It’s known as the Cadillac of the poker world and a game that has given millions of people a lot of pleasure (and money), but how do you play Texas Hold’em poker? Moreover, why is it such a popular game and one that’s so easy to find at our top US poker sites?

In a nutshell, Texas Hold’em is the perfect blend of mathematics, strategy, psychology and luck. On top of that, because anyone, no matter how experienced they are, can win a hand, it’s extremely attractive proposition for novice players. Because there is an element of luck in the game, it means an amateur can, theoretically, beat the likes of Phil Ivey or Daniel Negreanu or any of the top pros in the USA given the right conditions.

To counteract this, the skill elements of the game are such that an experienced player will always win over an amateur in the long-run. Indeed, regardless of whether you’re playing Texas Hold’em in a limit, pot limit or no limit format, there are a certain amount of skills you can learn in order to improve your chances of success. However, before we delve into some top Texas Hold’em tips for playing at online poker sites in America, it’s important to breakdown the basics of the game.

“Hold’em is to stud what chess is to checkers.” – Johnny Moss

Spending a few minutes playing in the free Texas hold’em games online will help you visualize the action well enough that you’ll be able to start playing in no time. Playing’s not the hard part, though—winning is. Here are the 10 best winning Texas hold’em tips for beginners. Jun 26, 2019  The best poker app in 2020: a complete overview of the top free poker apps available today with tips to play the best games of Texas hold'em, Omaha, and more. Best online poker sites. WSOP – Texas Holdem is an online room for playing poker against real opponents. There’s no need to download WSOP – Texas Holdem to your PC, as you can play with Facebook Gameroom or with your browser. But if you want to play it on your mobile, there is an app for that. Graphics 8/10.

The Basics of Texas Hold’em

Thankfully, the rules of Texas Hold’em are relatively simple and in this article we’ve outlined the basic mechanics of the game so that you can begin exploring its wonderful complexities.

Before we look at the specific details of a hand of Texas Hold’em we first need to establish some general rules.

• In essence the aim of the game is simple: win the pot by any means possible.
• In practical terms there are two main ways you can win the pot: by having the best hand or by bluffing.

Having the superior hand means that your cards are better than your opponent’s at a showdown and bluffing is where you force your opponent to fold before a showdown.

A hand of Texas Hold’em uses five cards which can be any combination of a player’s two hole cards (the cards they are dealt) and the five community cards. This means that a player can use one, two or none of their cards in conjunction with the five cards in the middle to make a hand ranging from a pair up to a Royal Flush.

With this in mind a player must measure the value of their two starting cards before any of the community cards are revealed and decide whether or not the hand is worth playing. If they feel the cards are too weak then they can simply fold. However, if they like their hand then they must either call or raise (the size of each will be determined by the table stakes and the previous action).

This process is repeated by each player at the table until everyone has either folded or met the minimum bet. (A point to note here is the each new hand starts with a player in the small blind and one in the big blind. These forced bets kick off the action and it’s the player to the left of the big blind who starts the action).

After all the pre-flop action has been completed the first three community cards (the flop) are revealed. At this point another round of betting ensues with players having the option to check (take a free card if no previous betting has occurred), bet or fold based on the current strength of their hand. This process is repeated on the turn (the fourth card) and then again on the river (the fifth and final card).

If at least two players are still in the hand by the river then a showdown takes place and the best five-card hand wins. However, if at any point during the hand only one player remains then they are declared the winner by default and thus scoop the pot.

This, in a nutshell, is the basic outline of Texas Hold’em poker and should be enough for you to begin grinding at the tables.

Five Things You Need to Know about Texas Hold’em

1. Texas Hold’em involves two hole cards and five community cards.
2. A player can use one, two or none of their hole cards in order to make the best five-card hand.
3. Texas Hold’em can be played in a limit, pot limit or no limit format.
4. Texas Hold’em at US poker sites can be played as multi-table tournaments, cash games or single table tournaments.
5. One of the best ways to win at Texas Hold’em is to be as aggressive as possible.

Top Texas Hold’em Tips

Texas Hold’em is a relatively simple game to learn, but if you want to become one of the best players in the world it takes a lot of work. Indeed, players such as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey have all played countless hours of poker and refined their skills over a number of years.

While it would be impossible to outline every strategic concept you need to consider at the poker table in this article, we can give you some bite sized tips that will help you become a more profitable player.

In the US, Texas Hold’em is still the dominant poker game used to define ultimate champions and big money winners.

