Another mandatory bet in Hold ‘em poker is the Small Blind (SB), which is usually – but not always – half that of the Big Blind (BB) bet. So, in the typical $10/$20 game that we use as the “base” game in these lessons, the BB bet would be $10 and the SB will be $5. This 50% “rule” doesn’t always apply, however. In a $3-$6 game for example, the SB is often $1, not $1.50 and that difference has considerable impact on playing your hand from the SB position.

Obviously, the SB bet requires a lot more thought than the BB bet, primarily because it costs you a certain amount of $$$ to “complete” the bet, even in an unraised pot. As you learned in lesson 5, the primary decision to be made when playing in the Big Blind is how to deal with a raise, while the easiest decision to make in the BB is to check. In the SB position, the easiest decison is to fold, but if you do that too often it’ll end up costing you a lot of $$$. So we have to find a balance point that defines when we fold or complete the SB. I don’t want to imply that we’ll never raise or reraise out of the SB because there are times when that’s the proper play, but 90% of the time our decision will be to either fold or complete. Often the decision to fold is made because the bet’s been raised, but there will be times when we’ll fold simply because the cards we have don’t warrant any further investment.

Proper play from the Small Blind is complicated by the fact that if you decide to complete the bet and stay in the game, you’re still vulnerable to a raise from the BB player, plus you’ll be the first player to act on the next round of betting. Every round of play is different, of course, but you could easily find yourself completing the SB in an unraised pot and then the player in the BB raises. If all the others still in just call, you must now make a full-size bet to stick with the hand and it’s against someone who has raised in early position. That usually indicates a very strong hand or it’s a bluff by someone who wants to win the pot without a showdown, although that doesn’t usually happen in limit games. Let’s say you’re in the SB of a $10/$20 game, so your investment is $5 and you decide to complete the bet with another $5 and then the BB raises. The bet is going to come around to you at $10, assuming no other player re-raises the BB (not likely if they didn’t raise the first time around, but not impossible, either), so now what do you do? As you may have guessed, the mathematics of the situation hold the answer to this dilemma.

Betting the SB isn’t as cut-and-dried as betting the Big Blind because your initial investment is obviously smaller and a lot more depends upon the “texture” of the game. I don’t like discussing stuff like “texture” because it’s subjective in nature, but there’s no getting around it in poker, so let’s just deal with it. The game you’re in may be “loose”, in the sense that 50% or more of the players are seeing the flop, even when the bet’s been raised. That’s not the only definition of a “loose” game, but I think you get the idea. (By the way, don’t get the words “loose” and “lose” confused, as do so many people on the ‘Net. The word “lose” means to not win, such as, “I always lose when I play the slots.” The word “loose” means not tight, like “The lugnut on that wheel is loose.” With me? The English lesson is over.) Anyway, a loose game will typically see a lot of preflop raises (and calls), which can be a profitable situation for the wise player who plays good hands, whether from the blinds or not.

But when it comes to playing in a loose game from the Small Blind, you often have to decide if you’re defending your blind from someone who’s trying to “steal” it or from someone who’s playing a real hand or even someone who’s just throwing their $$$ away. And that’s just a loose game. If the game you’re in is “tight” or if the pot has been raised by a player who seldom bets any opening hand, it’s another matter entirely, of course. In a loose game with a lot of callers, you must pretty well figure that it’ll take “the nuts” to win, but if you’re up against just one other player, top pair will often do the trick. See what I mean about “texture”? I could go on and on about this, but what it really boils down to is that a single, set-in-stone strategy for playing the Small Blind bet isn’t really feasible. You’ll have to make some adjustments “on the fly”, so to speak, but I can at least give you a good, solid starting point.

(Source: GameMaster)

Because poker is a long-term activity, whenever your opponents call a bet where the odds aren’t favorable for them, you make a profit. Of course, they might make the hand and beat you, but in the long run, you’ll eventually collect on situations like that. It’s like doubling an 11 versus a dealer’s up card of 6 in Blackjack; you won’t win each time you do it, but over thousands of hands like that, you’ll profit handsomely.

That’s important stuff, but so is what you make your hand “say”, as discussed above. When you break it all down to its basic elements, the reality is that your opponents have no idea whatsoever of which cards you’re actually holding. You can just as easily raise with 2-3o as you can with A-A and, if you knew no one would ever call you, do it every hand. The fly in the ointment, so to speak, is that you might have to show your hand at some point and 2-3 isn’t going to hold up against the types of hands that will typically call opening raises. But that doesn’t mean you can’t make your hand say one thing when it’s really something else. See my point here?

Most beginning players are concerned only about their own hand; if it’s strong, they bet it, if not, they fold. As you gain experience, you begin to think of your hand in comparison with your opponent’s hand. For example, if you open the pot with a raise because you hold K-K, someone calls and the flop comes A, Q, 9 rainbow; if that caller bets into you after the flop, you have to at least consider the fact that s/he holds an Ace. You don’t know for sure, of course, but it’s a definite possibility. The real crux of this problem is: What does your opponent think you hold? You raised, which indicates a “big” hand and if you can somehow convince your opponent that you hold a hand that can beat a pair of Aces, you can likely make him or her fold. Of course, if your opponent holds A-A, nothing you do will move him or her off the hand. And a lot of players will not re-raise you if they hold A-A, because they want to “trap” as many players as possible. But the odds greatly favor your opponent holding just one Ace, which still beats you at this point, but can ultimately be defeated by another King, a Straight, a Flush or Two-Pair. What if you now raise your opponent? What you’re basically saying is, “I see the Ace and it doesn’t scare me.” Now, your opponent has to stop and consider your move, unless s/he has a set of Aces, in which case s/he will likely re-raise you, if not go all-in. At least if that happens, you’ll pretty much know you don’t have the best hand and can fold with a clear conscience. This is the point where my favorite “rule” kicks in: I seldom go all-in unless I hold the top two-pair on the board. While two-pair at the flop cannot beat Trips on their own, they’ll turn into a Full House 16.5% of the time and any two pair will beat even a pair of Aces in the hole.

