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After you master the beginner strategies of Texas Hold ‘em, it is time to move onto the intermediate level of play. While it’s important to keep the basic strategies for Texas Hold ‘em in mind, you can now afford to take a few more risks. Tactics such as bluffing, playing questionable hands and being more aggressive can improve your game and make you a more effective poker player. As you continue your journey to becoming a better Texas Hold ‘em player, give these intermediate strategies a try:
Texas Holdem Poker Strategy Advanced Videos
Advanced Texas Hold Em Strategy While there are distinct advanced strategies that can be helpful in Texas hold’em, most of them come with years of experience and lots of time at the table. Over time players develop instinctual playing abilities that simply cannot be taught. Poker is a lot like sex. Everyone thinks they are the best, but most don’t have a clue what they are doing. — Dutch Boyd (Titanpoker.com)It is very true, but hopefully by and reading our Texas Holdem Strategy section you will at least have a clue how to do well at one of them! 126 beginner, intermediate and advanced lessons in Texas Hold'em No Limit (NL) strategy at PokerStrategy.com, the world's leading online poker school. 80 beginner, intermediate and advanced lessons in Fixed Limit Texas Hold'em (FL) strategy at PokerStrategy.com, the world's leading online poker school. Poker Strategy Articles 61 Browse through hundreds of poker strategy articles created by winning poker coaches. Our poker strategy explores cutting edge poker concepts to ensure that you're always at the top of your game - Because that's how winners are made.
Bluffing
In order to become a great poker player, one of the essential skills you will have to master is bluffing. When you bluff, you attempt to trick other players into thinking you have a better hand than you do.
If played correctly, the bluff can be a great weapon in your arsenal. While you’re learning, however, you should only bluff during certain situations:
- When there are not many players in the pot
- When you are up against players that fold easily
- When you are on the river and have a weak hand
- When you are in late position and everyone else has checked
- If you have just won a hand through good play
- When there is a pair on the board
Evaluating Opponents
When playing online poker, you need to find means of evaluating your opponents other than taking note of their body language.
- Stack Size: Players with large stacks tend to be a bit looser with their calls and bets, so keep a sharp eye out for their aggression during the game.
- Username: Players’ usernames may indicate something about their personality and, thus, the way they play poker. Serious online poker players often use some variation of their real name or will have a poker-related username. Generally, the more offensive or crude a username is, the less serious the player is. If players are less serious, they may not be as skilled.
- Not Waiting for Big Blind: If players post the big blind before it is their turn, you can assume that they are anxious to play and may not be solid or experienced Texas Hold ‘em players.
- Calling the Blind, then Calling a Raise: If you see an opponent call before the initial big blind and then call after the player before them raises, it can be assumed that the individual is not an experienced poker player.
- Cautious Play: Just because an opponent is playing timidly does not mean that he or she has a weak hand. In fact, the opponent may be trying to trick you. Keep his or her previous actions in mind as your proceed. Is this the type of player who would try to cover up a hand?
Raising
As you become more comfortable playing Texas Hold ‘em, you may want to consider raising more often.
- It’s often a good idea to raise if you have the best hand at the table – after all, the more money there is in the pot, the more you will win.
- Raising can also drive other players out when you have the best hand.
- Raising when you are bluffing can be risky, but profitable if done correctly. This should only be done in situations when the river has completed a draw other than the one for which you were drawing, but it looks as if it could have completed your hand based on your play thus far. This will make your bluff look more credible to the other players.
- Raising in an early round can show strength and lead other players to check for fear of your impending raise
- In Limit Hold ‘em, sometimes players raise in order to gain information about their opponents’ hands. This should only be done in earlier rounds when the betting is less expensive.
Questionable Hands
While basic Texas Hold ‘em strategy dictates that you should only play the best hands, once you become a more experienced player you can begin to take risks by playing more questionable hands. The key is to develop the ability to identify the best situations in which to play these hands:
- Only play low pairs if there is enough money in the pot to justify the action.
