No other gambling is as independent of luck as poker. Of course, the quality of the cards is crucial to success or failure, but one factor affects this happening even more: The playing time. Rounds can sometimes take 2 hours or more. On average, 60 hands are played per game, which at least slightly negates the dependence on luck.
So it is no coincidence that usually the players with the best tactics prevail. Especially online, where many beginners are on the go, you can increase your monthly profit with a few poker strategy tips.
For this reason, let’s take a look at the top 10 Texas Holdem Poker strategies, which will definitely make you a better player.
1) Poker strategy for beginners
As a beginner in the scene it is important to catch some basic wisdom right away, which will avoid paying a lot of initial education. Poker strategies for beginners, however, are like sand on the sea, so that it is almost confusing again. We’ll summarize that and present the two most important poker strategy tips for beginners:
Never “go on tilt”: This technical term means that you should not let go. It is pure adrenaline and just when you go all in it is hard to stay calm. However, if you show your emotions to others, your opponents can easily play them against you. Even worse, if you are no longer masters of your inner life, then you play without reason, which is usually fatal.
Tight play: “Tight” is one of many game styles in which you play only really good starting hands. Especially in the 80s and 90s this was very popular. Although today’s aggressive players are trendy, a tight poker tactic is great for beginners. A tight game is quieter and requires less bluffs. So you can get acquainted with the game in peace and get to know all subtleties bit by bit.
Having learned these initial poker strategies for beginners and gaining some experience, you can go beyond beginner tactics to more complex things.
2) How do you play good starting hands?
In poker, there is really only one really good point to get out: the preflop. The more crucial it is to have a poker strategy for starting hands. Since there are no general rules for this, let’s look at the different scenarios:
High pairs: High pairs like QQ are considered “Made Hands”. Often they alone are enough to win the round and with 12% probability one succeeds in a set (triplet). Aside from dangerous flops with 3 cards of one color, high pairs should be aggressively defended.
Small Couples Tactics: There is a lot of disagreement about this topic, as in Texas Holdem small pairs can be very risky. So they are often not alone enough to win and a set succeeds only in one of 9 cases. For these drawing hands, there is no clear poker strategy for starting hands. However, the trend is not to play them.
2 high cards: These hands are playable but not very good hands. The poker starting hands strategy depends on 2 factors: If the cards are connected (consecutive) and the cards are suited (monochrome). While AK should always be played is to be foreseen by KT.
High-low: Here it depends especially on the time of the game. There are still many players at the table, it can be assumed that other players have high cards. The smaller the number of people, however, the more powerful are the high cards and the sooner you should go with a high-low hand.
Tactics for small starting hands: On a small hand, the poker starting hands strategy is clear: If you do not want bluffing, go out.
Suited Corners: Suited Connectors are two consecutive cards of the same suit. These mostly tempting leaves are often overrated. One quickly forgets that the probability of a flush at just 5.77%. So you should only go with high suited connectors.
3) Use with tactic preflop
In addition to the starting hands, the seating position is crucial in preflop. Assuming a 10-player table, the first 3 people are named to the left of Dealer Early, the next 5 as Middle and the last two Late. Depending on the position, you should choose a different preflop poker tactic.
The best position in preflop is the late. Here you have enough time to analyze the behavior of the other players and adjust your decision accordingly. However, as Early, you should weigh your decision the most in accordance with the poker preflop strategy because you do not yet have any information about the starting hands of your counterparties:
Here is a selection of preflop poker strategies:
You are in the middle position with QQ and you have been raised: you have an excellent hand and can even re-raise.
In early position, you opened the table at 99: After you made a raise in 3-times the height of the blind: They rise in view of your small chance of a set.
In the late position you hold KT and in front of you many have dropped out: The hand is not perfect, but you can pay the blind without raising.
4) The procedure after the flop
The poker strategies after the flop are quite simple. As a rule, you should have entered the game with a relatively good hand and are now expecting the flop. The minimum requirement should be to continue after the turn that you can show a pair. Is it a two pair or even a triplet, so much the better. If this is not the case, go out better.
In addition, one of the most exciting things about poker starts from the flop. The possibility to bluff. This poker strategy after the flop is quite an alternative, but it should only be perceived in two situations. Either if you were already the aggressor before the flop (for example, a high raise) or if not many players are fighting for the pot.
5) Poker strategy against aggressive players
Especially in online poker rooms, it often happens that a particularly aggressive player sits at the table. These players go with almost every hand and raise sharply in preflop. However, what sounds like eating can turn out to be a deadly danger if you do not have the right poker strategy against aggressive players.
The first thing you can do is choose your seat. The perfect place to sit is to the left of the aggressive player. So you can always wait for his train and then react.
If you have done that ideally, the poker strategy against aggressive players suggests trying to go head to head (1 to 1). Since Aggressive players go with almost every starting hand, it can be assumed that a pair is not often there and the high card can decide. As a rather tight player they would usually be ahead in a heads-up match.