What you should be trying to do with your bets is convince your opponent that you hold something other than what you actually hold. If you’re strong, you want them to think you’re weak and if you’re weak, you want them to think you’re strong. Ultimately, such a strategy will extract the maximum number of $$$ from your opponents – you won’t win the most hands, but you will make the most profit – and that’s the real goal when playing poker. Letting your hands do the talking is a big step in that direction.

(Source: GameMaster)

In most games of Hold ‘em poker, the big blind (BB) is a full-sized bet for the first round of play. For example, in a $10/$20 game, the BB is $10, which basically means you only have to check in order to see a flop. No matter how bad your cards are (yes, even the proverbial “worst hand” of 7-2o), you should never fold a big blind hand in an unraised pot, because lightening does strike at times and you’re already commited to the $$$ anyway. Of course, you may raise or reraise if you wish and we’ll talk about that in just a bit.

However, the most important decision for a player in the BB is usually whether or not to call a raise (or two or three) and/or re-raise. A lot of players feel they must “protect” their blind bet from others who would steal it, so they automatically call any raise even though they may have that 7-2o as pocket cards. And don’t kid yourself; it’s very worthwhile to try and steal the blinds, especially when you consider that the expected value (EV) for a hand in a somewhat “loose” $10/$20 Hold ‘em game is about $1, maybe $1.25. So, let’s say a player on the button, who bets in front of the blinds pre-flop, has a decent, though not great hand like A-6s and s/he has noticed that the players in the blinds usually fold to a raise. If everyone else has folded up to this point, the player on the button (the “acting” dealer for this hand) should raise with the idea of stealing the blinds. Unfortunately, such a tactic won’t work every time, so the expected value of such a play is somewhat less than the $15 in the blinds ($5 in the small blind and $10 in the big blind), but whatever the EV is, it’s more than $1 and is undoubtedly many times higher than the EV for A-6s played all the way through from the button. Even if our semi-bluffer has to play out the hand, s/he’s not sitting dead in the water with cards like A-6s, so the pot can still be won, even if one or another (or both) of the blinds call the raise. But we’ll talk more about that when I discuss playing from the button in a future lesson.

Let’s get back to our hand in the big blind. Most of the time all we have to do is check the hand and we’ll see the flop. But what if the bet has been raised from the button? Or from the first bettor (“under the gun”) or a player a little further along? Should we automatically call the raise? Of course, the answer is a resounding “no”. Like most other situations in poker, what you should do depends primarily upon what cards you hold. You’ve already made one bet and those $$$ are gone if you fold, yet you have to remember that for the rest of the hand you’ll be betting first, so you still need some decent cards to call one raise, let alone two or more. Then again, with the right cards, you can not only call several raises, but actually reraise and start building a “monster” pot. But monster pots are won by monster hands, so let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. Because of the unique status of the big blind bet, I’m going to give you a separate list of minimum starting hands to use when you’re in that position. As you know from Lesson 3, most hands that you’ll get aren’t playable at all, but because we’ve already made a full bet in the big blind, it’s okay to loosen up a bit when a raise has been made in front of us.

Like all of the other starting hands, these have been determined through mathematical analysis (mostly simulations) on the Turbo Texas Hold ‘em software that I’ve talked about before. There are no guesses, no “gut feelings” or any other voodoo involved here; either a hand is profitable or it isn’t. If it isn’t profitable, you won’t find it in this list. In fact, I may have been a little too tight, because trying to hit the averages for something like this isn’t easy. But if you’ll go with these hands, I think you’ll like your long-term results, so at least give it a try. As I’ve discussed before, the list of hands I’m going to present here will eventually be a part of my Hold ‘em Poker Basic Strategy Matrix, which we’re building layer by layer.

I’ve arranged the hands for this list in three categories: hands that can raise and/or reraise, hands that can call any number of raises, but not reraise and hands that can call just one raise, otherwise fold. Any other hand not on this list should check in an unraised pot or fold if raised. Rather than listing each separate hand, I’m once again showing the minimum, based upon the high card in the hand so any hand that is better than the minimum may also be played. For example, in the case of a Queen, the minimum to raise and/or reraise is Q-Q; the minimum to call all raises is Q-xs and the minimum to call one raise is Q-9o, which includes Q-10o and Q-Jo. (Remember all the symbols? Here’s a quick review: “x” means any card, “s” means suited and “o” stands for off-suit or unsuited). Any other hand with a Queen as the highest card should check, but fold if raised. It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway: If a hand can raise or reraise, it can obviously call all raises and if a hand can call all raises, it can call just one. Remember, just because a hand can raise or reraise, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll do it, although you’ll likely be making a mistake if you don’t. A lot of people like to “slowplay” hands like A-A or K-K, but they’re also the first to complain when someone – a player who may have folded to a pre-flop raise – beats them by drawing out to a Flush.
Okay, enough preaching, here’s the list:

Notes and comments:

Take a look at the first line, which covers hands where an Ace is the highest card. Reading over from the left, you can reraise any raises if you hold A-A in the big blind. The “slash” tells you that a hand of A-Ko or higher (which is A-Ks) and AQs can raise from the big blind if the pot hasn’t been raised yet, but you should just call if another player has raised in front of you, particularly if that raise came from an early position. Continuing to the right, you can see an Ace that is “suited” with any other card can call any number of raises, but if the other card is not suited, then A-10 is the bottom limit. That includes A-Jo and A-Qo, but any other combination should call only one raise, as is indicated in the third column. So, if you have A-3o and are facing two or more raises, you should fold. I know that will seem either wrong or downright amazing to many of you, because most players in limit Hold ‘em games will cling to A-xo like it was life itself, but that’s a serious mistake whenever two or more raises have been made in front of you. The math doesn’t lie (neither do I, for that matter). As you work down the ranks (remember – Jack, 10, 9, etc. are “ranks”), you’ll see that our play tightens up. For a hand where 10 is the higher card, we do not raise from the big blind with 10-10, but we do call any number of raises with it; in fact we’ll also do it with a 10 that is suited with any other card. But, if the other card is off-suit, then 10-8 and 10-9 should call only one raise, otherwise we fold. This means you should fold any hand of 10-7o or lower if the pot has been raised. Of course, if there hasn’t been a raise, you’ll check with 10-anything, because you already have a bet in the pot. And yes, you’re reading it right; you can call raises with 9-xs from the big blind.

