5 Starting Texas Hold'em Tips for Texas Hold'em Poker

I believe you all have some basic understanding after reading through the article Learning how to play Texas Texas Hold'em in three minutes. Today we are going to give you some Texas Hold'em tips and insights about the game that may help you understand the game a bit deeper. Those who wish to play the game well need to know all the basic concepts and the depth of how these concepts may be. Now let's get started.

The pros, or who we call the regulars, need to not only fully understand the game rules, but also take the correct moves based on the hand one's holding and the opponents one is playing with. Furthermore, there will be times when we need to act or tell if our opponents are acting or not. We will get you started with this article and then prepare you for more in the upcoming articles.

Texas Hold'em Tips 1: Select the hand you wish to play with!

The first we need to learn about Texas Hold'em is how we should select the hands we wish to play with. We know that SB and BB have to place blind bets at the beginning of the game, and then UTG will be the first to act. So it's not hard to tell that the later you need to act, the more information you will gain from the acts of the previous players. Therefore position plays a very important part in this game.

Since we are talking about hand selection, it varies from the position you are in the game. One may take different actions with the same hand due to the different positions one is in. Say if I'm UTG, I should be only playing some strong starting hands, because if I pick weak hands, I won't be able to stay in the game if the later player makes a raise. Therefore you see that there's already a basic relationship between the hand we play and the position we are in.

Texas Hold'em Tips 2: Raising!

To increase our stake size, we need to seize the opportunity of raising. Some may play aggressively and raise despite having a weak hand. So when should we raise? To know this, a player has to be extremely experienced to be able to target the timing.

Before we learn the 2nd tip, we need to know the difference between call and raise first. The concept we are following here is: don't call if you can raise.

To make it simple, usually, when we call, there's a decent chance we will be intimidated by the rise of the following players despite the strength of our hand. There are a lot of conditions that the player in the early position has to fold to the later raise if the earlier position player only calls the bet pre-flop. Texas Hold'em is a game of tactic and acting, so if you play weak, then you will be bullied by all the other players on the table. Then you will never win in this game. So be brave and make a raise from time to time.

Texas Hold'em Tips 3: Bet properly!

It doesn't happen online but players do have to be careful with it when they are on the real table. Placing your chips is not a thing to be made fun of. Throwing your chips in style won't increase your win rate. So bet properly.

According to the WSOP rules, the act of placing a bet has to be done at once, meaning that I should be counting all the chips I wish to bet first before I place it in the pot. If I bet 4000 first and then 500 seconds, the dealer will only recognize our first bet and announce a bet of 4000 at our end. Avoid this kind of mistake, and respect the game. Don't give your opponents a chance to win over you by acting stupid.

Texas Hold'em Tips 4: Know what you shouldn't say!

The fourth tip is about a forbidden thing every player shouldn't do. We all are free to say whatever we want to say based on manners. During the game, a lot of players may try to fish for certain information by bringing in conversations and gain leverage by talking in a certain way, or even trash-talking. It is fun sometimes but since we are beginners of this game, the thing we need to focus on is knowing what not to say before we get to learn about how we can talk our ways to win.

The fourth rule is: never say what you think other members hand out loud. We might not run into this scenario playing online, but there are several punishments for this type of behavior in real games. Since this kind of behavior may impact the player's decisions, therefore it's forbidden. Other than that, as long as you are not insulting others, you are free to say anything, even the reason you break up with your ex. Never say what you think the others have. If you do that, the dealer will force you from playing the game for two entire rounds while still having to pay the small blind and big blind. So make sure you keep that in mind.

Texas Hold'em Tips 5: Follow the dealer's orders!

Our final tip today is more of a concept. No matter how good you are, if you forget this, then you will end up in tragedy. It is: follow the dealer's orders and never question them.

A lot of the players get punished by the dealer on the table because they don't respect the dealer and follow their orders. Like not placing their bet in one action, making an announcement when it's not their turn, folding the hand before it's their turn, or turning their folding hand face up…etc. All these acts may cause you to be punished by the dealer, requesting you to pay blinds without being able to play in the game. Normally you will get a warning first, and if you still acting the same way, then you will get the punishment. So respect the dealer, and respect the game.

Conclusion

That's all for today. We haven't gotten to the point about odd calculation, detail hand selection, GTO, or bluffing yet. Those are the tips that require certain experience in the game, so today's tips are about the ways you can get familiar with playing Texas Texas Hold'em. Once you know the concepts and the game, then you can start to learn some advanced theories and strategies. If you wish to know more, follow our upcoming articles, we will be working our way up to make you into a poker pro. Thank you all. I will see you next time.