|
Limit Texas Hold 'em Strategy Limit Texas Hold ‘Em is by far the most popular form of online poker today. And there is plenty of money to be made playing it, because the game appears deceptively simple but actually has many intricate ideas. So how do you get started winning consistently online?
Recommended Reading
Don’t leave home without reading some of the great hold ‘em (and general poker) books out there.
For beginners: Winning Low Limit Hold ‘Em by Lee Jones The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky
For advancing players: Improve Your Poker by Bob Ciaffone Hold ‘Em Poker for Advanced Players by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth Middle Limit Holdem Poker by Bob Ciaffone and Jim Brier The Theory of Poker by David Sklansky (re-read this book!!!)
It will also help greatly to familiarize yourself with common poker lingo, which will make it easier to discuss hands with other poker players. I have a list of some common poker slang and abbreviations here.
Picking a Site
One great advantage to limit hold ‘em is that since it is by far the most popular game online, all the big poker sites have tables running at various limits on a regular basis. Thus, you should concern yourself only with finding the site that is the most profitable. In my experience, the best hold ‘em games are at Party Poker, Empire Poker, The Poker Club, Pacific Poker, and Absolute Poker. The major sites (aside from Party/Empire) such as UltimateBet, Poker Stars, and Paradise Poker generally feature some of the tightest hold ‘em games on the internet. However, these three sites have excellent security and customer support, and good user traffic and software. If these things are more important to you than finding a game full of idiots, I recommend the latter group of sites instead. Paradise, Stars and UB also feature extremely small limits such as .01/.02 so that the novice can experiment with real money games cheaply. One problem with these sites is that their extremely small-limit games (though good for developing players) rob the .50/1 and 1/2 tables of lots of fish who would otherwise have to play these higher limits if they wanted to play for real money. So if you want to play .50/1 or 1/2 regularly, it is best to play at Party Poker.
Getting Started
If you're not familiar with the basics of how to play hold 'em, visit the Hold 'em Basics page. If you still have trouble figuring out how the blinds and button operate, go to a poker site and play on one of their limit hold ‘em play money tables until you have a good idea. Although no one ever folds in these games, a few hours of play money play will be a good introduction to the real money tables, by showing you how the software works. UltimateBet, Paradise Poker and Poker Stars also offer some .01/.02 tables where you can get the hang of real money games at low risk. It is hard to lose more than a dollar or two at these tables even if you have a very bad session.
When you sit at a table, you must post a blind the size of the big blind in order to be dealt in. (This prevents people from sitting down in late position, folding every hand, and simply standing up before the blinds get to them.) As a general rule, when you sit down at a table, post your first blind in late position (preferably one to the right of the dealer button), or wait for the big blind to get to you. This is just common sense; since you are only going to want to play about 15% of your hands, you will probably be dealt a hand you don't like when you post your blind. If you post in late position, you may get to see as many as six hands for free before you must pay a blind again. If you post your blind when you would have had to pay the big blind next hand anyway, you get no free hands. This is reckless play which eats into your bankroll quickly, and if you do it, you probably don't have the patience necessary to win at poker.
Generally speaking, the fewer players at the table, the more you prefer to simply post when the big blind gets to you, because you get fewer free hands if you post in late position. Also, whenever possible you should wait until the blinds are about to get to you before standing up at the end of your session, so you get to play some free hands. If you are so pressed for time that you can't afford this luxury, you're probably not in the right mindset to play winning poker anyway.
Position
Unlike in many games such as 7-card stud, position is fixed throughout a deal in Texas hold ‘em. Of course, it is an advantage to act last on each betting round, as you have more information about the hand when the betting gets to you. Since the advantage from acting last on four betting rounds is substantial, you should play fewer hands in early position (many spots ahead of the dealer, also known as the ‘button’) and more hands in late position (on the button, or in one of the last couple of spots before it). Also, if most of the players in front of you have folded, you can be more aggressive preflop in late position. Later in the hand, if everyone has checked to you in late position, you can often bet with nothing in late position and win the pot outright. However, only make this bet against a few opponents. With more than three opponents it is usually best not to attempt a pure bluff.
