Texas hold’em, like all poker games, is about risk and reward. Every decision you make will have some effect on your result. Luck is a frequent ingredient, but when luck is on the same level among players, the skills are divided – this is what makes the difference.
Betting
If you have a good hand that you think is the best but that can be beaten if more cards will be showed at the table, you must handle active and trying to get the pot before it’s too late. Then you do this don’t bet to modest: if the opponent doesn’t have anything but are waiting for a possibly good hand, for example a straight, make it too expensive to let him see the next card.
But don’t bet too gratuitous or in unnecessary risky manners. If you overbet you can lose more than it should cost in most cases to just get your opponents away from the pot. To be more certain how exactly to do this you must learn pot odds and memorize different probabilities. Until then remember to handle active but not extensive. Be aggressive to take command, if you’re passive you let the opponents decide the conditions.
Folding
It’s critical that you are able to fold your hand (even a good one); otherwise you are being a fish that are feeding the sharks!
The easiest way to spot a bad player on the board is when someone doesn’t give up hands in time. In way of knowing when to fold or play on you must have an understanding about when the odds are on your side and when they’re not. Besides this you must choose the right starting hands to play.
As long as you hold on to cold hands, you hope is luck. But I beg you not to play for luck or “play the card deck” as I like to call it.
Position
If you don’t know how to play positional in poker you should get to know the concepts of it right now. Let’s look at this sequence:
Pre-flop:
Player 1 – 1st position
Player 2 – 2nd position
Player 3 – the button (3rd pos.)
Player 4 – small blind (4th pos.)
Player 5 – big blind (5th pos.)
After the flop (the order is obviously changing):
Player 4 – 1st position
Player 5 – 2nd position
Player 1 – 3rd position
Player 2 – 4th position
Player 3 – 5th in the “position”
You have to be familiar to these two configurations and plan your game upon it. As you can notice the player with the button will later become in position. And to be in position is a big advantage. The player in position will have all the information collected when it’s him to act. If you’re fond of bluffing, this is the bluffing pole position. Or the other way around, if you’re a tight and solid player here you will play with the least risk taking.
Of this it can be concluded that even if the player with the small blind can “limp in” on half the price, he’s getting the worse position too.
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