Texas Holdem Know When To Fold
When you hear Texas holdem the first thing most people think about is a group of players seated around a poker table playing poker.
Note: This article only applies to Fixed-Limit Hold'em Most decent players have a pretty good understanding about when to fold preflop. The decision you make preflop is a crucial one, and is covered extensively on this site (see Longhand Limit and Dynamic Hand Value).Simply put, you want to play premium hands preflop. Know When to Check in Texas Hold'em Bonus. Knowing when to fold in Texas Hold'em Bonus is easy, it is knowing when to check that is more difficult. When playing at a casino, you will notice that almost everyone else will raise their bet no matter what they have in their hand. That is just plain stupid. Texas Hold’em can be a hard poker game to master; however, learning can be a rewarding challenge. In fact, getting to understand Texas Hold'em terms such as “bluffing”, “having position” and “going all-in” are some of the most appealing things about this form of poker. At the start of every hand, each player is dealt two hole (face down) cards. Texas Hold’em Poker Strategy: 5 Rules to Live. Poker strategy is everything.Anyone who says otherwise is kidding themselves. Yet, it’s unbelievable how many poker players ante up for a war of attrition against seasoned poker veterans without any strategy in mind.
But did you know that you can also play Texas holdem themed slot machines?
Here’s a review of the top slots games based on the popular poker version, Texas holdem.
1- Texas Holdem Fold Up
The new Texas holdem slot machine being offered by IGT is the Texas Holdem Fold up slot. It’s the company’s follow up to the Heads Up Holdem slot they released back in 2010. This slot plays 5 computers against the player to simulate a 6 person game of holdem at the table. The game starts by allowing the player to choose the denomination, which includes quarters, fifty cents, and dollars.
Texas Holdem Fold Up rakes 25 percent which is determined by the betting denominations the player choses when starting the game. For quarter players the 25% rake will cap at $2.25 on a $9.00 pot. For a fifty cent player the rake caps at $4.50 on an $18.00 pot, and for those who choose to play the dollar bet you’ll see a rake cap at $9.00 on a $36.00 pot.
Texas Holdem Fold Up is played limit style with a little change from the normal rules. Instead of blinds, which could give the upper hand in this game, the player antes two units before cards are dealt. The dealer button moves one spot clockwise at the conclusion of each hand. If a player decides to cash out the button will not move. In order to play a single hand a player must have at the minimum of 50 credits on the machine. If the player doesn’t have 50 credits they won’t be dealt into the hand until they‘ve added more credits.
This game, like many other slots does have a bonus bet option. This option allows the player to place a bonus bet before the hand is dealt. The Fold Up bonus bet only pays out the highest winning hand. For example, if a player flops a full house but makes quads on the turn, the bonus bet only wins 100 credits. However there is a bug in the game that will reset the bet to five credits which is the default bet on the system. If a player wishes to change the bet they need to double check the machine and make sure it did not change it back.
The game starts with the action starting to the left of the button. Since this game doesn’t allow blinds there’s an option for the players to check. One unique thing about this machine is that even if no bet has been placed the fold button is still available for the players to use.
Along with this open folding option, players can check or bet even if a bot has not yet opened, called, or raised, when there is action pending. Before the flop each bet made is equal to two credits. One thing for players to watch out for with this game are the pre-flop limp and check rearises made by the bots. This seems to be a bug here as well that if the bots do this they usually have pocket aces or kings or at least one of each of those cards.
When the action starts after the flop the bots often get a little wild. It’s almost impossible to see where they’re going unless they give the tell during the pre-flop round. During the flop round a bet is equal to two credits just like before and during this round where you’ll generally see the fold button light up. Since it’s already available you may choose to use it now if you think your hand is not going to win.
The next round, commonly known as the turn round, isn’t as wild as the flop round. This is the round where you’ll start to see the bots fold. As the name implies, the bots in this game place their cards face up when they fold. This give the player a small advantage by allowing the player to see the cards and it may give them the push to follow the straight.