- It sometimes makes sense to play a questionable hand simply to confuse your opponents. If you only play the best hands, your opponents will be able to quickly identify your strategy. If you choose to play a questionable hand, make sure you continue to be aggressive throughout the betting round, otherwise your opponents will know that you are bluffing.
- In general, it’s best to play questionable hands when you are in a late position. This is because you will be able to determine if there is enough money in the pot to justify the odds of making a better hand.
Short Stack
If you have short stack, you will have less room to make plays, so you will need to take on a much more reserved strategy. While some short stacks can play multiple flops, it is more rare to make it past the flop in terms of betting because you will likely run out of chips. In general, when you have a short stack you will need to more selective about your starting hands – otherwise you’ll go broke.
- Instead of playing small hands that have potential, play hands that will be strong on the flop.
- Avoid playing suited connectors and small pocket pairs.
- Hands that include aces should be given a lot of weight.
- Always raise when entering the pot.
- Stick to basic poker strategies. Avoid bluffing – just play when you have a strong hand.
You can read more about strategies for playing Texas Hold ‘em based on stack size here.
Varying Your Strategy
Varying your playing style is a tactic you can use to try and confuse other players, making it difficult for them to guess what type of hand you have or what your next move will be. Do what you can to avoid being predictable. In other words, don’t play every hand the same way.
Want to know more? Check out our how-to guides for Texas Hold ‘em strategies based on table position and size.
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While there are distinct advanced strategies that can be helpful in Texas hold’em, most of them come with years of experience and lots of time at the table. Over time players develop instinctual playing abilities that simply cannot be taught. There are some things in the advanced category that you can learn and use right away to your advantage. The beautiful thing is most people never learn these strategies and you can use them to extract money left and right from your uneducated opponents. This article will discuss check raising and pot odds.
Check Raising
Check and raise is a deceptive move that is used to trap unsuspecting players. While this is a powerful move, it is important that you not overuse this technique. It should be used as a special tool to extract more money from opponents. Using it too often will telegraph your moves and make it ineffective. A good situation from which to check raise would be when are in early position and flop a strong hand and most of your opponents are weak. You can check and then when a late position player bets, you come in for a raise. Savvy players will catch on to this quickly, but poor players are going to call and you can trap many people in the hand. Here are a few tips on check raising:
- Use it to vary your play and extract more money from opponents. Do not use it as a regular tactic
- Check raise good opponents in tight races or when you think they have the best of it. Every now and then a good opponent might respect your raise and lay down their hand.
- Check raising with a marginal hand is an excellent way to semi bluff and might just accomplish what you are looking for, to get your opponent to fold.
Pot Odds
This is an important advanced concept that most players never bother to learn. The idea behind pot odds is figuring out how much money the pot is offering you in relation to your chances of hitting the hand you want. Here are some examples:
- If you hold a pair pre flop, your chances of hitting a set on the flop are about 7.5:1. What this means is that if you hold a low pair like 33 or 44, you most likely will want the pot to offer you at least that amount on your money. So if the bet were two dollars and the pot was at ten dollars, your odds would only be 5:1, not quite there yet. On the other hand if there was sixteen dollars in the pot you would be getting 8:1 and now it is completely worth it for you to try and flop a set.
- With two cards to come you have an outside straight draw. The pot is offering you twenty dollars on a four dollar bet. The odds of hitting your inside straight by the end are worse than 11:1. You should be able to tell right away that this is a bad bet. You are only getting pot odds of 5:1 and if you were to make this move every time you played poker for the rest of your life you would go bankrupt thousands of times over.
The point we are trying to make with this article is that advanced strategies are subtle and very specific. You have to learn to identify the situations where they can work and do not over use them. The best poker players in the world are those who can successfully change up their play and keep opponents off balance. By using these poker strategies from time to time, you throw your opponents off and keep them guessing.