Best Tips for No Limit Hold'em Players
Here is a list of our best No Limit Hold'em tips. Even advanced players will pick up a trick or two from this page:
"Always Leave Yourself Outs"
If you have seen the movie Rounders than you have heard the line as spoken by Mike McDermott. "Always leave yourself outs", he said. McDermott wasn't speaking specifically about the cards in this situation - he was referring to life itself, your bankroll, and your stake in the game; the moral of the story is don't blow your roll in one shot.
If you have no bankroll, you have no chance to win. If there are no cards that can improve your hand, you muck. If there are no chips to put into future pots, you've mucked for the last time.
Play Poker to Win, Not to Gamble
Poker can be a gamble if that's what you want it to be. Lord knows we all love a little action-induced adrenaline rush now and then. However, poker shouldn't be a gamble if you're looking to win money. Consider this example:
Imagine there's $5 in the pot, a player has moved all in preflop, and two players have called. Action goes to you, and you look down to see pocket Aces. What do you do here?
Most people would call, but if you're in the business of making money you might want to reconsider. With three other players in the pot, your odds of winning the hand are far less than 50%. Sure, there's a lot of money in there, but if you're down to the end of your bankroll and want to play the Aces, you need to be prepared to go bust.
Another thing that kills your win rate is tilting off money. Learn more about poker tilt here.
Decide On and Employ a Buy-in Strategy
How many chips you buy when you sit down at a cash table has little to do with the maximum or minimum allowed buy-in at the table. It has to do with your predefined buy-in strategy. Are you playing a solid stack and picking off the short-stackers? Are you going to be playing a short stack yourself?
How many chips do the other players have, and what sort of stack do you want to start out with in relation to that? That's what you need to ask yourself. Winning poker strategy begins long before the cards ever hit the table. Learn more about buy-in strategy.
If You're Afraid, You've Already Lost
A solid poker player can't be afraid to shove their chips into the middle, and they can't be afraid to fold the winning hand. It's about knowing/learning what plays are the most valuable in a game of poker. You may have to shove your chips into the middle of the table without so much as a pair to take down a huge pot.
Chips Move in a Clockwise Motion
You've heard all the sermons when it comes to position, but here's one you may have missed... Nobody cares about the guy to your right. If he bets, you can re-raise and steal the pot from him at any time. If he checks, you're free to bet. He's not very scary at all.
The guy you want to shoot the breeze with is the one, actually the two, on your left. These are the guys that raise into you; the guys that make you lay down your over bets. The guys you'll be losing your chips to. If you talk at the poker table at all, quickly build an amicably friendly relationship with these two.
It's the strangest thing, but quite often in low limit to medium limit games, the guys you've made friendly with will actually make an effort not to bust you.
Take Advantage of Online Poker Coaching
Spend a buck a day on Poker Coaching, stay level headed, learn tricks of the trade, get a new perspective, and improve your poker game! There are a few websites like Stox Poker that offer coaching in addition to access to poker strategy video's, articles, and other perks.
Get a Feel for the Table Reserves
Every poker table has a table 'reserve' that is the amount of a bet that will be called by mediocre hands. You want to get the hang of that bet as soon as possible. For instance, at a $1/$2 No Limit table, it's common for the reserve bet to be between $6 and $12. You might sit down and find that the entire table calls a $12 bet. Or perhaps it's a super tight table and folds all around for $6.
Either way once you have a feel for the table reserves you can take advantage by adjusting your opening bet accordingly. For instance, if you have AK off suit, and you don't necessarily want a lot of action, you might bet $8 at a table where $6 is called by half the table, and $12 is folded all around.
If you miss the flop you should have some idea what sort of bet will be required to make your opponent(s) lay down their hands if they have also missed.
Staying Even and Grinding Forward
Every time the button makes its way around the table, you'll have been charged a small blind and a big blind. To stay even, you simply need to pick up one small pot (including big blind, small blind, and perhaps one caller (taking rake into account) to stay even.
We're not here to keep the seat warm however, and who knows how long it could take to get that $300 hand you're waiting for, so to steadily grind forward and build your bankroll, rather than dwindle it away at the tables, you want to pick up two small pots per table revolution.
Be creative with this, three one revolution is fine, then one the next, however you can grind it out. The regulars' will probably recognize it for what it is, figure it's your turn to steal and not challenge much. They'll probably be doing the same. However, newer players will feel pushed around, and want to push back. So if you can accomplish this task with somewhat playable hands, you'll find it a bit easier to shove chips in to protect your bets later.
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Practice Bluffing
Here's a tip. If you're not really a bluffer, and unsure about betting into the pot with absolutely nothing in worth having in your hand, try this:
Pick a card from the deck, any card at all. Let's say the six of diamonds. Now every time you see the six of diamonds preflop, before a raise has been made, you raise. No matter what the second card is.
Remember this is practice, so bluff when you can afford to fail; you'll be surprised how often you win the pot!
Texas Hold'em No Peaky
Another tip for improving your Texas Hold'em game is playing your cards without ever looking at them. A key part of a poker game is learning to read your opponents, and believe me, playing against them, without knowing what your cards are will help.
This is a tool that will greatly improve your profits as a ring table; however, we suggest utilizing the strategy the first few times in an affordable tournament, or even at a free poker game.
You can't tell people you're not looking at your cards obviously, so you've got to be sneaky there. It's easier live; however Annette Oberstad played and won an entire tournament online without ever looking at her cards by taping an index card to her screen.
Keep Your Emotions off the Table
Sometimes we get mad during the game. Shocked, and horrified by the crazy things people due. In fact, a very common strategy is the tilting of other players, getting them off their game, and subsequently separated from their bankrolls.
It's ok to get steamed, everyone does, and it's a great time to take a break, grab an apple, crunch loudly, refill your water, and get back to the mind set that best allows you to do business at the poker table.
Play with your mind sharp!
Get plenty of rest, leave once you're tired. You'll funnel less. We become more passive when we're sleepy, and passive is no way to play poker.
Utilize Poker Tools
Poker tools like PokerStove (www.PokerStove.com) can really give you perspective into your poker game.
Have you ever wanted to make a call with mediocre cards and good pot odds, only to lay down your hand in a weak situation against a weak bet on the flop? Of course you have, we all spent months doing that when we first learned about pot odds.
Well when you utilize a tool like Poker Stove you can see right on your screen just what your odds to win against other hands might be. You might just be surprised.
Another great poker tool is Shark Scope. Think a guy at the table is just a little suspicious? Seems like a donk... but then... there's just something about him that doesn't ring true.
You can check him out on SharkScope see his stats, his average losses, wins, recent tournaments, find out if he's perhaps good player, nervously playing above his usual stake, if he really is a donk, in fact, you can see how much he's won or lost.
This tool specifically tracks sit and go games, however, it's very useful when evaluating a player's skill at a No Limit Hold'em ring table.
Lastly, Do yourself a favor... Check out PokerXFactor
PokerXFactor is an advanced poker tool found online that includes poker strategy videos from pro poker players, a hand replayer that features new audio commentary capabilities, quizzes, articles and more. Access is available to PokerXFactor subscribers.