Perhaps the biggest importance of position is on the initial betting round. On the button, if no one has raised ahead of you, you know you will be able to come in for one bet unless the blinds raise, which is unlikely. In early position, you have no idea whether the pot will be raised behind you. Also, you do not know if a shorthanded (3 or fewer players) or multiway (4 or more players) pot is likely to develop. Certain hands gain or lose value depending on what kind of pot it is. Specifically, small pairs and suited connectors play well in multiway, unraised pots, and high cards and high pairs play best in shorthanded raised pots. If you are in early position with a small pair or suited connector, you do not know how the pot will develop, so you usually must fold these hands. (With high cards like A-Q or a big pair like Q-Q, you can create a shorthanded raised pot by raising yourself.)
In a tighter game, like you will typically encounter at limits 5/10 and above, having position is an even greater advantage because you have a better chance to steal the pot via a bluff. In a low-limit game, you are seldom able to bluff to win pots, but it is still very helpful to have the field bet into you when you have a big hand, or to check behind them when you need to hit a draw in order to win. All these factors add up to a big advantage for the players in late position, so tighten up when you have to act early.
Dominated Hand Theory
A common rookie mistake is getting into “kicker trouble”. When a rookie plays A-3o and loses to A-Q when an ace flops and his kicker is beaten, he often chalks it up to bad luck. This was not luck; good players know that A-x offsuit is what is called a “trouble hand” and it should almost always be folded. (Note: x = any low card in examples where A-x or K-x is used.) A-x suited is in similar trouble, but the nut flush potential in a multiway pot often makes it worth playing. In a shorthanded pot, A-x suited suffers from the same problems as A-x offsuit and should be folded.
Hands like these are known as “dominated” hands. If you do flop an ace and it is the best hand, you will not get much action on it. If it is not the best hand, you will be giving away your money to someone who is playing an ace with a bigger kicker. Needless to say, K-x suffers from the same problems. Do not play dominated hands. They are hands that either win small or lose big, so the odds are well against you in the long run.
Some examples of hands that are often dominated but frequently played by beginners include A-9, K-9, and even A-T and K-T. (Aces and kings with lower sidecards are even worse.) These hands should be folded preflop to avoid getting into trouble later on.
Pot Odds and Implied Odds
When you do not have the best hand, but must hit a draw to improve, you need to calculate whether this draw is getting proper odds to call a bet. To do this, simply compare the size of the pot to the size of the bet, and contrast this ratio to the odds of making your draw. Some common (rough) hold ‘em odds include:
Pocket pair (7.5:1 against hitting a set of trips on the flop, 23:1 against hitting a set on the next card)
A-K (2:1 against flopping top pair, top kicker, or a better hand)
Pair on flop, other than pocket pair (23:1 against hitting trips, 8.4:1 against hitting split two pair or trips)
Four-flush (4:1 against hitting in one card)
Open-ended straight draw (Example: Board 8-5-2, you hold 6-7; 5:1 against hitting in one card)
Gut-shot straight (Example: Board 8-5-2, you hold 9-6; 11:1 against hitting in one card)
Set or Trips (3.5:1 against making a full house or quads in one card, 2:1 against making a full house or quads in two cards)
When calculating your pot odds, in a loose game like this, you also must consider “implied odds”. In other words, if you make your hand, your opponent will most likely call a river bet, since he does not want to be bluffed. This means that you can call a bet getting a little worse odds than are technically necessary. I would call with a flush draw getting 3:1, for example, because of the possibility of winning additional bets on the river. Still, there will rarely be enough money in the pot to play a pocket pair past the flop, unless you believe it is currently the best hand. Gut-shot straight draws are another hand that often gets played with insufficient pot odds. Be sure you are not making this mistake.
When the board is already “tainted” – that is, if the board already contains a pair when you are drawing to a flush, or three of a suit when you are drawing to a straight, you must be getting better than usual odds to draw to your hand, because you may hit it and still lose. And if there has already been a bet and raise before you can act when the board looks dangerous like this, it may be best to just dump your drawing hand, as the betting may get capped, and you may be drawing dead.
