Texas hold'em poker school

Poker is the most popular card game there is. Players bet on the value of the card combination ("hand") in their possession, by placing a bet into a pot. The winner is the player who holds the best 5 card hand according to the hand rankings or otherwise the player who remains in the hand the longest.

There any many different forms of poker: Texas Hold ’em, Omaha, 7-card stud, 5-card draw etc. The variation forms Omaha hi-low and so on. This course will concentrate on Texas Hold ’em because it is by far the most popular form of poker. This doesn’t mean that you can’t use any of the strategies explained in any other form of poker.

On the contrary, many of the strategies you use in Texas Hold ’em also apply to many of the other poker forms there are. The main goal of this course is to give you a feeling for poker. This course is not going to explain how you should play in every single situation, but will give some guidance in the beginning.

What is Texas Hold'em?

Texas Hold'em is the most common variation of poker where every player (from two to ten players) is dealt two hidden, personal cards. These two cards can then be combined with five open cards (community cards), that all players can use to make the best five-card poker hand possible.

The game begins with the person who is sitting to the left of the dealer, that person posts a forced (small blind). The player to the left of the small blind posts the big blind (usually twice as big in value as the small blind). After that the players act clockwise, starting with the person to the left of the big blind, until everyone has acted.

Your choices are:

1. To throw away your two cards without paying anything (fold).
2. To pay as much as the amount of the big blind (call), if someone raises – the amount raised is to be matched instead.
3. To raise the stakes to a higher amount than the big blind (if no one has already raised before you, if someone has – you can raise the stakes even higher, a so called reraise).

The game includes four rounds of betting, where the first round has been described above.

The second round of betting follows after three community cards have been placed at the center of the table; this is called the flop. Now the players, who are still in the game after the first round of betting, combine their personal cards with the three community cards on the table. The betting is still clockwise, but now the first to act is the player directly to the left of the dealer.

Your choices now are:

1. To "pass" the initiative on to the next player (check). If you check you don’t bet, but keep the possibilty to call or raise if a player later in the round bets. Check is only available if no one raised before you in this betting round.
2. To bet.

If someone now bets, three alternatives for the next players are available:

1. To throw away your cards (fold) and not pay anything more to the pot (of course then without a chance of winning it).
2. To call.
3. To raise the stakes even more (reraise).

The third round of betting happens after a fourth community card has been placed on the table, this card is called fourth street or the turn. Now the players still in the pot, again combine their personal cards to the community cards. Then the betting round takes place, in the same way as in the second one, clockwise with the player to the left of the dealer first to act.

The fourth and last betting round occurs after placing the fifth communitycard (fifth street or the river) on the table. The players still in the pot, combine their personal cards to the community cards. The betting happens in the same way as in the second and third betting round (described above). The players still in the pot when everyone has acted compare their five-card hands, and the best hand wins.

No Limit Hold'em, Cash Game

To write this particular article has been the biggest challenge so far. But why is it so hard to write an article about no limit hold'em? Probably because it is so much harder in no limit than in limit to give specific tips about how to play to win. There are so many different ways to play that can be profitable. There are big differences in what way you should play depending on how your opponents are playing.

There are not much literature about no limit hold'em cash games, the articles I’ve read have been mostly about starting hands and the author has been trying to generalize everything into situations. In this article I will concentrate on discussing different ways to play, and I will not try to give a recipe on how to win. Some of this has been discussed in my earlier articles about short handed limit cash game and some is all new. Pot odds will be discussed a little bit moe thorough in this article because it is much more important in no limit and pot limit cash games than in limit. As far as possible I will give recommendations and tips on how to think and act in different situations.

The influence of specific situations in limit versus no limit cash game:

You can, in a ten handed limit cash game, almost indisputable claim that it is wrong to play 7-2. In a no limit cash game the specific situation is so much more important; the players around the table, your position and how much chips you and your opponents have compared to the size of the blinds. The gamehistory is important; what has happened before, who’s been bluffing a lot, who’s been playing conservative, who’s on tilt and who’s playing good and solid. I claim that it can be very bad play to fold 7-2 before the flop in certain situations, of course under extreme conditions, but still.

On the other hand one can claim that a hand like A-K always should be played very aggressively before the flop in limit. To always bet as much as possible (Cap) with this hand can never, according to me, be bad play. Maybe that kind of play can be more or less good, but never bad. In a no limit cash game though, it should be easy to throw away A-K before the flop in certain situations. You even have to be able to fold hands as strong as K-K in some extreme situations. During my first year of playing no limit cash game I have thrown away K-K six times before the flop and I probably should have done it a couple of times more. Three of these times I was up against A-A, twice against J-J and once I never found out. I have been playing K-K too aggressive before the flop and got caught by players holding A-A of course, but some of the times I’ve been called by weaker hands too.

No Limit – Differences between cash game and tournament

In a no limit cash game the normal relation between how much money you have and how big the blinds are, is greater than in a tournament. In a cash game you usually sit down at a table with about 100 times the value of the big blind, while most players in a tournament (especially at a late stage of the tournament) often have less than 25 times the big blind. This, for an example, results in that you late in a tournament can play a hand like A-K much more aggressive (maybe all in preflop) because everyone is forced to play active. When you have a lot of chips in a no limit cash game though, it usually isn’t a good play to place all of your chips in the middle before the flop with that hand.

How much should I bet?

In a no limit cash game you can choose how much you want to bet, the range is everywhere between the size of the big blind and all your money at the table.

