The Top 10 Texas Holdem Poker Do’s and Don’ts (For Beginners)

One of the most popular games in the casino is still Texas hold’em poker. It is one of the most thrilling and alluring poker games played today due to skill, luck, and speed.

However, how can a newbie swiftly advance in their game?

Paying attention to the following dos and don’ts is one way. Since I’ve been playing Texas hold’em for more than ten years, I’m not a professional, but I’m better than average.

As luck would have it, winning at Texas hold’em at most casinos only requires that you perform above average.

Here are ten pointers to get you moving in the right direction.

1. DO Be Conscious of Your Position

The most significant error I’ve ever made in Texas Hold’em is failing to recognize the position’s value and acting accordingly.

What’s the position?

When you make an action during a hand, you are in an “early” position if you are one of the first players to move. You are in a “late” position if you are one of the last players to progress.

Being early in the game puts you at a disadvantage because you don’t know what the other players hold.

You have an edge if you are in a late position because you have seen what most or most of the other players have done in hand up to that point.

2- AVOID PLAYING A LOT OF PREFLOP HANDS

Playing too many hands before the flop is one of the worst errors newcomers to Texas hold’em make. The second biggest error is that they keep those hands in motion for too long.

Making my cards earn the right to play was the best poker advice I’ve ever received. In other words, my responsibility was to leave the hand if the cards weren’t favorable.

In other words, you require a beginning hand. Even if your post-flop play is a little weaker than your pre-flop game, you’ll still be a break-even player if your starting hand requirements are strong enough.

In any Texas hold’em hand, the most crucial choice is whether or not to play the hand. You should fold your hand before the flop 80% of the time.

3. PLAY BETTING AND RAISING A LOT.

The final piece of advice discussed playing tight. It was suggested that many hands be folded. If you do this, you’ll typically play in hands where your opponents are behind you because you have more vital cards. It will be similar to getting a head start in a race.

But what happens if you choose to play those hands? Should you simply call the bets of your rivals to watch how the rest of the hand plays out? Should you look back to see if someone will place a wager?

4-DO NOT BLUFF A LOT, if At All

Many newcomers at Texas Holdem make the error of bluffing frequently. You will find a  few opponents who are prepared to fold in the face of bets and raises if you’re playing in a low-stakes Texas Holdem game, which is the only game you should be playing if you’re a beginner.

In other words, bluffing only succeeds when your adversaries are also skilled at it.

When you have numerous opponents, you make another bluffing error. When bluffing, you should only be up against one or two opponents. The likelihood that three or more opponents will all call your bluff and fold is always far lower than it would be if you simply needed to frighten away one or two opponents.

Additionally, the likelihood that one of the players has powerful cards increases significantly when more participants are in the pot. There must be someplace out there where the excellent cards are, right?

The semi-bluff is a superior strategy for novices and is incredibly effective compared to a naked bluff.

A semi-bluff is a bet or raises made with a hand that, while not necessarily the best at the table, has a decent chance of getting better.

5. READ A BOOK RIGHT AWAY.

The number of Texas hold’em players who have yet to try to read any of the excellent books about the game always astounds me. Although there is no alternative to experience, why would you not want to speed up your path to poker mastery?

Consider reading a poker book as having the chance to peek into the mind of a more knowledgeable, seasoned player.

Although not all poker books are top-notch, I have learned from most of them. Even though I’ve read numerous excellent poker strategy books from different companies, Two Plus Two publishes the most fantastic poker books.

Active reading is something I also strongly support. This implies that reading involves more of your involvement than simply letting your eyes travel over the text on the page. You’re making notes, highlighting, or underlining specific passages.

Getting a deck of cards and examining the example hands in front of you with actual cards after reading a very intriguing example. You won’t believe how this can help you retain what you’ve learned.

Suppose you want to play the kind of Texas Holdem poker you want to; read at least one good book about it. If you’re a total beginner, you should start with Texas Holdem Poker by David Sklansky, which is a fantastic introduction to the game.

Though it won’t take little time to advance to the point where you need to switch to a more challenging book.

6 – DON’T Invest More Time in Studying Than in Recreation

But be careful not to fall too far into the rabbit hole. It’s possible to prioritize learning over having fun, which is wrong. It is never a good idea to substitute viewing instructional videos and reading books for a genuine experience at the table.

If I were to teach my daughter how to play poker, I would begin by giving her one book to read. However, when she has finished it, I want to start playing some hands with her using paper money to show her how the game is played. She would only be able to understand what she had read with that own experience.

Your play at the table should be influenced by whatever you read. All the research in the world will only help you at the table if you don’t have practical experience.

Take advantage of the numerous websites where you may now play poker online for free with other players if you’re a total newbie. The fact that no money is involved means that the gameplay will vary. Even when playing for pennies and nickels, everyone has a different style when using real money.

The main advantage of utilizing these no-cost games to learn is that you may determine the sequence in which everything occurs at the table without putting any real money at risk.

Two of my friends had won the World Series of Poker; the last time we spoke, he also enjoyed playing free poker online. Even though the chips he built had no monetary value, he still had fun stacking them high. In his opinion, they merely serve to affirm the part skill plays in the game.