For more on odds, check out the Beginner's Guide to Poker Odds. This is a vital concept of winning hold 'em play, especially if you are not a "math person".
Starting Hands
Even hold ‘em novices are somewhat aware of what the good hands in this game look like. For beginners, I recommend the Sklansky Hand Rankings (available in Hold ‘Em Poker or Hold ‘Em Poker for Advanced Players) as the easiest way to memorize starting hand strategy. If you can't find a copy, read on for solid basic advice on what starting hands to play and how to play them.
(Note: A ten is denoted as T. A suited hand will be written as J-Ts to represent jack-ten suited, an unsuited hand will be written as K-9o to represent king-nine offsuit. A-xs represents an ace and any other card suited)
The most important thing to remember is that in a multiway pot, you should play more willing to play drawing hands such as small pairs and suited connected cards, but you should NOT lower your requirements for offsuit hands. K-Jo, Q-To, and K-To are examples of some hands that are very rarely playable in loose games. It seems odd that a hand would actually lose value against more opponents, but the experts will agree with me on this one. With hands like these, aside from a longshot straight, you are hoping to hit top pair with a mediocre kicker, a hand that rarely holds up against several opponents.
Your starting hand selection depends a lot on the looseness of the game. If your table's flop percentage is under 30%, it is best to simply leave and find another table. I will divide this section into two guides, one for moderate games (30-45%/flop) and one for very loose games (over 45%):
Winning Online Poker Hand Ranks
Group A (premium hands): A-A, K-K, Q-Q, A-Ks, A-Ko
Group B (strong hands): J-J, A-Qs, T-T, A-Qo, A-Js, K-Qs
Group C (good hands): 9-9, A-Ts, 8-8, A-Jo, K-Qo
Group D (strong multiway hands): K-Js, Q-Js, J-Ts, K-Ts, Q-Ts
Group E (good multiway hands): Pairs 7-7 or lower, any suited ace (A-xs), T-9s, 9-8s, T-8s, 8-7s, 7-6s, 9-7s, 6-5s
Group F (blind-steal hands): Any two cards ten or higher, A-9, A-8
Note: I recently re-organized these groups to make the advice easier to follow. Don't play any hand not listed unless specifically noted.
Starting Hands - Moderate Games
Early Position (first three players to the left of the big blind): Play fairly tightly. Always raise with group A hands, and usually raise with group B hands. Call with group C and group D hands. Fold group E hands unless your game is very loose and very passive, with many players seeing the flop and very little preflop raising. Remember, you want to get in cheaply and face a lot of opponents with these hands. Fold any hand in group F or not listed.
If it has been raised in front of you, reraise with hands in group A. With group B hands, consider how the raiser plays. If he raises with a wide variety of hands, re-raise. If he rarely raises preflop, fold. If he plays normally, just call. Fold any hands not in groups A or B. Even if the opponent raises with a lot of hands, you should play tightly, as someone behind you may have a big hand.
Middle Position (next three players): Raise with group A and group B hands. If no one has entered the pot, raise with group C hands. Call with group D hands. With two or more callers in front of you and no raise, play group E hands; otherwise fold them. Fold any hand in group F or not listed.
With a raise in front of you: Play basically the same as in early position. If there has been a raise and reraise before it gets to you, play only A-A, K-K, Q-Q and A-K, and reraise with them. (If the reraiser is a tight player I would even muck Q-Q or A-K in this situation; there is too good a chance he has A-A or K-K.)
Late Position (last two players): If it is folded to you, or if only one player has called, raise with any hand in groups A, B, C, D or F, or any pair. The goal is to steal the pot now, or set yourself up to win the pot on the flop with a bet, because you showed strength with your preflop raise. When making this play, it is best if you have a hand that can win without improvement, such as a pair or an ace. This way, if your opponent calls your flop and turn bets on a draw, you can still win in a showdown if he misses.
If two or more people have called in front of you, raise with group A and group B hands. Call with group C and D hands. With three or more callers, call with group E hands as well. Fold group F hands and any hands not listed.