The 8 is the mid-point of the ranks; 6 ranks are below it and 6 ranks are above it, so hands where the higher card is 8 or less must be played “tightly” to avoid turning them into losers. Oh, I know all too well about losing a big hand to someone that held 8-2o all the way to the river, but those are the people that pay our rent, so don’t get too upset when it happens. That stinging sensation will gradually fade. But if the bet has been raised, you simply must fold hands lower than 8-7o, no doubt about it. A glance at the chart will show you that hands where the higher card is 8 or less and are off-suit should call a raise only when they’re connected, that is, there are no gaps between the low card and the high card. If they’re suited, we do allow a litlle gapping because we have some Flush potential. But as we get down to the 4s and 3s, we don’t even allow for that, because most Flushes are won by the Ace or King, so our 2 or 3 has very little potential in that regard.

Speaking of 2s and 3s, you should take note of the fact that, even as a pair, those cards have very little potential. Call one raise maximum with them and if you don’t improve on the flop, drop them like a hot potato. Sure, I know the first time you do that, the card you need to make a “set” (trips where two of the cards are in the pocket) will sure enough come on the turn, but in the long run – we are in this for the long-run, remember – you’ll save a lot of $$$ by getting away from those hands quickly. They’ll either work or they won’t. Most of the time they won’t. Just a quick note on playing Q-Q and J-J from the big blind: I didn’t place a “re-raise/raise” indicator on them because it’s really a borderline play. Certainly you can feel comfortable in making the first raise of the pot with them, but you probably shouldn’t re-raise unless you think someone’s trying to steal the blinds; in that case, blaze away with both barrels. However, if the small blind folds behind you and there has been only one raise from a player in late position (on the button or within two places of it), then re-raising either Q-Q or J-J may be a worthwhile move. Again, it all depends. If the player who raised has cobwebs on his chips (as one author very fittingly puts it), then calling is probably your best play. Remember, even a pair of Queens is all but useless if an Ace or King comes on the flop. Okay, get your homework, then go play a lot of poker!

(Source: GameMaster)

A. Call This is the “smooth call” you hear about and it gives away the least amount of information about what you’re holding. Of course, you have very little information about the bettor’s hand at this point, so this is probably the weakest play you can make unless you hold a really strong hand like a “made” Straight, Flush or Full House. The problems this play produces are several, not the least of which is that it’ll probably slow down – or kill completely – the betting on the hand. In my (admittedly limited) experience, a lot of players will put you on a hand of Ace-something if you were the opening raiser and, if an Ace doesn’t fall on the flop, they’ll bet into you, whether or not they made a hand. If you call at this point, they’ll usually check on the turn, unless they put you on a draw. Of course, a draw may be the farthest thing from your mind, but if the board supports the notion, that’ll likely be the first hand your opponent puts you on. If s/he thinks you’re on a draw and has a hand like top-pair, top-kicker, then you can pretty much figure on looking at a big bet if the turn card doesn’t help a perceived Straight or Flush draw. If your opponent cannot, because of the flop’s “texture”, put you on a draw and bets on the turn, s/he either has a real hand or is “firing the next barrel” of a bluff. Your response will largely be determined by what you hold, the pot odds offered and your perception of what the bettor holds, plus the response from other players still in the pot. Besides folding and calling, you can choose to:

B. Raise This play really gives no information about your hand, but it can gain a lot of information about your opponent’s hand. Because you raised pre-flop, people perceive you as holding a strong hand of some type. But as I mentioned earlier, if an Ace didn’t flop most of those who will bet into you are figuring you “missed”, while they may or may not have made a hand. Your raise goes a long way toward confirming your hand was, and is, strong. This is a point where the size of your raise also “talks.” A minimum raise says one thing and an all-in raise says something else. To be sure, either might get called, so you can’t always go all-in and expect to win the hand, but nether can you expect to chase away many players with just a minimum-sized raise. You really want your raise to accomplish one of two things: force your opponent to fold or force your opponent to make a bad decision. As an example of the latter, let’s say your opponent is on a Straight draw and has bet into you as a semi-bluff. If you just call, you might be “pricing” the pot, thus making a draw profitable. But if you raise, you’ll alter the odds and, if your raise is big enough, your opponent may fold just because the favorable pot odds are no longer available. Oh, I know many of the “newbies” out there don’t give a damn about pot odds, but that doesn’t mean you should ignore them, too.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

The other day I was dealt an exciting hand that got me thinking about longshots – both the kind you want to hit and the kind to avoid – so this lesson is the result. I was dealt the Ace and Queen of spades as my pocket cards in a game of Hold ‘em and, as you hopefully know by now, it’s a pretty good way to start. But it got even better when the flop came: Ks, Js, 9d. Now I had a 4-card Royal Flush and needed to catch only the 10 of spades to complete it. “Only” is a relative word, of course because the odds against me catching the 10 of spades on the turn was 1 in 47 (I’ve seen 5 cards to this point, so 47 are left and only one of them is the 10 of spades). Of course, any 10 would make a Straight and any spade would make a Flush, but darn it, I wanted the Royal!

My interest in completing the Royal was not just ego-driven, because the casino where I was playing offers a bonus to anyone who finishes a hand with a Royal. So, not only was I guaranteed to win the pot for the hand (you don’t even have to worry about a tie with a Royal), but I’d also get $500 thrown in as well. I knew the odds against me making it were huge, I’ve drawn to enough 4-card Royals at Video Poker to know that, but at least here I had two shots at it – one on the turn and one on the river. Because it wouldn’t matter when I got the card, only if I got it, I started to think about, first, what I was going to buy with the $500 (I ‘m an optimistic rascal) and second, what kind of expected value is added to our poker hands by such bonuses?