This can also lead to others folding when they see the match to their low pocket pair in the bots folded hand. The chance for the pot to reach its cap for the round during the turn is unlikely since in the turn the bet goes up from two credits to four.
Unlike the turn, the river round is completely unpredictable. This hand seems to have the bots making the most mistakes. During this hand they tend to make bets with very little in their hand so if you think that your hand is pretty decent try to stick it out during their crazy bets.
One thing about this game is that even if the player folds the game continues and you can see the bots very quickly raise the stakes. This seems to be a ploy to make the player feel like there was real action at these tables. In the end if the bots are the only players left it doesn’t matter who wins since they are being backed by an unlimited number of chips which gives the player a better view of why the loose action took place.
This game doesn’t seem to be one of the better slots to play while you’re in Vegas. Although for those who have a higher knowledge of the game they may see bigger payouts once they’ve played a few times to determine how the game runs.
It seems to be trying to draw in players who are inexperienced with the notion that the computers they’re playing against are bad players when they seem to be just trying to build up the pot for the rake. We wouldn’t put this game as one of the slots to search for while in Vegas unless you’re in the mood to try and beat a machine at its own game.
Though it looks like a Texas holdem game, in the en it’s simply a variation of a slot machine where you can’t win in the long run.
2- Texas Holdem Heads Up Poker
This game, like many others on the market, is manufactured and distributed by IGT. It has been available in casinos such as the Bellagio and Red Rock in Vegas since coming onto the market in 2010.
This game is pretty easy as it has buttons that are much like those found in video poker. The buttons for check, call, fold, and bet / raise are easy to use and leave little chance of placing an unintentional bet. This game also offers a bonus bet which allows you to make a bet on the value of the flop, turn, or river. Most people don’t see the benefit here and choose not to play this bet.
One thing a player needs to be aware of with the bonus bet feature is that it’s not something that can just be turned on or off. If the previous player has the bonus activated then it must be toggled all the way through to be inactivated by the next player unless they chose to participate in the game. If they have chosen to keep the bonus bet option available then they need to make sure that the amount they are wagering is set and is being deducted while playing.
This game offers limits of fifty cents to a dollar with blinds at a quarter to fifty cents, a dollar and two dollar limits with fifty cent to dollar blinds, and two dollar to four dollar limits with blinds being one and two dollars. As it is in normal heads up poker, the small blind is on the button, and begins the pre flop betting action, and the big blind acts first on all other betting rounds. When the game starts the computer gets the first button.
Pre flop play seems to be a little hyper with this game. The computer will almost always raise in the small blind even when it has week hands so the player should not get too discouraged as they may still have a good chance if they’re willing to take the risk.
On the other side the computer has also been known to fold during the pre-flop in the small blind if raised in the big blind but this doesn’t happen very often. The game does tend to fold more in the small blind than in the big bind when facing a raise regardless of if the pot odds are the same. This is because raising from the big blind closes out the round just like in a normal game.
The play by the computer doesn’t really change much when going into the flop round but does seem to settle a little. The machine has been known to raise here even with really bad hands so again a player must either know how to play or be very confident in the hand they’re holding to not let the computer outwit them. Even though the computer is more likely to fold here than in the pre flop phase it’s still not a very high chance as it seems that it’s set up to continue on even with a very bad hand.
The turn round is where the computer gets into the game and the game play tightens up. In this round it’s less likely for the computer to raise if it has a weak hand so this is when the player can really see where the game is going. If the computer doesn’t raise there’s a good chance that the cards it’s holding are not good. The player should also keep in mind that deciding to go all out here is not a good idea. Just like in a good heads up game a player could get sucked in at this point.
The river round sees more action from the computer that will usually call if it has an ace high or a king high. At times it has been known to even call with a not so great hand as well. Those players who immediately go into check and call mode in reaction to this strategy are probably not used to playing a lot of heads-up poker. They think by doing this it will trap the computer and this is just not the case in most instances.
