This is a great chart that shows which starting hand should be played in texas holdem poker. Of course you can always vary your play and try hands in positions close to this chart.
If you are starting out in poker, this chart can give you a good idea of which hands to play from what position. In no-limit poker, it really is about position and the size of the bet. Some times you don’t even need a good hand to take the pot. Although I would say this is a more advanced poker strategy. The chart below will give you the general hands to play.
Try it out and in no time your online poker playing will be better than the rest.
Many players forget that your position on the table should make a difference to how many hands you play and the way you go about playing them. Hands that look strong can become weak when playing from early position. Of course, the reverse is true as well. Weak hands get stronger if you’re sitting in a late position.
With an understanding of position you can steal the blinds, trap your opponents and maximize your winnings!
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The Mini-Bluff is an easy way to win BIGGER POTS
when you bluff… AND… decrease the chances that
your opponents will call your bluff.
It goes like this:
When you want to “buy the pot” and bluff out an
opponent you think is weak, what you do is make
the MINIMUM RAISE possible in the current round
of betting.
After they call, make your REAL BLUFF on the NEXT
round of betting… and take down the pot.
Here’s what I mean…
Let’s say you’re playing $1-2 no limit with good
positioning. Josh makes a pre-flop raise of $15.
The next few players fold… and the action is to
you. You look down at J-10 of diamonds. You know
this is a “hidden hand” that could bust Josh if
something good hits on the flop… so you call.
It’s just you and Josh heads-up. The flop hits:
7h-9s-2c
Not exactly the flop you had hoped for. It gives
you an inside straight draw… which means you
have outs… but YOU KNOW BETTER than to chase an
inside straight draw.
Josh represents the flop and bets $25. You know he
doesn’t have anything… there’s no way that flop
helped him.
He’s been representing the flop all night with
that same $25 bet…
So YOUR READ on Josh is that he doesn’t have
anything, and that YOU can buy this pot.
What do you do?
The answer is to make the MINIMUM RAISE.
Come back over Josh and make it $50 to play.
(This is your “Mini-Bluff”.)
By doing this, you’re taking control of the action
and finding out EXACTLY where you stand in the
hand.
Most likely, Josh will call your raise. If he has
something really good, he’ll re-raise you. And in
that case you should probably fold.
BUT IF YOUR READ WAS CORRECT– and Josh DOESN’T
have a strong hand– he’ll just call…
The reason he won’t fold is because HE made the
original bet. And since you only raised him the
MINIMUM amount, it won’t be enough to scare him
off.
OK, so Josh calls, and the turn hits:
7d
That pairs the board… but is no help to you.
Josh is first to act again, but this time taps his
fist against the table and checks.
Just as you’d hoped.
NOW it’s time to make a REAL bluff and buy this
pot.
You come out firing $100 in chips…
Josh shakes his head and says, “I can’t call.”
He flips over his A-J.
You throw your cards into the muck FACE DOWN…
leaving everyone wondering what you had. And you
rake a nice pot.
Here’s why the Mini-Bluff technique is so
powerful:
1. It gives you control in the hand.
When you raise your opponent, you automatically
assume a level of CONTROL. If your opponent
re-raises, he takes control again…
The entire POINT of a bluff is to get your
opponent to fold. If he feels like he’s in
control, he won’t fold… and your bluff won’t
work.
2. You get a better read on your opponent.
In our example, Josh could have easily had
something like A-9 (and hit top pair) or an over
pair or whatever.
You didn’t THINK he had something good, but it’s
tough to know for sure.
Your Mini-Bluff eliminates the confusion. If Josh
had a monster, he would have either gone back over
the top of you with a re-raise… or would have
bet after the turn card.
Instead, he just CALLED and then CHECKED the turn.
That’s pretty much a dead giveaway that he didn’t
have anything.
3. It builds the pot.
In this case, you won $25 more by “setting up”
your bluff with the Mini-Bluff. That’s $25 more in
your pocket at the end of the night…
If you use the Mini-Bluff technique five times a
game, that’s a nice chunk of change added to your
wins.
4. There’s less risk involved.
A MINIMUM RAISE is much safer than trying to buy
the pot outright… especially when you’re not
completely sure your opponent is weak.
The Mini-Bluff prevents pot-commitment and leaves
you room to GET OUT of the hand if necessary.
5. Your bluff is more believable.
The Mini-Bluff raises “red flags” for your
opponent… mostly because he’s not used to it.
It doesn’t APPEAR that your bluffing– and that’s
the whole point, of course.
After he calls your Mini-Bluff, he’s going to be
weary of you… confused about your hand. And THAT
is the perfect setup for taking down the pot.
