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Text Box: The most basic strategy is do not play unless you can afford it and also are better than average cash player. No Limit tournaments are a different matter as the most you can lose is your buy-in. No limit poker is all about knowing when to push a hand and when to fold it. No limit poker is a game of serious aggression and not for the timid of heart. It is a game where money is power and can be used as a weapon. This is true in both cash games and tournaments. Watch any tournament and you see players go all in with small pairs and other players with better pairs fold. The aggressive player usually an advantage in a No Limit game. Unless you are on a rush of cards and winning hands be careful of calling large bets on the come. Hunches can be valid, but realize that a hunch may be just a strong wish. Tournament play is far different than cash play for the basic reason that the buy-in fee for the tournament limits the cost of the game. A cash game is only restricted by the willingness of the player to buy more chips. A limit game is not advantageous to an aggressive player as the amount that can be bet is set. A no limit game lets the player decide the amount that can be bet at any time. This also opens the game to more bluffing and position play. Two players that both hold ace king may be decided by who gets to bet first and the size of the bet. Here position may decide who wins the hand. Cash game no limit or even high limit is a game where the experts play and is not for an beginner in most cases. If the money is important to the player they should pass on the cash game, as the size of the bets will influence the way they play and could lead to poor decisions. On the other hand, the non-expert can be successful in a no limit tournament as the money loss is limited to the buy-in fee. This is the reason that you see so many new players at the final on the TV tournaments. That reason plus the fact that they have played for hours on the Internet make them very dangerous. Here are some basic tips... 1. Don’t expect huge wins, expected return is between 10x and 20x the Big blind per hour on a fixed limit table. 2. Be patient wait for the hands (see below) 3. Know the players at the table, there is generally one guy who will call everything and plays every hand to the turn or river - a good source of income. There will also be a very erratic guy raises and bluffs unpredictably, and finally a guy that folds everything but raises big occasionally means he probably has pocket A's. Ok in order of statistical likely ness of winning the hands are:- AA KK QQ AK JJ 1010 99 88 AQ 77 66 55 44 33 22 AX * KQ * X is any suited card with the ace, i.e. A4 of hearts. Table Selection There are generally lots of tables of the same limits, generally with a lot of players. Which one do you choose? Simple, the one with the loosest players, how do you tell? The vital statistic is the table with the most players per flop, not the hands per hour or the average pot. In fact if you sit down on a table that has a huge average pot, there’s a large likely hood that there are some aggressive loose players but these guys ruin your chip stack on the river card, so try not to get heads up with them. Pre Flop 1. If you dont have a hand listed above pre-flop, fold. ** 2. If you have a hand listed in bold, bet/raise/re-raise pre-flop. 3. If you have a non bold hand its a judgement call if there is a raise pre-flop I would fold anything lower than 4's, if there is a raise and re-raise I would fold all of them. * unless you paid the big blind in which case check if no-one raises round the table. The Flop This is a bit difficult to document due to the large number of possibility’s but here goes a small summary... 1. If the flop contains all suited cards (which don’t match yours) and someone is betting/raising/re-raising fold you cant beat a flush with any of the above hands except full house, four of a kind or straight flush. All of which are incredibly unlikely with 3 suited cards onboard and a pair in yr hand. 2. ~15% of the time you will flop a 3 of a kind from your pair, so raise that. 3. If no over cards flop (i.e. cards higher in value than the pair you have) then raise since you still have top pair, although if the flop contains any combination of two (or more) picture cards beware of 2 pair. And of course your opponents will also have the 15% 3 of a kind flop odds too. Watch the bets, if your already committed u can fold at the turn! 4. Watch for pairs on the flop possible 3 of a kinds and full houses, again be prepared to fold them AA's you waited so long to get. 5. Watch for straight draws on the flop especially without gaps, again if someone starts betting, fold. The Turn Okay you’ve betted all the way to the turn, a large majority of the players will have folded and you should have some idea of whether you have the winning hand or not. The key to the turn is don't check if your opponent(s) bets/raises then call, if they check, then raise, they’ll likely fold. The river Never fold on the river, unless your sure your beat. The 'pot' odds can be figured its the amount you have to pay to call (if your opponent has raised) divided by the amount that will be in the pot if you call times 100. So lets say the call will cost me $1, and there’s $18 already in the pot. so its (1-(1/19))*100 ~ 95% (in this example) So you need to be 95% sure that your beat for it to be cost effective to fold. The Bubble Right you should now have the skills to get to the final 4 or 5 players in the 10 player tournaments. Almost time to enter... The Bubble The bubble is where you start to get paid for your playing. In a 10 player tournament it pays 1st, 2nd and 3rd. The blinds will be about 160/320 or 320/640 by this time if the normal progression happens, which will be a fair % of your stack. Now the play goes thru a shift, most people clam up and only play with monster hands (i.e. mouse play) and will fold against most all in or big raises. WHY? They’re blinded by the money, they take the approach ill sit here quietly and let someone else eliminate the players until i get into the bubble. Big mistake. This is the time to come out of your shell, whenever you get a hand with any picture card in it raise pre-flop, generally the size of the pot. Most people will fold and give you the blinds, around 1000chips. The bonus of this is 2 fold, 1) you get the chips to see you thru another round without loosing any since you have the next big blind and small blind. 2) you will probably win 3 or 4 hands out of 10 like this pre-flop increasing your chip balance slowly and steadily. Of course if someone comes back over the top of you with a re-raise just fold. Unless your absolutely sure there bluffing. If you see a flop from this tactic, stick in another raise and see what happens, irrespective of what the flop is and the hand you have. Again if you get hit with a re-raise just fold. Heads Up Play This has been a good little earner of late for a change. You'll notice on prima poker rooms there is a whole tab devoted to heads up play, a quick buck can be made here And of course if you survive into the bubble and down to the final two players, you will be heads up. Here is my advice on how to deal with this. Once again the play shifts from 'The Bubble' type play into generally aggressive, large if not all in raises a lot of the time, which are mostly bluffs. You will find that most players will go all in heads up on any Ax hand, so if someone goes all in and you have any pair consider calling. Any pair is 4:1 favourite of winning against a non paired hand. And flipside if you get a pair as hold cards consider raising big, or all in. Don’t forget that if its a tournament or a heads up tournament, you can survive the blinds for a good while, without ending up too short stacked, so don’t be afraid to fold, and stick to playing strong hands. If your opponent limps into the pot (completes his small blind, or flat calls a raise) be aware, its almost certain he is trying to trap you. He may have a small pair or AK AQ etc.. strong pre-flop hands which are vulnerable to pocket pairs and over cards. If he comes out betting big on the flop he could be bluffing, depending on your position (betting 1st or 2nd), if your opponent checks, stick in a small raise that you can walk away from. If he flat calls your raise your in trouble, don’t under any circumstances try to buy your way out of the pot, else you’ll be out. You may consider seeing a river if your on a straight and flush draw since it has enough outs. Otherwise cut your loses. How do you know if your opponent is bluffing if he bets big on the flop? With great difficulty, due to the short handedness a player will play and bet with a poor, but can hit a lucky flop that leaves you dead in the water. Although what are the odds of hitting a flop that makes 2 pair from a poor hand, or a set from a pocket pair? Not particularly good. ~8:1 to make a set, and a bit less for 2 pair. When all said and done, when it comes down to heads up, it is a lottery, strong bluffing will keep you afloat, when you get a strong hand, don’t fall into the flat calling trap, your basically telling your opponent that you have a huge hand, instead put in a feeler raise, and see if he will take the bait. Win at texas holdem

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