Poker Tips Texas Holdem No Limit

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Andrei Joseph

Know Your Position. The best position in Texas Hold 'Em is 'on the button.' When you're on the. There is a limit on how many starting hands you can play before the flop in No Limit Texas Hold’em, even for the world’s best players. If you try to play too many hands, you’ll bleed away your chip stack (unless lady luck is on your side). Top 10 No Limit Holdem Tips. In the last 10 years No Limit Hold’em has become the most popular game played in the world. Thanks in part to “TV Poker” and the massive Multi-Table Tournament prize pools. No Limit Cash Games and tournaments are now a permanent fixture in land based casinos as well, and it’s really not a big surprise.

Since stumbling towards retirement nine years ago, Andrei Joseph has played low limit hold 'em in more than 100 poker rooms across 20 states. He would be $37,000 ahead — if there were no rake! Here's the second of two articles from Joseph in which he continues to explore some of the attractions and challenges of what for many poker players is a favorite variant.

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Here are some painful lessons from the bottom end of the poker food chain: low stakes, fixed-limit hold'em.

Last time I discussed some of the reasons I enjoy low limit hold'em (i.e, $4/$8 and below). This time, let's talk a little strategy. If you follow the basic advice outlined below, you will distinguish yourself from the majority of your opponents and dramatically increase your chances of success.

First, and most importantly, listen to Archie Bell & the Drells: 'Do the tighten up, come on and tighten up, you can do it now.'

Throw away , throw away , throw away . If you are dealt pocket jacks and there are two raises in front of you, fold. If you hit the low end of the flop and there is action, get out.

This advice is tough to follow. You want to play. I want to play. I want the action. You may have driven hours to get to the darn casino. Play! Play! The bozo across the table just won playing . It is my turn for a big blind special.

No! It is your turn to fold and be patient.

Learn to distinguish between bad play and bad luck. This requires both some knowledge of poker and sober self-assessment. Learn some odds — it will contribute to a positive outcome.

I have played enough poker to have been dealt pocket aces many times (220-to-1). Only once have I been dealt pocket aces at the same time as someone else.

Many low limit players will automatically call preflop with any two suited cards. What are your odds of making a flush by the river with that starting hand? The answer is around once every 15 hands. Compare those odds to your preflop call with and a flop containing two more hearts. Now what are your odds to make a flush on the turn or river? The answer is a little more than once every three times.

How much are you required to bet? How much will you win? Do you see why it is called 'competitive algebra'?

Learning to play LHE well also sometimes appears to contain elements of psychotherapy. Look at your behavior, assess it accurately, and change the parts that are hurting you.

The default mechanism that is prevalent among many losing players includes a tendency towards superstition ('oh, seat 8 is hot'), blindness ('he hit runner-runner again' while not recognizing the times that happened in your own favor), and nonsense ('if you hadn't gotten up to go to the bathroom, those would have been my cards') — not science, statistics or rationality.

But you will spurn fake news and instead embrace rationality, empiricism, and a brutally honest assessment of the factors impacting your results.

Learn what the rake is and understand its importance. Few players actually calculate this. Some don't even notice the money going down the rabbit hole. A typical low limit game will deal around 35 hands per hour. If you don't believe this ask the dealers how many hands they get out in a 30-minute shift. Particularly if they keep their own tokes, they are trying to move the game along.

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For simplicity's sake, let's assume a rake of up to $5 (and perhaps a dollar more for jackpots and/or promotions). Not every pot is raked to the maximum, but even if the average is a total of $4 per hand (for example), that means that $140 is coming off the table every hour. If the table is full with 10 players, then it is costing you at least $14/hour to play.

Add tokes when you win a pot, and you need to win at least $17/hour to break even. Difficult yes, but possible. Especially in Las Vegas late at night with less than sober tourists.

Which brings us to table selection. Some broad generalizations include that tight retirees dominate daytime versions of low limit. As evening approaches more liquor and younger players appear. If you are playing at a vacation destination, the play will be looser. Your opponents will include those who have already decided to lose hundreds of dollars as 'the price of entertainment.' Fine by me!

That's when you will see and hear the most amazing stuff at the table. Someone calling your preflop raise with will crack your pocket aces. Resist the impulse to berate your opponent. Quietly tell yourself that you want players like this at the table. That money is coming back. You just hope it comes back to you!

If you are running bad, don't imitate your opponents' poor play. Patience. More patience. If you are playing blackjack, you must play the cards you are dealt. Here, unless you are in a blind, you can toss away poor cards — and at no cost. Take advantage of this. Patience.

Read a book. Almost no one else has. I recommend Winning Low Limit Hold'em by Lee Jones or Small Stakes Hold'em by Ed Miller, David Sklansky, and Mason Malmuth.

