Poker Strategy - $2-$4 Limit Holdem: Blinds are $1-$2. The betting is $2 Preflop up to a max of 3 raises totaling $6, $2 Post Flop up to a max of 3 raises totaling $6, $4 Post Turn up to a max of 3 raises totaling $12, and Post River up to a max of 3 raises totaling $12. However, most casinos will allow unlimited raises when the game is down to the final two players or as it is called "Heads Up". Maximum risk $36 per hand with the exception of heads up raising. This game is really only for novice player or the person just out for a little fun and entertainment. The reason is the betting is considered small and most players will play much worse hands than normal for entertainment reasons or to try to catch a good hand late. You would be lucky if you could bluff someone out once in 25 hands you stayed in on. However, sometimes you may find a lot of older experienced retired people on this game. They are on a set budget and just out for some entertainment. Sometimes in this case the game will be tight and bluffing will work much more often.
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Poker Strategy - $3-$6 Limit Holdem: Blinds are $1-$3. Same as $2-$4 holdem except your max risk per hand is $54 with the exception of heads up raising. This game is still considered small stakes and is truly for novice players or players just out for a little entertainment. You would be lucky if you could bluff someone out once in 20 hands of play. Again the game could play a little tighter if there are a lot of retired players at the table. We recommend this game for the beginning player only.
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Poker Strategy - $5-10 Limit Holdem: Blinds are $2-$5. The same rules as the lower limit games apply but your maximum risk is $90 per hand with the exception of heads up play. This game is also considered a smaller stakes game. However, you may find a much higher level of experienced players at this game. The reason is the stakes are small enough to attract the novice players and small enough for people to play worse starting hands. This gives a happy medium between the novice player and the experienced player and can create some relatively large pots. The larger pots attract the better players. Nevertheless, you will still only be able to buy a pot or bluff someone out of a hand one out of 15 hands of play. We recommend bringing a minimum of $200 to the table
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Poker Strategy - $10-$20 Limit Holdem: Blinds are $5-$10. Again the same rules as the other limit games apply but your maximum risk is $180 per hand with the exception of heads up play. The game really starts to change quite a bit at this level. Although you will find a few novice players here and there, the game mostly will consist of the medium to higher level of players. Therefore it is often the game is played with a little more betting strategy and the players play a little more conservative. If you consider yourself to be a good players or better, this can be a good game for you. Depending on what others think of you and the looseness of the game, you may be able to bluff or buy a pot once in about 7 hands that you have played. We recommend bringing a minimum of $400 to the table.
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Poker Strategy - $15-$30 Limit Holdem: Blinds are $10-$15. The same rules as the other games apply but your maximum risk is $270 per hand with the exception of heads up play. We only recommend playing this game if you are a very experienced player. Most or all of the players at the table will be very experienced and will be playing to the maximum of their abilities. Once in a while you will get the wealthy people who are inexperienced but insist on playing at this level, but for the most part, you will be playing very good players. You could probably buy yourself a pot once in 5 hands you've played. We recommend bringing a minimum of $600 to the table.
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Poker Strategy - $20-$40 Limit Holdem: Blinds are $10-$20. The same limit holdem rules apply and your maximum risk is $360 with exception of extra heads up betting. Only the very experienced player or very wealthy player should play at this game. You could lose $1000 in a very short period of time especially if you get unlucky or don't know what you're doing. In fact, if you're going to play this game we recommend bringing a minimum of $1000 to the table. A special note to this game is sometimes this game is played what is called round-by-round. What that means is once around the table is Limit Holdem as usual and the next time around it is played as Omaha. Omaha is played like Texas Holdem but you get 4 down cards to start but you can only use 2 of the 4 in your hand to make your final hand. Since the purpose of this web site is to help you master Texas Holdem; we won't get into the rules or strategies of Omaha. A good player could bluff once in 3-4 hands of play depending on the wealth and style of the other players.