An example: If you’re playing a no limit cash game where the big blind is $2 and you have $200 at the table, you can vary your bets from $2 and all the way up to $200. Let’s say that you have $200 in front of you. You are about to play a hand and no player before you has raised. Your alternatives in this case are fold, call $2, or raise to minimum $4 ($2+$2) and maximum $200 (all your chips at the table). All that is in the pot at this time is the value of the blinds and the money from possible players that has called before you.

Normally I would recommend to raise the pot to somewhere between three and four times the value of the big blind if no player has been calling before you. Which means I would in this case recommend a raise to between $6 and $8. If one player has called, your raise should be $2 more, if two players have called before you, your raise should be further $2 and so on. For example, if two players have called before you, your raise should in other words be between $10 and $12. At lower limits, where the buyins are less than $100, I would recommend to raise more than four times the value of the big blind, since players at the lower limits normally don’t respects raises. Test your opponents by raising more and more before the flop when you’re holding your beautiful group-one-cards (Learn the different starting hand-groups in the article "Tips for new players").

On the flop, turn and river there are already a lot of money in the pot and the question is how much to bet. If the pot is $18 and you have a good hand, how much should you bet? The smallest bet you can do is $2 and the biggest one is of course your $200. I suggest that you bet somewhere between the value of half the pot and the value of the whole pot. This makes calling expensive for players who are calling with draws and low pairs and you won’t risk more than you can win (what’s already in the pot). There are exceptions of course, in this case too and one of them is when you’re playing against extremely crazy and curious players who are not reacting on how big your bet is but has decided to call no matter what. When you get a good hit against this type of player and want to get paid, you should bet more than what is in the pot and try to get all your chips in the middle during the three bettingrounds.

TILT!

Tilt is a wellknown concept within the poker- and gaming area nowadays. Tilt is often joked about, but to be able to control the tilt is one of the far most important factors if you are planning on becoming a winning pokerplayer.

So, what does tilt mean? When a players loses control over rational thinking and lets his feelings take over, can be one way to explain it. In reality this means that you play more hands, some times even all hands, and you’re getting desperate to win pots instead of waiting calmly and methodically for good situations and see to that you’re getting paid. Inner thoughts like: -Maybe he can’t beat my hand! -I’m sure he’s bluffing! or –Now I’m going to show them how to bluff! can come to mind. When a player is on tilt he can lose everything in no time. Especially in no limit cash game where one mistake can cost you all your chips. Hours of hard work can go down the drain because of feelings of frustration.

How do I handle tilt? The only answer there is, is probably to do your best not to end up there, but that is easier said than done. If you have lost several big pots in a row, some because of bad luck and some because of bad play- then you’re already on tilt, even if you admit it or not. Some people tilt easier than others, but everyone gets influenced by bad luck. No one is immune; some people are just better at dealing with it. In these situations rationality and coolness is far away, and you have to stand up and take a deep breath and count to 1042. Some fresh air can do you good too.

When you have calmed down and your hands aren’t shaking anymore you should ask yourself these questions:

1. In which pots did I play good, and in which did I play bad? (You can consult an odds-calculator to see what chance you/your opponent had to win the pots)
2. Am I still angry?
3. Did I answer the previous questions honestly?
4. Were the tables I was sitting at "good tables", were there many bad players there or was I only sitting there to get back at the lucky players who ended up with my dollars?

If you can answer the first three questions honestly you can sit down again and continue to play at the tables that you decide are "good games".

How do I avoid to go on tilt?

Sleep! To sleep good and regularly is in many cases neither common nor easy, but it really helps. If you are thoroughly rested and alert the tendency of tilt is more distant within you.

Health! To feel good and be satisfied with your life is important. Some structure, maybe in the way of exercise and good food may sound excessive, but look at Kasparov, maybe the best chess player throughout time; he valued exercise and a good diet to be able to concentrate longer. It helps me, and I can recommend others to try it.

Stakes! You have to feel comfortable on the levels where you are playing, to lose can’t hurt too much and to win can’t mean too little, if it does, you won’t play your best, it’s as simple as that. See to that you are playing at tables with stakes that suits you.

No Alcohol! Never drink and play and I mean never! No "I’m just going to play for a while" or "…a little lower than usual" but-never! It is not cool to lose half of, or your whole bankroll when you get home after a night out with drinking. It is unprofessional and stupid!

Chip management

How do I handle my bankroll in no limit? How big of a bankroll do I need to play at a certain level? You can look at it either by counting blinds, or buyins. On a level where the blinds are $0.5-$1 you usually can’t buy in for more than 100 times the big blind. I think that you should have twelve times the maximum buyin, or 1200 big blinds in your bankroll before you can play at a certain level. In this case 12 * $100 = $1200 or 1200 * $1 = $1200. As long as your total bankroll is over $1200 it is ok to play at the $100 buyin tables, but if you only have $1142 you have to go down to for example the $50 buyin tables.

This means that to get to move up in stakes you have to have 24 buyins on the previous level, which is quite a tough requirement. You can try to compare the different sorts of poker to each other, for example how "high" $50-$100 fixed limit is compared to $5-$10 no limit. This is a difficult comparison though because in no limit you can lose the whole buyin in one hand and in limit you usually can’t lose more than 12 big bets per hand. If the style of play is about the same on the different tables, I think a broad estimation could be that a no limit game is about three times as high as a limit game (with the same value of blinds).

This means that $5-$10 no limit hold'em would be about as high as $30-$60 limit hold'em (where the blinds are $15-$30). If you compare the bankroll-requirements from limit hold'em to no limit hold'em you will see that to play $5-$10 no limit you will need over $12000 (12*$1000) and to play $30-$60 you will need over $9000 (150*$60) (I am here counting with the requirements of a shorthanded game- 150 big bets, since most high stakes games on the internet are shorthanded).

