Texas Holdem Betting Strategy Chart
Choosing your starting hands wisely can make the difference between winning and losing in poker. This is especially true when you can't depend on your poker skills to help you out after the flop in more difficult situations (yet). Many beginning poker players will come to realize this quite early on in their poker career and they subsequently start to look for a guaranteed formula towards proper starting hand selection: they need the best starting hands chart available to beat the game, or so they think…
- When to Fold in Texas Holdem. The majority of Texas holdem strategy you find in books and on popular web sites focuses on the offensive side of play. The offensive and aggressive side of the game is important, but it’s also important to learn when you need to fold. Every bet you can save is a bet you can use to win more money in the future.
- Full-Limit Hold’em (FLHE) Minimum Buy-in Chart NOTE: All stakes of FLHE, including micro stakes can generally be found online. If Limit Hold’em is offered in a live setting, generally stakes will start at either $1/$2 or $2/4.
- With high cards like AK and AQ, the ideal situation is to be heads-up (1v1) on the flop. The more players in the pot with a hand like AK, the trickier it gets. Good preflop betting strategy increases the chances of you playing heads up. Poker betting strategy overview. That's essentially the meat and bones of bet sizing in Texas Hold'em for you.
Why bet In No-Limit Hold’em the aggressive, thinking player who carefully selects the spots to show aggression, wins. Every bet and every raise should have a purpose. Maximising value The primary purpose of betting is obvious: You have a strong hand and want to get money in the pot. You want opponents with weaker hands to call and stay in the. Playable Texas Hold’em Hands. Texas Hold’em is a game of strategy, like any poker game, but where you’re sitting in relation to the action becomes part of your strategy when playing Hold’em. If you bet early, you generally need better cards than you do if you’re one of the blinds.
Texas hold'em starting hand charts
Starting hand charts offer an overview of common situations regarding your position at the poker table and/or the action in front of you and tell you which starting hands to play and how for every situation. They're easy to read and easy to use.
It isn't anything else but logical that the first time poker player resorts to charts as a quick fix for their leaks. Many beginning poker players have such big leaks in their game caused by improper starting hand selection that the use of a starting hands chart can improve their game significantly.
However, there are some shortcomings associated with starting hands charts. They lead to a very straightforward and predictable game; they don't take into account all of the aspects of the game that are important for starting hand selection; they can't offer a solution for all the different scenarios you will encounter at the poker table and above all, they don't make you think for yourself.
Proper Texas hold'em starting hand selection
Proper starting hand selection goes beyond the use of charts. It is the result of a true understanding of 'starting hand strength'. What factors other than position and the action in front of you influence the strength of your Texas hold'em starting hands and why? What are strengths and weaknesses of the different starting hands? Knowing the answers to these questions will most likely also result in an insight in the best way to play certain hands.
Take for example a starting hand like 6♦7♦. Now, imagine that you're at a full ring game in late position and there's a raise with two callers in front of you. A starting hands chart would probably tell you that you should either fold or call.
And that's it.
If however you would truly understand the strength of a starting hand like 6♦7♦ then you would know that 6♦7♦ is a great hand because it is both connected and suited and therefore has a higher probability of hitting straights and flushes when compared to hands other than suited connectors. You would also realize that, despite it being a suited connector, the chance of really flopping something great with this starting hand is still very slim. You would therefore be looking to see cheap flops; to avoid the possibility of someone raising/re-raising you pre-flop and to be in a position to win a lot of money for when you do hit to make up for the times when you miss and have to fold (high implied odds).
In this case you would not only see that there are already three players in the hand with a full stack, but also that the initial raiser has a very strong range because he is tight and raised from early position. You also know that the players who are still left to act behind you are passive and are therefore unlikely to make a re-raise in which case you would certainly have to fold and lose the initial call. You just know that this is an excellent opportunity to play the hand. Because you realize you are facing a strong range of hands from your opponents you also know what to look for after the flop. You don't want to hit just a top pair or a gutshot straight draw. You are looking for combo draws which give you at least around 40% equity when all the money goes in on the flop. You are looking to hit two-pair or better and you also realize that hitting the flush and getting it all-in in pots with many players will sometimes only result in seeing your opponent show a higher flush. In addition you would also have a betting strategy in mind: you know that if you hit what you are looking to hit, you should bet big to get value and to protect your hand. You would have a plan for the rest of the hand from the moment you see your cards and decide to play them; a plan that takes many more aspects into consideration than just the action in front of you and your position; a plan that goes way beyond the use of a simple starting hands chart and will therefore get you further in the end.
Starting hand selection charts - conclusion
Proper starting hand selection is a very important aspect towards playing winning poker. Starting hand selection is more than just selecting hands based on your position and the action at the table. It is about making a plan for the rest of the hand considering all possible aspects involved. Although starting hands charts can offer a quick solution for beginning players to improve their starting hand selection, taking the time to really learn and understand this aspect of the game will certainly be more beneficial in the long run.