Las vegas usa casino no deposit bonus code. Instead, a better way to play is to play hyper lag in the beginning rounds. In this game you have to play very loose to survive and don’t hold out to fold in the end rounds because this can you get you crushed with this slot.
This game, unlike most of the others, has the ability to adjust its expectations of what is still out there based on the composition of the board. This machine seems to play top pair / top kicker more slowly on a board with flushes and straights possible.
The machine also bluffs, check raises, and will do the occasional check raise bluff just like players will in a real life poker game. It also seems to be able to determine the likelihood of the players hand based on a range of the previous street action. Another nuance of the machine is that it seems more likely to go for a check raise if its opponent put in the last bet on the previous street.
3- Texas Holdem Video Slot
This new video poker slot machine adds to the experience by allowing the players to play with the best of the best of the poker world. Personalities such as Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth have lent their likeness to these games which draws many more people to play. Getting the chance to put your skills to the test against these two is the dream of many in the poker world.
This game is played much like a real game of holdem. Any two cards can win in this version of the game. Player’s place an ante bet and are also able to place a bonus jackpot bet before the first hand is dealt. Throughout the game if a bet is to be placed it must be done before the cards are seen in each round. So the ante must be placed before the first cards are dealt and bets during the flop, turn, or river rounds must be placed before the cards are displayed.
Once the ante bets and bonus bets are completed the first two cards are dealt face down which allows each player to get a peek of their cards. Once they’ve seen their cards they can now place their flop bet or fold if they so choose. Once all bets have been placed the three community cards are dealt face up into the middle of the screen. Once these cards have been dealt the players have the option to place a bet or to check and wait for the next card.
Once everyone has made their decisions the turn card is dealt on the screen face up. Just like the round before the players must now decide whether to place another bet, fold, or check. The community card is dealt face up.
The river card is the end of the card options. Each player’s best five card hand is highlighted by the machine. This ends the game and whoever has the best hand wins. This also determines who wins the jackpot bonus.
For those looking to play a game of holdem that is pretty straightforward and easy to play this is the game for you. This game not only is easy to navigate but gives you the sense of playing against legends in the game.
Although you do need to know the ins and outs of the game we would say that a beginner would feel very comfortable playing this game. The action doesn’t seem to be to over the top and is less likely to scare away those players who are less experienced.
But in the end it’s still a slot machine disguised as a Texas holdem game.
Conclusion
These games all seem to be relatively similar in most aspects. They all look and act like Texas holdem games, but at the end of the day they’re simply slot machines. This is similar to how slot machines in some areas are actually working like bingo games behind the scene because of the local laws.
We don’t recommend playing Texas holdem themed slot machines if you’re a poker player, because you can improve your game to a profitable level at the tables. The same can’t be said for playing one of these machines.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.Any post with an ambitious title claiming that the concepts in the post are the most important is bound to generate controversy. Texas holdem is a complex enough game with enough levels of thinking that there are probably hundreds of concepts you could discuss in a blog post. Just thoroughly covering 7 concepts takes more space than most blog posts do.
At any rate, I’m going to give it a shot. These are Texas Holdem concepts that are less related to the play of individual hands and have more to do with your overall approach to the game.
One of my favorite poker writers, Steve Badger, often points out that poker isn’t a game where you should slavishly follow a cookbook recipe. He told me once that it’s more like making a stew—the exact amounts of each ingredient are open for negotiation, but you want a reasonable balance of those ingredients.
That’s what I’ve tried to do with my blog posts related to Texas Holdem ideas.
1- Game Selection Is Important
Being able to choose the most profitable game for your skill-set might be the most important poker concept to learn. It’s also probably one of the lease talked about skills, too. In fact, you can be a relatively poor player and make more money than a better player if you’re better at choosing the appropriate game.
This skill comes in most handy when you’re dealing with online poker because you have such a large number of games to choose from at any time.