That you will need a bigger bankroll to play no limit even though I consider the games to be about as high, is depending on the factor that you can lose all your chips very fast if you make one mistake or get unlucky in a big pot.

Starting hands and recommendations for preflop playing

In no limit it is harder to generalize which hands to play in certain positions than in limit. No limit is much more depending on the situation and your opponents than limit hold'em. Your implicite odds are so much better in no limit, which means that you can win considerably much more in later betting rounds in no limit than you can in limit, comparing the cost of a call before the flop. This means that there can be value in playing "bad hands" if the situation is right.

I think that you should start out by playing few starting hands before the flop even in no limit, but when you get more comfortable and experienced you can loosen up, especially if there are a lot of bad players at the table.

I refer for further discussion to the chapter about starting hand-groups in the "Tips for new players" article. The hands you should raise with before the flop are group one- and group two-hands. You can also raise with group three-hands if no one has raised before you.

You can call a raise with all pairs and all suited connectors from 6-7 suited to J-10 suited (If the raise is a standard raise, around 2-4 times the big blind). Every suited ace can also be worth calling a raise with, to catch a flush or two pairs. Be careful with hands like Q-J and K-Q suited though, if you’re calling a raise with that type of hand you can easily get into trouble.

Maybe you’re up against A-Q and A-K and then you can lose big pots. The low pairs and the lower suited connectors are easy to get rid of after the flop if you miss, but if you hit you can get very well paid. That is why one should play this kind of hands.

Which hands should I reraise with?

I think that you shouldn’t be reraising in no limit very often. The play often lacks value, since you seldom get called with worse hands if you make a considerable reraise. I recommend only to reraise with A-A and K-K. Sometimes, against very active players you can also reraise with A-K suited and Q-Q. I think that it is better just to call with hands like J-J and A-K off suit and then adapt your play in the pot after the cards on the table.

The best poker players want to have the chance to outplay their opponents after the flop and that is why it is favourable just to call raises with hands like J-J, Q-Q and A-K off suit.

To build the pot early

To bet hard before the flop with good startinghands and when you hit good, is very important to be able to get paid in later rounds. Mistakes made by bad players in later betting rounds will then be so much more devastating for them, and profitable for you.

An Example: you’re playing $1-$2 NL with $300 on the table. You’re getting dealt K(d)-K(s) and you’re raising in the first scenario to $4. Two calling stations are calling and the flop comes J(h)-J(c)-K(h); you’re getting a full house on the flop. The pot is now $15 if we’re assuming that the players who are calling are not on the blinds. You’re first to act.

In the second scenario you’re raising to $9 before the flop and getting called by two players, the pot is now $30. Because you did get your dreamflop you can either make a rather small bet, check to get paid all the way, or bet real hard and hope that someone’s going to pay you anyway.

Let’s compare the two scenarios: in the first one where you just made a small raise before the flop, you’re now continuing your soft style of playing. You’re betting $4 on the flop and getting called by your two opponents so that the pot has $39 on the turn. You’re making a rather modest bet again, but this time $6 and you’re getting one caller. On the river the pot holds $51 and how much you’re betting now and if you will be able to get paid will of course also depend on the cards that fell on the turn and river. To bet somewhere between $2 and the size of the pot ($51) is quite common.

Now, let’s concentrate on the second scenario, with the same start as the first until the flop, but now you’re betting $30 instead. The chances of getting called is smaller now of course, but let’s assume that one player is calling. On the turn the pot is of $90 and you’re betting $60, your opponent calls again. At the river this time the pot holds $210. In this situation it won’t take the same strength of a hand at all for your opponent to call a $50 bet, as it did in the first scenario. I mean that if a player is making a bad call on the river in the first scenario, the mistake won’t be as big or as expensive as in this one.

Maybe your opponent will call you with Q-Q on the river when you’re betting 25% of the pot, if he does it will be about a $12 call in the first scenario. If he is making a similar call in the other case it will cost him so much more, 25% of $210 is about $52 and his mistake will be much more profitable for you. That is why I recommend that you always should raise and bet HARD in the first two bettingrounds when you have a good hand, to build the pot from early on and by that getting players to pay you in later bettingrounds more easily.

Player Knowledge

When you’re playing poker it is important that you have a good memory and that you notice how other players act in different situations. Even hands that you’re not involved in yourself are important to follow, especially the big pots.

For example, note the answers to these questions: -how did my opponent play the last time he was bluffing? –How much did my opponent bet when he had a good hand and tried to get paid? –Did he bet directly when he was bluffing, or did he check-raise? The answers to these questions should guide you towards making the right decisions when you meet these players in pots. To "know" your opponents and how they have been playing earlier is much more important in no limit than in any other game.

To make the right decision based on your player knowledge can be very profitable. In limit you can win maybe one or two extra big bets sometimes if you’ve learned a detail that gives your opponent away. The pots that never gets big or never gets to a showdown won’t give you that much information though. In these pots the cards almost never gets shown and something odd seldom happens.

Usually some player bets on the flop or the turn and the other players fold. The pots where there is a showdown is where you can learn the most. It is important to be observant here, and to really remember who had what and how the players acted during the hand, because in some situations you have to trust your instincts and your knowledge of the players around the table when you make your decision.