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Poker Strategy - Pot Limit Holdem: Blinds will vary from different casinos and the rules of betting here are significantly changed. Your maximum risk is all of the chips in front of you. Although there are still only 4 rounds of betting, at any one time a person can bet up to the amount equal to the pot. This includes all money that the money that has been bet but is not yet in the middle of the table. Therefore you better be ready to risk quite a bit of cash at just about any time. We recommend only the very experienced play this game. The strategies of this game can be quite different from limit holdem. The power of the bluff is much more significant and therefore most players play only the better starting hands. Should you decide to play this game we recommend you only play the top 15 ranked hands from our list on the (Hand Rankings) page. You could probably buy or bluff a pot once in 3 hands in this game but, an ill timed bluff could cost you quite a bit or all of your chips. If you're going to sit at this table, you should bring at least a minimum of $500 but we recommend $1000. If you're newer to the game and wish to try this game, you can play online at PartyPoker.com for much cheaper. Although playing online is not quite the experience as playing in person, it is a great chance to gain experience without risking a lot of money. If you decide to play online, please don't play for free. You will not gain any strategic experience when nobody really cares if they win or lose. Please read our discussion on (Tips For Playing Online).
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Poker Strategy - No Limit Holdem: Blinds in this game will vary from casino to casino. The rules for no limit holdem are sill only four rounds of betting but at any one time you can bet all of your chips. Your maximum risk is at all times everything in front of you. This game should only be played by the very experienced players but often people are drawn in by the lure of the excitement. If you sit down at this game with less then $500 you're not really giving yourself a fair chance. There may be other players at the table with $5000 in front of them who can whisk away your $500 in a snap. In comparison to them you are already the short stack and they may play you that way. Therefore if you have little or no experience with this game you can play it for a lot cheaper at PartyPoker.com. Again, please don't waste your time playing for free online as you won't gain any real experience. If you are going to sit down at the casino and play, we recommend bringing $2000. $1000 as your initial buy in and $1000 in your pocket so you can re buy should you get unlucky.
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WHAT TYPE OF POKER PLAYER ARE YOU?
Now that you know about the poker strategy of picking the correct game from the most common poker games available to you, which one would suit you best? Well, the answer to that question can vary from day to day depending on your mood. If your feeling a little broke but you just want to have some fun, play some $3-$6 holdem. If you're feeling financially secure and you want to test your skills, play some $10-$20, $15-$30, or even some No Limit Holdem. However, the really important factor we want you to consider is your personality. This will determine which game or games suit you best overall and on an average day. If you are just not the bluffing type or you're a conservative person with money, you probably should shy away from No Limit, Pot Limit Holdem, and the higher limit Holdem games. Although you need to bring more money to these games to play properly, you can't really be playing the money. So if you are a conservative person by nature, you should stick to lower limit Holdem games for your own benefit. You will increase your chances of winning if you are comfortable playing. Likewise if you’re kind of an all or nothing person, you might be wasting your time playing lower limit holdem games. Your betting comfort may dictate that you would increase your odds of winning at a higher stakes game where people will get out on some of your big bets. I've seen people playing at the lower limit games who aggressively raise every single hand; it is only a matter of time until they lose all of their money. They would be much better off doing that same strategy at a higher stakes game and in the end, they will risk the same amount of money anyway.
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WHEN TO CHANGE POKER SEATS OR TABLES
Finding a good poker game or the game that strategically suits your personality, how you are feeling that day, and your financial abilities is a very important poker strategy. You may pick a table or maybe one was chosen for you by the poker room host only to find out the players are playing too loose or too tight. The game is boring or haphazard or possibly for some reason you don't really want to play with a particular player or group. Go ahead and put in a request to the host to change poker tables, as soon as there is an opening he'll get you in. Sometimes you may be at a poker table you like and you're just not getting any real playable hands. By all means, tell the dealer you want a seat change button and you'll be first on the list. We have always believed in the trend factor over the due factor. That means some believe that since they have been getting cold cards for a few hours, they are due to catch some good cards. However, we believe that the trend is your friend and karma will prevail overall. So if you aren't getting good cards, change seats. At least it is fresh start. Keep in mind we are not recommending changing seats every 30-min or less. You need to give the spot at the poker table an honest try and you should only move sooner if the guy who has been getting good cards all night just left. We will discuss more about seat position in our discussion on (Betting Strategies). Always remember, although the cards will sometimes change in your favor, "The Trend is Your Friend". So go ahead and get a new seat if you're having no luck in your current poker seat.
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Please continue to the next page to discuss (Setting Goals)