But game selection comes up and is important in live play at brick and mortar poker rooms, too. Your goal is to find a game with more players who call a lot and play a lot of hands. (These are called “loose passive” players.) You want to avoid games with a lot of players who only play a few hands but bet and raise with them when they play them. (These are called “tight aggressive” players.)
You can read more about categorizing poker players in the section on concept #5, below. For now, just know that your goal is to find a table where you’re at least one of the best players at the table, if not THE best. You can make money if there are better players than you at the table, but you’ll probably avoid confrontations with them. If you’re good, they’ll avoid confrontations with you, too.
Finally, unless you have a big bankroll, stay away from games where there’s a lot of loose, aggressive action. Even if you have an edge, you might not be able to withstand the swings of luck that are part and parcel of playing at such a table.
2- Attention Is an Important Prerequisite Skill for Learning to Read Hands
One of my biggest leaks as a new poker player was my tendency to not pay attention to any hand I wasn’t involved in. You’ll see plenty of players who do this. They’re often wearing earbuds. Sometimes they’re watching TV or just gabbing away with the other guys at the table.
When I learned to start watching what was going on more closely, my game improved dramatically. Paying attention gives you a better idea of your opponents’ playing tendencies (see concept #5 below). It will also help you figure out which hands are likelier to win in various situations.
I know from reading that big pairs win more often against smaller fields, but I need stronger hands to win against larger fields. Some of this depends on the texture of the overcards but getting a real feel for what wins in which situations requires attention and experience.
You might think that being patient enough to fold until you get premium cards is the most important Texas Holdem skill you could have. If that’s the only trick you have up your sleeve, you’re in trouble. That will beat a lot of competition at the lower levels, but even at low stakes holdem, you’ll find opponents who are paying attention to how you play and are compensating accordingly.
I’d suggest that being able to put your opponents on a range of hands is a more important skill. In fact, it might be the most important skill. This isn’t something someone has an innate talent for, either. You have to work for it, and that requires paying attention and thinking.
If you’re having trouble concentrating at 1st, I suggest singling out one opponent and pay attention to his playing tendencies. How aggressive is he? Does he bluff? Is he a calling station? Does he defend his blinds?
These are all questions you can answer about opponents if you pay attention to them for a while. Some players are easy to evaluate in this way. I often tell a story about a guy who played every hand preflop, and he raised with all of them, too. Putting him on a range of hands preflop was easy—he could have anything. He tightened up a little bit after the flop, though.
Most players are going to have subtler playing tendencies than this, though. The only way you’ll be able to pick up on these tendencies and put them on a range of hands is by paying attention to what they’re doing, even when you’ve folded and aren’t involved in the hand.
3- Bluffing Is Part of the Game, but It’s a Smaller Part of the Game than Some Beginners Think
People who watch poker on television or in the movies think that bluffing and tells are the 2 biggest components of the game. Both of those skills matter, but neither of them are hugely important compared to things like hand selection, aggression, and calculating outs and pot odds. But you can’t succeed in Texas Holdem if you never bluff at all, either—not unless you’re playing at the lowest limits imaginable.
One rule of thumb I learned early is that you should never try to bluff more than 2 opponents at a time. To win a bluff, all your opponents must fold so that you can win the pot. The more opponents you’re trying to bluff, the less likely you are to succeed. Your best option is to bluff against a single opponent.
Look at it this way:
If you’re bluffing one opponent who you estimate will fold 50% of the time, you don’t need a huge amount of money in the pot to make this a profitable play. You only need even money to break even.
But if you’re bluffing 2 opponents, each of whom has a 50% probability of folding, your chance of succeeding drops to 25%. (To calculate the probability of multiple events happening, you multiply the probability of each of them.) You need 3 to 1 to break even.
If you’re bluffing 3 opponents like that, your probability drops to 12.5%. Now you need 7 to 1 to break even. You won’t usually be getting pot odds good enough to warrant bluffing in this situation.
