How to play Texas Hold-em

There are more ways to play Texas Hold’em than there are cards in the deck. And I am going to share my own personal preferences here – or at least some of them. I was a professional poker player for some time a few years ago, and my game of choice was Texas. Mostly because this is the most popular game around, and there is no shortage of opponents.

Some people play Texas for fun – and there is nothing wrong with that - it can be a fun game sitting around with friends, but I play for money. The game changes depending on the stakes, and if you are not playing for a sum of money that will make a difference to you, you will play differently. More important though, is to determine whether or not your opponents are playing for sums of money that make a difference to them. I will give an example:

A while ago, I played in a cash game in Atlantic City. Most of the players at the table were regulars or appeared to be so to me. They all seemed to know each other and were, on the whole, a fairly tight bunch of payers. The gentleman on my right was celebrating his 60th birthday, and was doing fairly well. An odd place to celebrate your birthday, I thought, but he was having a good time.

This was a $2/$5, no limit game, with a $500 maximum buy in. He had built his stack of poker chips up to around $2,500 and was showing his pleasure. I had built my stack up to around the same size when an opportunity came along. He was a good, solid player and I had only seen him play premium hands. He raised to $40 pre-flop. I was next to act, on the button and called his raise with a pair of sevens. The rest of the table folded, so there was just the two of us.

The flop came, 8, 9,10 variously suited. He bet $100 on the flop, and I raised him to $200, to see where he was. After a long think, he re-raised to $500 and I sensed an opportunity. He was scared, the smile was gone from his face and his hands were shaking. He also counted out all his money to himself before reraising, so I thought I could make a move. As soon as he reraised, I moved all-in for $2,500. He thought for some time, and then folded his hand. He later confided to me that what he folded was trip 9s. I didn’t see them, but I believed him. He also said he didn’t want to risk the rest of his stack on the chance I had him beat with a set of tens or a straight. He then left the table with his remaining $2,000.

This would not have worked against another, looser player or a player who was playing for a sum that was not important to him. But the $2,000 was important to this chap, and he made that very clear to me. He was prepared to lose the $540 he had already put in the pot, rather than risk the extra $2,000. The $2,000 was important to me as well, but I didn’t let him see that. Playing this way is risky, and it is vital to sum up your opponents before doing so. A different type of player would have called my bluff, and although I had outs, I was glad he folded.
The main thing is to be aggressive with players of this type. If I had called his bet on the flop, and tried to make my straight – I would be the one on the defensive. By being the aggressor, I was giving him the tough decision. I had already made it clear I was prepared to put all my chips in – he had to decide if he wanted to do the same thing. I could have had any number of hands. An over pair, a made straight, another set. Even though he had the best hand, he could still have lost and he wasn’t ready to risk that happening. At that point there were two more cards to come – any of which could have ruined his afternoon. I usually find this is the point to put these sort of decisions to tighter players, if I had waited ‘till the river, we would both have had a lot more money in and he would almost have been forced to call.