The Basics of Winning at Texas Holdem Poker. Texas holdem is often described as. Texas poker is a fast and lively game with Holdem being one of the most popular types of poker played today. Each player starts receives two hole-cards which are dealt face down. After that, each player receives additional cards that are dealt face up.

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Looking for a poker strategy to improve your chances of winning and begin to play like a professional poker player? You are not alone.

This article doesn't list all the poker tips and tricks under the sun. Instead, it focuses on specific Texas hold'em strategy elements that are proven to help you identify the best hands to play and improve your chances of winning at poker.

Continue reading to learn:

We have also put together a collection of online poker bonuses up for grabs at the best online poker sites. This way you can try all these poker strategy tips in this article when you play with other players.

In other words, if you are looking for a poker strategy guide with clear and easy-to-understand poker tips for beginners, you'll love this one.

Poker is one of the greatest games on earth. The combination of skill and luck, the psychological element, and the fact you can make money from it all help with its popularity.

Whether you play on the world's most prestigious poker tours or you just love to play poker with friends, in order for you to increase your poker winnings, you need to learn how to win at poker. To do this, you need to learn the basics, become familiar with concepts like poker odds and outs, and a few other strategy tips that will help you with every single poker hand you play.

AN INTRODUCTION TO 'POKER MATH': How to Calculate Pot Odds in Poker. is a simple guide to understand how to calculate pot odds in poker.

The process of learning how to win at Texas hold'em can be broken down into several categories. The main ones are:

• Basic Poker Tips: These include elements like the hands ranking, poker glossary, basic strategy articles, and other poker tips for beginners that can help you improve your hand.
• Advanced Poker Tips: These can include the correct use of poker tools like an odds calculator and more sophisticated strategies that will help you win at Texas hold'em poker with a variety of players.
• Long-Term Poker Training: The key to learning how to win at poker is to continue to develop different ways to approach the game and never sit on what you already know. The most effective way to succeed in this mission is to practice as much as you can and rely on resources like good poker books and poker training sites.

Basic Winning Poker Tips

If you want to discover how to play Texas Hold 'Em you need to know the rules first.

When I first started playing poker, I didn't know anything about the game. That includes what starting hands I should play or what beats what in poker.

You'd be surprised at how many people sit in a real money poker game and expect to win at Texas Hold'em poker without even a clear understanding of the poker rules and other basics.

Those basics not only include knowing the poker hand rankings so you know what beats what, but also the various positions at the poker table and how they affect your strategy.

NEED HELP WITH THE BASICS? Poker Positions Explained: The Importance of Position in Poker is the most comprehensive guide to positions in poker. Read it to know how to adjust your play according to your position in the hand.

Basic tips help you learn key poker concepts like pot odds and implied pot odds, as well as the importance of following solid bankroll management rules.

Once armed with this information, you're ready to add a few more strings to your bow and move one step closer to discovering how to be a winning poker player.

Advanced Winning Poker Tips

The next stage in your quest to win at poker every time is to learn some of the more advanced concepts.

Fill your mind by studying such aspects of the game as:

You should also learn how to play against the various different poker player types — e.g., tight-aggressive, loose-aggressive, and loose-passive — because each opponent type needs to be approached with a different strategy.

Some of these advanced concepts became public knowledge in the mid-1990s when David Sklansky penned The Theory of Poker.

It is in this book that you will find Sklansky's thoughts on what he calls 'The Fundamental Theorem of Poker,' which reads:

'Every time you play a hand differently from the way you would have played it if you could see all your opponents' cards, they gain; and every time you play your hand the same way you would have played it if you could see all their cards, they lose.

Conversely, every time opponents play their hands differently from the way they would have if they could see all your cards, you gain; and every time they play their hands the same way they would have played if they could see all your cards, you lose.'

This text may seem long-winded, but the idea being expressed is quite simple.

The correct decision (i.e. the one that will bring you poker winnings) to make in any given poker situation is one that has the largest expected value, or 'EV' as it is commonly abbreviated.

If you were able to see your opponents' cards, you would be able to calculate the mathematically correct decision and would win at poker every time!

Obviously, it is not possible to calculate the correct decision to mathematical certainty as poker is a game played with incomplete information.

But you can use all of the available information presented to you to make a decision that would yield long-term positive results — decisions that are +EV.

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Apply Your Skills

While it is practically impossible to learn how to win at poker every time in a monetary sense, due to the luck factor, by making decisions that are +EV you actually are winning every time you play poker, at least in the long term.