The best times to bluff are when you see scare cards come up on the flop or the turn or when an otherwise strong player starts acting weak. If you can find a situation where both situations are true, then you’re well-positioned to win a bluff.
The worst times to bluff are when you’re dealing with calling stations. These are players who play passively but rarely fold. Often they’ll check in front of you, but then when you bet into them, they call you down.
4- Don’t Tilt
Poker players are said to go “on tilt” when they get upset about how a hand turns out. They start betting and raising aggressively with lousy cards. Or sometimes they’ll start calling bets with hands they should fold. Players on tilt are trying to force an outcome.
If you’re going to play winning Texas Holdem, you absolutely must learn how to avoid going on tilt.
If you’re new to the game, you might think you’re immune to going on tilt. That’s a common beginner mistake, too. Until you’ve experienced getting your aces or kings cracked several times in a single session, you don’t know how you’re going to react emotionally. It’s easy to get discouraged and think that short-term variance means that everything you know about poker is meaningless in the face of random chance.
The best thing to do if you go on tilt is to quit playing temporarily. You can lose tremendous amounts of money while you’re on tilt. The money you save by getting away from the table when you’re upset is worth just as much as that same amount of money in a pot.
Learning to keep calm and handle the swings of the game is a skill like any other and takes practice. It’s also easy to tilt and not realize you’ve tilted. Recognizing when you’re not playing your best game because of your emotions is a critical skill.
One way to develop this skill is by practicing meditation, by the way. People who meditate pay better attention. They’re more easily able to recognize what’s going on, both inside and outside. I’m not sure about other benefits of meditation, but I’m convinced that poker players who meditate on a regular basis have better luck than those who don’t.
5- Categorizing Your Opponents Is a Crucial Skill
One of the 1st things I learned about poker strategy had to do with playing styles. I’d never given the concept of playing style much thought until I read Andy Bellin’s book, Poker Nation—which was my 1st poker book, by the way.
The different styles of play make poker so interesting. Luckily, the number of styles can be categorized into a handful of groups. How you should play against opponents of a specific style varies based on how they play.
If you pay attention to your opponents’ general tendencies, you can put them into 1 of 4 categories:
- Tight and aggressive
- Tight and passive
- Loose and aggressive
- Loose and passive
Think of these as being 2 continuums. One—the tight-loose continuum—describes how often a player participates in a hand. Tight players fold a lot and only play premium hands. Loose players don’t fold often, so they might have any kind of cards.
The other continuum—the aggressive and passive continuum—describes how often a player bets and raises versus checking and calling. Aggressive players drive the action by betting and raising. Passive players, on the other hand, check and call more often.
But these aren’t binary categories, either. You can face a tight player who folds 90% of his hands preflop, or a tight player who folds 80% of his hands preflop. You can face a loose player who only folds 50% of his hands preflop, or you could even face a player so loose that he plays 100% of his hands preflop. (I played a guy like this at the Winstar in Oklahoma not long ago.)
Also, some players play looser from the blinds even if they play tight the rest of the time. Other players might play loose before the flop but tighten up considerably on the flop and the turn.
That’s why I suggested that these categories are continuums.
The consensus is that tight aggressive is the best playing style, so that’s the style you should emulate. Don’t play many hands, but when you do, bet and raise with those hands. Go big or go home.
The 2nd best approach is loose aggressive. If you’re facing the right opponents, being willing to bet and raise a lot is enough to get you an edge at the poker table. You get extra equity if you’re facing tight players because you win a certain percentage of pots just because your opponents fold. And even if you have 2nd best cards, you’ll occasionally hit your draw.
A passive poker player is always the worst. Rocks (tight-passive players) tend to lose their money in the face of aggression. Calling stations (loose-passive players) tend to pay off their tighter opponents. Passive players of either persuasion never (or rarely) give their opponents an opportunity to fold.