The better your opponent is, the more tough to read will he be and he will vary his plays more. Against that type of player the math (pot odds) and your cards often play a bigger part than the player knowledge. Against bad players that get caught playing bad in several pots, though, you have to trust your intuition more- Do I have the best hand or not? To play a solid basic game, knowing what startinghands to play, from what position and how much you should raise or bet in a certain situation is very important.

This is also quite easy to learn, but to get to know the players around the table and note how they play is harder and takes some practice. To gather lots of information fast and dare to trust that information in the right situations is what separates the best players from the good ones. That is why you should put a lot of focus on this very important chapter, always notice what’s happening around the table, you will remember more, easier each time you play.

Kasparov remembers every party of chess he’s ever played and there are poker professionals who remember each big pot they’ve ever played since they got professional. It’s all about practice, to learn to remember in a special way, to get a full picture of what’s happening around the table. It may sound hard, but it will come naturally when you concentrate on remembering what has happened.

The principle of AggeP.

When I started playing no limit cash game on the Internet, about a year ago, I discussed the characteristics of the game with lots of good no limit players. My background as a poker player is from limit cash games and I soon realized that no limit was a whole different game. One of the best advices I got by this time was: bet your good hands hard, but if someone raises you, you have to be able to fold if you don’t have an extremely good hand. The principle is very simple but not always as simple to follow.

It is not that hard to fold a good hand once or twice, but when you have to fold five or six good hands in a row it can start getting to you. Even today I am trying hard to follow this principle. If you can deal with this even the tough days when the cards aren’t coming your way, you’ve came far. Of course there are exceptions for every rule, but to follow the AggeP-principle and then add some player knowledge, pot odds and how much chips you and your opponent have left is a good start. You have to have a lot of patience and discipline to follow this simple rule and there are no room for errors.

An Example: The game is $1-$2 NL, and you’re under the gun and have $242 in front of you. You’re getting dealt A(d)-K(h) and you raise to $8, the player on the button calls and so does the player on the big blind. The flop comes A(s)-9(c)-7(d), the pot is now of $25. You bet $20 and the player on the button, with $300 in front of him, raises to $70. Big blind folds. What do you do?

Of course there is no simple answer to this question, you have to consider how the player has acted in earlier pots and how much chips he has left after the raise.

I think that you should fold much more often than you should call or reraise in this situation. When you now finally did hit the flop with your A-K, do you have to fold it? Yes, if the players that have called your raise haven’t been playing crazy earlier, you have to respect both their call and the flop-raise of the player on the button.

Since no possible straight- or flushdraw is out, the button’s raise indicates a hit, not a draw. What possible hands beat A-K on this flop? Of course A-A, more possible 9-9 or 7-7. Maybe A-9 or A-7. If the player isn’t overplaying A-Q or A-J I think that you sometimes in this situation have the chance of a split pot (if your opponent also holds A-K) but most of the times, you’re beat.

If your opponent only has $70 or less in front of him though, it is not that easy to make the decision to fold. If the player has already lost a couple of pots in a row or has shown wild play before, it may even be an easy choice to call. This was a typical example of how the value of the chipstacks matters.

When you are playing consequently after the AggeP-principle and betting hard you will get the chance of winning many small to middlesize pots and this will cover for the times when you have to fold a good hand. Every now and then the dreamflop comes and when you get raised after betting hard you will have the chance of winning a very big pot. Even if the principle sounds simple it is hard to follow when you have to fold five good hands in a row. It takes a lot of patience from you as a player, but it will pay off in the long run. Thank you AggeP for your good rule.

Pot odds

To be able to calculate pot odds fast and effectively is very important when you’re playing no limit cash game. Your decisions when it comes to playing draw hands should be based mostly on the mathematics beneath, videlicet what odds you get to catch what you want and based on that if it is worth it to pay to see another card. I think that it as a pokerplayer is very important to be able to play a hand one bettinground at a time. Even if your hand is looking good on the turn, you have to be able to fold it if the river shows the wrong card and your opponent bets more than you think your hand is worth by then.

That is why I think that you should calculate pot odds step by step, preflop, at the flop and at the turn. The flop and the turn will need the most calculating, preflop is more about estimating the implicite odds- how much you can get paid in later bettingrounds if you hit your hand. In this situation you will need lots of knowledge about the players. Ask yourself these questions: -If I hit trips with my low pair against the player who raised before the flop, how much is he willing to pay me? –How much money does my opponent(s) have left and how much do I have?

An interesting and quite common thing to think about is: How much should you be willing to pay before the flop with a low pair? I think that it is important to know how much money your opponent has on the table (the raiser) and how much you have yourself and through that see how much you can win at the most if you hit the flop good. Of course you have to consider how much you think your opponent is willing to pay you if you hit three of a kind. A good rule of thumb is the fifteen-times-rule: you should always be able to win at least fifteen times more of your opponent(s) than what you invest in the pot before the flop.

If your opponent has $200 at the table and you have $90, you should not call a raise that is bigger than $6 ($90/15=$6). You will catch trips with a low pair approximately one of nine times and therefore you want to be able to win at least nine times more than you invested in the pot before the flop. Still, you won’t be able to get all your opponents money every time you hit three of a kind and that’s why I recommend the fifteen-times-rule.

This rule can be stretched a little in both directions depending on how often your opponent seem to have a tendency off calling your bets; if your opponent is a real callingstation or has an overaggressive playing style, if he never lets go of the top-pair or an overpair it will be enough for you to win 12 times as much as you pay to see the flop. If you opponent is a really tight player though, who’s not paying off often, you should be able to win 20 times the cost of seeing the first three cards.