Read these and you will gain insight into the value of position and timely aggression. You will learn when to play big pairs and when to play suited connectors. You will learn when to let go of your hand, how to deal with maniacs, and why your opponents really will hit their lucky card on the river more than you will (because by only playing premium hands, you will win more often without having to hit that two-outer). The money invested on these books will be recovered in your next session.

Finally, keep an accurate tally of what has happened. Saying to your pals, 'I win sometimes, I lose sometimes' or 'I had a good session' or 'wow, I really got beat last Friday' can be a thin attempt to delude yourself. Especially given the impact of variance, having accurate, sober statistics over a period of time is the true measure of whether you are making progress.

(Thanks to my pal Ashley for being my mentor and for driving.)

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Back in the old days (that is before the internet era) practically all the texas holdem poker games were so called full table games, meaning that each table had 9 or 10 players playing in them. That was also the case in the beginning of the internet poker era. However for an unknown reason (likely because it is so much more fun) after a couple years most of the no limit texas holdem games running had become 6 max player tables, also known as the short handed games. At first this was especially true at the European online poker sites but now days it is also true at the big American online poker sites. Playing the 6 max games is in a sense pretty similar to playing the full tables, but on the other hand the winning strategy is also quite a bit different. What this means is that basics are the same (e.g you shouldn’t call huge raises with 83 offsuited), but you also need to change up your play in certain situations to maximize your profits in the shorthanded tables. From below you will find couple tips that we believe will improve your success when playing the short handed NL games.

Top 6 max no limit texas holdem tips:

1) Bankroll management!

As with all the poker games if you are playing poker to win money the most important thing is to follow a good bankroll management strategy. The swings (= losses and wins) are naturally much bigger in the 6 max games, that is because everyone is playing so many more marginal hands and playing them in much more aggressive style. We recommend that you always have at least 50 buyins for the table limit that you think you are winning player in and are playing. So if you are playing $0.5/$1 6max no limit in which the normal buyin is $100 you should have a $5,000 bankroll. This might sound like a lot but it is not uncommon to have terrible days during which you end up losing 5 to 10 buyins ($500 to $1,000). After such a days you might also want to consider playing smaller tables until you are certain that your confidence is back on the level where it is supposed to be.

2) Abuse the people who call too much

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6 max games attract the type of players who simply can’t let their hands go. They probably noticed that in the 6 max tables people are bluffing more and thus their desperate (and often, in all honesty, ridiculous) calls win more often in the showdown. It is quite easy to spot players who do call downs like this, simply observe the hands they are playing and the manner in which they are playing them. When you find a player who calls too much don’t be afraid to “value bet” (= betting your hand so that you extract the most money from his worse hand) him thinly, and you can often even value bet him somewhat obviously. Against good players you will often need to mix up your game a bit so that they don’t know when you have a good hand and when you are bluffing. The people who call too much don’t care about your hand: they are simply playing their hand. e.g if they think a top pair is a good hand they will call you down even if it is obvious to everyone else that you have a much better hand.

One tip about value betting against this type of players is that you should always plan your betting in such a way that you will get the most out of it. So for an example you should for an example very rarely slow play anything against them, simply bet the flop, bet the turn and bet the river and if the stacks allow it make the bets such a that each bet is smaller than the pot but in the end either your or your opponent has all the chips in the middle.

So for an example if you both have $100 stack in $0.5/$1 no limit game and you have AA and the flop comes A93 with no flush draws and you are 1 on 1 against the type of player with $15 in the pot you could bet the flop, turn and river in the following fashion: On flop bet $12 to $15 now you both have $88 left and there is $29 in the pot, on the turn bet $23 to $29 pot, now you both have $65 left and there is $75 in the pot on the river simply go all in for the $65 to the $75 pot and hope that he calls.

Poker Tips Texas Holdem No Limit Holdem

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3) Stay calm!

Fact: You will lose big pots more often in 6 max than in full table no limit games. In 6 max people go much more often all in on the flop with draws, do marginal preflop shoves and play otherwise in a fashion that will simply cause you to lose big pots more often in that game in the full table.

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Fact: It will take you very long to get moneys back which you spew away when you are steaming. Great 6 max player can expect to make around 5 big blinds for each 100 hands played, so if you are a good $1/$2 no limit player you can expect to win $10 for each 100 hands played. If you steam occasionally and throw stacks away grinding them back might take very long. For an example if you lose just two stacks (2*$200) in the fashion that could have been avoided if you were thinking clearly (for an example you decided to bluff against the player describer in the tip number 2 it will on average take you 4,000 hands to get the moneys back. If you play 2 tables at the same time that will translate to average of 20 (2*20*$10) hours of play to get that $400 back. I hope that clarifies why it is important to get up from the table the moment you start steaming.