This post is going to be quite a long one because I will try to at least touch on the most important aspects of learning the beautiful game of No Limit Texas Hold’em so feel free to jump between the chapters that you are most interested in.
I will list them below and provide short descriptions so that if you are a beginner player, you can get a fair idea of what a particular chapter involves.
Feel free to skim through the text looking for the information that is most valuable for you first and then come back here whenever you need some more information on how to learn poker.
Ideally, for beginner players, I would recommend reading all the chapters first, then setting up an account with an online poker room and practicing the game there playing the lowest possible stakes called micro stakes (usually $0.01/0.02) and coming back here to reread the topics as you regularly practice to get the best results.
You can learn how to play poker quite quickly, and to start winning versus recreational players, all you need is to learn poker fundamentals, but in order to beat regular players, you will need a lot more. You will need hours of practice and hours of studying the game. Your first hour of studying poker starts now.
Table of contents
- How the game of NL Texas Hold’em is played
– what happens in a usual poker hand, what actions are available to players, how the hand plays out, and how the winner is decided - Hand Rankings
– how the winning hand is determined, what happens when two players have the same hand, what are the poker hand rankings - Positions at the table
– what positions do we distinguish, how positions affect the play, what are the best positions, and which positions are the worst - Starting Hands
– what hands you should play, what are the best hands in poker that you should always play, and what are the worst hands - Bet Sizing
– how to size your bets, when to bet, how the sizing affects the play - Player Types
– what types of players do we distinguish, what are their characteristics, how to play versus specific player types, what is the best player type - Pot Odds
– what are pot odds, how to calculate pot odds, what are outs, how to calculate the probability of hitting your draws - Expected Value
– what is expected value, how to calculate it, and how it can help you make better decisions - Bluffing
– what is bluffing, how to bluff, when to bluff, which types of players are the best to bluff, and which are the worst - How to Play on The Flop
– some examples of how to make correct decisions on the Flop - How to Play on The Turn
– some examples of how to make correct decisions on the Turn - How to Play on The River
– some examples of how to make correct decisions on the River - Bankroll Management
– how to manage your poker winnings to make a living playing poker and avoid going broke
In the future, there will probably be more topics added and some of the topics will be described in a nutshell and will include links to a more thorough article with examples.
How to play Texas Holdem?
No-Limit Texas Hold’em is a game played usually on 6-max or 9-max tables so tables consisting of up to 6 or up to 9 players. There are also heads-up tables so one on one, 4-max tables, and 10-max, but the most common are 6-max and 9-max (also called full ring).
This poker variant is played for cash (cash games) or for chips (tournaments) and in cash games, players buy-in for a certain amount of big blinds i.e. 100 big blinds at a $0.01/0.02 micro stakes is $2.00 and a player can usually buy in for anywhere between 20 and 400 big blinds depending on the rules at a given table/casino.
In cash games, a player can also always add more chips (big blinds) but it has to be done between hands. A player can also always leave the table cashing out his stack for money.
Tournaments
In tournaments, a player buys in for a certain amount (tournament buy-in) i.e. $1 and receives a certain number of chips i.e. 100 000. The blinds start at a low level i.e. 10/20 and increase with every level i.e. every 30 minutes so that the starting stack of 100k can be 500 big blinds at the first level of 10/20, but after a few hours, it can be just 1 big blind at a level of 50k/100k.
Tournaments are played until we have a winner and there is usually around 10% of places that pay money and the pay structure heavily favors the top 3 players with the winner taking anywhere from 15 to even 50% of the whole prize pool.
Tournaments can have small fields of just 1 or a couple of tables (sit-and-go) or can have huge fields of thousands of players (multi-table). SNG vs MTT.
An example cash game poker hand
Here is a great video showing and explaining a sample hand:
Preflop betting round
The game starts with the dealer shuffling the cards and dealing each player a face-up card to determine who will start at the best position which is the button position (the highest card wins).
