In Poker, simply, they
play too many hands. What beginners fail to
recognize is that longhand Limit Texas Holdem is a
game of patience. As sad as it sounds, you literally
can just wait to be dealt the quality hands, and
just win with those.
Category I
AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK
These are the best
hands, bar none. You should raise or reraise with
them preflop. If you hold AA, you especially want to
jam as much money into the pot as possible.
Category II
TT, 99, AQ, QK
These are good hands,
but they aren't amazing. You generally need help
from the board. Almost always in low limit, you will
need to hit a set with TT or 99 to win.
Category III
88, AJ, AT, KJ, JQ, 10J,
TQ
These are good hands.
However, be careful playing AJ, AT, KJ as these
hands are vulnerable to losing to a higher kicker
(i.e. if an ace is on the board, but someone else
has AK, you would lose because he has a higher
'kicker').
Category IV
Ax suited (x means any
small card), Kx suited (x should be 7 or higher
preferably) 77, 66, 109, 98, 87, 76 (only play the
connecting cards if they are suited and you can play
hands with a one card gap- like T8 as well)
These hands are OK, but
generally don't win. They need a lot of help from
the board.
Category V
small pocket pairs (i.e.
55, 44, 33, 22)
Category I hands should
almost always be played. The only exception if if
you hold AK or say JJ and you are positive that
someone has KK or AA by the way they are raising (in
other words, the person is a very tight player but
is acting like a maniac preflop). These hands in
general should be raised from any position and you
want to get a lot of money in preflop. However,
remember, for AK you need to hit an ace or a king.
So do not get in a raising war with one person
because that person likely has a pocket pair
already.
Category II hands should
generally be played. These hands do best with less
people, so you should raise to knock people out. Do
not jam the pot though (i.e. reraise) because these
hands have little value before you see the board. Do
not call 3 bets cold with these hands (if you raise,
then someone reraises, call, but do not call if
someone raised, then reraised, and then it's your
turn.)
The reason you do not
call 3 bets cold is because you clearly do not have
an advantage going into the flop. The one thing to
remember in Limit Texas Holdem is you want to have
an advantage going into the flop. Go ahead and call
one raise in late position, unless the raiser was in
early position and is a very good player.
Category III:
Treat these hands with caution. They are easily beat
by category I or II hands, so these hands are best
played with fewer people in the pot who do not hold
category I or II hands. In other words, raise to
knock people out, but do not call a raise. 88 is
different, as it plays well in a large, multiway
pots as well as smaller pots. So go ahead and call a
raise with this hand, but do not call a reraise cold
because someone probably has a category I hand.
Category IV/V:
these hands are very different. You want a large,
multiway pot. The reason being is that these hands
miss the flop most often. However, sometimes these
hands are amazing (i.e. if you hit a straight,
flush, or trips). Therefore, you want to be paid of
big when you actually hit something with these
hands, which is why you want a lot of people in the
pot.
Example: you hold 67,
the board is A58, you call a bet on flop, 9 comes on
turn and then you jam the pot. Thus, you want to
commit as few chips preflop with these hands as
possible while hoping that many people go into the
flop. THus, if you are the dealer, and one guy is in
with a raise, fold. However, if you are the big
blind, and 5 people have called a raise, go ahead
and call and see the flop.
Flop Play
Once you hit the flop,
you will be in one of four situations:
1. You will be winning
but have a beatable hand. You will have top pair,
top kicker for example or an overpair (i.e QQ and
the board is JT5). You want to jam the pot and knock
people out. Thus, you want someone to bet to you and
then to raise if you are in early position. If you
are in late position and no one has bet, you must
bet to knock people out.
2. You will have a boss
hand. More than likely, you will have three of a
kind or maybe even a full house on the flop. There
is no reason to knock people out because you will
probably win (unless you have trips and there's a
flush draw out there, then you need to make them
pay). In these situations, it's generally best to
wait til the turn to really jam the pot, but jam the
pot on the flop if you think a scary draw is out
there that will beat you.
3. You will have the
second best hand. An example is if you have AQ and
KQ4 is on the board. In this case, treat the hand as
a drawing hand or simply fold, unless you really
believe that you may have the best hand at the
moment (this is unlikely in a larger, multiway pot
because someone is bound to have the K).
4. You will have a
drawing hand. An example is if you have two spades
in the whole and there are two on the board. For
these hands, you must use outs/pot odds. There is a
detailed explanation of this in the shorthand
section under 'flop tips.'
5. You will have
nothing. An example would be if you have 66 and flop
is AK7. You clearly are beat, just fold at the first
bet.
This is the basic way to
win at limit, longhand. There really aren't that
many tricky situations you will encounter. Just
remember, the larger the number of people, the
higher the likelihood that someone has the boss hand
that is out there on the board, so be careful of
that. Don't get attached to AK if AQQ is on the
board because someone probably has the queen.