You all remember “expected value” (EV), right? It’s a mathematical calculation based upon what will happen over many hands of play in the case of poker and Blackjack. In other words, we won’t always win with pocket Aces in Hold ‘em, but over thousands of hands we’ll win enough so that we can put a value on it. For example, if we win with AA 50% of the time, on average, then this starting hand has an EV of 50% of all the $$$ we bet in that situation. Of course we can’t pin down the exact size of our bets because it’ll be different from hand to hand, although over a period of time we can probably come up with a fairly accurate average number. But in the case of a Royal Flush bonus, we know it’s a fixed amount so all we have to do is calculate how often we’ll get one and that’ll give us an EV per hand.

Why is it important to know how much EV is added to each hand by a Royal Flush bonus? Well, it isn’t really, but it’s a simple calculation, so why not? Every little bit helps, you know, especially when you’re starting out. Combine bonuses like these with the fact that most online poker rooms have fairly low rakes (compared to brick-and-mortar card rooms), plus there’s no dealer to tip and you have a definite leg-up over your “real-life” counterpart. If nothing else, the cost of gaining some experience at poker will be somewhat lower if you do it online rather than at a brick-and-mortar card room. But I digress.

Just what’s a Royal bonus worth, anyway? To figure it on a per-hand basis, we need to calculate the probability of getting a Royal and that will tell us how often we can expect, on average, to get one. To draw a Video Poker analogy here, we know that a Royal will occur, on average, about once every 40,000 hands in a 9/6 Jacks or Better game, which means the probability is 1 divided by 40,000 = 0.000025. Because that Royal will usually pay 800 for 1, it means that Royal Flushes add .000025 x 800 = 0.02 or 2% to the total return of a 9/6 Jacks game, which is 99.54%. In other words, if there were no Royal “bonus” in a Jacks VP game, the return would be only 97.54%. So does that mean we should expect to get a Royal once every 40,000 hands at Hold ‘em poker? Sadly no, because of the way the game is structured. At Video Poker, you are dealt 5 cards, may hold or fold any or all and then are dealt replacement cards, so you have a “universe” of 10 cards from which to make your Royal.

In Hold ‘em, you are dealt 2 pocket cards that you must keep if you want to keep playing the hand, then 5 more cards come if the hand is played to the end. The universe here is obviously only 7 cards, so it’s probably not too difficult to imagine that we can’t expect to get a Royal once every 40,000 hands. However, there is more than one way to make a Royal in Hold ‘em, just as there is in Video Poker. The first of those is to get a Royal dealt to you. This can happen at VP because you receive a 5-card hand and the probability of that occurring is 1 in 649,740. Well, the same thing can happen at Hold ‘em, because you can be dealt two suited Royal Flush cards in the pocket and then the flop can fill your Royal. The odds of that happening are exactly the same as getting one on the deal in Video Poker:1 in 649,740. Talk about long shots, eh?

But don’t dispair because there’s a much more common way for it to happen and that’s to have the Royal unfold like the one I had. Two suited Royal cards in the pocket, two on the flop and then draw the fifth on either the turn or the river. I’ll spare you the background math, but the probability of being dealt two suited Royal Flush cards is 1 in 33 (33.15 to be exact), then getting two of the three you need on the flop is 1 in 139 and finally, getting the 5th card on either the turn or river is 1 in 23 (23.25 to be exact). Multiply those three together: 33.15 x 139 x 23.25 and you get 1 in 107,133, which you can safely round to 1 in 100,000. If you’ll receive a $500 bonus for hitting a Royal, you can expect it to happen about once every 100,000 hands, so it’s worth $500 divided by 100,000 = $.005 or about a half-cent per hand.

So, how did my hand work out? If you remember, I had A-Q spades in the pocket, the flop came Ks, Js, 9d, so all I needed was the 10s. The turn was 3d, the river was 3h and I lost to a player holding Kc, 3s. Yep, he had a Full House and I had a busted Flush. Hey, that’s how it is in poker sometimes. Don’t worry, I’ll get over it, so lets talk about some other longshots.

These are the type of longshots to avoid. Or, if you won’t avoid the situation, at least make sure that the “pot odds” are rewarding you. In Lesson 2, I presented a chart of the various odds of completing a hand, such as a 4-card Flush and so forth. The hands presented there were the types of hands you’ll run into all the time, unlike the Royal Flush we discussed earlier. The hands I’m going to discuss here are also the type you’ll run into a lot, but in most cases you shouldn’t play them and the numbers will show you why. For example, you may find yourself with some pretty nice pocket cards like Ah,10h and the flop comes 2s, 6d, 7h. You don’t have much, other than a 3-card Flush draw and a double-inside Straight draw. But, were you to get the Flush, it would be the “nuts” and would beat any Straight that forms. But, with 2 cards to come, can you get what’s called a “runner-runner” to fill the hand? Certainly that’s possible, but the exact odds of success are pretty much against it happening, so you can waste a lot of $$$ in trying. Meantime, the guy with pocket Kings is betting every round and unless another Ace falls, he’s probably going to win the pot.

If you have a 3-card Flush, that means there are 10 cards of that suit remaining in the deck (remember that we don’t count anything we can’t see, so even though other players may also have cards of that suit, they don’t matter for purposes of calculating our odds). So, with 10 cards of the remaining 47 (52 minus the 2 pocket cards, minus the 3 cards on the flop) being cards that will help us and two chances to get them, it doesn’t seem like too bad a deal. But don’t forget that both of the last two cards have to be hearts (in this example) or we’ll have a hand worth basically nothing. Sure, you might win with an Ace-high, but don’t bet on it. Literally.