If it is raised in front of you, consider the number of players in the pot. Always reraise with group A hands. If it appears as though four or fewer players will see the flop (including yourself; assume one of the two blinds will call the raise), call with group B hands and fold everything else. If you anticipate five or more players seeing the flop, you can also call with any hand in groups C or D. If you anticipate seven or more, also call with any group E hand.
Blinds: The small blind should raise with group A hands, and can call in an unraised pot with any hand in groups B, C, D, E, or F. If there has been a raise, play it like you would play in late position. Although you are in for half a bet, you will also be out of position the rest of the hand. In the big blind, raise or reraise with group A. You can call a single raise with hands in groups B and C. If at least one other player will call the raise, you can play any group D hand and any pair. If three players will call the raise, play group E hands. (If players have called preflop and it has been raised behind them, assume they will call the raise. Very few players fold here.) Don't call a raise with group F hands. These hands are often dominated by they type of hands the raiser is likely to hold, such as A-K, A-Q, or J-J.
If the raise came from late position and you think he is trying to steal the blinds because no one else has entered the pot, this is a different situation. Rather than call, re-raise to take control of the hand, and then bet the flop no matter what comes. You can re-raise with any hand in groups A, B, C, D, F, or any pair. (However, be careful. Some players don't raise to steal blinds, so they will show up with a real hand when they raise in this spot. Against them it is best to revert to your normal strategy facing a raise out of the blinds.) For more on strategy in this type of situation, read the essay on Shorthanded Pots in Hold 'em.
Starting Hands – Very Loose Games
Early Position (first three players to the left of the big blind): Raise with group A hands. Call with group B, C, and D. If your game features little preflop raising, call with group E as well. Fold group F or unlisted hands.
If it has been raised in front of you, reraise with hands in group A. With group B hands, consider how the raiser plays. If he raises with a wide variety of hands, re-raise. If he rarely raises preflop, fold. If he plays normally, just call. Fold any hands not in groups A or B. Even if the opponent raises with a lot of hands, you should play tightly, as someone behind you may have a big hand.
Middle Position (next three players): Raise with group A hands, A-Js, and K-Qs. With no callers in front, raise with other group B hands; otherwise just call. Call with group C hands. In late middle position, if no one has called, you can try a raise with group D hands, but in very loose games these usually should be folded.
With a raise in front of you: Play basically the same as in early position if no one has called the raise. If there have been two callers of the raise, you can play any group B hand. If there has been a raise and re-raise before it gets to you, play only A-A, K-K, Q-Q and A-K. (If the re-raiser is a good player I might even muck Q-Q in this situation.)
Late Position (last two players): Raise with group A hands (except J-J), A-Js, K-Qs, A-Ts, K-Js, Q-Js, J-Ts. Call with all other group B and C hands. If there are four or more callers in front of you, K-xs is worth a call. If the pot is shorthanded, you can raise with group D, but in a multi-way pot, do not even call with these hands. In the unlikely event that there are no callers in front of you, raise with any hand you intend to play, with the hopes of stealing the blinds. Do not call in this situation.
If it is raised in front of you, consider the number of players in the pot. If the pot will feature five or more players, you can play any hand in groups A, B or C. If the pot is fairly shorthanded, play it like you would against a raise in middle position.
Blinds: The small blind can call in an unraised pot with any hand in groups A through D. If there has been a raise, call with virtually the same hands you would on the button. Though you are in for half a bet, you will be out of position for the rest of the hand. In the big blind, call a raise with any hand in groups A or B. In a multiway pot, you can call with group C also. Do not call a raise out of the blinds with group D, as these hands do not play well against a raising hand.
Flop Play
Play on the flop is perhaps more intricate in limit hold ‘em than any other game, with the possible exception of pot-limit Omaha. Even if you know your hand is the best, it is not always correct to bet, because you may wish to trap people for additional bets or use a check-raise to knock them out if they are getting a good price to draw. Good discussions of flop play for beginners are included in Winning Low Limit Hold ‘Em and The Complete Book of Hold ‘Em Poker.