Then the player seated directly to the left of the button posts a small blind and the next player on the left posts a big blind. In a cash game of $1/$2, the small blind is $1 and the big blind is $2.
After the blinds are posted, the dealer starts dealing the cards starting with the small blind. After everyone has received their hand (2 hole cards), the action starts with the player seated directly to the left of the big blind.
This player seating at a position called Under The Gun (UTG) has 3 options:
- call the previous bet (which is the big blind)
- raise to any amount (no less than the previous raise so at least 1BB)
- fold their hand (give up the cards and no longer participate in this hand
These are the 3 options that are always available to you in poker. Call (or check if there weren’t any bets before you), Raise (or bet if there weren’t any bets before you), Fold.
The UTG player raises to 3BB, the action then moves clockward to the next player who has the same 3 options and decides to fold.
All the other players fold as well up until the action is on the player on the Big Blind who can now close the betting round by calling or folding or reopen the betting by raising.
The BB player decides to raise to 9 BB and the action is now on the UTG player who calls the bet.
The preflop betting round is complete and the dealer burns 1 face-down card and deals out 3 face-up cards which are called The Flop – A♥K♣5♠
The Flop betting round
The action on all the streets except preflop starts with the Small Blind. In this case the SB has folded preflop so the action starts with the BB player who checks (checking means finishing your action without either betting or folding).
The action moves to the UTG player who decides to bet 10BB. The BB player can now call the bet, raise, or fold, and decides to call.
The action is now complete and the dealer again burns 1 face-down card and deals out 1 face-up card which is called The Turn. It is the 6♠
The Turn betting round
The action again starts with the BB player who checks again, and the UTG player checks as well this time so the turn betting round finishes without any bets.
The dealer now burns a face-down card and deals out the last face-up card which is called The River. It is the 7♦
The River betting round
To make it more interesting we will do 2 scenarios of the action on the river:
1) The action again starts with the BB player who now bets 10BB, the UTG player raises to 30BB, and the BB player calls the bet.
The action is now complete and we have a showdown. The UTG player shows his cards first because the BB player called his bet.
He shows his 2 hole cards and makes the best possible poker hand out of those 2 hole cards and 5 community cards that are on the board.
He has 5♥6♥ and the board is A♥K♣5♠6♠7♦ so he has two pair, sixes and fives.
Now the BB can show his hand but he can also muck it without showing (in this case the UTG player will win the pot automatically).
The BB player does show his hand and he has A♦7♠ so the best possible hand he can make from his hole cards and the board is two pair, aces and sevens.
The BB player thus has a better hand and wins the pot.
2) The action starts with the BB player who bets 10BB, but this time the UTG player bets all in for 96BB.
The BB player thinks long about it, but decides to fold. Now there is no showdown, the UTG player wins the pot and he doesn’t even need to show his hand, which is indeed the weaker hand.
That is the beauty of No Limit Texas Hold’em – you can win either by having the best hand or by making your opponents fold.
Hand Rankings in Poker
Here is a great video showing and explaining the poker hand rankings:
Let’s list them out starting with the best possible hand which is the straight flush and ending on the worst hand which is the high card.