Nope, we need to hit two running hearts for this to work and the odds against that happening are an amazing 24 to 1. Believe me, I had to double-check my figures when I got that number because it seemed just too high to be correct, but it is. The quick mathematical solution is to figure the probability of getting a heart on the turn (10/47) or 0.212 and multiplying that by the probability of getting a heart on the river (9/46) or 0.195. Well, multiply 0.212 by 0.195 and you get 0.0415. Remember how I showed you to convert probability to odds in Lesson 2? First, subtract the probability of 4 from 100 and you’ll get 96. Now divide 96 by 4 and you’ll get 24 to 1 as the odds against. This obviously means that the value of the pot at the flop is going to have to be 25 times the bet you have to make in order for it to have a positive expectation. I’ve seen such a thing, but it’s very rare, so most of the time you should be folding your 3-card Flushes.

Now I realize there may be other reasons for staying with the hand, but the odds against making various hands that I outlined in Lesson 2 will guide you there. And certainly, if you had the same pocket cards but the Ace were a Jack, then “fuhgedaboudit”, because you wouldn’t be drawing to the “nut” Flush. Yet, a lot of players, particularly in low-limit games, will cling to a “suited” Ace (an Ace plus any card of the same suit) in the pocket until the bitter end. Don’t forget this: A dollar you don’t lose is a dollar earned. The object of this lesson is to cut down on the number of long-shot bets that we all make from time-to-time. Don’t get me wrong; if the pot odds are there, go for it. But if they’re not, then fold.

Okay, enough preaching. Here is a list of various hands you might find yourself with after the flop. In other words, you’ve seen five cards, two are yet to come and now you have to make a decision to bet or fold. This chart is really just a continuation of the chart I presented in Lesson 2:

Notes and comments: I’ve included the Ace-high hands because I’ve seen so many players hold onto their Aces with a death-grip, as I mentioned above. Now don’t get me wrong; Trip Aces will win most hands of Hold ‘em, but as this chart shows you it’ll happen only once every 33 times you hold a single Ace at the flop. For me, this type of chart removes the guesswork, “intuition” or whatever you care to call it, from the game. If the pot odds warrant the play, do it, otherwise fold. Oh, I fully realize that the first time you fold a 3-card Flush, the turn and river will bring the cards you needed, but that’ll be the exception, I assure you. As a quick review, the “Bet Multiplier” is something I presented in Lesson 2 and it’s a quick way to see if the bet you must make to stay in the hand has a positive EV. In a $1/$2 game, for example, if the bet you must make to stay in the hand is $1 and you’re drawing to a 3-card Flush, the pot should be at least $25. If the bet you must make is $2, the pot has to be $50 or you should fold.

(Source: GameMaster)

A. Bet What this basically says is, “I made something on the flop” or, “the flop doesn’t scare me”. Of course, if a pair of Aces came on the flop you’re going to probably scare off everyone, (except a player who holds an Ace) because raisers – particularly those in Early Position – are perceived as holding a hand like A-K, A-Q, etc. If the flop is more like 2, 7, 9 “rainbow” (unsuited) and you bet, you’re basically saying that you aren’t afraid of that flop because you have an over-pair (10-10 or higher in this case). Nobody’s really going to believe you flopped a set (Trips) or a Straight draw if you raised in EP, because very few players raise with 2-2, 7-7, 9-9 or J-8 from there.

B. Check This says, “I missed on the flop” or, “I hit a monster and want you to stay in.” If a pair of Aces come on the flop and you check, almost everyone will check behind you. The likely exceptions are those who have an Ace or those players who like to steal pots when a pair flops. If the flop is more like 2, 7, 9 rainbow, most players really will believe you missed the flop and they’ll feel safer in betting their hand.

C. Check, then call any bet made In this situation, you’re basically saying, “I have a good hand – probably a Straight or Flush draw or two-pair – and want to see if I can improve” or, “I have two over-cards and am (stupidly) trying to catch one of them.” Those who bet after you checked typically have one of four situations: they’re also on a draw (in which case their bet is a “semi-bluff”), have an over-pair (or two over-cards), they made something on the flop (perhaps Trips) or they’re just flat-out bluffing. If the flop is such that it’s “coordinated”, like 8, 9, 10 rainbow then they could be betting a set or a Straight – lots of people will call an opening raise with hands like 8-8 or J-Qs and so forth. Your call is saying that you either missed the fact that Trips or a Straight is out there or they don’t bother you. By just calling, you can be pretty sure that the original bettor will bet into you on the Turn if he really does have a hand and the card doesn’t appear to help you. If s/he somehow puts you on a draw, then you could very well face a huge bet because your opponent (if s/he’s smart) will want to make your draw too expensive to be a proper play. Hopefully you’ll recall that you need pot odds of at least 6 to 1 for an inside Straight draw, 3.3 to 1 for Straight and 3 to 1 for a Flush draw. Of course, if the bettor checks on the turn, it could be a good indication of a bluff, but it’s also a sign that s/he has hand that’s so strong (like a Full House), s/he wants you to “catch up.”

D. Check, then raise any bet made In my not-so-humble opinion, this is the strongest play of all. It says, “I trapped you” or, “Your hand doesn’t scare me.” It also might be saying, “I’m bluffing”, but few players will read that into your actions. You can pretty much count on the fact that anyone on a draw will fold when you do that, unless the pot odds are enormous at this point. You can also pretty much expect some players – usually those trying to “buy” the pot or those with a good, solid hand – to go all-in here. Whether or not you should call obviously depends upon what you hold, and the pot odds being offered. I love to check-raise, but actually use it sparingly because while you’ll win more hands with it, you won’t necessarily earn more $$$ by using it.

Okay, let’s discuss situation # 2 where you entered the pot with a raise, all the others either folded or called, the flop comes and a player acting before you bets. Besides folding, you can choose to:

(Source: GameMaster)

Notes and comments:

While it’s best to memorize this chart, until you do just print it out and have it near you when you’re playing. You can see that as the higher card goes down in rank, the spread between it and the lower card gets tighter. That’s mainly because the only hope you have with a starting hand like 7-6o is to make a Straight and more Straights can be made when there are fewer “gaps” to deal with. For those of you who are Video Poker players, you know exactly what I mean; in fact, I found my experience at playing VP very helpful in recognizing playable situations.

