Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Tips on How to Play the Preflop in Texas Hold'em Poker

Here is a summary of some Texas Hold'em Poker tips that will allow you establish your own preflop strategy. This will prevent you from playing too many hands and getting drawn in to Texas Holdem pots you just should avoid be playing into. You often ask yourself - should I be playing that pair of 7's preflop? That all is based on the current situation on the table.

Let's look at some factors that will have an effect on whether you play those 7's in your Texas Hold'em game.

Before everything else, you have to take into consideration the number of players involved in your game. The more players in the game, the harder the opposition is going to be. There will be a better chance of another player having a superior preflop Texas Holdem hand than yours. Furthermore, with more players involved in the game, there are further chances that another player will hit a hand on the flop.

Are the players in your game aggressive? Aggressive Hold'em players can lose. But they can as well knock you out of the game pretty fast. You'll want to play more conservative with aggressive players sitting on your table. The very last thing you want to do with aggressive players is try to bluff and go over the top of them without a hand. Your Texas Hold'em Poker night will come to an end rapidly.

How much chips you have, the size of the blinds, and whether or not you are playing limit or no limit Texas Hold'em, will all have a role in your decision how you play the preflop. This involves the hands you'll bet into, and how much you'll bet. You'll play the preflop in a different manner with a bankroll of $2,000 sitting at a $1/$2 table than if you are shortstacked at a $10/$20 table. In the first scenario, you can play aggressively.

Another factor is your position at the poker table. Whether you're in early position or late, especially preflop, will significantly have an impact on how much control you can have on the pot, as well as what hands you should play.

Your temperament when it comes to playing Texas Hold'em Poker will also influence how you play preflop? Do you play aggressively, betting frequently to see quite a bit of the flops? Or do you play tight and only play solid hands, which keeps you out of a lot of hands? You have to build your playing style.

As a final point, you'll want to have a basic information of your preflop odds in Texas Holdem Poker. Here's a quick guide to help you out: 
- a high pocket pair against a smaller pocket pair (like QQ vs. 77) will give you about an 80%/20% advantage preflop
- if you have a pocket pair and bet into two overcards (99 vs. AK) is basically the toss of a coin, around a 55/45 advantage to the pocket pair
- if you hold a pocket pair and bet into the same card with an overcard (99 vs. A9) you hold roughly a 65/35 edge 
- two over against two undercards, such as KQ vs. J10, will give you about a 60/35 advantage.

As you can see, Texas Holdem is most certainly a game of skill and strategy. There is a lot that goes into whether or not you even get into a hand preflop!


No comments:

Post a Comment