Just About Sums It Up
Whilst out shopping the other Saturday the 'ENEMY' managed to find me a rather interesting book called 'Winning at Poker, essential hints and tips' by a canadian semi-pro poker player. In the book amongst other articles was a little piece that summed up No Limit Texas Holdem in just twelve words.
BET WITH THE BEST - GOOD DRAW TO INVEST - FOLD ALL THE REST!
Twelve little words that mean so much and here's how the Author broke them down to summarise the basic yet rock solid foundations of the game we love so much.
BET WITH THE BEST
How will you know when you have the best? To determine whether or not you have the best hand you have to take alot into account.What are your cards?What other cards have you seen (community cards)?Who are the players in the pot?What are thier particular states of mind right now?Are they loose and gambling?Are they drunk?Are you drunk?What has the betting been so far in the hand?What is your position?The list could go on forever.
The cornerstone of determining whether or not you have the best hand is your cards,your position,and the cards you have seen.In hold-em ,the strength of your hand depends on your cards and the community cards.Practice,study and repeat.Soon you will develop a strong intuitive sense wether or not you have the 'BEST' hand.Generally,the more opponents the better your hand will have to be.Against only one opponent, you may and will win with Ace high.Against three or four opponents, you will usually need much more than that.
GOOD DRAW TO INVEST
A drawing hand is defined as any hand that is not the BEST. In hold-em, if player A starts with A-A and player B with 8-7o then A is the favourite and B is drawing.Similarily, if A holds 8-8 and B 7-7 then B is drawing.Even though B already has a pair, it is considered the drawing hand as it is not the BEST. B must take the draw to make the BESTt.There are GOOD draws and BAD draws.A GOOD draw will be profitable in the long run while a bad draw will be a losing proposition in the long run
To sort out wether a draw is GOOD or BAD, you need to understand the concepts of POT ODDS and EFFECTIVE ODDS.These concepts are used to determine if you should call when there are cards to come,and when there are no cards to come.In other words,pot odds and effective odds are used to determine if it is profitable to attempt to improve your hand which is not yet the BEST (cards still to come),and to determine if you should call the final betting round just before the showdown(no cards to come).
FOLD THE REST
Self explanitory really but the most important three of the twelve words.
I dont know about you guys and girls, but that just about sums up the basic strategy to me. What do you think?
BET WITH THE BEST - GOOD DRAW TO INVEST - FOLD ALL THE REST
pompeyrayuk
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