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
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 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...
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...
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...
Most Recent No Limit Hold’em Articles
Theory Read – River Check/Raise
Below you will see an interesting discussion on river check/raises which took place in the High Stakes forum. It started with ISF showing hands and posters such as Sauce123, Massimo, Toadstool, and gabe adding their replies. View the check raise theory...
EV Calculations Tutorial 3: More Complicated Scenarios
When calculating the expected value of a semi-bluff, you will need to work with compound probabilities. This means that certain probabilities will be expressed as the product of the probabilities of two events occurring. If you’re careful, the calculations should be easy.
Developing a Feel for Equities in No-Limit Hold’em Part 3: Hitting the Flop
In last week's article, we looked at some of the reasons why equity isn't the end-all, be-all of evaluating how two ranges will perform against each other. With that out of the way, we're going to be able to get into the nitty gritty aspects of the things you can work...
NLHE Foundations #03: Calling to Close the Action in No-Limit Hold’em
This is the third installment in the No-Limit Hold'em Foundations Course. Before you read this lesson, you should have completed lesson 1 and lesson 2, and this includes doing the exercises and posting them in the forum threads for each lesson. Also make sure to sign...
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.
Spenda’s 5 Biggest Leaks of a Losing NL Player – Leak 3
#3 Value Betting and Bet-Sizing Being able to size bets correctly in No-Limit Hold’em is a critical factor in improving your win-rate. Bet-sizing as a concept is not the easiest to explain or master but I will do my best. There are many different types of bets one...
Microstakes Grinding
Most players who are new to online poker will start at the lowest stakes possible, commonly known as “Microstakes”. In general, microstakes are considered to be any poker stakes up to $0.10/$0.25 blinds in NL and $0.50/$1.00 in Limit games. The concept of...
ISF – Why Being OOP Sucks
The most repeated advice in poker. We’ve all heard it before. Position, Position, Position. The proof is in the pudding. Our statistics show that we win much more money on the button than we do UTG. But the advice to play in position is not very powerful when we have...
A Hand in Action from the Hijack
I was watching a NL100 full-ring game on Pokerloco yesterday when the following hand came down which I thought was somewhat instructive. It was folded around to our hero who raised from the hijack to $3.50. The button called as he had done several times already. Both...
Just Where Will Online Poker End Up?
As a follow on to the article that I wrote a few weeks ago regarding the likelihood of cheating in online poker increasing through necessity, here I want to talk about the effects of coaching sites, training tools and other types of software that all enable people to...
Does Your Poker Game Suit You?
Lets face it, if making money playing poker was that easy then there wouldn’t be so many people who are still scratching their heads trying to figure it all out. There are many facets to playing successful poker but one of the least understood is in selecting suitable...
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...
Importance of Table Position
Importance of Table Position Location, location, location. This is the mantra for businesses such as retail stores and real estate. In poker, it's position, position, position. There is simply nothing more important in no-limit hold'em than position. In fact, it's so...
The True Essence of Poker
Poker strategy almost completely surrounds knowing how to handle these two situations that we’re covering this week.
Back to Basics (Part 3): Semi-Bluffing in Position
One of the things about semi-bluffing in position that a lot of players overlook is the ability to check for another card right away.