Does Your Hand Mesh With the Flop?
One common mistake made by some hold ‘em novices is playing only based on the poker rank of their current hand, while ignoring the texture of the board. For example, if the flop comes down A-A-A and they have pocket deuces, they will play the hand like they would play A-A-A-2-2 in draw poker, betting and raising aggressively because “I have a full house, damnit!” They also make a big mistake by, for example, regarding 8-8 on a Q-Q-5 flop as being the same as Q-8 on a Q-8-5 flop. Both are queens and eights, right? Sure, but a good player will play those two hands very differently. Rather than learn an expensive lesson, use your head. If there has been a bet on that Q-Q-5 flop, you should probably fold your 8-8. In general, if there has been a bet and raise, you should hit the highway unless you can significantly improve the board. Even top pair with a fair kicker is probably in big trouble if it is a cold raise to you on the flop.
As a general rule, in a loose poker game, if the flop does not give you a good made hand or a good draw, it is correct to fold to a bet. Good made hand generally means top pair with a good kicker, or better. However, it depends on the action to you (again, why position is important). If there has been a bet and raise to you, top pair is in big jeopardy. If it is checked to you, middle pair could very well be the best hand, and it is important to bet so no one gets a free card to beat you.
Good draw means any hand that is getting correct odds to play. Remember to consider that you may not win if you hit your draw. (See the Beginner's Guide to Poker Odds for more on this.) When you're drawing to a straight or flush (assuming two cards to the draw are in your hand and two are on the board), simply compare your pot odds with the 4:1 or 5:1 you need to call. If you have any pair with a kicker that is an overcard to the board, you can probably call a bet getting about 9:1, but if there are several players behind you who might raise, you need better odds than this. A gutshot straight draw with two overcards (J-T on a 8-7-2 flop) is about as strong as an open-ended straight draw. You have ten outs, but hitting a pair may not win for you.
You should rarely call with any drawing hand weaker than these, unless the pot is huge (11 or more small bets before you call). If the pot is this big, calling one bet with just a gutshot straight draw, or any pair except a pocket pair, is reasonable. (With a pocket pair, you can only catch two cards to improve. So you will never be making a big mistake if you fold a pocket pair on the flop unless you think it is currently the best hand.)
A-K on a flop of rags, for example, is usually a good fold. Even if you catch an ace or king, a bad player may make two pair with that card, especially opponents who love to play "any ace". If they have a pair now and an ace hits, they will make two pair if their kicker is an ace. This gives you only three outs to win, so you should fold to a bet. As you move on to higher limits and tougher games, this “fit or fold” principle is not nearly as true, but for loose low-limit games it is the way to go.
Free Cards
Very few hands come along that are so strong that a free card cannot possibly allow one of your opponents to beat you with a free card. Thus, it is good policy to get bets in on the flop, even with a strong hand like two pair. First of all, the loose opponents you will find at low limits may very well call you anyway. Second, if they have a chance to beat you, you should make them pay for it. There is no such thing as a free lunch, so why should you give your opponents the impression that they can have a free pot?
Now let’s talk about raising to get a free card. In late position, with a hand such as a flush draw, it is often a good idea to raise an early position bettor, hoping that the turn will get checked around. If you make the flush, you bet; otherwise you check and take a free card, hoping to draw out on the river. This play works best when the other players are between the bettor and you and have already called one bet, so that none of them will fold to the raise. You should also try to defend against this play if you think an opponent is trying to run it on you. If you have been raised on the flop and the turn card is a blank, bet again on the turn with a strong hand like top pair, top kicker. If you get raised again, you are in trouble, but if your opponent was trying for a free card you have just denied him access to it.
Check-raising
The check-raise is a more important play in limit hold ‘em than any other game. The primary reason is this: in a loose limit hold ‘em game, players who call on the flop with very weak drawing hands such as a gut-shot straight or bottom pair are making a correct call if they are only calling one bet, because the bet size is so small on the flop. To prevent them from making the correct play, the only weapon you can use is checking and hoping that someone in late position bets so that you can raise them and force the players in between to fold or (incorrectly) call two bets instead of one with their weak draws.