Sometimes on the flop and the turn you have to make tough decisions when you’re holding draw-hands (straight- and flushdraws). This is when you should be able to calculate pot odds fast. What you need to know to be able to calculate pot odds is: (1) the size of the pot and (2) the size of your opponent’s bet. You should also be able to estimate (3) how many cards that will help you improve your hand enough to win the pot. Then compare the pot odds to the estimation of your probability to win the pot. Of course you have to know how many opponents you have too, if you have more than one there will be a possibility of a reraise too.

An example: You’re playing £10-£20 NL at a table with six players. The player under the gun (in the first position) raises to £60 and everybody folds up to you, holding Q(s)-J(s) on the button. You call and the players on the blinds fold. The flop comes A(s)-K(s)-6(d).

Let’s start with trying to figure out how many cards that will win the pot for you; there are nine spades that would give you a flush and four tens that would give you a straight. One of the tens is the ten of spades though, so you will have to figure that nine + three cards will give you a straight or a flush. Can you be sure of winning if you catch the straight or the flush? In this case you will get the nutflush if another spade comes and no one will be able to beat your straight if there comes a ten.

The only time you will improve and at the same time lose is if the 6 of spades comes, in that case your opponent could get a full house at the same time as you are catching your flush. In other words, there are eleven cards that will make you win for sure and one more card that will give you a good chance of winning the pot. I would, in this situation, calculate that I have twelve cards that will give me the pot. I am aware of five cards (three at the table and two in my hand), the probability of that my hand will improve through the turncard therefore is 12/47 (52 cards in the deck – 5 known = 47 unknown).

12/47 is about 1/4. Now, compare this to the size of the pot and to how much your opponent bets. The pot is of £150 (not counting the rake). Let’s assume that your opponent chooses to bet £75, which means that you have to call £75 to win £150+£75+£75=300 total. Your pot odds are £75/£300=1/4. If the player bets £75 or less you should definitely call, but what if he bets more than £75? At this stage you have to consider other factors too: -how much can I get paid if I catch my draw? –how much money do I have left and how much does my opponent have left, if I call his bet? –is my opponent willing to pay me or not? I think that you definitely should call a bet bigger than £75 as long as your possibilities of getting paid in later bettingrounds are big.

Normally the pot is smaller on the flop than on the turn, which means that you usually have better implicite odds (better possibilities to get paid in later bettingrounds) in the earlier bettingrounds. That is why you can call bets a little bit larger on the flop than on the turn. If you are holding a good draw, like in this example, I think that you can call a bet about the size of the pot on the flop, and on the turn- up to around 75% of the size of the pot. At the choice of calling or not on the turn, it is very important to take into consideration how much money you have left and how big the tendency of calling is with your opponent on the river if you improve your hand.

Slowplaying in no limit

I am not much of a slowplayer in NL. I think that if my opponents don’t have a hand they won’t call even if I make a small bet, but if they do have a hand they will call even if I make a big one (a bet around the size of the pot is considered a hard bet). This, of course won’t be the best way to play against every type of resistance, but as a matter of fact you should always play at tables with as bad resistance as possible, and many of the bad players are thinking just like this.

Another good thing about betting hard is that your opponents will have to pay a high price for their draws, the bigger of a mathematical fault you get your opponents into making, the more money you will win in the long run. Yet another good thing is that you can provoke your opponents by betting hard. Many players get frustrated and will try to bluff you or call big bets with bad draws after someone has bet into them a couple of times. Many bad players seem to think that when you’re betting the size of the pot or more you’re often bluffing. This can be very profitable!

There are of course situations where you can profit more from playing in another way. There are players that just seem to have to bet as soon as you’re showing weakness by checking. If you’re up against a player who never stops bluffing and doesn’t understand when he’s about to get caught, you should of course continue to play passively. Over all though, I think that you should avoid slowplaying in no limit. Bet hard when you have a good hand, give action and you will get action!

Don’t get lost in the pot, always think ahead!

What I mean by thinking ahead and not getting lost in the pot is that you should always think about what consequences your play can have in the next bettinground. For example, if my opponent is betting a certain amount I should consider: -how big will the pot be if I choose just to call? –How much will I have left and how much will my opponent have left if I choose to call? If I choose to raise to $xxx and he calls me, how much do we have left then? –What do I do if my opponent goes all in? –Is my hand strong enough to go all in with? –Am I pot committed if I decide to raise?

These things are very important for you to know, to always stay ahead of the action in the pot at all times. Sometimes it can be better to raise directly and sometimes to check-raise.

An example: You’re playing $1-$2 NL and you have $200 on the table. The first player out is raising to $8 (He’s got $200 too), you’re calling on the button with J(c)-J(d) and the players on both blinds are folding. The flop is coming 4(s)-9(d)-J(s), your opponent bets $15. What to do now? Of course you want to get all the money in the middle, but how? If you raise about pot back, your raise will be to around $60 total, if your opponent calls this bet the pot will be of $139 and you will both sit with $132 left. Before you raise you should ask yourself these questions: -If a spade comes on the board and he goes all in, what do I do? –If a king or a ten comes and he goes all in, what do I do? –Could I have avoided this? It’s not an easy decision, right?

If I had made a smaller raise, let’s say to $40 total and my opponent had called, the pot would have been worth $99. If my opponent goes all in for his $152 and a spade or a straightcard falls it is, in any way, easier to get away. You have only invested $48 of your $200 in this pot. If no spade or straightcard falls though, you can choose how much you want to bet.