• As a simplified example, imagine you are heads-up with an opponent in a hand where the board reads .
• You hold and your opponent has accidentally revealed , so you know that you need to complete your flush to win the hand.
• There is $100 in the pot and for some reason, your opponent decides to only bet $20.

In this situation you should snap-call, because even if the river is not a spade you actually gain in the long run.

Why is this the case?

Because the pot odds you're receiving are 5-to-1 (calling $20 to win $100) yet your chance of hitting your flush with one card to come is about 4.1-to-1.

As the pot odds are greater than the odds of hitting the hand, you actually make money in the long run even if your flush misses!

That is to say, if you faced the same choice many, many times and always chose correctly, you do stand to come out ahead thanks to your consistently '+EV' decisions. And that folks, is how to win at poker every time!

Of course, the game is more complex than that overly simple example suggests. But in essence, the idea still holds.

The key to how to win at poker is to make more +EV decisions that –EV ones, and then play enough for the math to make the results run true.

Check out the list of the best free poker games and use all these strategy tips to win more!

Use a Poker Odds Calculator

One way to improve your own game vastly and increase your chances of learning to win at Texas Hold'em is to play around with different scenarios to see what the mathematically correct decision would be.

Since we know that the relationship between mathematics and poker isn't one that everyone loves, we developed a free poker tool that helps you with all your poker calculations.

The next time you play Texas hold em poker and you want to know whether you hold a strong hand or not, load up the PokerNews Odds Calculator and look at how much equity your hand has on different boards and against different possible hands for your opponents.

There are other tools and poker cheat sheets out there that allow you to see how your exact hand fares against a possible range of hands, too.

Knowing this information and being able to draw upon it while in the heat of a hand could be the difference between winning at poker or losing.

Always look to extract as much value as mathematically possible, if you want always to win at poker.

Continue the Learning Process

It may seem to an outsider that the best poker players have discovered the secret of how to win at poker every time, yet this simply isn't true.

What is true is those at the top of the pile are extremely skilled poker players, but they are also some of the hardest working people in the industry, constantly working on their game and trying to improve.

The true secret to winning at poker is to be like them and continue to work on your game.

Poker Books

Whether you like to keep your collection on an e-reader like the Kindle or you prefer the old ink-and-paper combo, poker books are an essential element of any winning poker strategy.

The right poker books give you the unique opportunity to learn how to win at poker using the experience of the best players in the history of the game.

If you don't know where to start with your collection, have a look at Nolan Dalla's list of the best poker books ever written.

The ten poker guides in the list will help you win at poker more than any poker cheat sheets or quick tips ever will.

The best part? These poker books won't help you only with Texas hold'em but will give you the opportunity to improve your play also if you prefer other games like Omaha poker, five-card draw, stud poker, and many other card games.

Poker Videos

Youtube is another great resource to find good strategy guides to improve your poker games.

While some of the best videos are kept behind a paywall by a number of advanced poker training sites (more on that later), videos are another great resource to get better results when you play cash games and poker tournaments.

A great starting point with a lot of useful poker tips for beginners is the official PokerNews YouTube Channel.

Over the past 15 years, the PokerNews team traveled the world and all the major poker tours to interview professional poker players and have them share the strategy secrets that made them as successful as they are.

The Poker News strategy videos are your best option to learn poker winning strategies if you are on a budget.

Click here to access the channel and browse through hundreds of free poker videos.

Poker Training Sites

If you really want to learn poker and you don't want to be stuck playing low stakes games forever, you need to consider joining one of the best poker training sites.

While the best ones are not for free, the level of coaching and help you get from them is essential to progress in real money poker and compete with other players at the highest levels.

If you are new to the world of online poker training and you don't know the difference between resources like Upswing Poker, Run it Once, and Daniel Negreanu's Masterclass, here's an overview of the best poker training sites.

What's Next?

Learning how to win at poker requires a lot of work - and a lot of reading. Now that you know what to expect and what tools can help you reach your goals, it's time to move onto other in-depth poker guides like:

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  cash game strategytournament strategyTexas hold’emno-limit hold’embeginner strategy

Full ring poker tables, or those with a 9 or 10-player max, are a good place to learn no-limit Texas holdem. The reason why is because you don’t see the blinds as often, meaning full ring tables are a cheaper way to practice.

But most players don’t remain exclusive to these games. They often branch out to shorthanded tables, either for a different cash game experience or because they’re forced to in tournaments.