Biggest Winners in Hold’em History

Because Texas Hold’em has been the basis for the biggest poker tournaments in the world for a number of years and although players can earn $100,000+ in a single hand, these winnings pale in comparison to the $15,306,668 Daniel Colman won at the 2014 WSOP. After battling his way past the likes of Phil Ivey, Scott Seiver and Daniel Negreanu in the $1 million Big One for ONE DROP, Colman was able bank of the largest tournament hauls in history.

Topping Colman’s 2014 effort, Antonio Esfandiari banked $18,346,673 in the 2012 version of the Big One for ONE DROP. The Texas Hold’em MTT welcomed 48 players, but when the betting was done it was Esfandiari who clinched the title and more money than any other US online poker player in history.

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Texas hold’em is obviously the most popular poker game in the United States. It’s probably the most popular poker variation in the world, although Omaha is also popular in Europe. For this reason alone, if you’re a beginner to poker, you should learn to play Texas hold’em well.

If the only games you know how to play are the obscure ones like 7-card stud, you’ll have trouble finding a game in the limits you’re looking for. And if you can’t play, you can’t win money.

Texas hold’em is a simple enough game: you and the other players get two face-down cards (your “hole cards”). Then you share five cards on the board (the “community cards”). There’s a round of betting after each phase of the deal:

1. Preflop (the hole cards)
2. The flop (the first three community cards)
3. The turn (the fourth community card)
4. The river (the fifth and final community card)

The bets during the turn and river phases are twice as high as the bets before and during the flop. You can use any combination of hole cards and board cards for your final hand at the showdown.

Spending a few minutes playing in the free Texas hold’em games online will help you visualize the action well enough that you’ll be able to start playing in no time.

Playing’s not the hard part, though—winning is. Here are the 10 best winning Texas hold’em tips for beginners.

1 – Memorize the Rankings of Poker Hands and Learn to Recognize the Nut Hand

Texas hold’em uses standard poker hand rankings. In order from best possible hand to worst, those hands are:

1. Royal flush
2. Straight flush
3. 4 of a kind
4. Full house
5. Flush
6. Straight
7. 3 of a kind
8. 2 pairs
9. 1 pair
10. High card

I’ll assume you know enough about poker to recognize what those hands mean, but if not, you can find that information anywhere online or in any reasonably good poker book.

When you’re playing in most poker games, you could theoretically see any of those hands at the showdown.

But since Texas hold’em is a community card game, only some of those hands are possible.

If you have two hearts, one diamond, one club, and one spade on the board, it’s impossible for any player to have a flush. You’d need three cards of the same suit on the board for someone to have a flush.

Recognizing what the best possible hand is becomes one of the crucial skills in Texas hold’em. (That’s called “the nuts.”) You don’t always need the nuts to win, but it helps to know what the nuts are in any given situation. It would be a shame to fold a hand if it were the nut high if you didn’t realize that it was the nuts.

2 – Forget About Texas Hold’em Strategy Charts – You Don’t Need Them

One of the most important aspects of Texas hold’em strategy for the beginner is starting hand selection. Your starting hand consists of your two hole cards. Some people try to learn which starting hands to play based on some kind of strategy chart.

That’s completely unnecessary and, in fact, is counterproductive.

A better way to learn which starting hands to play and when is to categorize your possible starting hands. Here are the categories to think about.

Pairs

Having two cards of the same rank in the hole can make for a great starting hand, but the higher the rank of the cards is, the better. Pocket aces are the best possible starting hand in hold’em, with pocket kings being a close second-best. Pocket pairs drop in value once you get to the 9-9s or below, and 2-2s are almost worthless.

Big pairs can win unimproved, but with smaller ranked pairs, you’re probably hoping to hit a 3 of a kind on the flop. Otherwise, you’ll almost certainly have to fold that small pair.

Ace-king or ace-queen suited

These are big suited cards which have strong possibilities of hitting a huge pair or making the nut flush. The fact that the cards are suited is a big part of what makes these hands playable.

Ace-little suited

If you have an ace and any other smaller card of the same suit, you have a possible ace-high flush. This is speculative, so you want to be able to get into the flop cheap so that you’re getting the right pot odds for playing this hand. You can also play king-little suited, but it’s even more speculative.

If you catch an ace, you have a great pair, but you might be out-kicked if someone else has an ace. The most expensive hand in Texas hold’em is the second-best hand.