With a bet worth over $80 you will be committed in the pot and the only hand your opponent can have to call such a raise without making a mathematical fault is Q(s)-10(s)= straightflushdraw. If your opponent raises all in you should absolutely call. If he’s just calling and a spade or a flushcard comes on the river and he’s betting you should still call. The pot is now worth at least $259 and you have at the most $72 each left.

The chance of him calling with other cards then a flush- or a straightdraw is worth considering. Maybe he’s got an overpair or a hand even worse. To fold your hand now on the river, with less than $72 left is not to recommend. I’m not saying that this has to be the best way to play this hand, to raise pot or more can be as good in some situations, but you always have to think about the consequences on the turn before you’re betting. –How big will the pot be if I bet? –How much will I have left if I bet? - What cards do I not want to see, and what do I do if they come?

Let’s think about the same example again but this time with only $100 in front of you. On the flop your opponent bets $15, if you raise to $60 this time and get called, the pot size will still be $139 but now you only have $132 each. In this case you don’t have to hesitate at all if a spade comes and your opponent goes all in for $32, you just have to pay $32 to have a chance of winning $203 total ($32+$32+$139).

This means that if you have a 16% chance of winning the pot with one card left to come, you should call. Since you have ten cards to give you a full house or four of a kind on the turn your chances to catch the cards you want is at least (probably more since your opponent doesn’t have to have a flush or a straight just because he’s betting) 22% (10 known cards / 46 unknown cards) and the call is given.

This example can be discussed for eternity and I don’t have a simple right answer on how to play in this situation, but it should depend a lot on how much chips you have in front of you and how big the pot is when the betting begins. The most important thing though, is that you as a player always are thinking ahead to the next bettinground before you make your move, even before and on the flop. Ask yourself: -how big will the pot be if I choose just to call? –how much will I and my opponent have left in front of us if I raise versus call?

Position play

What position you have when you’re playing a hand is very important, the later you act in a bettinground the more information from the other players you will have. At a shorthanded table the player to the left of the dealer (small blind) has the first position; the player to the left of the small blind has the second position (big blind) and so on. If you are on the button, in sixth position, you have the best position and you should play more hands from a late position than from an early one.

How do you take advantage of your good position?

If you, for an example, have called a raise from a tight player when you are in sixth position you may have a good opportunity to bluff the player if you miss yourself. You may have learned by now how the player bets when he hits his hand and how he acts when he misses.

Maybe he bets half a pot when he misses the flop and whole pot when he hits it. You will get that information because you are acting after the player. In a multiwaypot (pots with more than one opponent) the risk of "getting lost" in the pot is bigger because you could get in the middle between two betters/raisers. If one player bets and you call, a third player can raise and so on. In a multiwaypot it is therefore very important to keep track of who’s betting and who’s left to act after you.

If you have players behind you who have still to act, you should throw away marginal hands that you may have called with if there was only one opponent in the pot. This is why I think that it is even more important in a multiwaypot to have a good position. In other words I think that you should fold Q-10 and similar hands from an early position, but from a late position you can raise with them, or at least call. If you’re on the button and no one has been raising, I think that you should play every hand from group one to group four. Mix up your play by calling and raising from time to time.

Isolation play

When you intentionally try to get everyone out of the pot except one or two bad players it’s called isolation play. The meaning of this is to get to play your hand alone against the bad players without worrying about the good ones. Isolation play is most common and most effective before the flop, so that you will have as many bettingrounds as possible to outplay your bad opponent. In a limit game it is hard because you only can raise a fixed amount. If you are playing $2-$4 limit, the maximum amount you can raise is $2 at a time before the flop, and it is therefore hard to get rid of other players.

In no limit you have the possibility to raise much more to get players out of the pot. The best position to effectively use isolation play is to sit right after (to the left of) the players you want to keep in the pot. Usually these players play many hands and that is why I think you should raise more often before the flop when you’re playing against them. If your opponent is just a little bit bad you should raise with hands from group one and group two. If the player is very bad you should raise with hands from group one and up to group four to get to play solely against the bad player as often as possible.

You should also raise a little bit more than usual, somewhere between four and five times the big blind. This is to make it even harder for the good players to stay in the pot. If other players notice that you are raising far too often they can start reraising you before the flop and if that happens you have to slow down and only raise with hands from group one and group two. If you do get the chance to play against the bad players you have good possibilities to outplay them on the flop, turn and river.

How you should play there depends a lot on in what way the player is bad, but usually these players are calling too often and betting too rarely. That means that you can make the game go your way many times. Bet your good hands hard and check when you miss. Don’t try to bluff bad players- you can’t!

Playing in the blinds, differences between no limit and limit

To defend your blinds in no limit doesn’t have the same value as it does in limit. Many times you can punish your opponents enough just by reraising every now and then. In no limit the blinds are also smaller in relation to the pot than in limit games and to give up your blind doesn’t have that big of an effect on the final result. If you are defending your blind it will put you out of position (you will have to act before your opponent) which makes things harder for you. I think that you can, from time to time, reraise before the flop against players who often raise your blind from a late position, but you should not be doing this often, maybe every fifth or sixth time.

When you are reraising don’t make the raise too small because then your opponent will call far too often. Don’t raise too much either because then you will risk too much for a chance of winning quite a small pot (one raise and two blinds). Raise around three or four times the raise your opponent makes. Every now and then you do get a hand worth calling or reraising with, and in that situation you will also have a chance to punish a suspected blindstealer.

Bluffing in no limit.

