Small pocket pairs are some of the hardest cards to play.  Pre-flop, even pocket deuces carry more weight than AK, but after the flop, especially against multiple opponents, knowing where you stand in the hand can be tricky.  The truth is, unless your playing heads up or at most against just two other players, you’re going to have a hard time making money off your small to medium pocket pairs unless you adhere to a common strategy, and that is to get in a pot with a average pocket pair at the right time, hoping to flop a set.

When is the right time?  Ideally, you want a decent number of players limping into the hand pre-flop.  This allows you to see a flop for cheap and possibly catch a monster set at a time when a lot of money is already in the middle thanks to all the limpers.  You’ll flop a set roughly one out of every 7.5 times you’re dealt a pocket pair, and if you can set up an effective trap on the times you do flop a set and get away cheaply on the times you don’t, you’re now playing your pocket pair like a pro.

Far more often than not, flopping a set will often give you the best hand right there and then.  You’ll need to be concerned about flushes if there are too many suited cards on the board, in which case you need to not hold onto your set to the death like many beginners do with pocket aces.  You may want to thin the field a little with a bet just so you don’t continue to have 4-5 players drawing at cards on the turn and river as well.  Best-case scenario you want to be left with just the single player who flopped top pair or top two pair.  Sets are extremely difficult for opponents to pick up on and stay away from, even at the pro level, so at this time you could just sit back and let the other guy bet into you.  You’ll want to raise him either on the turn or the river just to maximize your profit potential, but regardless of what you do, play confidently that you are more often than not going to be holding onto the strongest hand.

There’s really no way to lose money faster in poker than playing at a limit you can’t afford.  If you’re bankroll mathematically shows that you should be playing $4-$8 limit poker but you’re seated at a $10-$20 game, chances are you’re going to get toasted.  Not to mention that it’s likely that the players at the higher limit games probably play better than you.  Watch a few episodes of High Stakes Poker if you want to see some prime examples of how that plays out at the super high-limits of poker.  Rich amateurs love to sit down with the pros just to say they did it, and pros love it too because they can walk away with easy five, six and even seven figure victories.

There are a couple different opinions as to just how much you should sit down with at any particular level, but most would agree that if you plan on playing competitively, you should have AT LEAST 50 times the blind big in your starting stack, and that is a absolute minimum.  Most players would recommend 100, even 200 times the big blind.  Whether or not you’re playing limit or no-limit also plays a factor.  At no-limit tables I would definitely recommend at least 100 times the big blind.  So if you can afford to play with $200 and want to play no-limit poker, sit down at the $1-$2 no-limit table.

The reason for having such sizable stacks is because you want to have enough chips to survive bad plays, bad beats and the times when you’re just card dead and can’t get a hand.  Having these extra reserves allows you to play for the maximum at all times, bet and raise the right amounts, and maximize profits.  If you don’t buy-in for enough, you could find yourself going all-in when you don’t want to, and folding a lot of hands that otherwise you might have called if you had more chips.  Don’t let the size of your stack dictate the way you play if you don’t have to.

Then of course, your skill level is the other determining factor of which level to play at.  If you’re serious about poker and want to win, don’t sit down at the $10-$20 no-limit table just because you can, because you won’t learn anything and you’ll just be making a lot of veteran players their week’s worth of profits in one session.  You want to find a limit where you can play comfortably.  If money does not play a factor in your comfort level, then pick a limit that will allow you to play poker strategy comfortably.  Low-limit games often are full of novice players where you can test the waters, find your rhythm and experiment with your play without getting chewed up.

If small level limit play is too slow paced, try $1-$2 no-limit.  Or if you want to play a game where you can accumulate way more chips than you could ever afford in a cash game, play a tournament.  Tournaments give players of all skill levels the opportunity to play poker with chips stack far greater than what most of us could buy into in a regular cash game.  Yes, cash game and tournament strategy do have stark differences, but throwing in a occasional tournament or two will help liven up your poker experience.

Learning to not play too many hands should always be the most important lesson for novice level poker players to learn.  The common misconception amongst new players is that having any piece of a flop is strong, and rarely do they factor in their kicker card.  I’ve seen so many players go broke with ace-rag and second or third pair that it’s unbelievable.  Forget what you see on TV or hear in the movies about playing your opponent’s hand instead of your own and all that nonsense.  Unless you’re a top flight player, you need good cards to win consistently.