Suited connectors

Two cards that are of the same suit and of adjacent ranks have the potential to complete flushes, straights, or straight flushes. They’re speculative, so you don’t raise with them preflop. As with the other starting hands on this list, the higher the rank of the cards, the better.

You can even play suited connectors with gaps between them. The bigger the gap, the more speculative the starting hand is. For example, J-9 suited has one gap—the 10. J-8 suited, on the other hand, has two gaps, the 9 and the 10.

Once you get a feel for those categories, you can start thinking about your position and how that affects which cards you should play and which cards you should fold.

3 – Start with Limit Hold’em Before Playing No-Limit

Most of the big poker stars play no-limit. In that game, you can bet the entire stack of chips in front of you at any point in the hand. This is not the best Texas hold’em game to start with.

Beginners should start with limit hold’em. The amounts of the bets in limit are capped by the limits of the table. For example, at a $4/$8 table, the bets are made in increments of $4 during the first two rounds of betting and $8 during the second two rounds of betting.

Calculating the math (pot odds) is easier when you’re dealing with limit hold’em. You’re also less likely to lose an entire stack of chips in one hand, which can be downright discouraging if you don’t have the bankroll to handle it.

4 – Never Limp

In Texas hold’em, you have two forced bets every hand—the small blind and the big blind. To play a hand, you must at least call the big blind. This is called “limping.”

Limping is a weak move that puts no pressure on any of the other players. If you hold a hand that’s good enough to play, it’s good enough to raise the blinds with. If you’re in late enough position, you stand a good chance of winning the blinds.

Aggressive poker is winning poker, and one of the easiest ways to increase your aggression level at the table is to always raise the blinds—never limp.

5 – Pay Attention to Your Position

Position refers to what order the players act in. When you’re playing Texas hold’em, position is decided by the location of the blinds. If you act before most of the other players, you’re in early position. If you act after most of the other players, you’re in late position.

The trick to playing position is to play tighter from early position and looser from late position. You need a better hand to bet and raise with in early position than you do in late position.

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The reason for this is simplicity itself: the later you act, the more information you have about the other players’ intentions.

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You’re in early position, and you limp in with pocket 2s. The guy behind you raises, the guy behind him re-raises, and the next guy re-raises, too.

When it comes back around to you, you have no choice but to fold. The probability that all three of those guys are bluffing is minimal. (The good cards have to be somewhere, if they’re not in your hand.)

On the other hand, if you were in late position with the same hand, you could fold without putting any money into the pot. And if you get a lot of limpers and callers, you can call with the pocket 2-2s and hope to clean up with a big pot when you hit your set.

Nothing is more important in Texas hold’em than position. It should inform every decision you make at the Texas hold’em tables.

It’s also one of the easiest factors in poker strategy to ignore, so you can get a leg up on the competition by paying more attention to position than they do.

6 – Fold a Lot

One of the biggest mistakes Texas hold’em beginners make is playing too many hands and then taking those hands too far without folding. The money you save by folding when you’re out-gunned is just as valuable as money you’ll win from a pot.

Pay particularly close attention to the position you’re playing from. Unless you have premium starting cards, you should be folding from early position almost all the time. If you don’t sense weakness from the other players when you’re in late position, you should also fold.

One of the ways experts categorize poker players is by how tight or how loose they play. Tight players fold a lot, while loose players seldom fold. Your goal is to be a tight player.

Tightening up your game won’t, by itself, make you into a winning poker player.

But it’s an essential element to a beginner’s poker strategy.

7 – Don’t Bluff, and Don’t Worry About Calling Bluffs

This coincides nicely with my advice to fold a lot. Bluffing is when you raise with a hand that isn’t likely to win at the showdown. If you’re bluffing a lot, you’re not folding often enough. Bluffing occasionally is okay, but a beginner at Texas hold’em can make plenty of profits by never bluffing at all.

Also, it’s not your job to play sheriff. Many beginning players are way too concerned that their opponents are going to get their cards via deception. You don’t need to worry about this.

Get the cards, and then bet the cards.

As you grow in experience and start playing at the higher levels, bluffing becomes more important.

The only time you should bluff is when you’re dealing with one or two opponents. If you’re trying to bluff three or more players, your expected value on that bluff drops dramatically.

A better idea than bluffing is semi-bluffing, which means that you have a hand which probably isn’t the best hand out there right now.

But it has a reasonable chance of improving so that you might win the hand at the showdown.