- Straight Flush – 5 cards of sequential rank, all in the same suit
e.g. J♥10♥9♥8♥7♥ (jack high straight flush) or 5♠4♠3♠2♠A♠ (five high straigth flush) - Four of a Kind (also known as quads) – 4 cards of the same rank with a kicker
(the highest card of a different rank) e.g. A♥A♠A♣A♦K♦ or 8♠8♣8♦8♥A♠ - Full House (also known as a boat) – 3 cards of the same rank with 2 cards of another rank (set+pair)
e.g. A♥A♠A♣K♦K♦ (aces full of kings) or 8♠8♣8♦A♥A♠ (eights full of aces) - Flush – 5 cards of the same suit, not in sequential rank
e.g. A♥Q♥J♥7♥2♥ (ace high flush) or 9♠8♠4♠3♠2♠ (nine high flush) - Straight – 5 cards of sequential rank, not in the same suit
e.g. A♥K♠Q♣J♥10♥ (ace high straight) or 5♠4♣3♦2♦A♠ (five high straigth) - Three of a kind (also known as a set) – 3 cards of the same rank with 2 kickers
e.g. A♥A♠A♣K♦Q♦ (set of aces) or 8♠8♣8♦A♥K♠ (set of eights) - Two Pair – 2 cards of the same rank with 2 cards of a different rank with a kicker
e.g. A♥A♠K♣K♦Q♦ (two pair, aces and kings) or Q♦Q♥8♠8♣K♠ (two pair, queens and eigths) - One Pair – 2 cards of the same rank with 3 kickers
e.g. A♥A♠K♣Q♦J♦ (pair of aces) or 7♦7♥6♠J♣K♠ (pair of sevens) - High Card – simply nothing, 5 kickers
e.g. A♥K♠J♣10♦9♦ (ace high) or 7♦6♥5♠4♣2♠ (seven high)
How to determine the winner if two players have the same hand?
In case two or more players have the same hand, the kickers are used to determine the winner.
For example if player A holds A♥K♠ and player B holds A♠J♣ and the board is A♦Q♠10♣5♦5♣
then both players have two pair, aces and fives, but player A has a higher kicker with the K♠
His hand is A♦A♥K♠5♦5♣ vs player B’s hand A♦A♠Q♠5♦5♣ and so player A wins the hand.
In case both players hold a flush or a straight, the winner is determined by the highest-ranking cards.
For example, an ace-high flush beats a king-high flush, and six-high straight beats five-high straight.
Or an ace-king-high flush beats an ace-queen-high flush, but king-high straight splits the pot with another king-high straight.
Positions at the table
Positions are very important in poker because having position on your opponent means that you are acting after them and thus have the informational advantage.
The best position at the poker table is the Button and in the long run the vast majority of your winnings (if you are a winning player that is :D) will come from the Button and Cut-Off, but first things first.
Having position over your opponent means you are acting after them and being out of position in a hand means you are acting before your opponent.
We can distinguish Early Positions, Middle Positions, Late Positions, and the Blinds. Let’s take a closer look at each group.
Early Positions
Early Positions are Under the Gun (UTG) and Under the Gun +1 and these are positions that act first pre-flop, and just after the blinds post-flop.
You can imagine what it means having many players act behind you. It means that each and every one of them can wake up with a premium hand and can raise reopening the betting preflop and will have position on you after the flop.
Playing from UTG or UTG+1 you can only have position over the blinds if they are in the hand so you should be playing the least amount of hands from these positions.
We will get more in-depth about what hands to play from which positions in the starting hands chapter, but for now what you can remember is that you should be playing the least amount of hands from early positions, something like the top 9-10% of hands.
Middle Positions
The next category is middle positions and here we have Middle Position 1 (MP1) and Middle Positions 2 (MP2, also sometimes called LoJack) – not too creative names I must admit.
As you can imagine your position is better when playing from middle positions as opposed to early positions, but it is still not very good so you should be playing slightly looser, something like the top 13-15% of hands.
You should also be very careful when early position opens (puts in a raise) because you should assume they have a pretty good hand and there are still many people to act after you who may reraise (3-bet).
Late Positions
Now the best category of poker positions – late positions. These are your favorite positions and you will win the most often when playing from them because you will mostly be in position.
We can distinguish HiJack, CutOff, and Button with each being better than the previous because only being on the Button guarantees that you will have position in the hand.
If you raise from HiJack, there is still CutOff and Button that are left to act after you and may reraise.
Therefore from HiJack you should play something like the top 20% of your hands, from CutOff something like 27%, and from the Button something like 45%.
Position is king and the button is the most profitable one because pre-flop there are only the blinds left to act and post-flop the button is always in position.
The Blinds
The blinds are the worst positions as they have to put