One of the fastest ways to tighten up your play is by sticking to strict formulas, such as only playing the top ten starting hands (which are listed in another post a little further down the page).  Adopting this strategy might make your play a little predictable in the long run to experienced players, but most rookie players often find themselves playing at limits so low that the table is full of beginners who won’t really notice any type of style you’re trying to adhere to.

If the top ten hand method is too strict for you, at least learn how to stay away from junk.  Calling in the small blind with terrible hands is a little more acceptable as long as the pot hasn’t been raised, and of course terrible cards while seated in the big blind can sometimes pay off when a rag board comes, one that actually strengthens your hand. As for the other positions at the table, try to stay away from cards that if combined together don’t equal 20, which are the vast majority of starting hand combinations, you really shouldn’t be playing those hands at all while starting your poker career.  Even face cards paired with a ten or another face card such as QJ or J10 should be avoided.

Why all these restrictions?  Take kickers for example.  Having A5 and then having a ace hit the flop might look like winner because now you have top pair, but not only could you be beat by players holding two pair, a set or flush and straight draws, you’ll also be dominated by players holding a ace with a better kicker, which will actually happen more often than you think.  Having a weak kicker means you’ll never know just how strong or weak you are in a hand, which will effect the way you play the round.

Learn and memorize the top ten starting hands, throw away the junk and play tight, strong poker in you’re beginning poker sessions.  There are many pros that continue to play this way, so obviously if done correctly it can work to your advantage for a long time.

You don’t have to win a lot of pots in one session to turn a profit, you simply need to make sure that every pot you do win, you try to win the absolute most chips possible.  A number of new players get scared and anxious about their hands, regardless of how strong the hand is, when they are consistently called on the flop, turn and river.  Since they can’t handle the pressure, they will often overbet the pot in an attempt to get their opponent to lay down their hand.   If you think you’re opponent is drawing at a hand that can beat yours, then making them pay a heavy price to see the next card is indeed a sound strategy.  However, if you’re confident that you have them beat and will more than likely continue to have them beat as the hand progresses, your job is to maximize the amount you can win from the hand.  This is accomplished through value betting.

A value bet is where a player that has a strong hand and is fairly certain that he will win the pot, bets an amount that he hopes the other player will call.  The point is, they WANT the other player to call, not fold.  If you’re holding an absolute monster like a set with a board of mixed suits and no connecting straights, why would you move all-in and scare away all the potential money you can make by value betting?  Inexperienced players will continue to overbet in these situations because they rather win the hand and make the minimum then allow their opponent to catch a miracle card.  This is just not a good poker.

Value betting is also possible to do to players that have already made their hands, just not hands good enough to beat yours.  This happens like when you’ve made a full house, but there is a good chance that someone holds a straight.  If you move all-in and there’s enough of one suit out there that could scare the other player into thinking you might have a flush, he’s probably going to fold, so be aware of everything the other guy might be thinking.  Value bets don’t have to be small amounts either, it just has to be an amount that you think will get called if you put it out there.

Maximize your winning hands, play less scared, learn the math, and watch your game soar.

If you’ve just gotten into poker the last few years, chances are what’s gotten you interested are all the poker shows on TV.  This is both a good and bad thing.  Good because it adds a lot of new players to the sport, bad because the type of play depicted on a lot of these shows is misleading.  TV producers and editors will always air the exciting bluff over the well-played hand, and this had led to tons of bluffs shown on national TV, which instinctively leads a lot of new poker players to believe that bluffing is easy and is something that they should do a lot of.

Here’s the truth.  The ability to bluff pretty much relies on just a couple of different factors, including the skill level of your opponent, the limit that you’re playing at and your table image and the way the other players perceive you.  Here’s why each of those factors matter

Opponent Skill Level
In a lot of cases, you actually want your opponent to be fairly skilled and knowledgeable if you want to bluff him.  The reason being is that bad players are hard to bluff.  They will often call when they’re not suppose to, simply because they don’t know the math or just like to chase cards endlessly.  Decent players will know when it is not worth calling, and can be pushed off hands a lot more often.

Limit of the Game
In low level limit hold’em, such as $1-$2, $2-$4, $3-$6 and even higher, it’s almost impossible to bluff.  It’s just too cheap to call and you can’t raise enough money in low limit games to scare someone off their hand.  If your opponent needs to catch a heart on the river and you bluff $4 at the pot, chances are very likely that he’s going to call that $4, simply because the price is right.  But take the same scenario in a $200 buy-in no-limit game and you’ve now put out a $80 bet for that person to see the last card, it’ll be a much harder decision for them to make.

