How many of you play Texas Hold em and what is your basic strategy?

Question

Does your strategy work well?

Answer 1

I play texas holdem. Everything i say from here refers to NO Limit holdem online for cash games. Cash games require more skill then tournaments most of the time, and if you are good it will be more profitable. The first winning strategy i leared was to play tight agressive (which i dont anymore). Basically you play the best hands AJo+, 88+, and JTs+ . When you hit a quality hand, you need to bet and be AGRESSIVE. Anyways, this is the basic part, play tight and bet your hands. Lets get a little more advanced.

1. Never limp preflop. Raise or fold. Easy huh? You can tell whose a fish or whose decent just by this. It is okay to call a raise preflop though. Okay, so we talked about limping, raising, and folding preflop. How about reraising? As a beginner, keep your reraising range to TT+, and AQs+. Most people have a pretty strong hand when they reraise, so if you raised preflop and face a reraise fold AJ.

2. Continuation bet: This is a bet done on the flop after you raise preflop. You should be doing this every single time, if you raise preflop unless the board is super connected ex: (flop is 456 three diamonds, you have AK, you raised preflop, just check/fold this hand and dont c-bet). There are other  exceptions of course, but if you ever get good, then we'll talk about it. When your oppenent raises preflop and bets the flop, his range (his possible holdings) is very large so beware of that also.

Ok time to get a little more advanced.

3. Bluffing- Haha, the part you've been waiting for huh? Actually, i already talked about it. 75% of the time you c-bet, you are bluffing. However, the bluff extends beyond the c-bet. To continue your bluff the easiest way you can fire the turn and if circumstances are good, the river. Other ways to bluff is to c/r. A c/r bluff on the flop is somewhat common. C/R on the turn and river are not, but against a very good player, it cant be ruled out. Hopefully, you will be smart and not play a very good player so there is no need to worry. O i forgot! What is a bluff? Basically, its a bet that makes BETTER hands fold. After the flop, what are the circumstances to bluff?

1. A scarecard on the turn comes. This makes it harder for your oppenent to call. Also this card could have helped you make a better hand than your oppenent (or so your oppenent thinks).

2. You are playing in two way pot. Any more than that, just GIVE UP.

3. You are betting in a way that represents a strong hand. Let me give you an example where you arent repping a strong hand. You raise preflop. You check flop on a 56A flop two diamonds. On the turn a jack comes andyou bet pot on a after it gets checked through on the flop. Your oppenent calls. On the river, you bet again when a 2 clubs comes. You get called by 67. Now, why did he call? Because if you had an ace, you would have bet on such a drawy board. On the turn, you could have made jacks, but theres a higher chance you had a missed flush draw, missed straight draw, and complete air.

4. Your oppenent is pretty decent.

a. He isnt a calling station, that stacks off 100 bb with bottom pair.

b. He knows you have been playing tight and will bluff less.

c. He is capable of putting you on a hand.

5. Ok, i am getting a little tired now. So just a few more points.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slowplay

Ok read that article on slowplaying and do the exact opposite of it. Why/? Because if you have been playing agressive poker as i suggested, then it would look very fishy when just start checking. Other reasons are included here:

http://archives1.twoplustwo.com/showflat...

Just because its not the right thing to do, doesnt mean people dont do it. Alot of mediocre to decent players slowplay top two pair or better.

6. Play your oppenent cards too. Ask yourself every single street, what does my oppenent have? If you pay careful attention you can narrow your oppenents range into a select number of hands. Then you can choose the best possible action against him. This is probaly the hardest thing to do as a beginner so if you have problems just post again! Remember, though, play your cards first. Then your oppenents.

Answer 2

You can download Pokerstars.com and play for free. It's fun and it's really the best way to learn the basic strategy.

oops I miss read the question.  

My strategy is to keep them quessing.  Just dont let them figure you out.  Show some bluffs, show some winners.  I just try to mix it up so much that they cant figure out if I got a hand or not.

Answer 3

I usually play pretty passively at the beginning of tourneys. Just betting on really big hands. I do this for a while to let some of the other players eliminate themselves. This also establishes and idea of what kind of player you are to the other players. After a couple people have dropped I wait for a good hand and bet hard (but not carelessly). After I win a big pot I go passive again for a few hands to make the players think I only bet on really big hands. When the other people think this you can start to bully and bluff them a bit. Raises before flop and big bets before the turn. But don't be afraid to fold after some bets, because the other people could have caught something. Always give up if you are bluffing and a guy is coming back at you.