REAL POKER MASTERY

Turn your poker table and let’s have a close look at your previous defeats. Put it out of your mind and ascertain a new passion to play and win. Are you using Texas holdem strategy in your game? If not, surely it is being applied against you by your opponents.

The fame of Texas Holdem poker has taken the people by storm. According to figures about 100 million people are playing Texas holdem worldwide. Many recent trends like online gaming and TV shows publicity like World Series of poker and world poker tour have provided this popularity some extra boom. Analysts sketch this fame as gold rush which has made it trendy like strip poker.

Obviously, the most important decision about playing Texas holdem poker is to decide which starting hand to play and which one to skip. For this many important factors like starting hand groups, your table position, number of players and chip positions counts very much. Remember as late you start, the more number of starting hands you should play. As the number of players drop down to 6 or 7, forget about chasing flush and also the straight draws which results waste chips and bring you at risk. When the number of players drops down to 4, you should open up carefully and prefer to play for more hands. At this stage you should prefer to protect your blinds and steel occasionally. Let the smaller stacks be knocked out or blinded to double up.

As the game is down to 3 players, keep head up and avoid engaging yourself in big stacks. You should also avoid confrontation unless you are holding a pair, king or ace. Now tighten up your game and hang on to see if you can gain 2nd place. Once you’re heads up, become pushy and play more aggressively. Surely it is the time of game to raise a lot. It is important to keep the track of your chip stack size against blinds and other people’s stack. If you are short on poker chips, try to play tighter and wait for good hand. When you acquire a chance of good hand, extract all possible chips that you can get. If you are a big stack you should be careful as people will try to use you for doubling. At this stage avoid unnecessary confrontation; push around everyone with your big stack and try to steel blinds without taking risk of too many chips in the process.

Well, according to poker rules this is a quick overview of improved starting hands strategy to adjust you in a better place throughout the tournament. Finally, best wishes for you at Texas holdem poker tables!

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Recently, I received a question from one of my students. It stated, “What exactly is pot odds and is Texas Holdem pot odds strategy worth pursuing?”

One thing to remember, any kind of Texas Holdem odds can and usually do get very confusing. However, let me break pot odds down in very simple terms. Please note that we are only discussing Pot Odds. Not outs, implied odds, simple odds or anything else like that.

In short, pot odds are the odds you get when determining the ratio of the amount of money in the pot to the amount of money it will cost you to call the bet.

For example, let’s say you’re heads up with Player A. If there is $150.00 in the pot after the flop and Player A places a $20.00 bet it will cost you only 13% of the pot to stay in the hand. If your likelihood of winning is greater than 13% it’s a no-brainer to call because you’d have good pot odds.

That’s all there is to it really. Texas Holdem pot odds boils down to one thing. If your chance of winning is better than the ratio of the pot size to the bet then you have good pot odds. If it’s lower than you have bad pot odds.

One more thought about Texas Holdem pot odds. You’re still playing the player more so than anything else. Play the player more than your starting hands or the size of the chip stack and even, yes the pot odds.

If you can learn to read your opponents well you can utilize pot odds to help justify or solidify your decision. But Texas Holdem pot odds do not have to be an end all whenever you make a poker decision.

Knowing and understanding how Texas Holdem pot odds work can be a useful and successful strategy. But again don’t make Texas Holdem pot odds your only strategy.

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