Of course, this assumes you have a hand that is presently good, but needs to be protected. Hands like this include top pair with a good kicker, bottom two pair, and an overpair. These kinds of hands are usually the best on the flop, but they are very vulnerable to draws, so knocking people out is the best strategy. With a hand like top two pair or a set, you are still vulnerable to straight and flush draws, but you do not mind someone with a pair on the flop calling, since they will rarely outdraw you. Thus, these hands are usually more concerned with getting as much money in as possible, rather than knocking players out.
Is My Hand Good?
It is difficult to set any hard and fast rules as to this. Generally, if you can beat top pair with a fair kicker (such as Q-T on a Q-8-5 flop), you can consider your hand certainly worth a bet on the flop. Just use your head and read the actions of the opponents. If they flat call your flop bet, then either your hand is the best now or someone has a big hand and is waiting until the turn to raise. Unfortunately, there is no real way to know for sure, but it is best to bet again on the turn and see what happens, unless a terrible card comes off the deck.
Danger Flops
However, top pair, top kicker is not so good a hand on a lot of flops. Basically, any time the board cards make a flush or straight possible, or includes two consecutive big cards, such as J-T-6, your hand is in jeopardy. First of all, because players like to play connected cards like J-T, it is much more likely that an opponent has two pair on a board of J-T-6 than J-8-4. Second, this creates a lot of possible straight draws (and flush draws if there are two to a suit on board). While you would like to bet heavily against these draws to knock them out, it is possible that your hand may actually be a collective underdog to two or three good drawing hands. Thus, it is often best to play passively on the flop, and hope that a ragged card appears on the turn, so you can play aggressively at that point.
One more note on danger flops: Bluffing is rarely a correct play in a loose game as is, but it is almost never correct on a danger flop like this. Reserve any bluffs you do make for flops like K-x-x or Q-x-x where you have raised pre-flop and can represent a big pair.
Turn Play
Turn play is actually fairly straightforward. If you believe you have the best hand, then bet and raise with it. If not, make sure you have sufficient pot odds to continue your investment. With a good draw such as a four-flush or open-ended straight, you should be able to call unless the board is ‘tainted’ (paired or three-suited when you have a straight draw). Again, you may not win if you make your draw, and you will get less action if you do.
One important point: a raise on the turn, especially a check-raise, is the biggest power move you will see in low-limit hold ‘em. Because the betting limit has just doubled, a straightforward player who raises on the turn has almost certainly either made his draw or slowplayed a big hand on the flop. If you do not have a powerhouse of your own, or a lot of outs on your draw, it is a good idea to fold here. Even a hand like an overpair is almost certainly beaten, unless the raiser is known to be a hyper-aggressive player.
River Play
One of the most common mistakes made by beginning players is simply not betting for value enough on the river. It is true that your opponent occasionally draws out on you with the river card. However, if you have been betting a hand like top pair or middle pair, top kicker the whole way, it is likely that a bet on the river is correct if the river card did not complete an obvious draw. For example, if the third card of a suit comes on the river, it is usually correct to simply check and call in first position. If a scare card has hit on the river and it is checked to you in last position, you may or may not want to bet. An important thing to consider here is how many hands your opponent will call you with that you can beat. Be more inclined to bet top pair, top kicker than middle pair here.
At any rate, do not dog it on the river. Almost anybody with a pair, maybe even ace high, is going to call rather than take the risk of being bluffed at these limits. (This is why you want to bluff very rarely, but bet your good hands for their full value.) However, an opponent’s raise on the river, much like a raise on the turn, is usually a powerful move. Even though you don’t want to become known to the table as a “folder”, most one-pair hands are beaten when you are raised on the river. Unless you know your opponent is an aggressive and tricky player, a good rule of thumb is to call the raise with top pair, top kicker or better, and fold otherwise. Of course, use your head and consider the texture of the board. A river raise on a board with four spades means something very different than a raise on a board of A-9-7-4-2 rainbow. I would call a raise with A-K on the latter board, but not without a high flush on the former.