So that’s the power of the Mini-Bluff.
It’s a great technique to add to your poker “bag
of tricks”…
But as with all strategies, use the Mini-Bluff
SPARINGLY. Don’t get careless with it or use it
too much.
The Mini-Bluff is NOT a replacement for your
regular bluffing patterns. It’s meant to keep your
opponents off balance and MILK them for a few
extra dollars once in awhile.
Also, only perform the Mini-Bluff when you’ve got
good positioning and sense weakness at the
table… the same conditions as any other bluff.
Play your position and get a feel for the table. Use these considerations when deciding how much to raise the pot.
If everyone is folding when you get a big hand, you need to mix up your game. By that I mean show a bluff once in awhile… that way you confuse your opponents.
When you get to the “bubble” with four players left, try to make your move BEFORE getting short-stacked.
Don’t get “desperate”. Instead, steal some pots! Especially since everyone is folding to you.
Those “stolen” pots will build momentum and carry you into the money finishes…
Pay attention to the player stack amounts. If there is a player who is short stacked, expect 2 things. First they will go all-in when they have an A anything or 2 high cards. Second there will be good chance they will be taken out shortly. So play accordingly. Don’t take chances against the big stack while there is a short stack soon to be blinded out.
Try out a sit-n-go tournament at Poker Stars - from $5 1 table (9 players) and up…
Big Sit N Go strategy
The $5 and $50 Sit n go’s are much different. Be careful not to blow your bankroll when you move up to the higher stakes. I see it happen all the time.
If you’re going to play in the $50 Sit and Go’s make sure your game is SHARP… I’d recommend just WATCHING a few before you dive in.
With that being said, I know a lot of guys who find the higher stakes games to be EASIER than the lower stakes ones… because the players are more predictable.
Aggressive Play can be a very difficult strategy for many players. The very nature of this style lends itself to larger swings—Bigger wins and also bigger losses. Today I’ll give some examples of how to play aggressively in table or tournament play.
Play Online Poker
Aggressive Poker is all about Fear and Greed.
They say there are two key Wall Street trader emotions—Fear and Greed. Similarly, the main objective behind aggressive play is to instill fear in your opponents and incite their greed. What do I mean by this? Well put simply, you’d like your opponents to fold to you, afraid of your big hands(fear), then go on tilt as they get desperate(greed).
This is best performed by you being the one who takes action first. You should be the first to bet, never the caller. The primary purpose of this is to force your opponents to make a decision. This allows them the opportunity to make mistakes. According to David Sklansky’s Fundamental Theorem of Poker, you always want your opponent to make the non-optimal play—a different play than one they would make if they had perfect knowledge of all the cards.
But doesn’t this mean you could be making the wrong decision? Sure, you could have the worst hand and be betting. But more often than not, your opponents don’t know that for 100% certain. All they know is that you’ve made a bet, preferably a large bet, and that instills fear into them. Let them decide what they want to do.
Greed comes into play when people go on tilt. They’re angry for losing, and they’re not thinking straight. When this happens, $$ signs light up in their eyes, and they try to crawl back into the game by calling or betting with bad hands. They start to gamble. This is another time when your aggressive play can scoop up. Your opponents are playing worse hands—even if you get called, your win percentage will go up just based on the fact that your tilting opponents are playing worse starters.
The Right of First Bluff.
Sometimes the flop comes and a bunch of dispersed crap shows up. Most likely nobody has anything, or do they? Someone who paired up is likely to bet. The ones that didn’t will probably fold. What often happens is the first guy to bet often wins the pot. No one else hit anything either, so they’re just going to dump their hands. You collected all the flop bets, for a single additional bet.
If you check, and everyone else checks, the guy in last position almost always invariably will bet a token amount in this situation. Of course he is just playing position, but the principle is still the same: Instill fear in your opponents and they will fold. One thing to mention: Aggressiveness is not to be confused with blindness. If someone calls or raises you, watch out. They may actually have something and it’s probably time to get out.
Semi-Bluff Aggressiveness
This is probably the best use of aggressiveness in poker. A semi-bluff is where you bet knowing that you probably don’t have the best hand, but have a decent chance at drawing into an extremely good one. In this type of bluff, you’ll hope your opponents fold right now and concede the pot to you. If they call, you still have a shot at drawing to a straight or flush or pairing up your cards to win in a showdown. Again, you’re putting pressure on your opponents, forcing them to put their money in to continue. They’re afraid you might have something big, and if their hand is mediocre, they’ll drop. Watch out though, if they stick around or come over the top. Chances are, they’ve got something, and you’re going to have to rely on a little luck to have your semi-bluff pay off!