To bluff is probably the first thing people who aren’t playing are thinking of when they hear the word poker. The meaning of a bluff is often overrated and in limit hold'em, the pure bluff is not that important, even though semibluffs and similar plays can be valuable. In no limit hold'em the bluff is of much bigger importance since you can choose yourself how much to bet. To bluff in the right situations and to bet the right amount when you’re bluffing is not easy. Bluffing just because you should bluff sometimes is stupid.

A bluff without thoughts behind it, like –what does my opponent have -and how much he/she can be willing to pay, is unprofessional. A good bluff is when you think you know what cards your opponent is holding and when you find a good position to take advantage of that. When you think that your opponent catches a card that he didn’t want- you can bluff. When you are bluffing, you shouldn’t risk more than you can win. Which means you shouldn’t bet a larger amount than the amount of the pot.

An example: If there is $100 in the pot and you are betting $50, you will risk $50 to win $100 and therefore it is enough if your bluff succeeds every third time for you to break even in the long run. If you are betting $200 in the same pot though, your bluff has to go through two of three times for you to get even with your bluffing. I think that you, because of this, never should bet more than what’s in the pot when you’re bluffing. Bet amounts of the same size that you do when you’re trying to get paid with good hands. That makes it harder to read your play and your bluffs won’t have to succeed as many times for you to make a profit from them. The ability to find the right situations will come with growing experience and when you’re starting to get a good feeling of your opponent’s cards.

There are a couple of simple situations where a bluff could be in place:

Example one: You have called a raise from a tight player and are about to act after him. Everyone else has folded when the flop comes with low cards. If your opponent now checks, this can be a good situation to try a bluff. Bet about the same amount that you do when you hit, between 35 % and 100 % of the pot size.

Example two: You’re holding a draw (you have at least eight cards that will improve your hand) and no other player is showing an interest in the pot. The pot is of $5 on the flop, no one has raised before the flop and you have the nut flush draw. One player bets $1 and another one calls, you are now in a good position for trying to steal the pot. Raise to somewhere between $5 and $9 and if your try to end the pot here fails, you will still have the opportunity to improve your hand on the turn and the river. This is a semibluff and it will work best if your opponents are weak players (players who rather call than bet themselves).

Example three: You have called a bet on the flop and maybe a bet on the turn with a straight- or flushdraw. Your opponent’s way of playing is familiar to you and you think you have a good idea of what kind of hand he/she probably has. If you miss your draw but think that the rivercard could have scared your opponent, you could try a bluff. If you for an example, have a straightdraw, but a flushcard falls instead, you could use the situation to represent the flush and bluff. As usual, no big bets. Just normal bets (around 35%-100% of the pot size).

How often should you bluff when you see an opportunity? That should depend a lot on how your opponents has been playing earlier, but also on how you have been playing earlier. If you have been bluffing a lot and got caught earlier, the chance of getting called this time too is bigger. Try a bluff every now and then but never show your cards when you’re bluffing! That is free information to your opponents. The only times I will show a bluff is if I think that there is a good chance of my opponent losing his temper and starting to play bad. The more you bluff, the more will you get called when you are betting on a good hand too. This means that you will get paid more for your good hands too. Don’t bluff to often, try to find a good balance for your style of playing.

Creativity

A lot of the discussions in this article have been about how to play effectively against mediocre to? bad pokerplayers. This is because you as a serious pokerplayer always should try to find the tables with the worst opponents and take advantage of these player’s weaknesses. That is not always easy, you will run into good players too. In what extent you will meet good players depends a lot on where you’re playing and above all on what levels you’re playing. You will meet good players and against a tougher resistance it takes more from you as a player. Against the bad players you can play almost the same way all the time without them noticing what you’re doing, but against the better and more observant players it is important for you to vary your play. Try to be one step ahead by playing similar repetitive situations in different ways. Remember how you played the last time you had an overpair and the flop showed low cards in different suites.

Did you bet when you were first to act both on the flop and the turn? Maybe it is time to play more passively this time, check and call for example. –How did you play the last time you had a flushdraw? –Did you checkraise the last time you flopped three of a kind? Maybe you should bet directly this time and hope for a call or a raise from the same opponent.

The key to playing creatively and vary your play is to have a good feeling for what is good playing in a certain situation. Even more important is a good memory where you can remember how you played against a certain player in an earlier situation. This kind of thinking also applies in the other direction, when you’re trying to read your opponents: -What hand can my opponent have? –How did he/she play the last time he/she was bluffing? –How did the player play when he/she had a very strong hand?

To train your memory and remember how different players have played in earlier pots is very important. It will help you to vary your own game and to be able to read your opponents better. This is why you always should be observant and remember who you’re up against in the different pots and gather information about how they’ve been playing in earlier pots during the game.

Value bet

Value bet is a wellknown concept that many pokeplayers use, but I don’t think that all of them can explain what it really means. It is mostly used on the river. If you are betting to make your opponent(s) call with a hand worse than yours- it is a value bet. If you are betting to make your opponent(s) fold a better hand than yours though- it is a bluff. If you should value bet or not is often a hard decision to make on the river, but this small detail is very important in the long run. To be able to value bet in the right situations and to be able to know how much you should bet to make your opponents call you with a worse hand is very important. This decision should be based mostly on intuition and the knowledge you have about the players still in the pot and that makes it a hard decision.

An example: You’re playing $0.5-$1 NL and all players involved have $100 each in front of them. You are holding A(c)-J(d) and your position is big blind. The player on the button (in the last position) and the player on small blind have called, everyone else has folded. You check and the flop comes J(h)-8(d)-2(s). You bet $3, the player on the button calls and small blind folds. The turn is 3(d) and the pot is now of $9, you bet $6 and the player in the last position calls. The river is 3(s) and the pot is now worth $21. Should you value bet the river?