Shorthanded poker requires a different approach than full ring, because you’re dealing with fewer players. But the upside is that you can also make more money due to a greater volume of hands.

If you’re new to shorthanded poker, keep reading as I cover everything a beginner should know. Specifically, I’ll discuss more about this game, why you should play smaller tables, and what shorthanded Texas holdem strategy is.

What is Shorthanded Texas Holdem?

A shorthanded poker table features 6 or fewer players. You’ll also see these tables referred to as 6-max games.

6-max cash games never allow more than six players to enter the game. You’ll see a good number of these in online poker lobbies.

Poker tournaments begin with full ring tables, but they see shorthanded tables develop as more players are eliminated.

One of the tournament director’s jobs is to spot these shorthanded tables and consolidate them with larger tables.

6-max games play faster than full ring tables in both live and online play. Here are some common averages for different types of poker tables.

• 6-max online table = 80 hands per hour
• Full ring online table= 60 hands
• 6-max live table = 30 hands
• Full ring live table = 20 hands

Why Should You Play Shorthanded Texas Holdem?

Here are the three best reasons to play shorthanded Texas holdem.

1. More action.
2. Less folding.
3. More hands per hour for profitable players.

Many recreational poker players become bored with folding hand after hand. But this is the dynamic in full ring games, because more players mean the potential for a stronger winning hand.

Tables with six or fewer players don’t see as strong of winning hands. This means that you can play a wider range of cards and still have a chance of taking the pot down.

Shorthanded holdem players will appreciate the fact that they won’t be folding as many hands on average.

If you’re a successful holdem player, then you’ll also like how shorthanded games can increase your profits. The fact that you see more hands also means that you have additional chances to win money.

How Does Shorthanded Texas Holdem Differ from Full Ring Holdem?

I’ve already covered the basics of how shorthanded Texas holdem differs from full ring games. But how does the overall strategy and gameplay change?

The biggest strategy change comes with what kind of starting hands you should be willing to play.

A tight-aggressive (TAG) approach works best in full ring games, where you can sit back and play premium hands. But the blinds will really eat your chip stack in shorthanded cash games and tournaments.

For example, you might not normally raise with AJ in middle position on a 9-player table. But this can be a good hand to raise within a shorthanded game.

It’s good to be aggressive on the button in unraised pots. But this is especially important on smaller tables, where raising with any decent hand can take the pot down.

Overall, 6-max games play faster and more aggressively than what you’ll see at full ring tables. Furthermore, many of these shorthanded pots are won before the flop.

Strategy for Short Handed Texas Holdem

The general strategy between full ring and shorthanded holdem is that the latter requires more aggressive play.

Of course, this doesn’t tell you anything specific. This is why I’m going to cover 7 tips that all shorthanded Texas holdem beginners should know.

1 – Play Tight in the Beginning

This tip contradicts what I’ve discussed so far. Nevertheless, you should play almost as tight as you do in full ring games when starting out in shorthanded holdem.

Playing aggressively leads to more losses for players that don’t have a good feel for smaller tables. And inexperienced 6-max players sometimes get carried away by playing too many hands.

A good full ring player only plays around 15-20% of their hands on average. A good shorthanded player will play 25-35% of their hands.

The number of hands you play shouldn’t increase by a tremendous amount, such as 45-55%. Instead, you want to gradually increase your playable hand range.

A beginner should focus on playing premium hands, along with a few hands outside the lines of big pocket pairs, mid pocket pairs, and high suited connectors.

The goal is to increase your playable hand range as you become more confident in your skills and in analyzing opponents. I’ll discuss more on what hands you should play in Tip #3.

2 – Raise into Hands – Don’t Limp

One of the keys to becoming a successful poker player is realizing that your strategy should vary based on opponents and the table dynamic. But a good general poker strategy rule is that you want to make preflop raises into unopened pots, or those that haven’t seen a raise yet.

Here are three goals that you accomplish by raising preflop in unopened pots:

1. You show hand strength.
2. You force players to pay to see the flop.
3. You build fold equity for post-flop play.

Beginning with the first point, raising shows players that you likely have a strong hand. Therefore, they’re less likely to try and bluff you out of the pot.

Regarding the second goal, you want to limit the number of players who see the flop when you have a strong hand.

Your goal should be to isolate a single player so that you have a better chance of winning the hand if it goes to the showdown. Contrast this to multiple players seeing the flop, which decreases the chances that your strong cards will eventually win the hand.

