Play Texas Hold’em

Why Play Texas Hold’em ?

There are many forms of poker, and you can win money at virtually all of them if you develop the right set of skills. So why play Texas hold’em? Why is this the game of the present and future? And why, of all poker games, is this complex form your best bet?The answer is easy.. By playing hold’em , the expert player can win the most money with only a reasonable amount of risk.You win money at poker because of two important factors. First, some of your opponents play badly, and in extreme cases, literally give their money away. This seems to happen frequently in Texas hold’em since any two cards can win. However, random hands do not win often enough to show a profit, and when they do win, they frequently must be played cautiously, which also minimizes their profitability. In addition, hands that appear similar in strength to the non-skilled player are often quite different from each other. For example, holding just an ace does not make your hand very strong. Yet players who do not understand these basic ideas seem to flock to hold’em games. (If you want to verify this statement, just look at the hold’em explosion that took place in California when the game became legal in 1987.)The second reason you can win money when playing hold’em is that this form of poker offers numerous opportunities for the expert player to make expert plays that extract additional money from unsuspecting opponents. This is less true of most other forms of poker.We mentioned earlier that the risk factor in hold’em is reasonable. The correct way to assess risk in a poker game is through a statistical measure known as the standard deviation. We won't discuss the standard deviation in detail here (see Gambling Theory and Other Topics by Mason Malmuth), but will reiterate that it is a measure of the amount of short-term luck in a game.Specifically, the poorer the relationship between the expectation (win rate) and the standard deviation the larger the fluctuations that you — the skilled player — can go through. Or, put another way, the worse you can run. Consequently, you usually should prefer a poker game where your bankroll requirements when compared to the size of the game, are not too steep.There is no question that once you have achieved expert status, hold’em offers an excellent relationship between the expectation and the standard deviation. The reasons for this are that the best hand holds up more often in hold’em than in any other game, and that you have the advantage of being able to see your opponent's last card which is yours as well. This means that sometimes you can throw away a hand that you would have to call with in other forms of poker, or you might be able to get in an extra bet, whereas in other games you might be forced to check.Of course, hold’em can still be very frustrating — especially when it seems as though your opponents are always making their two- or three-out hands. However, with the tremendous growth of hold’em , along with what we have just stated, there is no question that anyone who becomes an expert at this game will do very well indeed.

Part One The First Two Cards. The First Two Cards Introduction

The one area of hold’em play where many strict guidelines can be given is on the first two cards. This is because the number of possible combinations is not that great. However, this does not mean that every hand should be played the same way every time, or that playing the first two cards is easy. You occasionally should play a hand differently not only for the sake of variation, but also depending on whether the game is loose or tight, or passive or aggressive. Expert players must be fooled more often than poor ones. But even if poor players always have a good idea of exactly where you are, you will lose some of your edge.Also, how loose and passive the game is can make a significant difference. Some hands that are not usually profitable to play become significant money winners if your opponents are non-aggressive. The opposite is also true. Hands that are normally worth a play should be discarded if a couple of very aggressive players are in the game, particularly if these players know what they are doing.In addition, how well you play is very important. As your judgment improves, you should be able to play a few more hands than these guidelines suggest. But don't go overboard with this concept. Always remember tight, aggressive play will get the money. This is true no matter what you may observe in the short run. Sometimes you will see bad players taking down pot after pot. In the short run their play can look terrific, but in the long run this type of play does not get the money.And finally, before we get started, keep in mind that hold’em is a game that can easily cause you to go "on tilt." For instance, a hand like J¨ 8¨can be very tempting to play, even from an early position, especially if you are losing.A unique aspect of hold’em is that hands you don't play can sometimes be frustrating because the board is always the same whether you play or not. There will be occasions when you would have made a strong hand had you not thrown away your cards. Do not let this affect you. Even though any two cards can win, random holdings don't win often enough to be profitable.

Hand Rankings To simplify the presentation of some of the strategies that follow, the starting hands have been placed in appropriate groupings. The reason for this is that most of the hands in each grouping can be played roughly the same before the flop in many, but not all, situations. However, there are many exceptions, which will be discussed in the text. In fact, the starting hands actually move up and down the hand rankings depending on the circumstance. Because of this, it can be a mistake to rigidly adhere to the hand rankings. Again, make sure that you understand all the discussion concerning how the individual hands play.These hand rankings (with some modifications) first appeared in David Sklansky's book Essays on Poker². They are slightly different from the rankings that appear in the original version (pre 1997) of Sklansky's book Hold’em Poker. The alterations reflect the structure change from one small blind to two blinds which causes more multiway pots and higher pot odds — especially on the flop. Also reflected is the fact that the players have become tougher and generally more aggressive as the years have gone by.This has raised the value of suited hands, especially suited connectors. Medium pairs also have gone up in value because you no longer should automatically give up when an overcard flops, especially if the pot is being contested short-handed.The rankings are as follows, with an "s" indicating suited and an "x" indicating a small card. Note that a 10 is represented as "T". Also, if no "s" appears, then the hand is not suited. (These notations will be used throughout this book.)Group 1: AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AKsGroup 2: TT, AQs, AJs, KQs, AKGroup 3: 99, JTs, QJs, KJs, ATs, AQGroup 4: T9s, KQ, 88, QTs, 98s, J9s, AJ, KTsGroup 5: 77, 87s, Q9s, T8s, KJ, QJ, JT, 76s, 97s, Axs, 65sGroup 6: 66, AT, 55, 86s, KT, QT, 54s, K9s, J8s, 75sGroup 7: 44, J9, 64s, T9, 53s, 33, 98, 43s, 22, Kxs, T7s, Q8sGroup 8: 87, A9, Q9, 76, 42s, 32s, 96s, 85s, J8, J7s, 65, 54, 74s, K9, T8 These rankings reflect not only which group each starting hand belongs to, but its approximate order in that group as well. In reality, it's usually only necessary to know in which group a starting hand belongs. Consequently, Tables I and II provide an easier scheme for memorizing the group for each starting hand. Any hand not listed in the tables is ranked below Group 8.

Table I: Hand Groupings for Pairs

Hand	Group	Hand	Group
AA	1	77	5
KK	1	66	6
QQ	1	55	6
JJ	1	44	7
TT	2	33	7
99	3	22	7
88	4

Table II: Hand Groupings For Non-Pairs

Hand	Group		Hand	Group
	Suited	Not Suited		Suited	Not Suited
	Suited	Not Suited		Suited	Not Suited
AK	1	2	98	4	7
AQ	2	3	97	5	-
AJ	2	4	96	8	-
AT	3	6
A9	5	8	87	5	8
Ax	5	-	86	6	-
			85	8	-
KQ	2	4
KJ	3	5	76	5	8
KT	4	6	75	6	-
K9	6	8	74	8	-
Kx	7	-
			65	5	8
QJ	3	5	64	7	-
QT	4	6
Q9	5	8	54	6	8
Q8	7	-	53	7	-
JT	3	5	43	7	_
J9	4	7	42	8	-
J8	6	8
J7	8	-	32	8	-
T9	4	7
T8	5	8
T7	7	-

If you are new to hold’em we fell that it is very important to memorize these groupings. There is no way around this, and the tables make the task much easier. Once the tables are memorized, this system will facilitate applying many of the concepts that follow. (For those of you who are interested in the rationale behind these rankings, see Hold’em Poker by David Sklansky.)

However, we want to state that by the time you reach expert status you shouldn't be thinking in terms of hand groups. At this point in your playing career your starting hand decisions should be based on the intrinsic value of each hand in each particular situation. But if you are just getting started playing, we know of no better approach.