Now look at the minimum hands for the mighty Ace. If the lower card is of any rank and is suited, the hand is playable, but if it’s unsuited, it should be no lower than a 10. As you’ll find out, most players will cling to A-xo until the bitter end. And you’ll most certainly lose some nice hands to something like A-6o, but in the long run, it shouldn’t be played. To draw an analogy to Blackjack one more time, folding A-6o is like hitting A-7 versus a dealer’s 9; not everyone does it, even though it’s the proper play. It may not “feel” right, but you’ll make more $$$ in the long run if you’ll do it. Math does not have room for “feelings”. Cold, perhaps but that’s how it is.

Pairs: No pairs are listed on here because all of them are playable at one time or another. Just remember that this list (and the pairs) is not a license to play these hands at any time, under any set of circumstances. For example, you’d be crazy to play 10-7s in an early position after 3 players have raised behind you. As I said earlier, this list is as much about what not to play as it is about what’s playable. So stop calling with those Q-3s hands and be patient until I show you the entire matrix. That will incorporate this list and the pairs into a complete strategy that takes into consideration your position, how many bets you have to call and so on. In the meantime, I have some homework for you and that’ll wrap it up.

(Source: GameMaster)

If you’re following my recommendations on starting hands at no-limit Hold’em (NLHE), then you’re entering the pot with a raise probably 90% of the time. In this lesson, I want to discuss what to do when you’ve done that and several other players call to see the flop. If you think about it, the possibilities are fairly limited, so let me list them and discuss each one in order. If you have raised, a lot of what will happen on the flop really depends upon what position you’re in; a raise from under-the-gun (UTG) is usually perceived as being stronger than one from the Button, for example. Of course, none of what I’m going to cover will apply to each and every hand, but generally it’ll happen enough to allow us to draw some conclusions.

Please note that what I’m talking about here is the time when you enter the pot at a full or nearly-full table (7-10 players) with a raise and all of the other players either fold or just call. Situations where you raise and are re-raised are basically covered by the Starting Hands Matrix and I’ll discuss them somewhere in the future; for now let’s stick with the basic concept. If you raise and all of the other players fold or call, there are two primary situations you’ll encounter when the flop is dealt:

Situation #1. Everyone checks to you and you:
A. Bet
B. Check
C. Check, then call any bet made
D. Check, then raise any bet made

Situation #2. A player ahead of you bets into the flop and you:
A. Fold
B. Call
C. Raise

As you undoubtedly know, the vast majority of the time the other players will check to the raiser – it’s done so often that the saying is a part of poker lore. How you play your hand at that point “talks” to the other players and you need to remember that you might want to “say” something different, which is what we call a bluff.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia.

“The end depends upon the beginning.” I heard that line in a movie recently and it certainly applies to Hold ‘em poker, although that’s not what the movie was about. At best, it’s extremely difficult to make a comeback if you enter the pot of a Hold ‘em game with a bad hand. I see it all the time and it happens, I guess, because so many people feel about poker like they do about Blackjack; “it’s all luck, anyway, so what’s the difference?” Well, if you’ve studied my Blackjack lessons the least little bit, you know it’s not “all luck” by a long shot. Sure, there is a luck factor that we cannot deny (I prefer to call it “variance”) but making the mathematically proper play for each and every hand goes a long way toward reducing the luck factor in Blackjack and that’s what we call playing Basic Strategy. Unfortunately, playing Basic Strategy alone will not give you an edge over the casino – which is why my Blackjack lessons also teach you how to count the cards – but the proper Basic Strategy for a given set of rules in a Blackjack game will reduce the casino’s edge over you to a minimum; generally 0.5% or even less.

Hold ‘em poker also has a “basic strategy” and it begins with the first two cards you’re dealt in the game, your “pocket” or “hole” cards. (I suppose that “pocket” cards is more the poker expression, so I’ll try to use that when I’m talking about a player’s two face-down cards in a Hold ‘em game, but forgive me now and then when I lapse into calling them “hole” cards). Anyway, it’s easy to imagine that if you were always dealt a pair of “pocket” Aces, you would win tons of $$$ at Hold ‘em. Of course, it wouldn’t be long before no one would play against you, but you get the idea. Great cards in the pocket are the start of a great hand. In poker, as in Blackjack, great hands win most of the time. Not all of the time, mind you, just most of the time. We don’t always win with a hand of 20 versus a dealer’s 6 in Blackjack, nor will we always win with AA (“pocket rockets” in poker slang) in Hold ‘em, but it’s still a good way to start.

So, how do you make sure you have a good start for a Hold ‘em poker hand? Well, that’s the beauty of the game of poker. If you don’t like your first two cards, you throw them away! It’s somewhat like the surrender rule in Blackjack, except it doesn’t cost as much. If you’re familiar with surrender, you can stop the play by giving up half your bet and, if surrender is allowed in the casino where you’re playing, you should do it whenever the mathematics say you’ll win less than 50% of the time. But 50% is a fairly steep price to pay for getting out of the hand. However in poker, it’s not nearly that much. In most poker games with 8 to 10 players, you’ll have to post a “small blind” and “big blind” bet only about once every 8-10 hands. All of the other hands you’ll get cost you nothing to throw away, so in, say, a $10/$20 game with a $5 small blind bet and a $10 big blind bet, it’ll cost you only $15 for each “round” of 8-10 hands to toss them. That’s a little more that $1.50 per hand and, with a $10 minimum bet per round, the percentage is only 15-20% if you always fold. It would be stupid to always fold, of course, but I want to contrast this with surrender in Blackjack where it would cost you 50% of your total bets if you always did it.

