Texas Holdem Questions and Answers

One thing that jumps out right away is you say it
seems like you get called every time. Any time you find yourself
saying something seems like it’s happening you should instantly
start tracking your results. Keep a small notebook and start
making a mark each time you bluff and then record if the bluff
was successful or not.

How do you know other players are bluffing? Are they showing
you their bluffs or are you assuming that they’re bluffing?
Never assume an opponent is bluffing unless you see the actual
cards.

Finally, it’s almost certain that you’re bluffing too much.
The reason we can say it’s almost sure is because almost every
player bluffs too often. If you want to be a successful bluffer
you need to pick your spots carefully and not bluff very often.

If you turn over a winning hand most of the time when an
opponent calls you’ll find that many of them will start
respecting your bets more. When they start folding too much to
your bets is when you need to start working in some bluffs. Once
they start calling more you need to tighten up more and stop
bluffing for a while.

It’s also important to know your opponent’s playing
tendencies. Some players simply won’t fold for a single or small
bet. Once you learn this about an opponent you know to never
bluff them, but you also know they’ll pay off your better hands
every time.

On the other hand, some players are so scared that the fold
to any sign of aggression unless they have a strong hand.
Against these players you know you can bluff them with a weak
hand, but you also know you need to let them lead the betting if
possible when you have a strong hand.

One last thing that is especially important in no limit Texas
holdem is that a larger than normal bet in a bluffing situation
often doesn’t work as well as a smaller bet.

A smaller bet looks like you’re trying to get just a little
more form your opponent with a strong hand where an over bet
often looks like a bluff. Of course you still need to know your
opponents because some don’t think deep enough about the game
for this to work.

The first thing you need to understand is the
difference between your edge on a series of hands in a cash game
and in a tournament. This is best shown using a couple examples.

This doesn’t mean that you don’t play your hands with high
winning percentages, but you need to try to play them without
getting all in. Sometimes you have to pick up enough small pots
to give you enough chips so you can still have chips left over
when you lose the hands where you’re a favorite.

As you get deeper and deeper into the tournament it becomes
harder to avoid all in confrontations unless you’re among the
chip leaders. All you can do is play your best hands and
understand that sometimes you’re going to bust out. But the good
news is you can find plenty of tournaments to play and if you
consistently play well you’ll break through and win more than
you lose in the long run.

The next thing you need to decide is if you’re going to play
to get into the money or to win. Most players state they play
tournaments to win, but when it gets close to the money bubble
they start folding good hands in order to sneak into the money.

Two players at your table have bigger stacks than you and
they are taking turns raising and bullying the table. Most
players are folding to their aggression because they want to
make the money. You face a raise from one of the big stacks and
have pocket kings. If you get all in against them and lose you
miss the money.

How are you going to play the hand? What if you have pocket
queens, or pocket jacks, or ace king?

If you’re truly playing to win you need to try to get all in
with pocket kings. Only one hand I a favorite against you and if
you can double up your average chip stack it puts you in a good
position to have the chips needed to win the tournament.

It’s not for us to tell you how to play and there’s not a
right or wrong answer when it comes down to deciding if you want
to play for the money or to win. But you do need to think about
it before you start playing in tournaments.

If you’re first goal is to get into the money you might even
fold pocket aces in the example above. You also need to think
about where you cut off your starting hands in a situation like
this one if you’re playing strictly to give yourself the best
chance to win. Pocket jacks and ace king are somewhat weak in
most cases if you have to risk your tournament life, but only
you can make this decision based on what you know about your
opponents and the situation.

Right after the final player busts out who isn’t in the money
many of the short stacks start taking risks to either double up
or bust out. At this point you can play your best hands and
quickly increase your stack size many times.

Another thing to remember is that there’s no one right way to
play in order to win tournaments. Many good players play very
tight in the early rounds and look to double up with their very
best hands while others are able to play a loose / aggressive
game early and do well. You have to find the style that fits
with your abilities and work to improve it at all times.

Remember our advice from the first question when you
start saying that something seems to be happening? The problem
with this situation is you don’t get to see all of the hands
when watching Texas holdem tournaments on television. They film
a bunch of footage and then edit it all of the boring hands, so
you only see the action hands.

The ESPN coverage of the World Series of Poker only consists
of a few hours and the tournament lasts several days, with
hundreds of tables running at the same time during the early
rounds.

The next issue is you say you get bored. This is a dangerous
thing for a holdem player. When poker players get bored they
tend to play too many hands. This leads to playing hands that
are weaker than your opponents, reducing your overall chances of
winning.