Playing Poker short-stacked is just that—your chips are low and the odds are stacked against you. There are a lot of psychological changes that goes on in a player’s mind. Simultaneously, opponents will start to view you differently. Today I’m going to discuss how to play a better short stack in tournament play.
When you start to get low on chips—it usually means you’re in trouble. Try not to get here in the first place, but if you are stuck in this position, there are some changes to your game that you need to make in order to come back. It is very doable—several top-name players tend to play better short-stacked than with a lot of chips. Most of it has to do with the mentality that goes along with few chips.
Sometimes you need to gamble in poker.
When you get into this position, you need to take some chances. If you sit and do nothing, just waiting for premium hands to show up, the escalating blinds will eat you alive. You need to take a few more risks and try to steal a few chips from the guys behind you, and possibly the ones in front. And when I say gamble, I don’t mean bet any two cards—force some action with decent starters on a semi-bluff. You’re putting all your chips in, hoping that nobody will call you and you’ll take down the blinds and anyone else who called before you.
When no one has called in front of you and you’re in late position, you should seriously think about getting all your money in the pot. Late in the tourney when there are less players, you need to pick your spot before you run out of chips. 5-10 big blinds or less is the potential area when you want to make a move. Blinds will probably go up at least once during these 5-10 blinds, so realistically you have more like 4-7 blinds left. Don’t let that eat you alive–force people to call your large bet. Once you get down to 3-5 times the big blind, almost anyone will call a bet with decent starters. Sometimes you’ll get called with KK or AA, but that’s just too bad. You’ve gotten yourself in that position and you can’t do anything about that.
Your chips are worth more than theirs.
This is an important point to realize. Every chip in front of you is more valuable to you than each of theirs. 100 chips out of your 1000 chip stack is 10% of your entire bankroll. 100 chips to their 3000 chip stack is 3.3%–a big dropoff in value. Why is this important? Well, it means that every chip you win is a larger addition to your bankroll than your opponents. If you push all-in trying to pick up the blinds, your opponents may not think the blinds are worth defending. To you, however, they are a significant deposit to your stack. This also leads me to my next point.
Others will think you’re desperate.
Don’t expect people to roll over for you—wolves smell the wounded, and they are prepared to hunt you down. They realize your back is to the wall and try to take you out before you can replenish, gain strength, and become a significant force once again.
You’ll see people try to get more aggressive with you, forcing an almost automatic raise when you’re in the blind. If you don’t have anything, obviously you fold. If you do have something, sometimes your best play is to play right back at them and go all in. The aggressiveness can be taken to extremes, and some players are just raising on the fact that they smell your fear.
What you’ll also see sometimes is players calling with mediocre hands. They think you could be betting with any two(which is true), and you’ll find a lot of callers with stuff like K-Q, A-x a lot of the time. If you’ve really got a good hand in early position, shove in. You can double or even triple up sometimes when dopes call with weak hands. Same goes for hitting something on the flop. You’ve paired up and they’ve got A-Q—at this point just push all in. Sometimes they’ll get you in the end, but that’s poker. Remember the one of the basic rules of poker—get your money in when you’ve got the best of it.
A-A versus J-J gives you an 80% chance of winning the pot. If you play aggressively pre-flop, narrow the field to one or two callers, and get a read on your opponents, then you’ve done your job.
As for getting “out-kicked”…
Be careful with A-J and A-10… these hands are notorious for getting out-kicked. If there are more than six or seven players at the table when you pick up one of these hands, be VERY CAUTIOUS.
The goal is to find out WHERE YOU STAND before your opponent shows his cards at the end. Get a read on what your opponent is holding and put him to a decision for chips BEFORE the hand plays out all the way.
If there’s an Ace on the board and you’re opponent keeps betting… and you just keep calling with A-10… then you’re asking for trouble.
Raise your opponent to find out where you stand in the hand. If he’s got A-Q or A-K figure it out before the cards are turned over, not after.
The number one tip for every poker player who joins a poker room online is…
…use a bonus code! You wouldn’t believe how many players sign up without a bonus code. Without taking advantage of the bonuses that the poker sites offer you are missing out on a huge amount of free money.
The poker room’s want you to play at their site as opposed to their competitors. So they give out cash when you make your initial deposit. They offer a bonus code to be used when you first sign up. So even if you are only going to check out a site’s play money tables I would advise you to enter a bonus code. You may win some money in a freeroll tournament or later you may decide to make a real money deposit. Either way you are ahead by using a bonus code.
I have searched for the most popular bonus codes online and believe this poker site has the best bonus offers.
