52 Tips for Texas Hold 'Em Poker

Book excerpt: One of the fascinating aspects about Hold'em is its dual nature. The game is both incredibly simple and incredibly complex. If you've watched any World Poker Tour (WPT) broadcast, you've heard Hold'em described as a game that "takes a minute to learn and a lifetime to master." That is really true, and a large part of the appeal of the game is that you can sit down and learn how to play almost immediately. However, after playing a bit, you become aware that Hold'em has many layers, each more complex than the previous one. The deeper you develop your understanding of the game, the better your results should be. The best thing for you is this: most players never work to develop their games. What they know about the game is strictly what they draw from their personal experience at the table, much of which they don't properly interpret. In fact, they often misinterpret their experience in counterproductive ways. So there is great opportunity for those who wish to invest a bit of time and effort in improving their game. Currently, a huge number of books on limit Hold'em are available, with many more being written. However, very little exists for the brand new player, whose only exposure to Hold'em may be what he has seen on television and perhaps a few hands played at a casino or in a home game. This book provides someone who has played little or no limit Hold'em with a sound basic strategy that will add to both his enjoyment of the game and his bottom line. You must walk before you can run, and this book teaches those first steps. If you absorb and put into practice the information in this book, you should become a winning low-limit holdíem player. This will put you ahead of the 90 percent or so of public cardroom poker players who lose money at the game. Once you acquire a framework for beating the game, you can then take your game to the next level. The book is designed for simplicity. We present 52 tips, each of which provides a valuable kernel of information. We present the tips chronologically as you progress through a hand of Hold'em. Obviously, everything to know about holdíem cannot be reduced to just 52 items. However, these 52 tips deal with some of the most important and most frequently encountered decisions you will have to make. Hold'em can be both very complex and quite simple. This book keeps the game as simple as possible for you. Specifically, we do this by presenting a strategy that helps you steer clear of many of the common pitfalls in Hold'em, pitfalls that can quickly erode your stack of chips. Staying out of potentially dangerous situations is very important to a player new to the game, as many of them require a feel for the game that only experience can produce. Although this book is aimed at the newer player, the concepts are relevant to all levels of Hold'em. Thus, we think that most players will find some benefits to their game by reading this book. Even if the tips presented in the book are not new to you, you will find it beneficial to treat them as a refresher course, since a true mastery of poker involves not only learning concepts, but remembering and putting them into practice.