You should never get bored while playing holdem. If you
aren’t involved in the hand you need to be watching and
collecting information about all of your opponents. Watch what
hands they end up showing down and how they play in every
situation.

Do they only raise with their best hands or do they mix it
up? Do they bluff too much? Are they tight or loose?

Every little bit you can learn about how someone plays is an
extra chance you have to make money from them in a later hand.
Winning Texas holdem players seek and use every little advantage
they can possibly find.

A single big hand can be the difference between a winning and
losing session, so knowing a single thing about and opponent can
be the difference between being a winning and losing player.

The jump from a recreational or part time poker
player to a full time pro is a huge one. It requires a change in
focus, dedication, time, mental attitude, and lifestyle. No
matter how good your results have been playing part time, if
you’re not completely ready you run a high risk of failure.

Let’s talk about the financial considerations of becoming a
professional Texas holdem player before moving on. You need to
have at least six months worth of living expenses in reserve
before making the jump, and a year’s worth is better. This needs
to be completely separate from your bankroll.

Your bankroll needs to be a minimum of 30 buy in’s if you
play no limit and 300 big blinds if you play limit. Twice this
amount is much better. This may seem like its overly cautious,
but when you’re a pro you have no life line of a job to replace
money when you have a bad streak. And never make the mistake of
thinking you won’t have a bad streak. Every poker player has ups
and downs.

You never should use your living expense fund for poker and
you should never use your bankroll for anything but poker. Set a
regular time to look at your progress and take profit from your
bankroll as it grows. The best system in our opinion is as
follows. We recommend this system because your goal should be to
grow both your living expense account and your bankroll.

At the ends of every month look at the amount of your
bankroll in comparison to the previous month. If you’re down
then do nothing except look for holes in your game and improve
them. If you’re up for the month split the amount you’re up and
put half in your living expenses account and leave half in your
bankroll. Over time you should be making enough to extend your
living expenses beyond a year and keep them there and steadily
increase your bankroll. Your bankroll is your life so you must
protect it in every way possible.

The next month your bankroll is $35,000 at the end of the
month and you spend $2,000 on living expenses. Your new living
expense amount is $12,000 and your new bankroll amount is
$34,000 because you put $1,000 in each account.

The next month you break even playing so your bankroll is
still $34,000 and after spending $2,000 on living expenses your
living expenses account is at $10,000.

In the next month you have a strong showing and end the month
with $42,000 in your bankroll. You spend $2,000 on living
expenses, put $4,000 in your living expenses and leave $4,000 in
your bankroll. Your new living expense amount is $12,000 and
your new bankroll amount is $38,000.

Notice that even though you’ve had three winning months and a
break even month your living expense account hasn’t grown. Your
bankroll has increased by $8,000 so you’re doing well, but the
living expense account is stagnant. At this point you need to
decide if you continue with the current plan or start building
your expense account. It may be prudent to transfer another
$2,000 from your bankroll to your living expenses. But once you
do that the money is gone forever from your bankroll, so make
sure you think it through.

This system is designed so you never have to worry about
money while playing. If you worry about your finances while
playing you’re not going to be focused on what you need to do to
win.

Before making the switch you need to ask yourself a question.
Have you played enough, and tracked all of your play long
enough, to know for a fact that you’re a winning long term
player? Most players make assumptions instead of tracking
everything. Unless you know 100% that you’re a winning player
you need to get better before trying your hand as a pro.

The next area you need to think about is your goals. You need
to have a goal beyond growing your expense account and bankroll.
You need to have specific goals every month and year for how
much you want to win. When you combine your goals with tracking
your results you learn how much you need to play and at what
level.

This also tells you that if you want to make more you either
need to win more per hour or play more hours. Winning more per
hour can be accomplished by increasing your rate of big blind
wins per hour or play a higher limit with the same big blind
wins per hour.

Playing this way becomes a grind, which many players realize
is as bad as or worse than having a regular job. This requires a
mental toughness and dedication that many players simply don’t
have for the long term. Consider this before making the switch
to full time play.

Finally you need the support of your family and everyone else
in your life. This is often overlooked, but if you have
relationships of any kind with a non-poker player they have to
understand how you make money.

One way to still have a relationship and be a professional
player is to schedule a day or two completely off every week.
This is good for both your relationship and your mental health.
Playing poker seven days a week is a form of torture for most
players.

Winning players travel to where the best games are located
and play when these games are available. This means if a game
you can beat is two hours away and starts at midnight and runs
for 18 hours you need to be able to be rested before the game,
be in good enough health to play, and have the understanding and
support from everyone in your life to be able to do it on a
regular basis.

