- No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Game
- No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Poker
- No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Rules
- No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Cheat
I've read that you can become a breakeven Texas Hold'em player just by mastering preflop strategy. While your results depend on your skill and your luck, I know for a fact that you can't be profitable in Texas Hold'em unless your play during all the streets of the game are top notch.
Some of this advice applies to both limit and no limit Hold'em, while some of it only applies to one or the other. I'll include that information with each tip. Keep reading below to learn some useful tips to improve your strategy while playing Texas Hold'em online and offline.
1 – Raise or Fold
Recently I was playing $1/$2 Limit Texas Hold'em online and I noticed something striking about one of the players at my table. You think about your pre-flop strategy, but while you may need to. Pre-flop Strategy – Starting Hand Rankings: Groups 0 to 2 by FTR Poker Admin Nov 8, 2020 No Limit Hold'em, Poker Strategy 0 comments One of the most difficult and yet crucial decisions you will make when playing no limit Texas holdem will be whether to even play your hand.
One thing I learned early in my career as a Texas Hold'em player is that you should raise or fold any time you're the first player in the pot.
If you have a lousy hand, fold it.
If you don't feel good betting or raising with the hand, it's not worth calling with.
Players who try to get lucky on the flop lose money fast, and they lose money consistently. If you have lousy cards preflop, even if you hit a flop, it might be inferior to someone else's hand which hit the flop.
And when you do have a good hand, by betting and raising with it, you simultaneously put pressure on your opponents to fold and build the size of the pot with a hand that has a good probability of winning that pot.
If you have strong enough hole cards, you can have the best hand on the flop even if you miss it completely.
2 – You Need an Even Bigger Hand If Someone Has Already Called
One of the reasons you raise with a big hand when you're the first person in the pot is that you get a chance to pick up the blinds immediately.
If someone has already called in front of you, then you have to convince one more person to fold to pick up those blinds.
When multiple people have called in front of you, you have even more people to convince to fold. This means, if you're going to raise here, you need a stronger hand.
Pay attention to the kinds of cards your opponents play.
If you pay close enough attention, you'll have a good idea of what your opponents' starting hand requirements are, and you'll be able to make decisions accordingly.
3 – You Need an Even Bigger Hand Still If Someone Has Raised
If it seems like I'm hammering the idea that you should raise or fold by suggesting that you need strong hands preflop, then you're paying attention.
Players don't get into trouble with hands that they fold preflop. They also don't get into trouble with hands they feel are good enough to re-raise with preflop.
They only get into trouble with hands they call raises with preflop because they have to figure out where they are on the flop.
Your opponent will miss the flop most of the time, too, but give him some credit for having a hand preflop if he raised with it.
This means sticking with premium hands like aces and kings if there's been a raise in front of you.
4 – Pay Attention to Your Position
You need stronger cards to play from early position than you need to play from later position.
The reason for this is simple.
Let's say you get a pair of sevens from early position, and you limp in with it which means, of course, that you weren't paying attention to my first three preflop Hold'em tips, by the way.
You get a raise from the player behind you, and the player behind him reraises, too. You don't have much choice at this point but to fold your pocket sevens, but you've lost a bet by doing so.
After all, with a raise and a re-raise behind you, someone probably has a pair bigger than yours in the hole. And if not, they're at the least playing big cards like AK, AQ, or KQ.
Your only hope is that you hit a seven on the flop, but the odds of that are terrible because there are only 2 of those cards left in the deck.
No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Game
Also, you're going to be in early position on the flop, too, so you won't have any hints as to what your opponents might have after the flop, either.
Suppose the flop comes A-K-6. You're first to act. You can bet here, but if either of your opponents raise, your only smart move (again) is to fold. After all, they got into this hand with a raise and a re-raise preflop, so they showed strength.
They're likely to have hit an ace or a king, and they're also likely to have a big pair in the hole.
If you stick with premium cards from early position, you'll do a lot better.
5 – Completing the Blind When You're the Small Blind Makes Sense
Most of the time, the small blind is half the size of the big blind. This means that, if you have the chance to get in, it only costs you half as much to see the flop.
If it costs you half as much money to get into the pot, your pot odds double immediately. If you'd normally need a 10 to 1 probability of winning to make a call worthwhile, you only need a 5 to 1 probability of winning since you're putting in half as much money.
This doesn't mean you should play anything from the small blind. And it sure doesn't mean you should call a raise or a re-raise from the small blind.
Your job then is to fold if you miss the flop and play strong when you hit the flop hard.
Also, keep in mind that you'll be out of position for the rest of the hand, so you really do need to hit the flop hard to stay in it at this point.
