Texas Holdem Starting Hands
Starting
Hands, Tips and Strategy
Early position in Texas Holdem,
is the 3 players to the left of the big blind, late position
are the 2 players to the right of the blinds. By deduction, that
makes everyone in between in middle position. Why, you ask, do
you have to play your starting hands differently from different
positions?
IMPORTANT TIP: The answer is logical and probably won't surprise you. Texas
Holdem is all about information. The more information you have
about how everyone else is going to play the hand, the easier
it is for you to make a more informed decision about how you
are going to play your starting hands.
Logically, in Texas Holdem poker,
in early position, since you are one of the first to act, you
have to be much more selective about your starting hands since
you don't know what the players behind you are going to do.
The last thing you want to do is
call the big blind, someone behind you puts in a nice raise,
and you are forced to fold that hand, wasting your money. In
late position, since you are one of the last players to act you
have had the luxury of watching what most of the other players
are going to do, making your decision an easier one.
In Texas Holdem poker, you might
decide to call a bet from this position because there is less
likelihood you are going to be raised with only 2 or 3 players
to act behind you. For this reason, the cards you play in early
position are usually of much higher rank and quality than those
you might play from around back.
The biggest mistake most Texas
Holdem players make is bleeding their money away by playing too
many hands. IMPORTANT TIP: A good Texas Holdem
poker player really won't be involved in too many hands, unless
he is running hot.
Always be aware of what position
you are in and take it into consideration when deciding, whether
or not, to put you're hard earned chips into the pot. The following
is a good idea of starting hands that can be played depending
on where you are seated at the poker table.
Click the banner above to go to the only legal US poker room!
In early position- you really
only want to play AQ or better, which is AA, KK, QQ, JJ, 10's.
You can raise with some of these hands, but might limp with pairs JJ's or lower. You can call with AK or AQ. It's hard
to stand a raise from anything less.
In middle position- your
strategy changes a bit. As discussed, you can lower your standards
here since you have a little more information. You can play all
hands from A-10 and above (this includes suited connectors from
67s on up) if you are the first to act. You can call with 99's,
88's, 77's and even lower. But these pairs should be folded if
the pot is raised from behind, unless there are a lot of callers
for one extra bet.
In late position- you tweak
your strategy yet again. You can call with most suited connectors
and small pairs all the way down to 22's. If the pot has not
been raised in front of you, you may be tempted to raise, regardless
of your hand. This is called a position raise. It can be an important
part of your success over the course of a Texas Holdem poker
tournament, but it's something that should be used selectively,
unless you really
have a hand. Remember if everyone in front
of you has folded there is a far greater chance that someone
behind you has woken up with a hand... keep this in mind before
trying to bully the blinds.
To complete your knowledge of the math behind Texas Holdem Poker, read these sections: Pre Flop Odds, Outs and Odds, Starting Hands and Drawing Hand Odds.
If you already have a working knowledge of this stuff and want to get more serious about becoming a winning Texas Holdem player then check out our full review of the best online poker rooms.
Good luck and we'll see you at the tables!
Click the banner above to go to the only legal US poker room!
****Important Update: (for 2008)************
1 - Although FullTiltPoker.com and PokerStars.com are OPEN TO US PLAYERS, the banners on this site are here for our international player base. Feel free to take advantage of our customized player bonuses.
Our site has a lot of unique content that we decided to leave undisturbed. We felt it was important for our audience that they have access to all the inside information on playing winning online Texas Holdem. Enjoy!
2- DuplicatePoker.com is a strange but interesting version of Texas Holdem that I have been trying out. At first, I wasn't too crazy about it but the more I played, the more it started to grow on me.
It's Texas Holdem, with a splash of Chess strategy thrown in. As the banners on our site say, it's 100% legal to US players and they take credit cards! I tried it, unreal, took me 2 minutes to put money in from my AMEX card. DuplicatePoker.com gives you $3 just to come and try it out, no strings attached. Be patient, it takes about an hour of play to get the feel for things. After that, I started to enjoy it more and more...
******************************************************
|
Column