7. ALWAYS PLAY WITHIN YOUR BUDGET

That same guy also used to advise me that I required an unlimited bankroll if I was a losing player to prevent going bankrupt. That always made me smile, but there’s a serious point there:

Only if you are a successful player does your bankroll size matter. Whatever your bankroll, you’ll eventually run out of money if you keep losing.

However, even a successful player could lose all of their money. Consider sitting at a $25/$50 table with only the $5000 minimum buy-in.

Especially if you’re playing no limit, which is what you’ll be doing at those stakes, you might easily go on a big losing streak and quickly burn up that $5000.

You should have 300 big bets in your bankroll for a limit-hold-them game. For instance, you should have a bankroll of at least $2400 if you wish to play $4/$8 with a low likelihood of breaking before your long-term advantage kicks in.

You should have a bankroll at a no-limit Holdem game that is at least 10 or 20 times the buy-in.

Although they are only general recommendations, the main idea is straightforward:

To avoid going bankrupt, you need a larger bankroll than you think.

There is still no certainty even then.

8. DON’T THINK YOU NEED TO BE FANCY

The perfect poker game to play when learning Texas hold’em is traditional poker. This implies that you bet and raise with a firm hand. You should fold your hand if it is weak or average.

That makes poker a simple game.

You can win at the lower limits without using a lot of clever play. Most of your opponents need to be more thoughtful and engaging for you to need to make fancy plays. Therefore trying to get fancy doesn’t work.

I observe a lot of players attempting elaborate bluffs and check-raises due to their extensive television poker viewing. They are merely acting foolishly.

My favorite scenario, however, is when a low-stakes player tries to stare me down while trying to learn more about my hand. Ninety percent of the time, the player needs to be more skilled for such tells to have any effect.

This particular variety of poker is occasionally referred to as “ABC poker,” a disparaging term. That’s because your opponents will be too skilled in more giant-stakes games for this strategy to succeed. Every time you bet or raise, they’ll just fold or grow you out of any pot in which you show your frailty.

In other words, playing ABC poker at the higher limit tables is equivalent to playing with your cards on display.

The majority of your opponents at the lower limit tables aren’t skilled enough for that to even matter.

9 DO Try Limit Holdem first before attempting No Limit Holdem.

Before joining me at the Casino Online Australia, my friend Pete had never played limit hold’em. His only previous game was no limit hold’em. He’s not a particularly good player, so I was as astonished as you were.

The issue with no limit Holdem, especially if you’re a newbie, is as follows:

When you play no-limit Holdem, you risk losing a lot of money all at once.

You might even need to wager your entire stack on a single hand.

This has a significant impact on strategy. Additionally, it implies that your errors could cost you significantly more than they would at a narrow table.

Texas Holdem essentials like starting hand selection, selective aggression, and position are still something you’re learning while you’re just getting started.

When playing limit Holdem, it is considerably easier to calculate the pot odds and the outs than when playing no limit Holdem. You might come up against a player who is eager to stake all on stealing little pots repeatedly.

When playing limit Holdem, that is more difficult to locate and more straightforward to overcome.

It’s acceptable to advance to no limit after you feel confident that you can consistently beat limit games.

But before moving on to a complete no-limit Holdem game, at least consider a pot limit or spread-limit game. Simply put, I detest seeing players lose a ton of money in a single hand, which frequently happens in no-limit Texas Holdem.

10. Don’t restrict yourself to playing only one poker game.

It can be tempting only to play Texas Holdem when playing poker.

THAT IS A BAD IDEA AND IS SO FOR A FEW REASONS:

The primary justification is likely that you limit your earnings by choosing not to play a particularly lucrative game in a different form. You should be able to take advantage of some yokels who are losing money at an Omaha 8 table because they have never played before and profit quickly and easily.

However, there are other reasons you ought to broaden your poker knowledge.

Your ability to play other poker games well will increase as you learn new skill sets. Playing stud poker, for instance, will help you become more attentive and recall what is spoken at the table. Your ability to consider outs and odds will increase after playing Omaha.

Last but not least, if you only ever play Texas hold ’em, you’ll be at a distinct disadvantage in most home poker games. Additionally, you can become bored and take a break from the poker tables.

Life is brief. You should play poker as frequently as you can.

Avoiding boredom and making the most of your poker encounters are therefore vital.

Conclusion

If you plan to play the game, you should commit to improving your Texas hold’em skills. This holds for all types of activities, including poker. If anything is worthwhile, it should be done well.

Fortunately, Texas hold’em poker is relatively easy, especially for newcomers. You must comprehend position. You should also be able to play poker in a tight-aggressive style, where you don’t play many hands but do so strongly when you do.

The majority of newcomers to Texas hold’em commit many of the same errors. A common issue has a tiny bankroll. Even if you are the best player at the table, you need more money to resist the whims of luck and standard deviation to avoid going bankrupt.

After all, Texas Holdem is a game of chance.

But the best tip I can give a novice Texas hold’em player is just to play regular poker. When you have strong cards, bet and raise; when you have weak cards, check or fold. Don’t add more money to the pot if the cards given in the following rounds don’t help your hand.

In other words, place a wager if you believe you will win. Fold if you think you will lose.

Texas Holdem poker is this simple, at least in the first levels.