6) Odds and outs: analytic thinking
In the wake of the online boom, poker tactics have shifted significantly toward mathematical approaches. When calculating average earnings expectation, odds and outs, it requires sophisticated analytical skills from the players. However, who masters the principle, has a decisive advantage.
Average profit expectation
Odds Poker strategy applies the principle of average profit expectation. It’s about justifying your investment (the money you have in the pot) with its potential prospect of profit. This ensures that even if you lose a hand you will statistically win at some point with your game. To better understand this poker strategy, the terms odds and outs are needed.
Odds and outs
Outs are the cards in the deck that could help you get a good set. For example, suppose you have K ♣ and 9 ♣ and the board is 10 ♣ J ♦ 3 ♣, you have a high pair with another king, a straight with a queen, and a flush with another cross. To calculate the outs now, the ratio of the good cards (which you can use) to the bad cards must be determined.
Cross Cards: A total of 13-2 on the hand and 2 on the flop = 9
Kings: 4 -one hand = 3
Queens: 4 in the deck = 4
A deck consists of 52 cards. Minus of my hand and the flop are 47 invisible. Of the 47 cards, 16 are good and 31 are bad. To calculate the outs, divide the good ones by the bad cards:
16/31 = 51.62% -> In every other case you come across a usable card.
Odds, however, is the percentage of my chips in the pot. Now, when I think about using my hand, I have to combine outs and odds. So it pays according to the odds strategy in our example to call only if I win by winning the pot at least twice my stake, since I lose statistically every other time.
Nevertheless, professionals like the German Pius Heinz emphasize that mathematics should not be overstated. To the analytical considerations always situational factors and one’s own feeling must be added.
7) Strategy for Online Tables
Of course, all of these strategies are both off-line and online applicable, but the digital domain is slightly different and requires special online poker strategies.
Whether this is actually an online poker strategy is a matter of definition, but using software increases your chances of winning in any case. What first sounds like online poker scams is allowed on nearly all platforms, as theoretically anyone can use software. Here is a selection of online poker strategy software:
Hand History Replayer: This tool saves played hands. So one can check his game after a tournament and plan for the next time any tactical changes. On the other hand, you can collect information about opponents and assign them to a player type.
Player Mark: This is software that marks players in digital rooms. So you can mark particularly weak or strong opponents to either dodge them or attack them.
Odds / Out Calculators: The mathematical considerations described above are a problem for many alphanumeric. However, to help them benefit from statistical advantages, some programs do this work for them. All you have to do is enter your starting cards and the board, and the program will tell you the odds and give you a recommendation to get in or out.
8) Multi-tabling: The big plus when playing online
Another online poker tactic that has earned its own category is multi-tabling. The multi-tabling poker strategy involves playing at multiple tables simultaneously. This has a great advantage for gamblers who profit from the idea of winning the game: a higher hourly wage. In addition, you have less boredom, then you can use the consideration breaks of his opponent at other tables.
The first poker strategy tip for multi-tabling is finding the right number of tables. For some, these are 4, for the others 12. An analysis of 5,000 accounts, however, has shown that the maximum profit on average is 9 tables. If you play more, you easily lose the overview. The fact that there are also gigs like Boku 87 that operate multi tabling with 51 tables shows that there is hardly any limit up here.
In addition, one has the most success with the multi-tabling poker strategy if you always try to play a constant number of tables. For example, many multi-tablers start with 8 tables and only start a new game when they are all played out. On the other hand, it is more effective to start a new round immediately when another one has come to an end. So you stay in rhythm and can increase the hourly wage.
9) Poker Strategy for Cash Games
In the online area, cash games are very popular because you can play with the blinds, which are not increased, significantly more hands. However, to cash in here you should follow a cash game poker strategy.
First, you should buy in any case with the table maximum. So you can build more pressure on his opponent and sometimes get out risk-free with multiple flops in a row.
Who also plays both tournaments and cash games should lead separate bankrolls. This poker strategy for cash games makes it easier to identify where there is room for improvement and does not mix up the winnings.
10) How to make a mark in poker tournaments
Tournaments are a separate category in poker. On average, only the best 10-20% win here, so you have to come very far to get up from the table with full pockets. The poker strategy for tournaments divides the action into 4 phases: start, middle, bubble and final phase, all of which must be played with different poker tournament strategies.
At the beginning of the tournament, it’s all about surviving the first few rounds without damage and with as little chip loss as possible. Since the blinds are still very low at the beginning, the poker strategy for tournaments therefore suggests to play very tight at the beginning.
So only very good starting hands like AA, KK, QQ or AK should be played. But if you have such a hand, you can be quite aggressive and you can not buy the cut from other players. Of course, you should not raise so noticeably that all other players immediately fold.