6 – Ace-King Is One of the Only Preflop Hands Worth Cold Calling
A cold call is when you call a bet that's been raised but don't re-raise with it.
Cold calling is almost always a mistake. It is similar to taking insurance when playing real money blackjack.
Ace-king is an exception. The thing about 'big slick' is that it almost never wins unless it improves to a pair on the flop.
You don't want to commit a lot of your chips preflop on this hand, but you also don't want to give this one up without a fight.
It's too strong a hand to fold, but it's too weak to re-raise with. It's also easy to see where you're at when the flop hits.
Often, it's just as good a play to raise with it. Some of it depends on your opponents. And some of it just has to do with avoiding being predictable.
7 – Pay Attention to Your Opponents Even If You're Planning to Fold
Most of the time, your cards preflop won't be good enough to play. A lot of Hold'em players stop paying attention to the hand as soon as they realize they're going to fold. That's a big mistake.
You should pay close attention to every hand that gets played so that you can decide what your opponents' ranges are.
Some players might raise preflop with any pocket pair no matter how low. If that's the case, you should be able to pick up on that. Other players are so tight that they might fold 35 hands in a row.
But if you're not paying attention, you're flying blind when you don't have to.
Conclusion
Playing preflop Texas Hold'em is important. I'm not sure if it's true that you can break even just by mastering this one aspect of the game.
The tips on this page should help you play better before the flop. And I hope these tips were better than the usual 'play tight preflop and here are the starting hands worth playing' type of advice.
Playing before the flop is your first opportunity to voluntarily put money in the pot. Don't just toss in the first single bet to be a part of the action. Make good decisions by following the advice given in this lesson and stick to our recommended starting hand requirements until you gain more experience. There is no shame in folding and waiting for a better hand to play. On the contrary, the shame is in falling prey to the donkey's mantra of 'any two will do!'
Before we mention starting hand requirements, let's talk about the mindset that captures successful limit play. That mindset is the ability to be patient and selective about the hands you play. Patience is a critical element to winning hold'em play. Good players exercise the patience to wait for hands that they know have positive expectation and then play them aggressively. In a nutshell this strategy describes the selective, aggressive mantra that has been espoused by Krieger, Sklansky, Malmuth, Caro, and every other credible limit hold'em pundit of the last several decades.
Tight is Right
The tight-aggressive approach is the backbone of a successful limit player's strategy. The reason this approach is so successful is simple—the vast majority of the poker playing public are long term losers who do not have the discipline or knowledge to beat the game. Let your opponents make the mistake of playing too many hands while you become more selective. It will pay dividends. If you only play hands that figure to be the best against opponents who play too many mediocre hands, it just makes sense that you will win money. This critical skill is the foundation upon which other skills need to be added to make you a formidable limit hold'em player.
The most common mistake made by limit hold'em players is that they play too many hands. Look, no one enters a casino or logs on to an online game with the intention of folding hand after hand. But when you look at the entire universe of possible two-card starting hand combinations you might be dealt, the vast majority of them are junk, which means the correct play is to fold most of them. If there's one tip that will raise your game significantly, it's this: be selective with the hands you choose to play, and then be aggressive with the hands you do play.
Starting Hand Selection
What hands should you play if you're going to be patient and selective? Well, that depends in large measure upon your position relative to the dealer button. The best starting hands are playable from any position, but other hands have very different characteristics.
We have created a starting hand chart that can be used as a guide. This chart will load as a PDF document (link opens in a new window), which you can view on screen or print off for easy reference.
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Understand that our attempt to categorize starting hands by their strength and positional considerations is a loose guide. There are many factors that may encourage you to tighten or loosen your play from these guidelines. As in all poker decisions the phrase, 'It depends' comes to mind. That is to say our starting hand chart is a guide, not a set of intractable rules.
In fact, you may want to look at a starting hand chart this way:
- If you're a beginner or a consistently money-losing player, treat this guide as the gospel.
- If you're an experienced player, you can treat these recommendations as a guide.
- If you're a skillful, winning player, please consider these recommendations a point of demarcation for your own creative, winning play.
But before you decide to deviate from these guidelines, have a reason for taking action that's at variance from our recommendations.
We haven't included every possible starting hand on our chart. Unplayable hands, also known as ‘junk' don't need any further explanation. I'm sure you will recognize them. In fact, the majority of the hands you'll be dealt will fall into this category. Let your weak undisciplined opponents play 7-2 because it was suited—you throw them in the muck where they belong.