Remember, always use a bonus code. Even if you are just going on the play money tables. Playing the freerolls alone is one reason to always use a bonus code.
Pocket tens, Jacks, and Queens are some of the MOST DIFFICULT hands to play.
Step 1. Decide whether or not to play them aggressively.
Just because you pick up a pocket pair does NOT automatically mean you should play the hand to win no matter what.
There’s always a good chance someone has a HIGHER pocket pair than you.
Also, you don’t want to get too aggressive when you’re in early position, like under the gun.
If you choose NOT to play aggressively, then you can shift into “aggressive mode” after the flop if you sense you have the best hand or if you hit trips.
Remember, position is everything. Consider playing much more aggressively (and possibly stealing the pot pre-flop) when you’re in late position.
click here for FREE bonus Step 2. If you play aggressively pre-flop, try to narrow the field down to one or two callers.
Watch out for higher pocket pairs.
You’ll most likely get called from someone with a lower pocket pair or two face cards.
Step 3. Represent the flop. If there are “scary” cards out there (i.e. you have T-T and the flop hits A-3-K) then just give up on the hand and don’t lose anymore chips.
If you represent the flop but your opponent goes right back over the top of you, then fold.
You can win ten big hands a night but RUIN it all by losing one big hand. So know when to muck your cards.
Of course… if you hit your trips on the flop, play them hard!
When playing poker, you are often faced with the decision whether to call or fold to a bet. One way to determine whether to call is to see if the odds of winning the money in the pot (”pot odds”) equal or exceed the odds of you getting the cards you need for a winning hand (also called your ‘outs’). Quickly calculating whether the pot odds you face are favorable is essential to a long term winning strategy. In other words, only make a bet if it will pay off in the long run. Here’s how:
You must know how much money is in the pot in order to calculate pot odds. In a limit game, you can easily calculate this by counting the number of bets that are in the pot. For example, if there is $100 in the pot at a 10/20 game on the flop, then there are 10 bets in there. If you must call a single bet to remain in the hand, then the pot odds are 10:1. Online poker rooms have the amount of the pot displayed, so it is easier to just divide the amount you must bet into the pot size.
Steps
Divide the number of cards unseen by the number of “outs” that you have. “Outs” are the cards remaining in the deck that will allow you to make a winning hand.
Subtract 1.
There must be at least that many bets in the pot (i.e., multiples of your bet) for a call.
Example: Say you have 2 hearts. Two more hearts fall on the flop. There are now 47 unseen cards. You have 9 outs (9 out of 13 unseen hearts remaining in the deck) to make your flush on the next card.
Divide 47 by 9 = 5.2
Subtract 1 = 4.2
There must be at least 4.2 bets in the pot for you to call a single bet.
If you don’t get your card on the turn, you may be faced with repeating the process in the next round of betting. Remember that post-turn bets are usually larger than pre-turn bets.
Tips
The preceding steps are a quick method for determining outs on the next card. Other methods exist.
Some people advocate determining the number of outs required to make your hand using all future cards. For example, if you need one card for a flush, you actually have two draws to that card, not just one. Doing the math, you get 1.5:1 odds, so 1.5 bets would be your break even. Since you can be can be forced out on the next round, this is only true if there is no more betting. However, you need to estimate all future bets to get to that last card (yours and theirs), and that ratio needs to be 1.5 or more. It’s much harder to do this math on the fly, however, and usually requires you to memorize an ‘out’ list for different card combinations.
Outs:-1—2—3—4–5-6-7-8-9-12-15 Need
Odds:45-22-14-10-8-7-6-5-4-3–2
Note that it mentions outs to a “winning hand”. There is no automatic system to determine what a “winning hand” is. Maybe that 3-of-a-kind could win. But maybe there’s 3 cards to a flush on the table. Experience will dictate what you consider a minimum strength hand to win.
The actual formula for calculating hand-odds is:(cards_left - outs)/outs (which is the same as cards_left/outs - 1)
e.g.: (47-9)/9 = 47/9-1 = 38/9 = 4.22/1
Sit n go poker tournaments are a lot of fun. They are relatively short (compared to a multi tournament. The prize pool usually pays out 30% of the players and you can play them when ever you want.
To consistently place in the money in a 10 player sit n go, you should adopt the following strategy.
Play good cards at first. Wait until there are 5-6 players left then loosen up. Avoid confrontations that you will have to commit your entire stack. Steal the blinds. Makes notes on the players and the cards they show for later reference. Play your big hands against the player who plays everything. Watch the chip stacks. Play the smaller stacks (you can’t go out if you are all-in with them).
Most importantly observe the other players actions.
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