Texas Hold'em Strategy

Some Poker Terminology

Table jargon is important to know, as strategy is often expressed in it.

• A "set" is three of a kind where one or two of the three are on the table and the other card or cards are in the hole.
• A "nut" hand or a "lock" is a hand that will almost certainly not be beaten, like a high straight, a high full house, or a flush. (The "pure nuts" is four of a kind or a straight flush, hands that really are almost impossible to beat.)
• A "check-fold" strategy is to play along just to see what might happen, checking whenever possible and folding if anyone responds with a real bet.

High Cards are a Must

At its simplest level, Hold'em favors a player holding two high cards, as this presents the best odds of putting a good hand together with the flop, turn and river cards. Any discussion of Hold'em strategy, therefore, will be all about high cards.

Starting Hands

Strategists recommend that the first rule involves knowing when to play a hand at all, and then, if things start going the wrong way, knowing enough to fold as soon as possible. There is no way to win at Texas Hold'em by hanging in there with losing cards.

Many players use a point and ranking system for starting hands, similar to strategies in the game of bridge. By counting strength and having a cut-off point, the player is less likely to buy into a losing cause. The point system is not strictly necessary. The starting hands are fairly easy to identify, as only two cards are involved:

The best hands are paired high cards. Next in order are aces suited with other high cards. Next in order are suited honors or face cards. Next is an unsuited Ace-King combination. Those are the very best hands. They should be played aggressively prior to the flop, in hopes of shaking out anyone who might be hoping to get to the flop on the cheap, to improve their position. If betting from early positions at the table, only strong hands should be played.

A player at a later position at the table can decide to play less potent starting hands, but probably not aggressively. These are honors suited with tens, medium pairs, or two high cards unsuited. Aces suited with medium cards also are playable, and suited middle connector cards with no gap or only one gap (like Jack-nine, Ten-nine, Ten-eight, Nine-eight, etc., down to 7-5).

With these medium strength hands, it is important to get to the flop to see if anything turns up to give you a stronger hand, either a third card for a pair, or two more in sequence or suit for a straight or flush. Because five of the seven cards to be used in the hand are the same for everybody, hands like two pair, which may win often in draw poker, do not win in Hold'em unless the high pair is in your hand. In other words, if the hand has a low pair, two pair is not a strong hand, as any other hand with a pair in it will probably win.

For this reason, weaker hands, if they are played at all, need to be played cautiously. They include low pairs, suited ace-low combinations, suited low connectors with no gap or one gap (like 5-4 or 5-3). These hands may be worth a bet to see the flop, but probably should fold in the face of real heat. This is because they are unlikely to improve enough to overcome the strength of someone else's strong opening hand.

Put a little differently, players who take early positions need strong hands and should play them aggressively. The chances of winning with a strong hand improve as the number of players dwindles. Getting rid of the riffraff quickly is an example of "fast play." Fast play also can put money in the pot.

A medium strength hand (medium cards are 9, 8, & 7) should be slow-played until at least the flop. Slow play, if mirrored by the other players, will allow you to get to see the flop without having to pay much for it.

The Flop

When the flop does come, if it is disappointing, the earlier aggressive strategy may allow a late-game bluff to work. If the flop has a high card or two in it but little for you as a player, it might be prudent to fold, particularly if other players have started to come alive. Because flushes are possible, even likely, in Texas Hold'em, some low or medium cards may become important because of their suit, not their value. A "suited player" or a "suited hand" refers to two hole cards of the same suit.

If the flop has some possible strength for other players with high cards, it may be that a high pair in the hand is not the winner for the round. If that is the case, throw it away.

On the other hand, a "garbage flop" may present an opportunity. It is a flop in which little connection exists among the cards by value or suit, and the cards are medium and low. This is a good opportunity to bet on your two high hole cards or ace, in case no one else has developed anything. If the betting gets serious, indicating a high pair or a set (of three), it's probably prudent to fold.

Sequential and suited flops can be dangerous, as a straight or a flush can come along to blind-side a player's high pair or other good hand.

Other Strategic Considerations

Avoid shooting for the low end of a straight. If the flop has a sequence, say 10-9-8, the player really needs the Q-J and not the 7-6 or J-7 to win. (Players call the low end of a sequence the "ignorant end" of a straight, and this applies to players who literally, "bet on it."). The chances are just too good that someone else will be able to do something on the high end of the straight, with the result that the low end comes in second. And there is no prize for second place in Hold'em.

Throw away unconnected medium and low cards after a ho-hum flop, if you haven't already tossed them. The same thing is true of low pairs. If they don't find a partner in the flop, they are probably losers. Low pairs need to become a set or a quad to have any real power, and the flop is really the last good chance to see progress towards that.

If you can play a hand in more than one way after the flop (such as a straight or a flush or a set), bet aggressively. This means that there are an unusually large number of "outs" for this hand, and the chances of ending up with a winner are better than usual. Only by effort and experience will a player acquire a feeling for the relative strength of hands. Most general strategy principles for other poker games also apply in Hold'em.

Bluff

Not only does bluffing win a few undeserved hands, but it forces calls instead of folds when you have a strong hand.

Finally, all players should study their opponents and look for "tells" - psychological or physical hints about what's going on in the hand. Also, players need to be vigilant against telegraphing "tells" of their own. For two cards to complete a flush out of the turn and river cards is a better percentage because the number of possible combinations [combin(10,2)*combin(1;1)] is almost three times as large. Ten ranks are available, and two are required, and there are 45 different ways of combining two cards out of a universe of ten. The result is 45 out of 1081 or 4.16%.