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
Most Recent No Limit Hold’em Articles
Combating Geometric Escalation in NLHE
If you are going to be successful at a form of poker, like NLHE ring, then being aware of how the pot can escalate with certain types of hands is critical to your success. I think that there are probably tournament players and six max players who struggle to adapt to...
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...
Common Response to Questions About Spots in 3bet Pots
I decided to write this entry because I feel like I'm responding with the same answers to the same questions over and over and over about playing in 3bet pots. I think this forum could definitely benefit from this article and it will make it much easier the next time...
Spenda’s 5 Biggest Leaks of a Losing NL Player – Leak 1
If you’re a losing No Limit Hold’em player, then you probably have big leaks in your game. Always remember to consider the value of position at all times. Another thing that losing players have a problem with is controlling the size of the pot.
Developing a Feel for Equities in No-Limit Hold’em Part 6: Meaningful Practice
This article will walk through an example poker hand, showing you how the equity of Hero’s hand stacks up against Villain’s range on every street. By learning to get a feel for the equities of different ranges, you’ll be able to make superior decisions at the tables.
ISF – Predicting the Future and a Hand For Analysis
We are on the river with 97s on a JJ922 board. Our opponent has bet 3/4ths the pot into us, and we are put in a tough spot. We know from the past streets that our hand look weak and our donk opponent, who seems to never fold (ever), could easily have a J, 2, overpair,...
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...
Renton’s Small Stakes NLHE Ring Strategy: Postflop II
Specific hand strategy First of all, these aren’t all the situations that occur. I only chose to outline the situations that occur very frequently. The situations that don’t come so frequently are the ones you’ll have to confront head on and use your best judgment....
The Process of Learning in Poker
Because there is no set way to study poker and the game’s variance makes it difficult to measure your progress, learning more about poker can be frustrating. But if you examine a single element of the game in multiple hands, you will accelerate your learning process and avoid becoming overwhelmed.
The True Essence of Poker
Poker strategy almost completely surrounds knowing how to handle these two situations that we’re covering this week.
Developing a Feel for Equities in No-Limit Hold’em Part 2: Equity is Not Everything
One of the things that a lot of people have a big misunderstanding about is the difference between equity and expected value. We're going to look at a few examples in this week's article that should help players to develop some clarity on this issue. We'll start with...
Pointers for Micro Stakes No Limit Holdem
(This is a post I wrote a while back which I hope will be useful for newcomers to micro-stakes NL. It should be useful up to 25NL, but it's specifically aimed at the player of a few weeks' experience, who understands the basics, but doesn't know much strategy. I hope...
Applications and Limitations of the Alpha Value
The alpha value is one of the most important numbers in a discussion of poker because it gives you a lot of information with a simple calculation. However, it's often applied incorrectly because of a lack of understanding of what it can and should be used for. Our...
New Approach to Table Selection
Meeloche presents an interesting approach to table selection. Perhaps there is an alternative to just looking at preflop percentages and pot sizes... My contribution to table selection, maybe even a new idea... When it comes to table selection, we still should be...
NLHE Foundations #02: Basic No-Limit Hold’em Bluffing Analysis
NLHE Foundations Course This is the second lesson in the free No-Limit Hold'em foundations course, and all you have to do to sign up is create an account (if you haven't already) and post in the forum thread I just linked to saying you want in. I'll add you to a...