A tricky aspect of river play occurs when you have a decent hand, but a scary card has hit on the river, and your opponent has come out betting, representing a hand that can beat you. In these situations, even if you believe you are beaten, it pays to call a lot. This is similar to the concept of pot odds. If the pot is $9 and it will cost you $1 to call, you only need to be right 10% of the time to make a call correct, since you are getting 9:1 odds. Thus, you should be calling a lot on the river. Opponents who are so predictable that you can be over 90% sure if your read are rare (but they do exist. If you know that someone never bluffs, don’t give him your hard-earned money.) As stated before, a raise on the river usually indicates a much more powerful hand than a bet, so remember to play much more cautiously against the raise.
If you are betting a weaker made hand against a caller that appears to be on a straight or flush draw, your correct river play is usually to check and call. If your opponent has missed his draw, he usually will fold to a bet on the river, but may be induced to bluff if you check to him. You can sometimes even make this play with a hand like A-K high. It is much better to check and call with this hand than to bet it, like most beginners do. If your opponent has made a pair, he will usually call you, so why bet? All you will do is make a weaker hand fold, and remove his chance to bluff. And if he bluff-raises you, you cannot call.
Remember that, as in all aspects of poker, river play rewards the aggressive player. Get value for your hands, and get players to make crying calls against you with bad hands. It is a big part of your overall win rate.
Sitting Down for the First Time
If you are very new to the game, a table like UltimateBet’s .01/.02 or PokerStars’s .04/.08 may be the right place to start. This lets you learn the basics of winning play with low risk. Bear in mind, however, that these tables are much looser than you will find at even a low limit like .50/1.
For those who know the basics, a .50/1 game is a good place to start out. The players at this limit are by no means difficult to beat, and even a beginner can probably average a few dollars won per hour if he knows enough basic strategy. These tables will give you a good concept of how loose games function, and there is little risk of financial ruin at .50/1.
The highest limit where you will regularly find very loose games is usually 2/4 on most servers, and 3/6 on PartyPoker or EmpirePoker. I recommend that you settle into a 2/4 or 3/6 game as a steady means of income. If you wish to move up even higher, make sure you have lots of experience and have read the good hold ‘em books out there, then take the plunge and go for a 5/10 game. Even on Party/Empire, some of these 5/10 tables play like the 2/4 or 3/6 games on other sites, with a decent number of multiway pots.
Keeping Track of Your Results, Analyzing Your Play
Keeping track of your results is always a good idea when beginning at online poker. Try to keep a watch of your performance by hour, but think long term. Being down $10 in your first hour may not mean that you are doomed in online poker, but if you are down $50 in five hours, you should definitely be worrying that your game is off target. Remember that you will encounter some significant fluctuations in any poker game.
I recommend PokerTracker software for analyzing your play over a long sample of hands. However, take the results with a grain of salt. Just because 85o won you a big pot a few years ago doesn’t mean it’s profitable to play it. Still, this can help identify big leaks in your game and (hopefully) lead you to correct them.
Who am I Playing With?
Ideally, you want to sit in a table that is loose and passive. In other words, you want many opponents who will play too many hands, go too far with them, and tend to raise rarely and only when they have a superior hand, so you can often safely fold to their raise.
Most sites (but not Party/Empire) have a statistic in the poker lobby that tracks the percentage of players that will stay in for the flop. However, an abnormally high number in this column usually indicates that the game was recently shorthanded and thus the statistic is not accurate (at most sites, the last 20 hands are tracked to create an average percentage.) Many sites also offer a hands/hour statistic for each table; if this number is also very high, it is likely that the game was shorthanded recently. If a flop percentage seems pretty high (over 45%) with a reasonable (45-70) hands per hour rate, my advice is to snatch an empty seat or get on the waiting list if it is short. If the waiting list is long, and by long I mean more than 2 players, the game composition will change significantly by the time you sit down, so you may as well not bother with the wait. There is also an average pot size statistic, but I don’t believe it is that useful. It seems obvious that bigger pots mean looser players, but often it is the result of the game being very aggressive, which makes it more difficult to beat and increases your fluctuations by a lot.
