Texas Holdem Tips

Thursday, 25 September 2008 03:33

In your games, exercise caution when it is needed but also vary your play some in order to keep the other players off balance. They will be watching you and gauging your style of play and if you become too predictable, they will have figured you out and you will not fare too well.

When you occupy the dealer position and you find that there is only you and the blinds remaining in the game, a raise is a good way of making a few extra bucks, as the blinds may fold. This is called blind-stealing.

When you are last to act and all the other players have checked to you, you can occasionally use the steal raise to limit the number of players or take the pot. This is exceptionally useful when you have a good drawing hand, for instance a nut flush draw. Other players tend to check the raiser so if you draw to your hand you will have a larger pot to go for. If not, you can just check and hope you can make your hand with the fifth card.

You can check your opponent by check raising to lure them into a false sense of security. Then you can raise them to increase the pot.

If you’ve been playing passively for a while, it can unsettle other players some by suddenly acting recklessly if your bankroll will allow it. If you have a good pre-flop hand, try raising when you are the first to act. This will force all the other players to call two bets at once. This will limit the number of players by forcing many to fold. The ones remaining will either react aggressively or actually have a good hand, but will be unsure of your hand’s potential as this is a tactic often used by bluffers and may win you a sizeable pot.