The best way to thin the field out is with a raise worth 3x the big blind (bb). This is just enough to where few players won’t call with speculative hands, but also low enough to where you can get out of the hand cheaply when re-raised.

Of course, I’m not saying that you should fold to every re-raise. But if you’re holding pocket jacks or AK and worried that somebody has a better hand, you won’t feel as bad about sacrificing 3xbb.

As for the third goal, building fold equity increases the chances that you can take down the pot before the showdown.

This goes back to the first point of showing hand strength. When players believe that you have a good preflop hand, they’re more likely to think that you’ll flop a strong hand.

This sets you up for good continuation betting (c-betting) scenarios in case you miss the flop. A c-bet combined with fold equity is more likely to convince your opponent to fold and help you take the pot.

Limping is a passive move that doesn’t show hand strength or build fold equity. Furthermore, it’s likely that you’ll be re-raised by somebody who thinks they can steal the pot.

It makes sense to limp into pots in specific situations, like when your table is full of calling stations whom you can out-play post-flop. But most of the time, you should either fold, raise, re-raise, or call a raise/re-raise.

3 – Play in Position

The most desirable position to be in on any poker table is the dealer’s seat (a.k.a. the button) because you act last after other players. This means you have more info on opponents and can use their betting actions to judge their hand strength.

In contrast, the worst spots to be in are the seats closest to the dealer’s left (a.k.a. early position). Anybody raising from the spots should have good hand strength because they must make their bets before anybody else.

Here are the different table positions in a 6-max game:

• Early position = Small blind, big blind, seat to big blind’s left (under the gun or “UTG” ).
• Middle position = Seat to UTG’s left.
• Late position = Seat to the button’s right (a.k.a. the cut-off or “CO”) and the button.

The great thing about playing from the CO and late position is that you act after other players. If an early position TAG player makes a 3x-4xbb raise, you can fold something like KQs that you might otherwise play.

Early position is at a huge disadvantage because they could easily be re-raised by a later player. This is why you should narrow your hand range from this spot and avoid playing speculative hands.

The blinds act last before the flop. But they’re still considered early position because they act before everybody post-flop.

Secrets To Winning Texas Holdem

Middle position is aptly named because they’re sitting in an in-between spot. You can raise with a wider range here in unopened pots, but you still need to worry about the button and CO.

You’ll see table position play a heavy factor in the starting hand advice listed below.

4 – Follow a Starting Poker Hand Chart

I can’t stress enough how important is to base your strategy on the situation. This means that you shouldn’t always have a strict strategy for starting hands.

But a starting hand chart helps immensely in the beginning as you learn shorthanded Texas holdem.

If you’re coming from full ring holdem, or you’re new to poker overall, then you won’t have a good idea on what starting hands to play. But by following a chart, you can quickly master what hands play well on a shorthanded table.

Here’s a starting hand chart that shows when to raise, call, and 3-bet from each 6-max position. (Note that “s” means suited.)

Small Blind

• Raise = AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, AKs, AK, AQs, AQ, AJs, AJ, KQs
• Limp = 88, 77, 66
• 3-bet (third bet on a street) = AA, KK, QQ

Big Blind

• Raise = AA, KK, QQ, JJ, TT, 99, AKs, AK, AQs, AQ, AJs, AJ, KQs
• Limp = N/A
• 3-bet = AA, KK, QQ

Under the Gun

• Raise = Most pocket pairs (AA to 44), AKs, AK, AQs, AQ, AJs, AJ, KQs
• Limp = No hands
• 3-bet = AA, KK, QQ

Middle Position

• Raise = Any pocket pair (22+); suited ace hands from AKs to A9s; offsuit ace hands from AK to AJ; and KQs, KQ, QJs
• Limp = Low pocket pairs (a.k.a. “set mining”); AKs, AK, AQs, AQ, KQs
• 3-bet = AA, KK, QQ

Cut-off

• Raise = Any pocket pair (22+); suited ace hands from AKs to A6s; offsuit ace hands from AK to AT; other suited hands from KQs to T8s; and other offsuit hands from KQ to JT
• Limp = Middle and lower pocket pairs
• 3-bet = AA, KK, QQ, JJ

Button

• Raise = Any pocket pair (22+); any suited Ax combo; offsuit ace hands from AK to A9; other suited hands from KQs to 86s; other offsuit hands from KQ to T9
• Limp = Middle and lower pocket pairs
• 3-bet = AA, KK, QQ, JJ

You can see that there’s an overlap in hands you should raise and limp with regarding certain suited connectors and pocket pairs. I suggest either raising or folding these overlapping cards (no limping) until you have a better understanding of your opponents and the table dynamic.