You should play the game that lets you win the most
per hour. This goes beyond choosing between limit and no limit
play. This also includes being willing to play at the limits the
offer the most return. The most profitable limit may not be the
highest limit your bankroll can afford.

No limit Texas holdem offers the chance to win large amounts
when you win, but it also has a bigger variance than limit
holdem. The amount you can win per hour over the long run is
better for some players in no limit, but not for all players.
And even if you can win more per hour playing no limit you may
be more comfortable with the lower variance of playing limit.

Both games are mathematical in nature, but often limit Texas
holdem seems more straightforward. If you’re able to remain
patient, only play your best hands, use position to your
advantage, and understand odds, outs, and pot odds completely,
then you can follow a fairly simple script and grind out profits
playing limit holdem.

But the same can be said for no limit Texas holdem. So the
answer to your question is really which one do you feel more
comfortable playing, or which one shows you the best results?

We hate to give answers that aren’t specific, but in this
case you really need to decide which offers the best options for
you. One solid piece of advice we can offer is it doesn’t matter
what your friends or others think or say. The only things that
matters are your results.

The only things you must have to start are a place to
play, enough playing cards, tables, and chairs to run the game.
Of course having a few other things can be helpful.

In addition to having the things mentioned above, having a
unique set of chips players can use and a software package to
track the blinds and levels are the next two things we
recommend. You can find free and low cost software packages for
Texas holdem tournaments by doing a quick search online.

Chips are available in many places, but you need to be
careful about what you buy. The best chips are ones that are
unique to your game. If you use common chips how are you going
to stop a dishonest player from sneaking chips in from outside
the game? Custom chips are expensive, but you can also buy
stickers to print and place on inexpensive chips.

It’s also nice to have quality playing cards, but the higher
quality cards can be expensive. And you need to examine the
cards after every tournament to see if any have been damages or
marked.

The last thing to consider is whether or not you’re going to
provide dealers for the tournament. Dealers add more expense to
the game but they also help reduce cheating. If the players have
to deal some of them may cheat.

The problem with running a Texas holdem tournament is it can
be expensive, and if you charge an entry fee to cover your
expenses you’re breaking the law in many places. In most
jurisdictions if you’re charging any type of fee for entry to
the game you’re running an illegal gambling operation.

We’ve seen some creative ways that organizers have tried to
get around this, but we’d hate to have to fight in court using
them. Here are a couple that we’ve seen used.

One of our editors played in a weekly tournament where the
buy in was $100 and you paid a $20 fee. The organizers prepared
a nice meal for every player and claimed the $20 was for the
meal, not the game. But the problem was you couldn’t just play
for $100, you had to pay for the food.

Another ploy is to call the place a club or organization and
the extra money on top of the buy in is a membership fee. In our
non-legal opinion, the courts are probably not going to look
kindly on these types of things if you get caught.

We realize that poker tournaments are being run all over the
place and most of them are never bothered by the cops, but that
doesn’t mean you can’t be arrested and charged. This is
especially true if a player feels they’ve been cheated and
complain to the authorities.

We’re not offering legal advice, but make sure you consider
all of the possible ramifications before you start hosting a
game.

The easiest way to make a close guess to your chances
of winning hand after the flop is to use the following trick.
Learn how to count your outs first. This is easy and most
players can learn this quickly.

If you have four to a flush you know the deck has nine other
cards of your suit. So you have nine outs.

Once you know how many outs you have if you still have the
turn and river you multiply your outs by four. If you just have
the river to come you multiply you routs by two. This gives you
roughly the percentage chance you have of winning the hand.

In the example above of a flush draw and nine outs, the
estimated chances with both the turn and river to come are 36%
and with just the river to come is 18%. The true odds are 35%
and 19.6% so you can see that this quick trick gives you a
strong estimate of your chances.

The next trick is to learn the most common situation and
memorize them. The flush draw in the example above is a common
one, as well as an open ended straight draw, two pair or three
of a kind improving to a full house, and having two over cards
with hopes of pairing one of them.

You also need to have an idea of how your percentage chances
of winning or hitting your hand relate to the pot odds. Pot odds
are simply the comparison of the amount of money in the pot and
the amount you have to call in order to stay in the hand. When
you compare your chances of winning with the pot odds you can
determine if it’s profitable or not to stay in the hand.

If the pot has $100 in it and you have to call $20 and you
have the flush draw mentioned above after the flop, the pot odds
are favorable to call. You’re going to hit your flush a little
over one out of every three times based on the 36% chance. We
now know that your actual chance is 35%, but the estimate is
close enough.

