem