Can someone give me some QUICK tips on playing/winning Texas Hold-Em?

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SaltyNuts

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May 1, 2001
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I got roped into going to some Texas Hold-Em poker charity even tonight. I have no clue how to play or win. Tips? I THINK the hands you can get are just like 5-card draw, correct? Those I generally know - i.e. flush or straight are real real good, which generally be a full house, which generally be a three of a kind, which generally beat 2 pair, which generally beat one pair. But beyond that I am clueless LOL.

Thanks for any help and tips!!!
 
spacejamz

spacejamz

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
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Getting a '2' and '7' (in different suites) is the worst starting hand you can have so fold that if you get that....
 
BoomerD

BoomerD

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spacejamz

spacejamz

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
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SaltyNuts said:
Wait what? Why is a 2 or 7 any different than a 3 or 6?
Click to expand...

you at least have a chance of hitting a straight with a 3/6 (granted the chance of flopping a 4,5 and 7 are pretty slim)...

if you get a 3/8, an '8' will put you ahead of the '7' if you get 2/7....

But all of these are garbage starting hands anyway so it none of this really matters LOL
 
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manly

Lifer
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Assuming it's a tournament where the blinds keep increasing, there is an unexploitable beginner's strategy. Basically you can just go all-in pre-flop with your best premium hands, and fold everything else. Admittedly this is a rather boring strategy, but it removes skill (or lack thereof) from the game.

If you don't want to play such a basic strategy for tournaments, some simple rules you can follow are:

  1. Don't call raises, but put in a raise yourself. This means you're only playing strong hands and folding a lot.
  2. Never play Ace rag, which is an Ace with a weak card (such as Ten or lower).
  3. If it's a passive game with not much raising pre-flop, you can limp with suited connectors. Suited connectors are two cards of the same suit, and close in rank. So as strong as KQ (of the same suit) down to 65 (of the same suit). The goal with suited connectors isn't to hit a pair, but to make flushes or straights. Suited Aces also can be played the same way, but they don't make straights (except A5 and A4).
  4. You can also limp with smaller pocket pairs, i.e. 44 or 88. The goal here is to hit three of a kind and then get all the money in.
 
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MrSquished

MrSquished

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Jan 14, 2013
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You might get lucky, we had a guy that worked with us who never played poker and learned on the fly and basically played every hand wrong and super aggressive and just kept winning on the turn and on the river. It was a crazy couple nights of insane luck. Odds are you will lose a lot unless you learn a bit first. Don't give away your hands, try not to be repetitive with your behaviors, bluff here and there to keep the table honest.
 
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SaltyNuts

Platinum Member
May 1, 2001
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manly said:
Assuming it's a tournament where the blinds keep increasing, there is an unexploitable beginner's strategy. Basically you can just go all-in pre-flop with your best premium hands, and fold everything else. Admittedly this is a rather boring strategy, but it removes skill (or lack thereof) from the game.

If you don't want to play such a basic strategy for tournaments, some simple rules you can follow are:

  1. Don't call raises, but put in a raise yourself. This means you're only playing strong hands and folding a lot.
  2. Never play Ace rag, which is an Ace with a weak card (such as Ten or lower).
  3. If it's a passive game with not much raising pre-flop, you can limp with suited connectors. Suited connectors are two cards of the same suit, and close in rank. So as strong as KQ (of the same suit) down to 65 (of the same suit). The goal with suited connectors isn't to hit a pair, but to make flushes or straights. Suited Aces also can be played the same way, but they don't make straights (except A5 and A4).
  4. You can also limp with smaller pocket pairs, i.e. 44 or 88. The goal here is to hit three of a kind and then get all the money in.
Click to expand...



Thank you so much for being the only non-troll on this thread so far as I can tell! I'm studying your whole post, but let me ask you this question initially:

"Basically you can just go all-in pre-flop with your best premium hands, and fold everything else."

1. What would you consider a "best premium hand"? Pre-flop I think I will have only 2 cards, so clearly if I already have a pair that is premium, but what else is premium?

2. Seems weird, since so little of your betting is tied to how the flop and the other cards turn out, just your very first two cards determine your bet? Really?

3. If the other players figure you are doing this out can't they just fold whenever you go in and know to go in big otherwise because you will fold?

Thanks!
 
MrSquished

MrSquished

Lifer
Jan 14, 2013
21,271
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136
SaltyNuts said:
Thank you so much for being the only non-troll on this thread so far as I can tell! I'm studying your whole post, but let me ask you this question initially:

"Basically you can just go all-in pre-flop with your best premium hands, and fold everything else."

1. What would you consider a "best premium hand"? Pre-flop I think I will have only 2 cards, so clearly if I already have a pair that is premium, but what else is premium?

2. Seems weird, since so little of your betting is tied to how the flop and the other cards turn out, just your very first two cards determine your bet? Really?

3. If the other players figure you are doing this out can't they just fold whenever you go in and know to go in big otherwise because you will fold?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Best premium hands are going to be pairs, like jacks and up, or like AK suited.

Depending on how the betting goes pre-flop, the flop can make a massive difference in what happens next - some people can limp in chasing straights and flushes and the flop is dramatic to them. People flop trips, or they flop an open-ended straight draw, or they have four to a flush, etc..

You don't have to show your hand when you fold, but sometimes it is a good thing to do so. If people think you are only going in on really good hands and nothing else, they can be conned into folding a good hand when you bluff later. I kinda play like this mostly, and people get fooled later. The problem arises when you are not dealt any good hands forever in the beginning you just fold and fold and it gets dull. But discipline wins in this game. If you can have your opponents truly guessing what the hell you can do on any given hand, you are in better shape than if they don't think that. You still have to play well though, you bluff too much one round when a guy has a monster hand and that could be the end of your night.
 
Last edited:
nakedfrog

nakedfrog

No Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
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When you have good cards, bet lots of money. And don't be afraid to stab a bitch to show dominance before the first hand.
 
S

SaltyNuts

Platinum Member
May 1, 2001
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MrSquished said:
Best premium hands are going to be pairs, like jacks and up, or like AK suited.

Depending on how the betting goes pre-flop, the flop can make a massive difference in what happens next - some people can limp in chasing straights and flushes and the flop is dramatic to them. People flop trips, or they flop an open-ended straight draw, or they have four to a flush, etc..

You don't have to show your hand when you fold, but sometimes it is a good thing to do so. If people think you are only going in on really good hands and nothing else, they can be conned into folding a good hand when you bluff later. I kinda play like this mostly, and people get fooled later. The problem arises when you are not dealt any good hands forever in the beginning you just fold and fold and it gets dull. But discipline wins in this game. If you can have your opponents truly guessing what the hell you can do on any given hand, you are in better shape than if they don't think that. You still have to play well though, you bluff too much one round when a guy has a monster hand and that could be the end of your night.
Click to expand...


You are a tricky man, MrSquished. :)
 
Torn Mind

Torn Mind

Lifer
Nov 25, 2012
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Jack in the Queen makes the formula for a future King, quoteth the Joker making a straight flush down the toilet.
 
M

manly

Lifer
Jan 25, 2000
11,025
2,147
126
SaltyNuts said:
Thank you so much for being the only non-troll on this thread so far as I can tell! I'm studying your whole post, but let me ask you this question initially:

"Basically you can just go all-in pre-flop with your best premium hands, and fold everything else."

1. What would you consider a "best premium hand"? Pre-flop I think I will have only 2 cards, so clearly if I already have a pair that is premium, but what else is premium?

2. Seems weird, since so little of your betting is tied to how the flop and the other cards turn out, just your very first two cards determine your bet? Really?

3. If the other players figure you are doing this out can't they just fold whenever you go in and know to go in big otherwise because you will fold?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
This is known as a push/fold strategy, and basically anybody can play this way with 2 minutes of training. You just need to know which hands are premium (push all-in), and the rest are folded. I'm not saying you should play this way, but it eliminates your skill disadvantage. The rest of the table might hate you for it.

First off, it's important to note if you're playing a tournament or a cash game. The reason this matters is that the blinds in tournaments are regularly increasing, forcing action. At the beginning of a tournament, the only hands you want to get all-in pre-flop with a full stack are pocket Kings or Aces. But as the blinds increase, more hands become "premium." Push/fold is actually the standard strategy once the blinds get big enough relative to your stack. The thing about push/fold is that it's very simple, and you don't have any difficult decisions to make after you go all-in.

If you're there to gamble and have fun, then no you shouldn't play this way and piss everybody off LOL. As for how other players might react, they're likely to fold whenever you go all-in but sometimes they will call. Some players will call with worse hands (remember you're going all-in with only your best hands), and you might even win a big pot.

Since this is a charity event, there will probably be a lot of recreational types that don't know what they're doing. They're gonna limp into a lot of pots and try to "hit hands." If you play the same way, then the outcome of the game will be dependent on who hits the board. More bingo (luck) than poker (skill).

Note that I'm referring to no-limit Hold'em tournaments. In a cash game, the blinds never increase and if the betting has fixed limits, then the tactics are different too.
 
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SaltyNuts

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I got my ass handed to me. You guys suck LOL. And spacejamz, I am pretty sure you were trolling me, but you would not BELIEVE how many times I got hands with a 2 and 7 right off the bat. You are bad mojo, man, sorry...
 
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