Sites with small user bases, such as The Poker Club, Absolute Poker, and the like, usually feature extremely loose .50/1 and 1/2 hold ‘em games, because these types of sites attract players who like to gamble or are clearing deposit bonuses, and they usually play loosely. Also, at these types of sites, there are usually only one or two full tables running, so the loose players are not spread about like on the big servers. Flop percentages are usually 60% or so on these mini-servers.
Keeping Your Focus
The biggest pitfall that online players suffer from is not focusing correctly on their play. This manifests itself in one of two ways. Either the player does not pay sufficient attention to the game and thus does not notice how the other people at the table are playing, or he spends too much time looking at the poker table, becomes bored, and plays some hands he knows he shouldn’t in order to relieve his boredom.
There is nothing wrong with engaging in some side activity such as browsing a website while sitting at a poker table if you have already folded. However, I have some recommendations. First, don’t do this every time you fold. If one of the other players is raising on junk pre-flop almost every hand, and you don’t notice because you’re not watching, you’re going to have trouble playing correctly against him. It also pays off to know which players you can bluff and which ones will call you down with ace high on suspicion. Try to watch the table at least half the time, even when you’ve folded. Second, try to do your browsing at a site like the 2+2 forums, where you can read about poker, helping keep you in a good mindset to play your best game.
I also recommend that you keep a conversation or two going on AOL instant messenger, especially if you’re conversing with people who enjoy poker and want to watch you in action. This has a lot of good effects. Keeping yourself somewhat occupied reduces the chance that you will get bored and play a bad hand out of frustration. Also, the AIM window is small enough that you can put it to the side on your computer screen and still see the table, so you will still be able to observe the action and make inferences about how the others play. When you’re playing a hand, you can leave the conversation temporarily. And since you may be sharing your hole cards with your friend who is watching you, you might be too embarrassed to make what you know is a bad play while he is watching. Don’t try to keep six conversations going while playing, but one or two is a good number.
Playing Shorthanded
Although I do not recommend it for beginners, shorthanded hold ‘em can be an enjoyable and profitable way to play poker online. If you are a player who likes being very aggressive and not waiting long for a playable hand, then shorthanded hold ‘em is definitely for you. It favors players who are loose, unpredictable, and bet and raise at the slightest sign of enemy weakness. Most sites include tables with a maximum of five or six players for shorthanded play, or you can simply sit at a table that is just starting up and leave if it fills up (or just adjust to your full-game strategy.)
In hold ‘em, because the blind sizes do not go down in a shorthanded game, it is necessary to play much looser than in a full game, because the blinds will eat you up otherwise. Also, since the opponent will have a hand worth calling a bet much less frequently, you will need to do a lot of betting and raising to get him to throw away his mediocre hands. The Shorthanded Play section in Hold ‘Em Poker for Advanced Players is an excellent guide to how to adjust your strategies. The Complete Book of Hold ‘Em Poker also includes a good section on how you should play against various types of opponents in a shorthanded game.
Remember that hand values are scaled down significantly. In a three person game, top pair is a huge hand, and any pair is probably worth betting. The players you want to pick on in a shorthanded game are those who play tightly because they know that hands like bottom pair and middle pair, no kicker are death traps at a full table. These players will fold way too often when you bet, allowing you to pick up a lot of small pots without a hand. These small pots add up, so do a lot of betting, especially if tight players are in the pot.
The main reason I do not recommend that beginners play shorthanded is that it deviates greatly from the general principles of tight-aggressive play. Moves like raising with hands like KTo (which is often correct in shorthanded hold ‘em) are terrible habits to pick up in a ten-person game. If you get into the mentality that this raise is a good play at a full hold ‘em table, you are going to be in trouble. So I recommend that you master the full games first, then learn how to play shorthanded and clean up at both.
Good luck!!!
Copyright 2003-2004 WinningOnlinePoker.com. Have any feedback on the site? Send it here. |