The point I’m trying to make here is that you do not have to play poor cards in a Hold ‘em poker game, but most beginners do. The wise player enters the pot on his or her own terms or s/he simply doesn’t play. This takes a certain amount of patience that many beginners seem to lack (“Hell, I’m here to play Hold ‘em poker, not Fold ‘em poker”) and you can take advantage of that. Just as it takes patience for the count in a 6-deck Blackjack game to get into positive territory, so it is with Hold ‘em. Good pocket cards don’t come along on every deal, so you’ve got to fold a lot if you expect to make any $$$ from this game. There’s no arguing that the game of Hold ‘em poker is much more complicated than the game of Blackjack, but both use decks of 52 cards and both are subject to mathematical analysis, so it’s actually possible for us to determine which sets of pocket cards are worth playing and which are not.

There are actually EV tables that show the long term statistical results of Hold’em hands. Another site has a copy of this chart, where it ranks poker hands by EV. This gives a numerical value to each hand combination, that easily shows the good vs bad poker hands.

Let me give you a crystal clear example: Which pocket pair do you think will win more, KK or 22? Hopefully the answer is obvious. A pair of deuces can be beat by any other pair out there but a pair of Kings can only be beaten by a pair of Aces. Of course, both are beat by two-pair, a set of Trips, etc. so a pair of anything isn’t necessarily an automatic winner when all five community cards have been dealt. But it’s actually fairly easy to determine which pocket cards will win in the long run and which won’t. It’s not exactly like determining how much we’ll make with a 20 versus a dealer’s 6 in Blackjack, because your position at the poker table, the cards that come on the flop, the turn and the river (Unfamiliar with these terms? See lesson 1.), the other players’ cards, how much is in the pot and a variety of other factors will ultimately determine the value of a starting hand.

But, believe it or not, we can assign some average values to all of those variables and come up with a nice list of playable pocket cards, which I’ll present below.

But before I do that, let me explain my “grand scheme” here. What I intend to ultimately present to you is a Hold ‘em Poker Basic Strategy Matrix, which is very much like the matrix I use in teaching Basic Strategy for Blackjack. But the Hold ‘em matrix is going to be a bit more complicated because it will take into consideration your position at the table, the number of players that called the bet before you, any raises, etc. Complicated? Yes. But remember that I’m teaching you how to play Hold ‘em poker at online poker rooms, so you won’t have to memorize anything! Just print out what I show you and keep it by your computer as you play. Of course, if you are willing to do some memorizing, then the process of evaluating a hand will proceed more quickly, plus you might want to use this information in a brick-and-mortar casino where using a “cheat sheet” may not be appropriate.

Like any other matrix, mine will be built in layers that hopefully have some sort of rhyme and reason about them. But I definitely know where to start and that is to give you a list of the minimum hands you should play. What I mean by that is this: Your pocket cards can only be one of three types: pairs, suited cards or unsuited cards. Obviously pairs cannot be suited; there is only one King of spades in a deck; get two King of spades as pocket cards and there’s a definite problem. Back in the Old West, you’d probably get shot for that. But to continue along, besides pairs (cards of equal “rank” but different suit), you can get suited cards (different rank but same “suit”) or unsuited cards (different suit, different rank) and that’s it. Within all of those various permutations of cards, there are 1326 different two-card combinations that can make up the pocket cards in a Hold ‘em game. Play long enough and you’ll get all of them, but there are only about 250 or so that you should bet on. Except for the pairs, each set has one card that is higher in rank than the other and that’s what forms the basis for my minimum starting hand list. For example, you might be dealt 10c7d (10 of clubs, 7 of diamonds) so the first thing you do is look at the card of the highest rank, which is the 10 of clubs. If the lower card of the two is equal to or higher than the minimum I list, the hand may be played. I say “may” because as we go along, you’ll see that your position at the table, the number of raises you may have to call, etc., will all have an effect on whether or not you play the hand. But if the lower card of the two is outside the “minimum”, you’ll just fold the hand, regardless. So, I guess this isn’t so much a list of hands to play as much as a list of hands to not play.

Let me amplify my example with the 10c7d hand. The absolute minimum hand you should play where the 10 is the high card is 10-7s. This means “10, 7 suited”; in other words, the two are of the same suit, like spades, hearts, diamonds or clubs. Remember that this is the minimum hand, so it’s okay to play 10-8s or 10-9s, because they are “above” a 10-7s. What about a 10-Jack, you ask? Well, that falls under the Jacks hands, because we always work off the higher card, so don’t get confused. Okay, what about 10 and something unsuited? The minimum hand there is 10-8o (10, 8 offsuit). I’m using a small “o” to represent unsuited (“off-suit”) only because that’s the way it’s done by most poker writers. I think it should be “u”, but they got here before me, so I’ll do it their way. Okay, so now we know that the minimum hand with a high card of 10 where the cards are not suited is 10, 8. This means it’s okay to play 10-9o, but not 10-7o. The cards would have to be suited for that. Obviously, 10-5, either suited or unsuited is outside the range, so it should never be played, period.

As you go through the list, keep in mind the rationale for most of these choices. Pairs can be improved in many ways and high pairs (Aces-Jacks) can often win on their own. Two suited cards of different rank can win by turning into a Flush, a Straight or a Straight Flush, or by improving to Two-Pair, Trips, etc. Two pocket cards of different rank and suit are not likely to turn into a Flush, and while they might make Two-pair, Trips, etc., they’ll most likely either make a single Pair or, if all goes well, a Straight. Generally you’ll see that the “bottom” card is at or near the low end of a Straight Flush for the higher card. For example, the minimum hand for a Queen is Q-8s (Queen, 8 suited) because the 8 is the lowest card that will make a Straight or Straight Flush with a Queen. If the Queen and the other card are not suited, the minimum hand is Q-9o. This makes sense, because you’re giving up some “flush power” with this hand; it’ll take four cards of whatever suit the Queen is in to make a Flush and somebody else may have the King or Ace and beat you. Just so we’re clear on this, if the higher card is a Queen and the lower card is of the same suit, Queen-8 is the minimum hand which means it’s okay to play the hand with a suited 9 or 10, also. But if you have, say, a suited 7 (or lower) with the Queen, the hand should be folded. If they’re offsuit, then a 9 is as low as you should go; not even an 8 should be played, let alone a 7 or lower.

