Fundamental Texas Holdem Poker Strategies
Texas Holdem is the world's most popular poker variant. You don't have to be intimidated by this game. Granted, it can get very complex if you are playing against good players. But keep in mind that most players are NOT that good. If you school yourself in basic poker techniques, you will soon find yourself catching a lot of fish.
Table Selection
Playing Texas Holdem does not start when you sit at the table. Actually poker starts BEFORE you sit there. You should choose carefully the poker table you are going to buy into. You want a table populated by loose, casual players who call to the showdown with abandon. You also want more players so the blinds won't come to you often and you can wait for a premium starting hand.
Card Selection
In poker, the quality of the hands you play are of greater importance than their quantity. You should recognize "junk hands" when you see them and not play them. Junk hands are a starting pair of hole cards that have little chances of beating other hands. High pairs like AA and KK and AK off-suit are the best starting hands to play. As a beginner you should play only those. Hands like JT off-suit are beatable.
Bluffing
You can not always play premium starting hands. If you do, your opponents will take notice and fold once you are in a hand or make a raise. To make yourself harder to read, learn to bluff on occasion. Bluffing is not the sine qua non of Texas Holdem, but it is an important technique. Everyone gets dealt the same number of good and bad cards in the long run; it is when you win with even bad cards that you gain an edge so far as winning pots goes.
When you bluff, you act and make such decisions to make your opponents think you have a monster hand even when you don't. You can bluff stone-cold with a junk hand, or you can make a "semi-bluff" with a decent drawing hand. It takes guts to make the former type of bluff since the showdown can be embarrassing. But semi-bluffing has a chance to win if the drawing hand is made.
Poker Tells
To know what cards your opponents are holding would be every poker player's dream. But we do not have x-ray vision. The closest thing we have is poker tells. These are changes in a player's behavior that may hint at the kind of hand they are holding and what they plan. Read Mike Caro's Book of Poker Tells to learn how to read a player's behavior.
Poker Face
Once you figure out how to read tells, you need to learn how to hide them. You won't be the first person to read Caro's book. Your opponents probably know about it too and they will look for the same signs as you are.
Therefore it is vital that you be able to control your emotions and gestures. Try to be as consistent as possible. Look and act the same no matter if you win or lose.
These basic poker techniques are simple enough for beginners. Practice makes perfect. Put them into action and you will see how useful and effective they are.