This means that every three times you win once and lose
twice. So if the pot has more than two times the amount you have
to put in then the pot odds are in your favor.

If you’re in the same situation but on the river instead of
before the turn you have a 18% chance, really 19.6%, so this is
roughly one out of every five times.

This means that you’ll win once and lose four times out of
every five. In other words your pot chances are four to one. The
pot is offering five to one odds, with $100 in it and you have
to call $20, so the pot is offering a better return than your
odds of making the hand. This means you need to call.

Pot odds can be intimidating, but if you start with the
simple steps we just covered you’ll quickly learn to determine
your chances of winning and if you should play or fold in most
situations.

First of all, let us say congratulations on being a
winning Texas holdem player. It’s not as easy as many make it
seem, so you’re ahead of the majority of players.

Concerning the rest of your question, this is getting
dangerously close to letting someone else tell you what to do
with your life. We can offer advice on what you can do to
improve your game, but it sounds like you’re somewhat happy with
your current situation.

In order to get better at Texas holdem you’re going to need
to dedicate more time and effort to the game and that time has
to be taken away from something else. Only you can decide if
you’re going to be happier making these changes or if improving
your poker results will make you happier.

Being a good recreational player and having a good job you
enjoy is a good thing. But having a full time job and being a
really good poker player are rarely found together.

If you want to try to improve your results start by taking an
extra 30 minutes a day and dedicate it to improving your holdem
skills. This can be spent reading about how to be a better
player, studying other players, or researching articles online
designed to improve the weak spots in your game.

Do this for a month and then try to judge your results and if
you’re happier than before. Let us warn you about trying to
judge your happiness though. This evaluation can be somewhat
subjective and change based on other things in your life.

You should also realize that many people who are good holdem
players have quit their jobs to play full time and found they
hated the grind. Even some winning players have went back to
doing something else for a living and playing as a hobby. Being
a full time poker player isn’t easy and it isn’t always fun.

Don’t worry, just because everyone else seems to be
doing something it doesn’t mean you’re wrong. In this case
you’re the one who’s playing correctly, not your opponents.

In most situations the best you can hope for with ace king is
a roughly 50 / 50 chance of winning. When you hold ace kin
against a player with a pair lower than kings it’s basically a
toss-up. But if you hold ace kin against a pair of aces or kings
you’re dominated.

You don’t win Texas holdem tournaments by getting all in with
50 / 50 hands. If you play only four 50 / 50 hands during a
tournament all in you only have a 6.25% chance of still being
alive.

Focus on hands that give you a much higher percentage chance
of winning and winning smaller pots to build your chip stack so
you don’t have to get all in often.

You also need to understand that most Texas holdem players
lose over the long term. This means that just because everyone
seems to be doing it, it doesn’t mean it’s going to win in the
long run. Learn how to determine if a situation is profitable of
not so you don’t have to rely on what others are doing.

While it’s true that Omaha 8 is a more predictable
and straightforward mathematical game, you’re still going to
face the same irritations because players are still going to
make bad plays and sometimes they’ll still win.

The key in Texas holdem, or Omaha, or any other game of poker
is to put yourself in a positive expectation position as often
as possible and then let the long term percentages play in your
favor. If you do this you’ll suffer some ups and downs, but in
the long run you’re going to win more than you lose.

The reason Omaha 8 is more predictable than Texas holdem is
because of the amount of information you have during each hand.
In Texas holdem you know the identity of two cards before the
flop, your hole cards, and five cards after the flop, your two
hole cards and the three on the flop.

In Omaha you know the identity of four cards before the flop
and seven cards after the flop. The added cards reduce the
possibilities for the rest of the hand and after the flop you
have five of the seven cards you’re going to be able to use to
make your hand.

All of this means that for players who have a deep
understanding f the mathematics behind poker Omaha is somewhat
easier. But the same player can use the same math to be a
winning Texas holdem player also.

The only reason you should consider switching from Texas
holdem to Omaha 8 is if you can make more money in the long run
playing Omaha than holdem. You need to learn to deal with the
frustration of playing against bad players, because the only way
you make money at the poker table is by playing against players
who are worse than you.

You say you know that you make money by playing hands as a
favorite, but this doesn’t seem to be satisfactory to you. We
suggest stepping back and trying to look at poker as a way to
make short term investments instead of as a game. Short term
investments can increase or decrease, but if you make the smart
investment more often than not they make a positive return over
time.