Also note that these starting hands are for a shorthanded table with six players. You should loosen up your starting hand requirements even more when there are 5 or fewer players.

5 – Gradually Become More Aggressive

A starting hand chart should only serve as a base when learning shorthanded Texas holdem. The ultimate goal is to open up your play and take advantage of more opportunities.

This allows you to steal more pots and blinds, which is crucial with blind orbits coming around more often.

But the key is to gradually become more aggressive, rather than forcing raises and re-raises just to create a looser table image. Too many beginners read about becoming more aggressive, then force the action.

New shorthanded players should instead let their aggression come naturally as they gain experience. You’ll eventually recognize certain situations that allow you to open up your hand range and take advantage of the situation.

One great thing about playing aggressively is that it allows you to win pots through two ways.

1. Forcing opponents to fold.
2. Having the best hand at the showdown.

If you’re only limping into pots and calling raises, then you can’t win uncontested pots. Instead, you need to rely on having the best cards in these situations.

Once again, the key is to gain experience at shorthanded tables before opening up your hand range.

Start out by playing tight on shorthanded tables (Tip #1), then continue observing situations where it’s profitable to play aggressively with a wider range of hands.

6 – Changing Gears when Tournament Play Becomes Short Handed

You’ll run into shorthanded situations as poker tournaments move along. This is especially the case if you play online sit and go’s (SNGs), which consist of a single table.

You’ll also experience situations where play goes from shorthanded to full ring when multi-table tournaments consolidate tables.

In either case, you need the ability to change gears once play becomes full ring or shorthanded.

Full ring play requires a tighter style and starting hand requirements. The reason why is because you need a better overall hand to win in these situations.

But you should open up your play as soon as you see the table reduced to six or fewer players. This isn’t overly difficult as long as you’re paying attention and remember that you need to switch up your play on shorthanded tables.

It pays to be experienced with both full and 6-max up tables when making this happen. This is why I suggest that tournament players spend time in all different types of tourneys, so they can develop these skills.

MTTs start with full ring tables and see shorthanded tables develop along the way. But you can also find online 6-max tournaments that allow you to practice shorthand play.

As mentioned before, SNGs are great for practicing the transition from full ring to shorthanded play. You don’t have to play deep into SNGs to experience 6-max play, because they end relatively quickly.

Cash games make for good practice too, whether you need to work on 6-max or full ring play. But these aren’t perfect when practicing for tournaments, because you’re not dealing with short-stacked situations.

Cash players can reload their chip stacks at any time. Tournament players, on the other hand, are dealing with finite stacks.

This is why it’s nice to get specific experience in shorthanded tourney play. Doing so combines different stack sizes with the aggressive play that happens on 6-max tables.

7 – Always Consider that Your Opponent may Have Something

One more tip for shorthanded Texas holdem is to always consider that opponents can have a hand.

Shorthanded tables feature more semi-bluffing and pot stealing on a per-hand basis. But this doesn’t mean that players are bluffing every other hand.

You should assume that a player has good cards until you have more information on them. Don’t fall into the trap of worrying about bluffs just because 6-max players are more aggressive.

Keep an eye on your opponents and study their tendencies. If a TAG player is betting aggressively from early position, then it’s a sign that they probably have a great starting hand.

You’re better off folding and assuming they have something, rather than losing a much-bigger pot later on.

Texas Hold'em Cards Ways To Win

But if a loose-aggressive player is constantly trying to steal the blinds from late position, there’s a chance that they’re semi-bluffing.

The key is to build profiles on your opponents, then use this info to catch the small percentage of the time when you‘re being bluffed.

Conclusion

Poker fundamentals transition well across tables of any size. But you should still note the key differences when moving from a full ring to a shorthanded table.

The main thing that you should do is play more hands on 6-max tables. This helps you counteract the greater frequency of blinds and win more uncontested pots.

How To Play Texas Holdem For Beginners

Beginners should slowly transition into being more aggressive. Use the starting hand chart that I covered before until you develop a good feel for 6-max play.

Ultimate Texas Holdem How To Win

Of course, individual tables will call on you to vary your strategy based on the situation. And this is where experience helps you adapt to different situations.

In summary, shorthanded Texas holdem is a faster-paced game that’s really fun once you get the hang of the strategy. And if you become really good at these tables, you’re going to make even more money due to playing more hands per hour.