Type of Games
It's important to be aware that different games play differently. The texture of the game—whether it's tight and aggressive, tight and passive, loose and aggressive, loose and passive, or a mixture of these, will dictate what hands you should play. For example, if you're playing in a loose and passive game, you can limp in from early position with small pocket pairs. If you're playing in an aggressive game these hands are better off mucked from early position.
No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Poker
There is an old adage in poker relating to how tight or loose the game in which you're in is being played. The adage advises to play tighter than the table. While this is obviously an over simplification it is generally true. While tight is certainly right, all you need do is play tighter poker than the table. The reason this will work is that through prudent hand selection coupled with your position you will be playing fewer (and generally better) hands than your opponents. However, expect loose games to tighten and tight games to become looser, and be ahead of that curve to ensure you're in the most profitable zone at all times.
Calling vs. Raising
A lot of limit hold'em players will limp in pre-flop rather than raise. If you're in a passive game and have a hand like J-Ts then you might want to limp because you're looking to get as many people into the pot with you as possible in anticipation of flopping a big hand like a straight or flush—and making money from a large number of opponents. If you have a pair or high cards that can win without improving, such as A-K, you're much better off raising and narrowing the field down to heads-up than you are by simply calling and inviting a number of players to enter the pot after you, one of whom might get lucky and steal the pot away from you.
If you call and are then raised, you're going to call one more bet and see the flop. If it's raised and re-raised, some players will do the same thing, regardless of the strength of their hand. Imagine entering the pot with the speculative hand of for a single bet from middle position. Now the player to your left raises, another player re-raises and yet another player makes it four bets, which is normally the cap in fixed limit. Weaker players will normally call as they have already invested a bet and the hand does have lots of potential. Stronger players would recognize the futility of throwing away three extra bets when it is apparent that they are way behind the competition. These distinctions will become clearer and clearer as your experience grows.
Cold Calling Raises
If someone has already called in front of you, then you have to convince one more person to fold to pick up those blinds.
When multiple people have called in front of you, you have even more people to convince to fold. This means, if you're going to raise here, you need a stronger hand.
Pay attention to the kinds of cards your opponents play.
If you pay close enough attention, you'll have a good idea of what your opponents' starting hand requirements are, and you'll be able to make decisions accordingly.
3 – You Need an Even Bigger Hand Still If Someone Has Raised
If it seems like I'm hammering the idea that you should raise or fold by suggesting that you need strong hands preflop, then you're paying attention.
Players don't get into trouble with hands that they fold preflop. They also don't get into trouble with hands they feel are good enough to re-raise with preflop.
They only get into trouble with hands they call raises with preflop because they have to figure out where they are on the flop.
Your opponent will miss the flop most of the time, too, but give him some credit for having a hand preflop if he raised with it.
This means sticking with premium hands like aces and kings if there's been a raise in front of you.
4 – Pay Attention to Your Position
You need stronger cards to play from early position than you need to play from later position.
The reason for this is simple.
Let's say you get a pair of sevens from early position, and you limp in with it which means, of course, that you weren't paying attention to my first three preflop Hold'em tips, by the way.
You get a raise from the player behind you, and the player behind him reraises, too. You don't have much choice at this point but to fold your pocket sevens, but you've lost a bet by doing so.
After all, with a raise and a re-raise behind you, someone probably has a pair bigger than yours in the hole. And if not, they're at the least playing big cards like AK, AQ, or KQ.
Your only hope is that you hit a seven on the flop, but the odds of that are terrible because there are only 2 of those cards left in the deck.
No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Game
Also, you're going to be in early position on the flop, too, so you won't have any hints as to what your opponents might have after the flop, either.
Suppose the flop comes A-K-6. You're first to act. You can bet here, but if either of your opponents raise, your only smart move (again) is to fold. After all, they got into this hand with a raise and a re-raise preflop, so they showed strength.
They're likely to have hit an ace or a king, and they're also likely to have a big pair in the hole.
If you stick with premium cards from early position, you'll do a lot better.
5 – Completing the Blind When You're the Small Blind Makes Sense
Most of the time, the small blind is half the size of the big blind. This means that, if you have the chance to get in, it only costs you half as much to see the flop.
If it costs you half as much money to get into the pot, your pot odds double immediately. If you'd normally need a 10 to 1 probability of winning to make a call worthwhile, you only need a 5 to 1 probability of winning since you're putting in half as much money.
This doesn't mean you should play anything from the small blind. And it sure doesn't mean you should call a raise or a re-raise from the small blind.
Your job then is to fold if you miss the flop and play strong when you hit the flop hard.
Also, keep in mind that you'll be out of position for the rest of the hand, so you really do need to hit the flop hard to stay in it at this point.
