Hold'em is a very difficult game. As everyone's favorite WPT announcer Mike Sexton
always says, it takes a minute to ♣ learn and a lifetime to master.
Truer words were
never spoken.
Most beginner poker players play far too many hands and take ♣ them too far
when they start to play Hold'em.
One of the first things you learn when you decide to
become ♣ a winning player is to play tight - that is, to play fewer hands.
You do this
because when you play ♣ only quality starting hands, it makes your play on later streets
much easier.
How to Win at Poker
Playing tight is absolutely ♣ fundamental when learning
to play winning poker. I say winning poker because everyone knows how to play poker but
few ♣ know how to play winning poker.
Your initial decision whether to continue with a
hand or not will be made before ♣ the flop. Unlike on the flop and turn, which you might
only find yourself playing once or twice an orbit, ♣ you're making pre-flop decisions
every single hand you play.
If you play too loose pre-flop, you're costing yourself
money every time ♣ you play a hand you shouldn't. Thus it's imperative the first strategy
you master is playing tight before the flop.
Play ♣ Only the Best Hands Before the
Flop
Before the flop you should be playing only the very best of starting hands.
You
♣ should look for hands that are already monsters - AA, KK, QQ, etc. Play top-pair hands
- i.e. ones that ♣ make top pair and when they do, do so with a good kicker.
For example:
A-K, A-Q, K-Q, etc. You can ♣ also play quality speculative hands, hands that flop big
and take down big pots - e.g. T-9s, 8-9s, small pocket ♣ pairs, etc.
All other hands
should be avoided like the plague. Not only do they show a negative expectation (see
"EV ♣ explained"), they're also very difficult to play after the flop.
A hand like K-5s
may look good, being a king and ♣ suited, but appearances are deceiving here. This is in
fact a very weak hand.
When it pairs its five, the five ♣ is seldom the top pair on the
flop. When it pairs its king, it only has a five kicker and ♣ will often find itself
outkicked at showdown.
That's the nature of this hand and similar ones: they make poker
a guessing ♣ game. You can never be sure of where you stand. They also leave you no
possibility of making a straight.
Further ♣ Reading:
Don't Be Fooled by the Flush!
You
may think that all of this is overcome by the hand's ability to make ♣ a flush. No such
luck. Being suited only adds 2% to its overall likelihood of winning.
Generally
speaking, if you would ♣ fold a hand offsuit, you should probably fold it suited.
Flushes
don't come around nearly often enough to make up for ♣ the downfalls of a poor starting
hand. So stop limping weak hands just because they're suited.
Contrast that with a hand
♣ like A-K. When A-K hits the flop you make top pair with the best kicker. You're never
going to be ♣ outkicked at showdown.
You can play this hand confidently - you know where
you stand in the hand. "Guessing" is minimized.
Further ♣ Reading:
When You Hit You Know
Where You Stand
This is why playing excellent starting hands make the later streets
easier. When ♣ you hit you know where you stand. You have a quality hand that can see a
showdown.
You're rarely going to ♣ find yourself outkicked. If you only play hands that
show a positive expectation pre-flop, the rest of your game will ♣ fall into place.
Your
good pre-flop hands are going to make good post-flop hands, and you'll find your
decisions on later ♣ streets getting easier and easier the more trash hands you eliminate
from your pre-flop holdings.
An extreme example of tight play ♣ would be if you decided
to only play aces, kings and queens and you would fold everything else.
This would make
♣ your play at the flop and after it very easy. There would be literally no guessing
game.
If you held an ♣ overpair you would bet; if not, you'd slow down. Marginal
decisions would be eliminated. Everything would be black and white.
This ♣ style, of
course, is highly exploitable and would never be profitable; it's merely an example of
how playing tight makes ♣ things easier on the later streets.
I would never advise only
playing aces and kings, but that would be a better ♣ strategy than playing every hand
that comes your way.
Further Reading:
The Best Beginner Poker Strategy
Obviously the
best strategy is somewhere in ♣ the middle. Fold your weak hands but play your strong
hands aggressively.
As an amateur and a student of the game ♣ you are guaranteed to make
multiple mistakes in every session. And every time you make a mistake at a No-Limit
♣ Hold'em table you run the risk of going broke.
The more marginal hands you play, the
more difficult your decisions will ♣ be. And that means the more mistakes you will make.
The more mistakes you make, the more often you're going ♣ to find yourself getting
stacked.
If you start out only with quality holdings, you'll make the rest of your
decisions easier.
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