Basic no limit Hold’em strategy is a pretty wide topic to cover in just one sitting, but I can go over some of the basic concepts one should consider when playing no limit. Each concept could have books written on it, but if you at least have these concepts to think about while at the tables, the experience you get will be worth that much more.
1. Getting Started
2. Preflop
3. The Tight-Aggressive Style
4. Pot Odds
5. Pot Control
6. Position
Getting Started
First of all, you should start out in small stakes no limit games. Don’t go jumping in to anything above 100NL. It doesn’t matter how much money you have set aside. It’s important to start small so that you can work on these basic strategy concepts and actually see results.
The number one most important thing a poker player has is his bankroll. The bankroll is the simplest thing to track, but for some reason, poor bankroll management is probably the number one destructor of poker playing careers. Always have at least 20 full buy-ins for whatever stakes you play at. If you ever drop down below the 20 buy-in mark, then move down in stakes until you can build back up. If you are playing 100NL, this means you need to have at least $2,000 in your bankroll to play it safely.
Professional poker players need even more buy-ins, but we probably shouldn’t get into that quite yet. It doesn’t matter how good you are. If you play on a short bankroll, you will go broke. Simple variance can send strings of bad beats your way and they can wreak havoc on a short bankroll. Remember: always keep a minimum of 20 buy-ins in your bankroll or move down.
Preflop
This is where it all begins, so make sure to get it right from the beginning. New players hate to hear this, but you’re going to have to fold the majority of your starting hands. On average, you need to be folding about 80% of your starting hands. So before you even think about anything else, just go ahead and start folding all the junk hands you get like K2o, A3o, 37s and so on.
When choosing which hands to play preflop, you’re looking for hands that are already strong, not hands with lots of potential. Yes, even though it’s no limit and the pots can get huge, playing hands with potential is a losing proposition. What I mean by potential are hands like A4s that might hit a flush or 78o that might hit a straight. In no limit, you want to start with strong starting hands that have the potential to make even stronger hands. Those weak hands with potential are only going to get you stuck with difficult decisions and unprofitable drawing situations.
Position also plays an important role in choosing your starting hands. It is extremely difficult to play marginal hands out of position in no limit, so only play your best hands from early position. Feel free to lighten the requirements a little bit in late position, however.
Strong hands to look for include big pairs like AA, KK, QQ, JJ and medium to small pairs in late position, big card hands like AK, AQ, KQs and such. When you do pick a hand to play, play it strong. Don’t come limping in and calling raises like an old lady. Come in with a raise!
The rule of thumb is to raise 4 big blinds (4BB) plus one big blind per limper. This means that if two people in front of you have limped in for 1BB and you have a strong hand, then raise it up to 6BB.
The only time you shouldn’t be raising your starting hand preflop is when you’re playing a speculative drawing hand in late position with several other people already in the pot. If you have good position and a couple of people have already limped in, then it’s ok to limp in with a hand like 78s.
Tight-aggressive is how you want to be able to describe yourself at the poker table. There are several basic styles of poker players; tight-aggressive is the one you should aim to emulate.
Tight-aggressive means you are tight with your starting hands (like we discussed earlier) but when you do play a hand, you play it aggressively. Like the above section talked about, this means coming in with raises and bets instead of limps and calls.
Tight-aggressive works because it is based on a simple concept. Bet a lot when you have strong hands, fold when you have weak hands. That’s all there is to it! It sounds easy, but people around the world constantly get it wrong.
By betting your strong hands, not only are you making money when people call, but you are protecting your hand. If you have a strong hand, you want to charge people to draw. First of all, if you give them bad pot odds (our next topic of discussion) and they still chase whatever draw they are on, you make money. Second, it gives them a chance to chase those draws. If you wait until the river to bet, that person might have missed all of his draws and therefore is unwilling to call any bets.
Pot Odds
Pot odds is another basic (but very important) concept that continually eludes new players. Whenever you see a player at the table chasing all of his draws, it’s probably a safe guess to say he’s a fish and knows nothing about pot odds.
Pot odds dictate whether or not it’s profitable to chase draws. An example works best to explain it. Let’s say you have TJ on a 289 board and are deciding whether or not to chase this straight draw you have.
The odds of hitting a straight draw are approximately 5:1. If the pot is $10 and your opponent bets $10, it would make the pot $20 with you having to call $10 to stay in. Therefore the pot odds you are getting are equal to $20:$10 or 2:1. 5:1 are worse odds than 2:1 so it’s a bad investment to chase this draw. The amount of money you spend trying to hit this draw but missing will always add up to less than the amount of money you make when you do hit.
Now if instead your opponent bet $1 into that $10 pot, you would be getting 11:1 pot odds. Since the straight draw is 5:1 to hit, you can call this $1 bet profitably.
The easiest way to calculate pot odds at the table is to just memorize a couple of the more common drawing odds. Eventually you can memorize more of them but for now, here are the most common drawing situations:- Flush Draw – 4:1
- Open Ended Straight Draw – 5:1
- Inside Straight Draw – 11:1
- Three of a Kind drawing to Full House or 4 of a Kind – 6:1
Pot Control
Pot control means controlling the size of the pot based on the relative strength of your hand vs. the strength of your opponent’s hand.
A lack of pot control skills is what gets new players in trouble all the time with big pairs like AA. They are dealt a couple of aces, get all excited and make huge bets on the flop and turn, and then get into a huge raising war with someone on the river. They end up losing a lot of money and then go tell of their friends that they never win with AA.
If this sounds familiar, then read on. If it doesn’t, well read on anyways! Sometimes you get hands that should make you want to blow the pot up as big as you can. Strong hands like full houses, flushes and straights on non-threatening boards are always nice. But for the rest of the time, when you have hands like a single pair or a flush on a paired board, a straight on a possible flush board, etc., a little pot control can be in good order.
Sometimes pot control can be as simple as checking behind on the river if there’s a good chance the opponent has you beat. Sometimes you might even have a strong hand but you know the opponent won’t call with anything worse than your hand. In that case a river bet has negative expected value. The only thing that can happen is your opponent folds all worse hands and only calls with better ones a losing proposition for you.
Other times, you may not be sure what the opponent has. Let’s use the above AA example again. Say the flop had a couple of possible draws on it so you bet on both the flop and turn to charge the maximum amount. On the river, all the draws miss thankfully. This time though, instead of betting, let’s try a simple check and call.
If the opponent missed his draws, he’s not going to call again with a busted draw, right? But if he happened to be slow playing something, you’re going to be in more trouble if you bet and he raises. So, you might as well check and give him the option to bet. That way you don’t make a pointless bet into any busted draws, but you do give him a chance to bluff any busted draws and you end up saving some money if he does happen to have a strong hand.
Always evaluate your hand in relation to your opponent’s likely hands and manipulate the pot to a size that is appropriate for the situation.
Position
Every decision you make at the poker table should take position into account in some way. Being out of position gives you many disadvantages that are difficult to overcome. You don’t get to see what the opponent is going to do before you act but the opponent gets to see what you do before he acts.
If you play a hand from out of position, you must remember that you will be out of position for the entire hand. It’s hard to play from out of position. What do you do when you have a strong hand out of position but a scare card comes on the river? Do you keep betting or do you check and possibly let him bluff you? It’s a hard decision to make when in position, but it’s even harder when out of position.
Do not ever get wrapped up in big pots out of position without a very strong hand. This is easier said than done, but experience will teach you well. Good luck.
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