6 – Ace-King Is One of the Only Preflop Hands Worth Cold Calling
A cold call is when you call a bet that's been raised but don't re-raise with it.
Cold calling is almost always a mistake. It is similar to taking insurance when playing real money blackjack.
Ace-king is an exception. The thing about 'big slick' is that it almost never wins unless it improves to a pair on the flop.
You don't want to commit a lot of your chips preflop on this hand, but you also don't want to give this one up without a fight.
It's too strong a hand to fold, but it's too weak to re-raise with. It's also easy to see where you're at when the flop hits.
Often, it's just as good a play to raise with it. Some of it depends on your opponents. And some of it just has to do with avoiding being predictable.
7 – Pay Attention to Your Opponents Even If You're Planning to Fold
Most of the time, your cards preflop won't be good enough to play. A lot of Hold'em players stop paying attention to the hand as soon as they realize they're going to fold. That's a big mistake.
You should pay close attention to every hand that gets played so that you can decide what your opponents' ranges are.
Some players might raise preflop with any pocket pair no matter how low. If that's the case, you should be able to pick up on that. Other players are so tight that they might fold 35 hands in a row.
But if you're not paying attention, you're flying blind when you don't have to.
Conclusion
Playing preflop Texas Hold'em is important. I'm not sure if it's true that you can break even just by mastering this one aspect of the game.
The tips on this page should help you play better before the flop. And I hope these tips were better than the usual 'play tight preflop and here are the starting hands worth playing' type of advice.
Playing before the flop is your first opportunity to voluntarily put money in the pot. Don't just toss in the first single bet to be a part of the action. Make good decisions by following the advice given in this lesson and stick to our recommended starting hand requirements until you gain more experience. There is no shame in folding and waiting for a better hand to play. On the contrary, the shame is in falling prey to the donkey's mantra of 'any two will do!'
Before we mention starting hand requirements, let's talk about the mindset that captures successful limit play. That mindset is the ability to be patient and selective about the hands you play. Patience is a critical element to winning hold'em play. Good players exercise the patience to wait for hands that they know have positive expectation and then play them aggressively. In a nutshell this strategy describes the selective, aggressive mantra that has been espoused by Krieger, Sklansky, Malmuth, Caro, and every other credible limit hold'em pundit of the last several decades.
Tight is Right
The tight-aggressive approach is the backbone of a successful limit player's strategy. The reason this approach is so successful is simple—the vast majority of the poker playing public are long term losers who do not have the discipline or knowledge to beat the game. Let your opponents make the mistake of playing too many hands while you become more selective. It will pay dividends. If you only play hands that figure to be the best against opponents who play too many mediocre hands, it just makes sense that you will win money. This critical skill is the foundation upon which other skills need to be added to make you a formidable limit hold'em player.
The most common mistake made by limit hold'em players is that they play too many hands. Look, no one enters a casino or logs on to an online game with the intention of folding hand after hand. But when you look at the entire universe of possible two-card starting hand combinations you might be dealt, the vast majority of them are junk, which means the correct play is to fold most of them. If there's one tip that will raise your game significantly, it's this: be selective with the hands you choose to play, and then be aggressive with the hands you do play.
Starting Hand Selection
What hands should you play if you're going to be patient and selective? Well, that depends in large measure upon your position relative to the dealer button. The best starting hands are playable from any position, but other hands have very different characteristics.
We have created a starting hand chart that can be used as a guide. This chart will load as a PDF document (link opens in a new window), which you can view on screen or print off for easy reference.
Information and Reviews about Casino Cezar Poker Room in Zagreb, including Poker Tournaments, Games, Special Events and Promotions. Casino Cezar - Hotel Westin. We are told that Casino Cezar does not currently run any poker tournaments. Find other nearby poker tournaments here. Have a question about Casino Cezar? Casino Cezar cash game information, including games, blinds, stakes, rake, jackpots, and more. Attention Poker Rooms: Get your Real-Time Live Action on PokerAtlas!
Understand that our attempt to categorize starting hands by their strength and positional considerations is a loose guide. There are many factors that may encourage you to tighten or loosen your play from these guidelines. As in all poker decisions the phrase, 'It depends' comes to mind. That is to say our starting hand chart is a guide, not a set of intractable rules.
In fact, you may want to look at a starting hand chart this way:
- If you're a beginner or a consistently money-losing player, treat this guide as the gospel.
- If you're an experienced player, you can treat these recommendations as a guide.
- If you're a skillful, winning player, please consider these recommendations a point of demarcation for your own creative, winning play.
