The Beginner’s Strategy for Success in No-limit Texas Hold’em

No-limit Texas hold’em is the most popular variety of poker played today. Thanks to the explosive growth in the number of televised poker tournaments, many people now call no-limit hold’em their game of choice.

It wasn’t long ago when seven-card stud was the form of poker that most recreational players choose to play the most – but with time, comes change.

Regardless of which type of poker you choose to play, your goal should always be the same: avoid as many mistakes as you can, while forcing your opponents to make as many mistakes as possible. Although this principle of poker is easy enough to understand, it can be rather difficult to apply at first.

If you make a poor decision but get lucky and win a hand, you’ve still made a mistake. In the long run, you will lose money when you make incorrect decisions.

One of the biggest mistakes you can make is to bet or call when the pot odds aren’t in your favor. In no-limit hold’em, an understanding of pot odds is crucial to success because of the wide range of bet sizes that you and your opponents can make.

More so than in other varieties of poker, you must understand pot odds because experienced players will take advantage of inexperienced players by making bets that force their opponents to make very costly errors. In no-limit hold’em, major errors can cost you all the money sitting in front of you at the table that you’re playing at.

There is nevertheless a way for beginners to no-limit hold’em to succeed and profit: play tight.

Playing tight means being selective about the hands that you choose to play. Many people who play no-limit hold’em will play too loose (i.e. play too many hands). When you play too loose, you often make poor decisions because you put yourself in unenviable situations many times.

By playing tight, you avoid being put to tough decisions on a regular basis. Another advantage to playing tight is that you’re able to pay better attention to what other people at the table are doing.

Poker is a game of people and odds. You must be able to adjust to what other players are attempting to do, while at the same time understanding when the odds justify the decision that you’re planning on making.

That is what makes poker such a difficult game to master.

In low stakes cash games, which is what you should be playing in as a beginner to no-limit hold’em, understanding what people are doing becomes less important. Simply playing tight will often be enough for you to earn money.

There are many hand ranking guides that show what hands you should and shouldn’t play before the flop. As a beginner to the game, it’s best to keep it simple.

The following is a list of hands that everyone should feel comfortable playing:

1) A-A

2) K-K

3) Q-Q

4) J-J

5) A-K

6) 10-10

7) 9-9

8) 8-8

9) 7-7

10) 6-6

11) 5-5

12) 4-4

13) 3-3

14) 2-2

You should raise with the top five hands in the list following a call, bet or raise by your opponent before the flop. You might even consider moving all-in with your raise following your opponent’s call, bet or raise. By moving all-in, you can avoid being outplayed by more experienced opponents after the flop.

With any of the pairs smaller than J-J, you just want to call and see the flop. If you flop a set (i.e. three-of-a-kind), you should bet a large amount. If your opponent decides to raise when you’re holding a set, you should move all-in. Again, this is to avoid being outplayed. If you don’t flop a set, you should bet a small amount. If your opponent raises after you bet, you should fold. If your opponent calls after you bet, you should check on the turn and the river. By playing conservative, you will keep yourself out of trouble as a beginner.

Another important point to keep in mind when you want to play pairs smaller J-J is that you want to see the flop for a cheap price. More experienced players can play small pocket pairs facing a reasonably large bet or raise before the flop. That is because they understand implied odds. For beginners, it’s best to limp (i.e. call for the price of the big blind) or call a minimum raise (i.e. two times the price of the big blind).

More experienced players may find the strategies and guidelines outlined in this article to be very rigid and basic. However, the strategies and guidelines outlined here will serve a beginner well.

It should give beginners a chance to win big pots without putting themselves at too much risk.