Table Image
Against decent players in less than optimal conditions, you’re going to have a hard time bluffing if most of the table has no knowledge of you or the way you play.  In can work to your advantage in some scenarios, but part of bluffing involves having the rest of the table afraid of you and your hands.  A table image can be achieved in a single session if you play against the same 8-9 players for a number of hours.  If you’ve won a lot of hands and constantly flipped over great cards, you have now built enough credit in the eyes of your opponents to bluff at a few pots.  Calling a big bet against a stranger is easier than calling against someone who has been winning a lot and always seems to have a good hand.  Being able to bluff is a reward for good image building.  Play badly, chase pots and lose a lot of hands, and good players will call your bluff every time.

One of the biggest reasons many poker players don’t make any money during a session is that they choose the wrong players to play against.  Look at it from a baseball point of view.  Are you more likely to hit a ball thrown by a high-school pitcher or a Major League pitcher?  Sure you might get lucky once or twice against the pro, but your chances for success are much higher with the high-school kid.  Poker is exactly the same way.  Play at a table of players better than you and you’ll have to rely on monster hands and draw outs all night just to win a pot.  Against lesser skilled opponents though, you can dominate the table, dictate the pace of the game, and scoop the pot a lot more often.

Most cardrooms offer enough games so that you can move from table to table if you like while still staying in the same limit.  If you like to play $4-$8 limit hold’em and your casino is spreading three tables at that limit, spend some time on the rail watching each table for a bit.  Is most of the table participating in the pots?  Is there someone with way more chips than everyone else? Is the action dead at one table (everyone throws hands away whenever a raise comes up), but at another everyone is calling all the way to the end?  Use this information to make sure you get seated with the right group.

When seated at a new table for the first time, I like to play very conservatively, sticking to premium hands and using the first half hour or so to gain information.  Maybe I’ll notice that the guy in seat six regularly calls raises made on the flop, but he can be quickly pushed off his hand if continually raised as the hand goes along.  If seat four only plays 1 in 20 hands, then I know that he’s only getting involved with the good stuff, such as high pocket pairs or AK, and now I know to stay away from him unless I get a great opportunity (such as flopping a set) to take a lot of chips off him.

You should have a fairly good understanding of what level of skill you’re playing at, and if you feel completely in over your head at a table, do not hesitate to ask to move to another.  It happens all the time, and anyone serious about maximizing their profits are always on the look out for the game that’s most in their favor.

When beginner Texas Hold’em players first pick up the game, there’s a tendency to want to over value hands and to call big raises with mediocre starting cards.  The common mistake is believing that having a Ace with any kicker is something worth holding on to, or thinking that any suited cards (two hearts, two spades, etc) will more often than not lead to a flush.  Until you learn the more intricate math and theory behind Hold’em, you would be wise to adhere to a system followed by many intermediate and even some professional poker players.  That system involves playing only the top ten starting hands.  Now just how aggressively or conservatively you should play the top ten hands depends on where in the list the particular hand ranks.

Here are the Top Ten Texas Hold’em Starting Hands:

1.  AA
2.  KK
3.  QQ
4.  AK
5.  JJ
6.  10-10
7.  9-9
8.  8-8
9.  AQ
10. 7-7

Now there is some debate as to order of these hands, and yes it is true that any pocket pair has a slight mathematical edge over any Ace-X hand, but hands like AK rank higher overall because they carry a higher potential for success on the flop, turn and river.

Stick with the top ten hands during the early stages of your poker development and you will find yourself winning more when it counts and losing less overall.  Then as your skill grows, you can start to add a wider range of hands to your repertoire.

As any professional player will tell you, the best thing about playing online are the tools and resources offered by most sites.  From hand calculators to persistent stats on your opponents, the number of helpful tools will shock you.  Did you just lose a hand and now you’re wondering whether or not you made a call when you should have raised?  You can use the included tools to input the data and figure out the statistically correct answer, all without leaving your chair.  Plus you can also keep personal notes on each player and store them in a online journal.  Does one player always check the flop when they have a big pocket pair?  Write that down and use it for reference next time you play against them.

So as you can see, outside of the in-person human interaction, which many of us couldn’t care less about, playing in a live room doesn’t make much sense for the beginning player.  Do some research, find a site that offers the limits and tools you’re looking for, and start gaining experience today.  Have fun!