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Texas Holdem Advanced Strategy

Starting hands and pot odds will only take you so far when playing hold'em. While these concepts are the most important at beating bad players, you generally need to add a few more tricks to your repertoire to take down better players.

Tough limit games are sometimes unbeatable against good competition. However, you can increase your chances for winning if you do several things to give yourself an extra edge.

Determining the best combination of hole cards to play in your starting hand is largely determined by your position at the table (early, middle or late positions). There are other factors at play here as well, whether you are playing against many or few players or even playing heads up. But in any case, knowing where you are positioned on the table, and the knowledge of how the other players are playing usually will lend itself greatly to knowing whether your starting hand is worth playing.

Keep in mind that the later position you start in the better; while the converse is true about the earlier your position. Later positions gives you the advantage of knowing how the players around the table are playing. As an earlier player, you are partially blinded to strategies of other players as you do not know what they will do after you have made your move. With that in mind, we are going to start by learning to play the hardest position first. If you can master play from the blinds then you can master play from any position. And for any player, its only a matter of time before you find yourself in this position, so its better to get it out of the way first and then move on to strategies in the easier positions.

One of the central things again is relative hand strength and odds

One of the central things again is relative hand strength and odds. If you have KQ and a good player raised in front of you, chances are you are dominated. Muck the hand. However, KQ is a playeable hand under certain conditions. Generally you want hands that you dominate in the pot, so you can outkick them. Generally, if you are in mid or early positions, you will want to call with this hand and string a dominated hand along.

Other plays with relative hand strength would be limping in with suited connectors/small pairs to induce others to limp in with you. On the other hand, if you have a mid pair and a maniac raises in front of you, you should consider reraising to isolate him. Suppose you have 99 and you place him on Ax. You have odds on him and want the pot to be just you against him.

Another example of this would be if you had AK and mediocre player raised and another mediocre player called. Most of the time, you would call in this situation. But there is a very good chance you have both of them dominated. I would reraise it in this situation and knock any other players out. If one of those two have AA or KK, then they probably got you this time. Otherwise, it's probably a good play.

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Playing a flush or straight draw is generally straightforward with bad players

Playing a flush or straight draw is generally straightforward with bad players, but is often different with good players. If you are heads up at the flop, you should definitely semi-bluff at the pot and hope to take it down. Also, if it is heads up and someone bets at you, you should consider raising to either maybe scare him out or to save yourself half a bet. Assume he has top pair and just calls. If you miss on the turn, you can check and earn yourself a free card. You will have seen the turn/river for 2 small bets instead of 1 small bet and one big bet.

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Being the aggressor pays off a lot when it's a tough limit game

Being the aggressor pays off a lot when it's a tough limit game. It's almost always better to be the better rather than the caller in poker because the better can win if he has the better hand or if everyone else folds. Against bad players, there is almost always a showdown, so this second part doesn't matter. However, it is not difficult to make good players lay down their hand. If you raised preflop and it's heads up, you should generally put in a bet at the flop to see if you can just take it down, even if you missed.

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Ace and a low kicker that is suited is one of the most misplayed hands in limit poker

Ace and a low kicker that is suited is one of the most misplayed hands in limit poker. Truth be told, this is a much better no limit hand because of its potential to break someone when you hit a flush. People tend to go in with this hand a lot even though it is frequently dominated, and you rarely hit a flush.

My advice with this hand is to either play it for a multiway pot for the flush draw/two pair/trips with the x, or to be the aggressor and make it heads up. However, if you are making it heads up, you should be making a play for the blinds, like a button raise. Don't reraise and isolate someone with this hand because more than likely they will have a better hand than you.

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Generally, people just like to jam the pot with AA or KK

Generally, people just like to jam the pot with AA or KK, but I often will play these hands a bit differently against GOOD players. Generally, I'll reraise with KK because I want to charge someone for looking for an A, but I'll generally flat call with AA unless there are several runners and I want to prevent many more from entering the pot.

However, if I'm in late position or the blinds and there is a raise to me, I will just flat call. Since it will likely be heads up between me and the raiser, I will generally have at least an 80% advantage. I will call his flop bet and raise him on the turn (unless there is something scary on the board, in which case I will raise on the flop to shut out any backdoor draw) Through this method, I will make a lot more money than if I just hammered him preflop.

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people tend to get scared at a reraise preflop

If it's a tight game, people tend to get scared at a reraise preflop because that often means QQ or better. Because of this, I will often reraise with just a decent hand prelfop if I think that will increase my chances of a flop bluff. If I am playing with the same people for awhile, I will have to adjust my AA strategy and play that hard preflop so my reraise will in fact get added respect.

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