When you categorize your opponents, you can make better-educated guesses about what kinds of cards they might be playing. If you get good enough at that, it’s like playing poker with someone whose hole cards are always exposed.
6- Learn When to Play for Higher Stakes
If you’re a winning player at the $2/$4 tables, you might also be a winner at the $5/$10 tables. You won’t know until you take a shot at that level. If you ARE able to win at the higher limits, you should be able to make more money just because there are larger amounts of money in play in those situations.
One thing to think about is how big your bankroll is. Even if you have an edge, short-term variance (i.e. bad luck) can cause you to lose all your money and go broke. You should have about 300 big bets at a given level if you want to avoid risking going broke. Of course, if you’re a bad player, it won’t matter how big your bankroll is. The size of your bankroll only starts to matter when you’re a winning player.
That’s only one aspect of moving up in stakes, though. You also need to be skilled enough to win at that next level. You might be ready; you might not.
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My suggestion is to start with a bankroll that will get you through to the lowest limit game in the cardroom. If you’re playing $2/$4, then you should have a $1200 bankroll.
Set yourself a goal of winning enough money to move up to the $3/$6 tables. That means you have to win $600 at that level before moving up.
If you lose that $600 and get back down to $1200, you go back to the $2/$4 tables.
But if you’re winning, you move up in stakes to the $4/$8 tables once your bankroll has increased to $2400.
This kind of approach guarantees that your skills are improving, because it’s almost impossible to grow your bankroll like that without being able to win at the higher stakes, too.
In other words, you’ll know when you’re ready to move up because your bankroll will tell you.
7- Tells Can Take Your Profits to the Next Level
If you watch TV or movies about poker, you might think that picking up tells is the #1 most important skill in poker.
It’s not.
But learning to read your opponents’ tells can help you win more money than you might win otherwise. It won’t make up for a lack of ability to fold or a lack of ability to read other players. But if you’ve mastered the basics, looking for and finding tells can take your game and profits to the next level.
Not all tells are individual, either. Some players fall into predictable categories. You can read Caro’s Book of Tells by Mike Caro or Read ‘Em and Reap by Joe Navarro to learn about some common tells that apply to most players.
Here are some tells you can look for without reading an entire book on the subject, though:
Shaking hands – A player whose hands are shaking when he goes to bet or raise isn’t bluffing, usually. That’s a release of subconscious excitement about how strong is hand is. Keep this in mind when putting that opponent on a range of hands.
Are they going to play the hand? – Most players learn pretty quickly that they’re not supposed to act out of turn. But if you watch the players to your left, you can often see clues to what they’re planning to do before they do it. It’s obvious when a player puts his chips on top of his cards that he’s planning to play his hand. If he’s picking up his chips even though it isn’t his turn to act, he’s getting ready to call, bet, or raise. Paying attention to this tell can help you avoid some of the disadvantages of playing out of position.
Weak is strong, and strong is weak. – Players who act one way are usually representing the opposite. A player who’s trying to stare you down when he’s betting or raising into you often has a weak hand and is hoping you’ll bluff. A player who’s staring at the television and calling in a disinterested manner probably has a monster and is hoping to get some action with it. Most of the time, players try to be deceptive and act in the manner opposite of their hand strength.
It’s easier to pick up on your opponents’ tells when you’re not involved in a hand. See concepts #2 and #5 above.
Texas Holdem Theory
Conclusion
I mentioned at the beginning of this post that “most important Texas Holdem concepts” is a highly subjective idea. These are the concepts I think are most important, especially if you’re just getting started. I’ve tried to focus on concepts that apply to the game as a whole and your overall approach to it.
Texas Holdem When To Fold
How To Know When To Fold In Texas Holdem
You’ll find other blog posts with specific details about how to play hands of certain types from certain positions at certain levels. There’s nothing wrong with those posts, either. I just think you need to grasp some of these other elements of poker first, or at least concurrently, with those tactics.