In this situation you have to ask yourself if you think that your opponent will call you with a weaker hand if you choose to bet the river too. Of course, this depends a lot on what cards your opponent is holding and how much you are betting. Let’s think about what hands your opponent can have; a call on the flop in this situation normally indicates a hit or a straightdraw (there is no flushdraw). A hit can be a pair or better, 2-2, 8-8 or J-J is possible, but maybe not that likely. A-8, 8-9, J-10, J-Q and J-K are common hands to call with and therefore quite likely. 9-10, Q-10 and 10-7 means a straightdraw, more or less good. If your opponent flopped three of a kind, he will call a bet on the river of course, but he will probably even raise. If the player has A-8, 8-9, J-10, J-Q or J-K you will win, but the question is how much he/she is willing to pay. If the player has a straightdraw that didn’t hit the board, he/she won’t call a bet from you, but he/she may try to bluff.

After considering these possible hands you should remember your opponent’s earlier plays, then decide if you should bet and if you should- how much? I think that one should bet in this situation, there’s a lot of good hands that your opponent can call you with that is weaker than A-J. I think that you can bet around $10 and probably get called by opponents holding J-x and maybe even hands like 8-9 and A-8.

One disadvantage when betting the river too is that a player that has missed his straightdraw may try to bluff if you check instead. You have to think about what scenario is most likely; that your opponent has a weaker hand but will call a bet, or that your opponent has a draw and will try to bluff if you check. A value bet is, when you as a player choose to bet on the river because you think that your opponent(s) will call you with a weaker hand. The hard decision is to know how much to bet. This is where your feeling for poker comes in, what hands can my opponent have and how much will he/she call? Practice makes perfect and it is very important to be able to value bet in the right positions in the long run.

Summary and a few rules of thumb

After discussing different important concepts of no limit cash game I will try to summarize and give some helpful rules of thumb in the extent it is possible. In no limit it is hard to generalize and say what is correct in different situations. Let’s start with the game before the flop. Startinghand-recommendations can be read in my earlier articles "Tips for new players" and "Short handed limit holdem". These recommendations are a good base, but should be able to be stretched in no limit, depending on your opponents. Often this means that you should play a little more hands if your opponents allow it.

When your opponents are players who like to call big bets but seldom bet themselves (passive players), you can play considerably much more hands. An adjustment in the other direction- that you should be playing tighter than usual, is not often to recommend. In one situation though, when a tight player has raised, you should fold hands like Q-K and A-Q right away. These hands will mostly make you win a small pot or lose a big one. When someone has raised you should avoid these hands even more than you do in limit. Hands that have bigger value in no limit than in limit are low pairs and suited connectors (6-7 suited etc).

These hands can stand up for a normal raise (two to four big blinds), sometimes more. When you are about to raise yourself I would recommend a raise of about three times the big blind if you are first to act. If one player has already called, you should raise to about four times the big blind, and so on. Remember what position you have and always play tighter from an early position than from a late one. This is even more important in no limit than in limit.

On the flop you should always be aware of how many opponents you have, who’s acting when, how much money you and your active opponents have left and you should be able to count pot odds quick. All this information is needed for you to be able to make a good decision to fold, call or raise.

If you decide to raise, you have to know how much you should raise and what consequences that will have in future bettingrounds. Once again, I want to highlight the importance of thinking one step ahead, think about what consequences an act on the flop will have later in the pot.

For example: - How big will the pot be if I call versus raise? –How much money do I and my opponents have in front of us? The implicite odds often are considerably bigger on the flop than on the turn, which means that you should take more consideration into how much money you and your opponents have left on the flop than on the turn.

On the turn it is important to think about taking the iniatiative or not; should you bet or not? If you are betting will you be stuck in the pot or can you fold later if necessary? If your opponent bets and you are on a draw it is important to be able to count pot odds and see how much chips you have in front of you.

How much can he /she pay you on the river if you hit or the other way around. On the river it is important for you to "know" your opponents, - what kind of hands can they have? –Should I call a bet on the river? –Should I value bet and if I should- how much? –Or should I check and hope that my opponent(s) will try a bluff? On the river you won’t need to count, the math is over and the knowledge of your opponents is more important at this stage.

To vary your play on the river is very important; you don’t want your opponents to be able to able to read you. Remember to gather information about your opponents during the different bettingrounds, when are they betting/calling and how much are they betting/calling? All this information will help you to put your opponents on hands and to make good and creative decisions on how to play.

Tilt. You have to be able to control the tilt! We are all humans and can’t take too much bad luck, it will get to you. How much it will get to you depends on how you are as a person, but also on how mentally stabile you are at the moment. How rested you are and how you feel in general, besides poker. A rested, focused person who doesn’t have any big personal problems will play better and will be further away from going on tilt.

Moneymanagement is an important ingredient in a long-term and successful thinking as a pokerplayer. To move up to a higher stakes-level in no limit you should have more than 12 buyins on the new stakes-level. You should still play by the same startinghand-recommendations as in my earlier articles, read it through and print it out to have by the computer when you’re playing. For adjustments read the chapter about startinghands and play before the flop in this article. Generally though, you should play more hands when you feel at ease at a table and your opponents are passive.

Playerknowledge, to be observant and gather information about your opponents during played hands (even if you’re in the pot or not) is very important for future decisions.

The fifteen-times-rule is about low pairs. It means that you always should have a chance of winning 15 times more from your opponent(s) after the flop than you invest before the flop with your low pair.

Good luck with your play and keep away from the tilt!