Poker Strategy: No Limit Hold’em
What are the two most powerful words in poker? I’m all-in.
You can win or lose entire stacks in a single hand of No Limit Hold’em, and this excitement accounts for much of the popularity of the game. It’s not just a contest of having the best hand when all the chips go in the middle though. Well before that point, you should have created a plan for every street of the hand and formulated – in advance – your responses to every action your opponent takes. This isn’t magic but rather a science, and we’ll show you how to do it right. The articles below cover starting hand selection, the advantages of being aggressive, the stack-to-pot ratio, preflop three-betting, and the other concepts that you must master before you can truly become a proficient practitioner of NLHE. Once you achieve a certain level of skill, you’ll find yourself with numerous opportunities to practice it because No Limit Texas Hold’em is currently the most commonly spread form of poker in the world.
Featured No Limit Hold’em Articles
Continuation Betting in NL Hold’em
An easily digestible explanation of continuation betting in No Limit Texam Hold’em. This article demonstrates which hands are ideal for c-bets, which aren’t and how, when and against whom a c-bet should be used to maximize winnings. It also explains how much you should bet in certain situations.
Nine Noobie Myths About Microstakes NLHE
I feel like tons of the noobies in the BC have serious misconceptions about microstakes poker. Here are a few I've seen lately. 1. The micros are just too fishy to be beat for any decent win rate. 2. The micros are too hard to be beat since UIGEA. 3. The FTR regs at...
Blind Stealing 101
A few people have been posting stats threads lately and I've seen a trend that really needs to be addressed. Most of the people I've seen stats on are not stealing blinds nearly enough, and aren't defending their blinds nearly enough. I've decided to type up something...
ISF – Forming Ranges
Something I like to do, and what I always advocate people who seek poker help from me, is to break down the elements of poker so we can understand concepts behind them and further apply them. I feel like most of the problems with people stuck at low and midstakes is...
ISF Theorem
Amazingly, when I was high yesterday from some horrible weed, I came to a breakthrough thought in my poker game. I called sauce up and explained to him what I just realized and he had no idea why it was so amazing. It took me awhile, but then I realized that the...
Most Recent No Limit Hold’em Articles
ISF – Pocket Pairs
From now on every Friday I will be taking some of the strategy discussion from the forums, sum up some of the cool content in case you missed it, and make my own comments on the issues discussed. In the high stakes forum this week, there was a hand posted by...
Continuation Betting in NL Hold’em
An easily digestible explanation of continuation betting in No Limit Texam Hold’em. This article demonstrates which hands are ideal for c-bets, which aren’t and how, when and against whom a c-bet should be used to maximize winnings. It also explains how much you should bet in certain situations.
Beating Small-Stakes Cash Games
A few years ago I wrote an article for a poker magazine called “coming in under the radar”. In that article I mentioned playing lower stakes games than you normally would and taking advantage of weaker players. In essence, online poker has grown up an awful lot since...
Renton’s Small Stakes NLHE Ring Strategy: Preflop
Introduction After reading through the latest gut wrenching 19 hands chart thread, I am going to try an experiment. We don't have enough people writing interesting and informative articles around here anymore. The stickies are becoming stale and outdated. I commend...
Three Barrelling Bad Regs
A few months ago when I was participating in my NL50 poker challenge, it soon become apparent that there were an awful lot of bad regs at this level in both six max and full-ring, but especially six max. In any form of poker, the fewer players that there is on the...
EV Calculations Tutorial 4: Organizing Large Calculations
As we begin to work with complicated poker situations, the difficulty of EV calculations increases. However, by breaking down each scenario into smaller parts and performing the appropriate calculations for each part, the equations become easy. Then you need to simply tally up the results.
Implied Odds Plays at 25NL and Below
Over the past twelve months, I have been observing the lower stakes no-limit games and playing in them quite extensively including around 100k hands at NL50. I have been observing the games on Pokerloco recently which is a site that is situated on Ongame. I have been...
Developing a Feel for Equities in No-Limit Hold’em Part 4: The Basics of the Turn
This is the fourth part in a series dealing with the key ideas that can be used to accelerate the process of gaining a feel for equities in different spots. In this week's edition, we're going to discuss some major cases for when the turn comes and how you can use...
Applications of EV Calculations (Part 3): River Checking vs. Bluffing
We have to consider the alternative to the aggressive option a lot of the time if we want to make sure that we’re making the best plays possible.
Understanding the Importance of Shania (theory post)
I think I just had a really cool epiphany. Danny and I just watched the new movie 21 tonight (meh). Obviously, when two poker players see that movie there is going to be some gambling discussion afterwards. One thing lead to another and I brought up the subject of why...
ISF – Adjusting
When I interviewed Kingsofcards for my weekly interview, one comment he made about heads up changing his game rung a bell with me. Until after playing HU, when playing 6 max I never really took into account bet sizing, timing tells or things like that nearly as much...
ISF – There’s No Such Thing As a Made Hand: Part 2
In an article from a few months ago, I explained the real differences between draws and made hands. In summary, draws and made hands weren’t simply names for hands, but actually each of them have certain equity qualities versus different ranges. Made hands were then...
Pre-flop Strategy – Starting Hand Rankings: Group 5
Ok, now here's where the play gets a bit more tricky. These hands are pretty delicate, yet still playable. Group 5: 66 55 44 33 22 KJ QTs A9s A8s QJ Now, by this point, we've drastically departed from Sklansky and the Carnegie Mellon group's hand groupings. Both...
Back to Basics (Part 5): Poker Reads Made Simple
Avoid distractions and get better at making solid, fundamental reads with the fifth installment in the Back to Basics series.
Applications of EV Calculations (Part 1): Dealing With Short Stacks
To kick off our series on the applications of EV equations, we’re going to look at how to deal with all-in situations against short stacks as both the aggressor and the person facing the final bet.
