Poker Strategy - Longhand
Limit Texas Hold'em
This section will give
you the basic strategy at winning at longhand,
limit holdem (limit holdem with 8 or more
players). This section is intended for the
beginner, so he or she can win at the lower
limits (2-4 or less).
Starting Hands/Preflop:
This is where most beginners
make mistakes. Simply, they play too many
hands. What beginners fail to recognize
is that longhand limit 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.
So what are the good
hands? David Skalansky, a poker expert,
groups hands into 8 categories. I'm going
to simplify his method a little bit for
you. The main difference between my ratings
and his ratings is that I don't separate
the suited cards. The only reason I do this
is for simplicity. Furthermore, being suited
tends to not be a big deal, except for connecting
hands and category III hands. Being suited
is nice, but it's just a bonus, it doesn't
change the actual value of the card that
much. On any given board, there is a 5%
chance a suited hand will form a flush by
the river. So in general, you will win close
to 5% more pots with a hand that is suited
than unsuited.
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
AJ, AT, KJ, QJ, 10J
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').
You should generally play these hands only
if they are suited.
Category IV
88, 77, 66, 109,
98, 87, 76 (only play the connecting
cards if they are suited)
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 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) b/c 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
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 (he probably has you beat with a
category I hand).
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.
Category IV/V: these
hands are very different. You want a large,
multiway pot. The reason being is that 95%
of the time, these hands are trash. However,
5% of the time, 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:
- You will be winning
but have a beatable hand. You will have
top pair, top kicker for example or an
over pair (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.
- 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.
- You will have the
second best hand. If you follow my preflop
strategy, this is unlikely, but it could
happen. 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
b/c someone is bound to have the K).
- 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.'
- 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
isn’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 b/c someone probably has the queen.
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