Poker Strategy - Longhand Limit
Texas Hold'em
This section will give you the
basic strategy at winning at longhand, limit holdem
(limit holdem with 8 or more players). This section
is intended for the beginner, so he or she can
win at the lower limits (2-4 or less).
Starting Hands/Preflop:
This is where most beginners
make mistakes. Simply, they play too many hands.
What beginners fail to recognize is that longhand
limit holdem is a game of patience. As sad as
it sounds, you literally can just wait to be dealt
the quality hands, and just win with those.
So what are the good hands?
David Skalansky, a poker expert, groups hands
into 8 categories. I'm going to simplify his method
a little bit for you. The main difference between
my ratings and his ratings is that I don't separate
the suited cards. The only reason I do this is
for simplicity. Furthermore, being suited tends
to not be a big deal, except for connecting hands
and category III hands. Being suited is nice,
but it's just a bonus, it doesn't change the actual
value of the card that much. On any given board,
there is a 5% chance a suited hand will form a
flush by the river. So in general, you will win
close to 5% more pots with a hand that is suited
than unsuited.
Category I
AA, KK, QQ, JJ, AK
These are the best hands, bar
none. You should raise or reraise with them preflop.
If you hold AA, you especially want to jam as
much money into the pot as possible.
Category II
TT, 99, AQ, QK
These are good hands, but they
aren't amazing. You generally need help from the
board. Almost always in low limit, you will need
to hit a set with TT or 99 to win.
Category III
AJ, AT, KJ, QJ, 10J
These are good hands. However,
be careful playing AJ, AT, KJ as these hands are
vulnerable to losing to a higher kicker (i.e.
if an ace is on the board, but someone else has
AK, you would lose because he has a higher 'kicker').
You should generally play these hands only if
they are suited.
Category IV
88, 77, 66, 109, 98, 87,
76 (only play the connecting cards if they
are suited)
These hands are ok, but generally
don't win. They need a lot of help from the board.
Category V
small pocket pairs (i.e. 55,
44, 33, 22)
Category I hands should almost
always be played. The only exception if you hold
AK or say JJ and you are positive that someone
has KK or AA by the way they are raising (in other
words, the person is a very tight player but is
acting like a maniac preflop). These hands in
general should be raised from any position and
you want to get a lot of money in preflop. However,
remember, for AK you need to hit an ace or a king.
So do not get in a raising war with one person
because that person likely has a pocket pair already.
Category II hands should generally
be played. These hands do best with less people,
so you should raise to knock people out. Do not
jam the pot though (i.e. reraise) b/c these hands
have little value before you see the board. Do
not call 3 bets cold with these hands (if you
raise, then someone reraises, call, but do not
call if someone raised, then reraised, and then
it's your turn.) The reason you do not call 3
bets cold is because you clearly do not have an
advantage going into the flop. THE ONE THING TO
REMEMBER IN LIMIT HOLDEM IS YOU WANT TO HAVE AN
ADVANTAGE GOING INTO THE FLOP. Go ahead and call
one raise in late position, unless the raiser
was in early position and is a very good player
(he probably has you beat with a category I hand).
Category III: Treat these hands
with caution. They are easily beat by category
I or II hands, so these hands are best played
with fewer people in the pot who do not hold category
I or II hands. In other words, raise to knock
people out, but do not call a raise.
Category IV/V: these hands are
very different. You want a large, multiway pot.
The reason being is that 95% of the time, these
hands are trash. However, 5% of the time, these
hands are amazing (i.e. if you hit a straight,
flush, or trips). Therefore, you want to be paid
of big when you actually hit something with these
hands, which is why you want a lot of people in
the pot. Example: you hold 67, the board is A58,
you call a bet on flop, 9 comes on turn and then
you jam the pot. Thus, you want to commit as few
chips preflop with these hands as possible while
hoping that many people go into the flop. Thus,
if you are the dealer, and one guy is in with
a raise, fold. However, if you are the big blind,
and 5 people have called a raise, go ahead and
call and see the flop.
Flop Play
Once you hit the flop, you will
be in one of four situations:
- You will be winning but have
a beatable hand. You will have top pair, top
kicker for example or an over pair (i.e. QQ
and the board is JT5). You want to jam the pot
and knock people out. Thus, you want someone
to bet to you and then to raise if you are in
early position. If you are in late position
and no one has bet, you must bet to knock people
out.
- You will have a boss hand.
More than likely, you will have three of a kind
or maybe even a full house on the flop. There
is no reason to knock people out because you
will probably win (unless you have trips and
there's a flush draw out there, then you need
to make them pay). In these situations, it's
generally best to wait til the turn to really
jam the pot, but jam the pot on the flop if
you think a scary draw is out there that will
beat you.
- You will have the second
best hand. If you follow my preflop strategy,
this is unlikely, but it could happen. An example
is if you have AQ and KQ4 is on the board. In
this case, treat the hand as a drawing hand
or simply fold, unless you really believe that
you may have the best hand at the moment (this
is unlikely in a larger, multiway pot b/c someone
is bound to have the K).
- You will have a drawing hand.
An example is if you have two spades in the
whole and there are two on the board. For these
hands, you must use outs/pot odds. There is
a detailed explanation of this in the shorthand
section under 'flop tips.'
- You will have nothing. An
example would be if you have 66 and flop is
AK7. You clearly are beat, just fold at the
first bet.
This is the basic way to win
at limit, longhand. There really isn’t that many
tricky situations you will encounter. Just remember,
the larger the number of people, the higher the
likelihood that someone has the boss hand that
is out there on the board, so be careful of that.
Don't get attached to AK if AQQ is on the board
b/c someone probably has the queen.
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