iPoker and Blackjack:
Texas Hold'em - Strategy - Pre-flop
If you want to win at held’em you have to be able to use the right strategy. It’s the strategy that tells the champion from the beginner. Even if the fortune has here an important role, putting into practise a good strategy can make the difference. So in this brief page you can learn how to set up the right strategy to win
Position
It’s easy to guess that the first player starts at a disadvantage, because he can’t guess the other players’ hands. For this reason, it’s necessary to be careful, in particular if you have weak cards, that I usually name “bastard cards”. These are poor cards and they could induce you to bet because overrated.
On the contrary, if you are in a late position, you surely can get a overall view of the situation. So if anybody raise before you, you have the opportunity to see the big blind also if your cards are weak or “bastard”. This strategy is called “blind stealing” and it can be successfully acted by a player in late position because he’s the last to act, especially after the other players have only called. To call without raising can be a useful strategy even if you have strong cards because in this way the game remains more active.
In the end, a player position can change the value of cards and influence the size of a plot.
Stack
The stack is another fundamental factor when you play at hold’em. A stack is all of a player’s chips. If you have a good stack size, you can use an aggressive strategy against players who have a poor one. The chip leader can decide to play even if he has weak or poor cards because his stack size can intimidate an opponent who is short of stack even if his cards are good.
So the short-term aim of a player should be to achieve a reasonable stack size. For that reason, it needs he play several matches even if his cards are not so good. On the other hand, he has to be careful avoiding extreme betting.
Starting hands
This part should be addressed more to beginners than to players who have already experience of the wonderful world of hold’em. However, I want to remember to everyone that it’s important to be able to fold when the circumstances requires it.
Usually, inexperienced players want to play even if their cards are not so good because they want to see the flop at all costs. In many cases, I suggest you to fold when you realize your cards are too weak.
The next step is to analyze all the possible combination of starting hands so you’ll be able to apply the best strategy:
- High pair – a pair of Aces or of Kings is obviously the best combination. In this case, if a player raises or re-raises, you can easily act in the same way. I suggest you to be careful anyway, because if you have this kind of pair you’re inclined to raise for value running the risk all the opponent players fold.
In this case, my advise is to raise but in a contained way, trying to keep “live” the larger possible number of opponents. On the other hand, this strategy could result unfavourable because the more the players in play, the more the possibilities an opponent’s hand get better than yours.
With a pair hand of Queens and Jacks, the best move is to reraise until the greatest part of your opponents fold. In that way, you can avoid an opponent with a pair of Aces or Kings could act better than you in the flop.
- Middle-value pair – pairs of Ten, Nine, Eight and Seven are good hands. However, there is a very high percentage that your opponents could get better in the flop phase. For a pair of Ten there would be 16 possible higher value combinations!
- High suited cards – it can be considered a strong combination. In fact, one of the two cards could dealt during the following phases and so it could give you the possibility to make a strong pair or to make a flush.
- Low pair – in that case, you don’t have good chances. If you are in a position where you can guess the other opponents’ hands are better than yours, I suggest you to fold. However, avoiding to reraise, you can hope to make a three of a kind during the flop.
- Ace or King combined with a low card – it seems to be a good hand. Indeed, although it’s not a very bad hand, you have to be careful. I suggest you to avoid to reraise waiting the final flop phase.
At the end of this fist chapter about the strategy, you have to consider it’s better you should not unthinkingly entrust that you could reach a better score during the flop or in the following phases. In that case, you will be at the mercy of the fortune and although both poker and hold’em are games of chance, they are also games where the strategy and the reasoning have a greatest weight.
The table illustrated below show which are the best strategies to adopt during the preflop. I suggest you to study them very carefully!