Many beginning poker players look at a starting hands chart as an easy and guaranteed formula towards proper starting hand selection. Do you?
Further reading at First Time Poker Player:
Further reading across the internet:
- PlayWinningPoker - Training Wheels of Fortune - Poker Starting Hand Charts
Basic Strategy:Tips : Position : Starting Hands : Bluffing : Betting : Money Management
It's all well and good knowing when to bet and raise, but if you don't know how much money you should be betting and raising when the action is on you, then there is a pretty big hole in your game.
Use this quick and easy guide to find out how big your bets should be for the next time you sit down at a no limit Texas Hold'em table.
Why is it important to size your bets properly?
Lets say that you hold a strong hand like top pair on the flop, but there are also two cards of the same suit on the board. Like this...
If you bet too little, you are giving players with drawing hands or hands like middle pair the opportunity to see a cheap turn card, which makes it mathematically correct for them to call to try and beat your hand (as they will have good pot odds - but don't worry about this if you are not familiar with pot odds (playing flush and straight draws) yet, just take it as betting too little is bad). So by not betting enough, you are simply allowing other players to catch up and take the pot away from you.
If you bet too much, you are risking a lot of money for the times when an opponent has a better hand than you. Top pair is a good hand on the flop, and a big bet will get rid of those weaker hands that are trying to outdraw you, but what happens if another player already has you beat? You will have committed a lot of money to the pot when a smaller bet would have done the same job but saved you money.
Texas Holdem Betting Strategy Chart
So as you can guess, we are going to be shooting for the 'sweet spot' in terms of bet sizes. This is going to be where we bet enough to make it mathematically incorrect for players on draws to call, but at the same time not betting so much that it means we lose too much money if we come up against resistance. So lets get to it...
How to size your bets in no limit Texas Hold'em.
Allow me to give you a fundamental yet very awesome rule about good poker betting strategy:
The size of your bets should always be made relative to the size of the pot.
This just means that whenever you make a bet, you take into consideration the size of the pot and bet according to how big or small the pot is. But again, this is all well and good, but it doesn't tell you how big your bets should be. So let me give you one more magical rule that you should always try and follow when it comes to bet sizing.
If you have a strong hand that you wish to bet with, you should make your bets between 75% - 100% of the size of the pot.
By following this rule, you will always be able to work out the optimum range of bet sizes to make at any stage of any hand. By betting between these two figures, you will be betting enough to force opponents on a draw to fold, but not risking so much that it makes it detrimental if one of the other players at the table has you beat. It's a simple rule I know, but it will take you a long way.
Betting before the flop.
I'll mention this again in the article on playing before the flop, but as a general rule of thumb, you want to make your preflop raises around 4 times the size of the big blind.
You have a good hand, so you want to play for good money with it.
If you find that there are any limpers before you, then add 1 big blind on top of the 4 big blind raise. So if you are playing $1/$2 NL Hold'em and you have decided that you want to make a preflop raise, then the standard raise would be $8. However, if there has been 1 limper, then make it $10. If there has been two limpers, make it $12 and so on...
This is because limpers make the pot bigger, which will mean that even if you make a standard 4X BB raise, your opponents will be getting a better price to make the call to see a flop. So make sure you put them to a tougher decision... you want bad players to make a costly mistake by paying a lot to enter the pot with a lame hand.
You're not trying to guarantee winning to pot with a big raise. The benefit of it is getting in to a bigger-money pot with an edge, and that edge is having stronger cards than your opponents. It's good when they call with terrible hands.
With high cards like AK and AQ, the ideal situation is to be heads-up (1v1) on the flop. The more players in the pot with a hand like AK, the trickier it gets. Good preflop betting strategy increases the chances of you playing heads up.
Poker betting strategy overview.
That's essentially the meat and bones of bet sizing in Texas Hold'em for you. You can perfect it in your own time through practice, but if you stick with the 75% - 100% rule and the 4BB rule for before the flop, you are well on your way to becoming a force to be reckoned with at the poker table.
The bet sizing may seem a bit bigger than you might normally be used to, but trust me on this one, this is how a winning poker player bets. It may seem a little scary at first, but you will get used to it after you start to get your feet wet. You also won't mind it as much when you find that you have a much more commanding role over the pots that you play, so get back out there and start betting like a champ.
Go back to the sublime Texas Hold'em guide.
Texas Hold'em Betting Strategy Chart
Can You Afford Not To Use
Poker Tracker 4?
“I wouldn’t play another session of online poker without it”
“I play $25NL, and in under 1 week PT4 had paid for itself”
Comments