Texas Holdem Strategy: The Basics of Preflop, Postflop and Betting

 Texas Holdem Strategy - The Basics Of Preflop, Postflop, and Betting

Before we get into details about Texas Holdem strategy I thought I'd share a quote that I feel is appropriate for most readers.

Poker is much like sex. Although everyone believes they are the best at poker, many don't even know how to play it. Dutch Boyd

This is true. However, it's not surprising. We hope that you can at least get a sense of how to succeed at Texas Holdem Strategy.

One of the greatest benefits of poker is its simplicity. For beginners, the rules are simple and easy to follow. On the other hand, this is a challenging game to master. There are always things to improve upon and learn.

You should be able to use the basic strategy provided below to help you build a winning poker game. If you are interested in more advanced material, we have links throughout.

The PDF version of Poker 101 is available for offline usage (30+ pages). Click on one of the buttons to unlock:

Preflop Texas Holdem Strategy

Your preflop poker strategy is what will make your game. You will make your first decisions preflop, so it is essential to be accurate. This area is one of the easiest to grasp.

To help you understand, let's take a quick look at an example (click on the picture to see the full replay).

We have JTs. (J = Jack and T = Ten. An's’ after JT signifies that both cards belong to the same suit. An o after the JT would indicate off-suit) in first position under the gun on a six handed table with $1/$0.5BB/SB. It is up to us to decide what action we take. There are so many things to keep in mind, that I can't possibly cover them all. However, I will try to include the most essential factors in the next paragraphs.

It is common for new players to play too many hands. They believe that they can outplay opponents post-flop and still make a profit, even with the weakest hands. This belief is false and is often one of the reasons new players lose their money early in their careers.

Only A Small Percentage of The Hands You Are Dealt With Can Be Played

Preflop poker strategy tip 1: Play only a small amount of the hands you're dealt. The type of hands to be played will be discussed in detail later on. A tight player is one who plays only a small percentage of the hands they are dealt. On the other hand, loose players are those who play many hands.

The majority of poker players who win are very tight. However, most of the losing players tend to be loose. This is the most important tip for poker players:

Preflop Poker Strategy Tip 1 - Only play a very small percentage of the hands dealt.

JTs is among the top 12 percent of hands, so it is one we want to keep. Equilab, a program that determines how strong a hand is, can be used to do this. We can now choose to raise or call if our hand is too strong not to fold.

This results in a second reason that new players are often unsuccessful: frequent limping

Limping refers to calling the big blind rather than raising or folding. You are the first to act when you have been dealt two aces (AA), or, as in our case with JTs, you simply call instead of raising - this is known as a limp.

Limping: Flawed Reasoning

New players often limp to get a cheap hand with speculative hands, or to trap with strong hands like AA or KK. The reason that good players rarely limp is because they are so successful.

This gives the other players an opportunity to beat your weak holdings. You can bet with AA if you are limping and your opponent is in the big blind check behind. He will have a chance of outdrawing you to three or more of a type or two-pair. You should not allow weak hands to outplay yours.

The pot is built with good hands. A big hand should win a big pot. The only way to win your opponent's entire hand (all of their chips), is to raise preflop. When you have AA or K, winning their entire stack is what they want.

It helps you understand the potential weaknesses of your opponent. If our opponent is in a big blind and we limp in to him, he may have all the possible hands. However, when we raise our opponent, we will fold some the worst hands and help us see what he can do. Experimented players will use this advantage to their advantage.

Playing speculative poker hands (hands that have the potential to win big pots but are not often) such as 64s and 64s (s=suited, o=offsuit) is just not profitable. This applies regardless of whether you raise, limp or play poker well.

Preflop poker strategy tip 2: Never limp before the turn

Example: JTs below the gun

Because limping (i.e. Raising money is the only way to go. This raises the question: how much? In this instance, we will raise the BB to 3x, which is $3, and one player calls our wager as shown. Later in this article, we will discuss the reasons why 3x is used. Here are More Texas Holdem Poker Strategies That Will Dominate You