But before you decide to deviate from these guidelines, have a reason for taking action that's at variance from our recommendations.
We haven't included every possible starting hand on our chart. Unplayable hands, also known as ‘junk' don't need any further explanation. I'm sure you will recognize them. In fact, the majority of the hands you'll be dealt will fall into this category. Let your weak undisciplined opponents play 7-2 because it was suited—you throw them in the muck where they belong.
Type of Games
It's important to be aware that different games play differently. The texture of the game—whether it's tight and aggressive, tight and passive, loose and aggressive, loose and passive, or a mixture of these, will dictate what hands you should play. For example, if you're playing in a loose and passive game, you can limp in from early position with small pocket pairs. If you're playing in an aggressive game these hands are better off mucked from early position.
No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Poker
There is an old adage in poker relating to how tight or loose the game in which you're in is being played. The adage advises to play tighter than the table. While this is obviously an over simplification it is generally true. While tight is certainly right, all you need do is play tighter poker than the table. The reason this will work is that through prudent hand selection coupled with your position you will be playing fewer (and generally better) hands than your opponents. However, expect loose games to tighten and tight games to become looser, and be ahead of that curve to ensure you're in the most profitable zone at all times.
Calling vs. Raising
A lot of limit hold'em players will limp in pre-flop rather than raise. If you're in a passive game and have a hand like J-Ts then you might want to limp because you're looking to get as many people into the pot with you as possible in anticipation of flopping a big hand like a straight or flush—and making money from a large number of opponents. If you have a pair or high cards that can win without improving, such as A-K, you're much better off raising and narrowing the field down to heads-up than you are by simply calling and inviting a number of players to enter the pot after you, one of whom might get lucky and steal the pot away from you.
If you call and are then raised, you're going to call one more bet and see the flop. If it's raised and re-raised, some players will do the same thing, regardless of the strength of their hand. Imagine entering the pot with the speculative hand of for a single bet from middle position. Now the player to your left raises, another player re-raises and yet another player makes it four bets, which is normally the cap in fixed limit. Weaker players will normally call as they have already invested a bet and the hand does have lots of potential. Stronger players would recognize the futility of throwing away three extra bets when it is apparent that they are way behind the competition. These distinctions will become clearer and clearer as your experience grows.
Cold Calling Raises
If the pot has been raised before it's your turn, you must tighten up significantly and adjust for the position of the raise. Inexperienced limit hold'em players will frequently cold-call raises with mediocre and potentially dominated hands, such as A-J and K-J. These are costly errors. Be selective and avoid cold-calling raises with hands that have a slim chance to catch the cards they need to enable you to win the pot. Most good players, if they don't have a very good hand, will simply throw their hand away and wait for a better opportunity. Remember that it takes a much better hand to call a raise than it does to make the initial raise yourself.
Always observe the pre-flop betting action in a limit hold'em game, because it provides valuable information about the strength of your opponent's holdings. If there's a bet and a raise and someone cold-calls, my first thought is 'here's a guy with A-Q who is terrified of a big pair and even more terrified of A-K'. He thinks A-Q is a pretty good hand and says to himself… 'I'll call and see what happens with it.' Of course it's important that you assign a range of hands to your opponents, not just a specific hand. But most players will re-raise before the flop when they hold a premium hand and cold-calling a raise or cold-calling a re-raise is usually a sign of a hand that's not in first place.
No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Rules
Conclusion
The question or whether to hold'em or fold'em is the first and most important decision you will make. If you're new to limit hold'em then study our starting hand chart and follow the guidelines given in this lesson. Starting hand selection may differ slightly from pundit to pundit but these are a solid outline for a beginner to embrace. As your experience and knowledge of the game increases your starting requirements will vary based upon how tight or loose your table is, knowledge of the tendencies of players yet to act behind you, any betting that has occurred in front of you, and your current table image.
If you only play hands that figure to be the best against opponents who play too many mediocre hands, it just makes sense that you will win the money. Playing tight requires patience which many or even most recreational players just don't exhibit. They are in the game to play, not sit to there and fold hand after hand and sit on the sidelines. This is the reason that most poker players are long term losers—they play too many hands. Sure they can get lucky playing junk on occasion and that is what keeps them coming back but their lack of patience and discipline is their financial undoing. If you truly seek success you must have the discipline to be patient.
No Limit Texas Holdem Preflop Strategy Cheat
Related Lessons
By Tom 'TIME' Leonard
Tom has been writing about poker since 1994 and has played across the USA for over 40 years, playing every game in almost every card room in Atlantic City, California and Las Vegas.
