Poker Strategy - No-Limit
Texas Hold'em
No-Limit holdem is game
of general strategy, basic tactical skills
useful in all forms of poker, and a game
of intense psychology.
Let's first talk general
strategy. When you enter a No-Limit ring
game, you need to know two things before
you can really expect to roll in it:
1. Who are my opponents?
2. How many hands
go to a showdown?
Types of opponents:
Generally, people speak
of four types of players: tight passive,
tight aggressive, loose passive, loose aggressive.
The first modifier characterizes the number
of hands the person plays while the second
describes the player's betting style. I
think for No-Limit holdem, loose aggressive
should be divided into two parts: action-seekers
and solid players. Let's go through each
of these types of players.
Tight-passives:
These people do fine in a limit game, but
they won't make much in a No-Limit game.
The only way these people will win is when
they pick off bluffs, otherwise they won't
get the value out of their hands that they
should. When against these players:
- Bluff at the flop
a lot. Put in a raise preflop and bet
at the flop no matter what calls.
- Fold when they represent
a hand. If they bet a little, they're
probably on a draw. So stick with your
hand if you got something. If they bet
a lot, they got something good.
- Take advantage of
your control. Don't go wild with your
bluffs though. Fold preflop when you have
nothing. But raise when you have a good
hand and go for the kill at the flop.
If you miss the kill, give up. But when
you have something, milk him for everything
it is worth.
Essentially, you can
quickly tame these players into being calling/folding
stations. And if he is making money against
you while being a calling/folding station,
you are doing something seriously wrong.
These players are common, and you will certainly
play against quite a few.
Loose-passives:
They have to hope that people continually
bluff into them because these people have
they will call frequently with the second
best hand. This is a recipe for disaster
at No-Limit. You don't see too many of these
bad players at No-Limit games because they
lose so quickly and run to Limit games.
Maniac loose-aggressive:
These guys will buy a fair share of pots,
but then will get themselves trapped by
another aggressive player and will lose
their stacks in one or two hands. What separates
these from good loose aggressive is that
they lack discipline? They love the action
of No-Limit so much that they get themselves
trapped too easily. These players are even
more rare than loose-passives in my experience.
Strong loose aggressive:
These guys seem like they are horrible maniacs,
but in reality, they are a very dangerous
form of player. These guys will certainly
lose a lot of money in pots, but they also
will buy a lot of pots and will win huge
ones. The way these types of players win
is mainly by getting a good read on the
opponent and then making a well-timed bet.
My main tactic against
these players is to trap them in their own
game. I generally try to avoid having the
pot escalate too much preflop unless I have
aces or kings, and I generally try to not
let them buy every pot. In other words,
when I put in the raise preflop, I'll still
often make a stab at the pot at the flop.
More importantly though,
the way I beat these guys is to take them
down at one big pot. Since these guys will
play a lot of hands, especially short-handed,
they'll often play hands that lend themselves
to be second best hands. Once I catch them
in this situation, I just have to make sure
I don't let them go too easily.
Tight aggressive:
this is my style and the style and the strategy
that I'll teach. The tight-aggressive's
main problems are that he may get chased
out of a lot of flops early and that he
may be too easily read. If I were to play
against a clone of myself, I would hope
to trickle him down bit-by-bit and hope
to throw him off balance by doing so.
Showdown Percentage
This is a critical concept
in No-Limit. Since No-Limit lends itself
to bluffing, one can make a lot of money
simply by stealing pots. However, this strategy
obviously fails if everyone shows you down
to the river!
Generally, before
I play in a high-stakes game or start really
getting hardcore into one, I pay attention
to the number of hands going to showdowns.
This is really easy to do on the Internet
because you don't even need to watch the
game. You just leave the window open, go
eat a snack, go to the bathroom, whatever.
Come back twenty minutes later and see what
sort of game you are about to
dive in.
|
