Global Sports: Texas Hold'em Advice: Do Not Play A Lot Of Hands

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Texas Hold'em Advice: Do Not Play A Lot Of Hands

By Hulk Hawking


You are just starting out in poker. You lose more often than you win. You try to analyze your game and you just can't find out what you're doing wrong.

Do you suck at poker? Is this game just not for you? Is there anything you can do to get better?

The fact is, you are not that far behind. Those players who keep on taking your money aren't really as good as you. All you need is a mastery of a few basic principles of the game and you will get better.

One of the basics for beginner's poker is simply to fold more hands. Many starters tend to make the mistake of sticking with their hand until the flop, hoping something happens to their mediocre hand. This could be very bad in the long run.

In Texas Hold'em Poker, there are 169 different starting hands, ignoring specific suits. But all of these hands won't help you win the game. In fact, only 5 of them are considered premium hands. These 5 hands are listed below:

1. Pocket Aces (AA) 2. Pocket Kings (KK) 3. Pocket Queens (QQ) 4. Suited Ace King (AKs) 5. Pocket Jacks (JJ)

These 5 hands should always be played if the player is not facing a raise. Otherwise, you would have to read your opponents, consider your position, then make a decision on whether you'd play or not. In the case of AA and AK however, it is often a good idea to play them.

This doesn't mean that you shouldn't play hands that aren't among the top 5. Waiting for these hands could take forever and the blinds could reduce your stack by then. You should play more than just these 5 hands but you should not play hands that are garbage. This is known as playing tight and is the most profitable strategy for a beginner.

If you are not facing a raise, then you may play any hand with any kind of value. If you are facing a raise, then you should select the hands you would play with. A good idea is to choose hands that may give you the nuts or hands that help you not get dominated by your opponent's hand.

A good idea for starters is to only play hands that are in the top 10-15 starting hands in poker. These hands are the following:

1. Pocket Aces (AA) 2. Pocket Kings (KK) 3. Pocket Queens (QQ) 4. Ace King Suited (AKs) 5. Pocket Jacks (JJ) 6. Pocket Tens (TT) 7. Ace Queen Suited (AQs) 8. Ace Jack Suited (AJs) 9. Ace King Off Suit (AKo) 10. King Queen Suited (KQs) 11. Ace Ten Suited (ATs) 12. King Jack Suited (KJs) 13. Ace Queen Suited (AQs) 14. Pocket Nines (99) 15. Jack Queen Suited (JQs)




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