When you combine the possibility of winning the hand when everyone else folds with the possibility that you’ll draw to a winning hand, you get a move that’s far more profitable in the long run than a naked bluff.

I like to advise new Texas hold’em players to play what’s called “ABC poker.” This just means basic poker, where you bet and raise when you have good cards, and you fold when you don’t.

At the higher limits, this kind of play isn’t profitable, because you become predictable. Your opponents will just fold every time you raise, and you’ll never get any action.

But at the lower limits, when you’re just beginning, few of your opponents will be sophisticated enough to even categorize you.

8 – Manage Your Bankroll

Several years ago, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson wanted to prove a point about bankroll management. He wanted to start with no money at all and work his way up to $10,000.

Since he had no money, he had to start building his bankroll by playing in freerolls. Those are poker tournaments where you don’t have to pay an entry fee.

Once he got some money in his account, he had to start watching it closely to avoid going broke. His bankroll management guidelines are probably good enough for any new Texas hold’em player.

He limited his buy-ins in cash games to 5% of his bankroll. This means that if you want to play in a game where you’re going to buy in at the table for $100, you need a bankroll of at least $2,000.

He limited his buy-ins in sit-n-go tournaments to 5% of his bankroll, too.

With multi-table tournaments, he had even stricter requirements to compensate for the volatility of the larger tournaments. He only bought in if he could afford it with 2% of his bankroll.

The goal behind managing your bankroll is to avoid going broke in the short term because of bad beats. The longer you play, the closer you’ll get to the long run, and you should see your positive expectation start to become realized.

But that can’t happen if you get a run of bad luck and go broke first.

9 – Study

I read a post on some site the other day that suggested you spend at least an hour studying poker for every two hours you spend playing it. That sounds excessive to me, but it’s probably not a bad idea to spend some time studying the game.

The place to start, I think, is with Two Plus Two’s excellent books on Texas hold’em. They’re a publishing company which specializes in poker and gambling books, and their material is always great.
Some of the hold’em books worth reading from these fine folks include:

• Hold ’em Poker by David Sklansky
• Hold ’em Poker for Advanced Players: 21st Century Edition by David Sklansky and Mason Malmuth
• No Limit Hold ’em for Advanced Players: Emphasis on Tough Games by Matthew Janda
• No Limit Hold ’em: Theory and Practice by David Sklansky and Ed Miller
• Applications of No-Limit Hold’em by Matthew Janda

You can find plenty more books on Texas hold’em than just those, but they’re as good a starting point as any I can think of.

That’s not the only way to study Texas hold’em, though. You can also watch videos on YouTube. You can enroll in Texas hold’em classes on the internet. You can participate in forum discussions.

You should take notes during your play and get feedback on your hands from your poker buddies or from the members of the poker forums where you hang out.

I don’t know how much studying you plan to do, but whatever you’re doing now probably isn’t enough.

10 – Practice

Some people think it takes 10,000 hours to master a skill.

But it’s more than that.

The 10,000 hours must be practice with concentration. It’s not enough to just go through the motions. You need to pay attention to what you’re doing and try hard to learn from it.

You’ll see some poker players listening to music at the poker table. Some of them will watch television when they’re not directly involved in a hand. These guys are missing out on a lot of their learning potential.

If you’re only playing three hands per hour (out of 30), you’re only spending six minutes or so per hour paying attention to the game. That means you’ll need more like 100,000 hours of practice to master Texas hold’em.

As with any other skill, though, more practice is a good thing. The best way to practice playing Texas hold’em is to get in a combination of games online and in brick-and-mortar casinos. Many of the basic skills transfer from one setting to another, but not all of them.

One of the big perks of practicing poker online is that you can get in way more hands. The dealing is so fast that you can get 60 hands per hour at the table.

But at most online poker rooms, you can also play at multiple tables at the same time. This increases the amount of practice you get, too.

If you’re playing four tables at a time with 60 hands per hour, you’re getting in the equivalent of eight hours of live play in just an hour online.

But online play does nothing to help you read opponents’ body language and facial expressions, so it’s still a good idea to get some live play in, too.

Conclusion

Texas hold’em is one of the greatest poker games ever invented, and learning how to win can take years. These Texas hold’em tips for beginners, though, are as good a start as you could ask for.

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If you’re a more experienced Texas hold’em player, what tips would you add to this list, if any?

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And if you’re a beginner, which tips make the most sense to you and are most likely to improve your game?