Texas Holdem: The Most Famous Poker Game

For those that have little experience or players who appreciate the psychological, strategic and mental aspects of poker, Texas Holdem is the poker game of choice. It is, as poker professional Mike Sexton has stated on the WPT, “a game that takes minutes to learn and a lifetime to master.” There is a great deal of truth in that statement as there are different nuances that confound even those players who have a strong background in this particular variation of poker.

Every player gets two cards and two players - the small blind (half of the stake of the table) and the big blind (the full stake) - place mandatory bets to initiate action. Each player has to determine whether they want to play their hand by, at the minimum, calling the big blind, raising the bet or declining to play and folding. For those that remain in the hand after this round of betting is completed, the first of the community cards come down with a three-card display called the "flop." This is followed by another round of betting and, if any players still remain, another card is dealt, called the "turn" or Fourth Street. Another round of betting ensues and, if there are still players contesting the hand, the final card called the "river" or Fifth Street is dealt. A final round of betting occurs and, once this is completed, if there are players still in play for the hand, they display their cards. The best five-card hand takes what is in the pot and the poker game moves on to the next hand.

This is a community card game because there are five cards on the table that all players use - players can use one, both or neither of their two hole cards to make their best five-card hands. Through strategic play, bluffing at the pot or even table talk, players use every part of their capabilities to try to win the hand. The game can be played in different styles - Limit, Spread Limit (rarely seen nowadays), Pot Limit (where betting is limited to what is in the pot) and No Limit - and different people will excel in different forms of this game. What makes community card games the best is that there is something for everyone.

Most every poker room around will offer a form of Texas Holdem, as it is currently the most popular game around. With that in mind, every Internet poker room will offer Texas Holdem as its bedrock of poker games. For anyone who wants to take an initial dive into the world of poker, Texas Holdem is the route to take.

Poker Strategy: Understanding Risk and Reward

Pot odds and demanding an advantage fall into this category when playing poker. Poker players are willing to take a long-shot risk if the reward is high enough, but only if the expected return is higher than the risk.

More importantly, they understand the risk-vs.-reward nature of the game outside of the actual poker room. They know how much bank they need to play, and how much money they need in reserve to cover other expenses in life.

Good poker players understand they need to be more risk-averse with their overall bankroll than their stack at the poker table.

When you play in an individual game, you must value every poker chip equally at the table. You should only care about making correct plays. If you buy in for $10, you should be okay with taking a 52% chance of doubling up to $20 if it means a 48% chance of losing your $10.

However, you should be risk-averse with your overall bankroll. You need to have enough money so that any day at the tables will not affect your bankroll too much. If you worry too much about losing, then you will make mistakes at the poker table. You need to leave yourself with the chance to fight another day.

Internet Poker Skill---Psychology

Psychology plays an incredibly important part in Internet poker which means that poker and psychology can’t be separated…A good poker player is not a self-centered player. He may be the biggest SOB you know. He may not care about anyone but himself, and he may enjoy stealing food from the poor. However, when a poker pro walks into a poker room, he always empathizes with his opponents. He tries to think what they think and understand the decisions they make and why they make them. The poker pro always tries to have an answer to these questions:

1. What does my opponent have?
2. What does my opponent think I have?
3. What does my opponent think I think he has?

Knowing the answer to these questions is the first step, manipulating the answers is the second and more important step. Suppose that you have a pair of kings and your opponent has a pair of aces. If you both know what the other has, and you both know that you know what the other has, then why play a game of poker? A poker pro manipulates the answers to questions #2 and #3 by slowplaying, fastplaying, and bluffing in order to throw his opponent off.

Good poker players know that psychology is much more important in a no-limit game than in a limit game. Limit games often turn into math battles, while no-limit games carry a strong psychology component. Thus, poker tells are much more important in no-limit games.