Pokerwebpages.com → Advanced texas holdem poker

Two Examples

Suppose you start with:

You should not raise with this poker hand in many situations because of a variety of reason. First, you give your hand away

Second, let’s say four people limp in and you are on the button. You should probably not raise. Now let’s say the flop comes:and everyone checks to you.

You should bet virtually every time. You likely have the best hand since everyone checked (to a non-raiser), and probably have six outs if you don’t.

And by not raising you are more likely to have someone bet into you, and if you do flop an ace or a queen you can raise and force people out who would otherwise have called, getting their price.

One of the problems with raising with this hand is that everyone checks to you on the flop, you bet (assuming you make a poker pair) and they are getting the proper price to call you with middle or bottom pair (assuming they have a different kicker).

So they are no longer making a mistake on the flop when they call.
In general you should not raise with offsuit hands (other than AK), except if you have a chance to isolate a weak opponent.

That is, you think you can knock out the players behind you and (hopefully) the blinds. Once you know you can’t knock people out, it is often better to just call.

(We are talking about how these hands should be played in a weak game. In a tough game you might wind up playing it the same way but for different reasons. Now the problem with AQ is that it is not that much better than your opponents’ hands. So it also may not be right to raise with AQ for a different reason, though a raise would knock people out.)

In poker, there are a lot of hands that when a player on your right bets and you know you can knock people out, you should raise.

But if you know that you can’t, now you should just call and maybe even fold.

For instance, in a weak poker game where many players are playing too many hands and going too far with their hands, if the player under the gun limps in and you have and there are several players still to act behind you, you should fold.

In fact, even if you were the player under the gun you should probably fold.

However, on the side of the coin, if you are against people who play badly, there is not a lot of raising leading the flop, and because of the fact of the way these hands materialize, you should play a lot of hands, especially suited hands.

For example, if four people come in, you should play

You do this because:

1. Four people have come in.
2. There was no raise.
3. They play badly.
4. You re going to poker play it well.

That means if you play K♦ 5♦, four people come in, you’re to the right of the button, and the flop comes:

The first guy bets, and someone calls, you fold. You use your skills to keep yourself from getting trapped.

One of the reasons not to play K♦ 5♦ is that it can be a problem if a king flops.
In other words you can be trapped with this hand.

But, if you are a good player, you won’t get trapped. You should be able to play
K♦ 5♦, flop a king, and still often fold.

If the flop comes you are going to have to get involved. Likewise if the flop comes and everyone checks to you.

But there are many cases where you would get away from the second flop.

On the other hand, if you are playing against bad players who will call with any pair, you want to stay in, and you will of course bet it in those situations where it appears that your hand is good.

When they call with middle or bottom pair they are almost certainly wrong. Do you see why we advised earlier in the text to play online poker a hand like Q5s if there is no raise and you are on the button?

In the right spot, if you play this hand correctly, it can be profitable. But remember that “correctly” can mean that you hit your hand and still throw it away.