Make sense? I hope so, but if not, don’t hesitate to e-mail me your questions. I always answer my mail personally and I try to do it within 2-3 days at the most. You’ll find my address at the end of the lesson.

Okay, so here’s my list of minimum starting hands. Remember that s = suited and o = offsuit or unsuited. Oh, yeah “x” means any card. By the way, this list is for Limit Hold ‘em; No-limit starting hands would be quite a bit different.

(Source: GameMaster)

For example, look at the hand of A-Qo (remember, “s” is suited and “o” is off suit). If you’re in Early Position (see Lesson 11 for the various position designations), you should raise with A-Qo. Now, look at the * (asterisk) next to most of the starting hands, including A-Qo. Down at the bottom, you’ll see this note: * = fold if a player before you raises preflop. So, if the UTG were to raise and you’re next to play, you fold with A-Qo or any other hand marked with an asterisk. About 90% of the time you’ll be either raising or folding. If you’ve read many books on no-limit Hold ‘em, you’ll often see the words “raise or fold” and it’s good advice. Also note that most of the hands have a “Fold” designation in the Early Position column. It means just that; you don’t limp and you certainly don’t raise in EP with A-Jo, you simply throw it away. About the only time you’ll call in EP is when you have 9-9 to Q-Q and the pot’s been raised in front of you. Those hands are just too good to fold, but they’re not strong enough to re-raise.

Let’s continue with A-Qo. If you’re in Middle Position and no one has raised ahead of you, (which would cause you to fold), you’ll raise with A-Qo. If one or more players have limped, you’ll still raise, but you should raise more than the standard 3 times the big blind, which is why I say, “Raise should be 3-4x Big Blind” in a note at the bottom of the matrix. You’ll fold if someone (anyone) re-raises after you. It’s tough to do, I know, but it’ll be the correct play the vast majority of the time. Oh, sure, you’ll get some player who will re-raise with A-10s every now and then, but most of the time you’ll lose if you call the re-raise. If you’re in Late Position, you should raise with A-Qo, assuming no one has raised in front of you (in which case you’d fold), but call if someone now re-raises you. Because the re-raise might come from an early position limper, you might wonder why you’d call and it all has to do with position. You’ll most likely be last to act for the rest of the hand, so it’s profitable to see the flop, then make a decision by how others bet it. See how this matrix uses hand strength and position to dictate the play? I’m sure it’s not perfect, but I will say it works pretty well if you follow it.

Okay, now let’s discuss the hand of A-Qo in the Blinds. You’ll notice that I didn’t make a distinction between the Small Blind and the Big Blind in the matrix. I did that primarily to keep it simple, but also because in most no-limit cash games the Blinds are a relatively unimportant part of the pot. Admittedly, they can be a factor in tournaments, but we’ll discuss that in a later lesson. For now, treat the SB and the BB the same. With A-Q in either Blind, re-raise a Late Position raise, but just call a raise made by a player in any other position. So, if the UTG raises, for example and you have A-Qo in one of the Blinds, just call, assuming it’s a 3x to 4x BB raise. If you re-raise a Late Position (“button”) raise and that player re-raises again, just call. How do you know to do that? You know because there’s not a “RR2″ designation on the hand. Looking at the notes on the bottom, you’ll see this: RR2 = Raise a Reraise. You’ll also see that RR2 applies only to A-A, K-K and A-Ks. So, a re-raise of your raise by a LP player warrants only a call.

Let’s say you’re in the BB with A-Qo and everyone has limped in. Regardless of their position – early, middle, late or SB – you should raise about the size of the pot, but certainly not less than 3 times the Big Blind bet. If someone subsequently re-raises you, it’s just a call because there’s no “RR2″ next to the hand, remember? If everyone folds to the SB and s/he limps by only completing the bet, then you should raise. If the SB raises, that’s a Late Position raise, so you should re-raise. Of course, if you have A-Qo in the SB, it’s the same as if you had it in the BB: re-raise a Late Position raise. But if the BB or anyone else re-raises you, then just call, because A-Qo doesn’t rate a “RR2″ designation.

You can see that there’s a (1) next to Q-Js in the Blinds column. That relates to the comment at the bottom. If everyone has limped into the pot, then raise from the SB or BB with Q-Js or higher. “Higher” refers to every hand above it in the left-hand column, which essentially means you’ll raise in that situation with any of the playable hands I show on the matrix. This situation will actually occur quite often in cash games because people like to see cheap flops, but you’re not going to let that happen, are you? If you get re-raised, just call because Q-Js does not have the RR2 designation.

And that’s basically it for now. Just play your hand as shown for the position you’re in and you’ll soon be holding your own in No-Limit Hold ‘Em. (Poor pun, I know.) When in doubt, fold; there’ll be another hand coming along soon enough. I’m not trying to turn you into a wimpy player, but folding is the best tactic if you’re confused about a hand. In time, you’ll begin to feel real comfortable with this matrix and as the $$$ come rolling in, you’ll know it’s working.

Oops! I almost forgot the ** designation that you’ll find next to the LP column up top. In the notes at the bottom, you’ll see this: **LP = 2-3 players left. This is a reminder that you must “open up” your game when you get down to 2 or 3 players left. As time goes on, you’ll find yourself as one of the last few players in SnGs and, because the Blind bets will be coming around a lot quicker, you cannot sit and wait for premium hands. When that happens, start making all of your plays according to the LP column regardless of the position you’re in. In the case of A-Qo, for example, you’d raise and call a re-raise even if you were UTG at the short-handed table. A-Qo isn’t a great hand at a full table, but it’s not bad when there are only three of you left.

(Source: GameMaster)